434 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1740. 



centre of every one of them, the artful position of the stones to cover and 

 guard them, and the foreign earth, that these barrows were erected for sepul- 

 chres ; they resolved to proceed further, and pitched on one somewhat different 

 from the rest, both as its situation seemed to regard a greater number of bar- 

 rows, and as its circumference appeared to have a very large circle of stones 

 round it, without any ditch or fossa. 



Tiiey began a passage through the outer circle of stones, of 5 feet broad, and 

 2 high ; then passed through adventitious earth till they came to a second 

 circle of stones, of 3 feet high, and 3 feet broad : after them appeared nothing 

 but foreign earth, till at the centre of the barrow was found an oblong square 

 pit, of the depth of one foot and half, and breadth 2 feet, and length 5 feet ; 

 in the bottom appeared a black greasy matter, as in the other barrows, about an 

 inch thick ; but the pit was not covered or defended by any stones. However, 

 being not satisfied, they examined the uttermost circle of stones, and on the 

 inside of it they struck on a large flat stone, about 5 feet broad, and 1 foot 

 thick, under which, when lifted up, were found two other thin flat stones, 

 and under them a smaller flat stone, which covered an urn, fig. 7» pi- 9, which 

 also stood upon another flat stone in a small pit, deeper than the circle of 

 stones, and carefully wedged in, as well as supported, with many small stones 

 round it. This urn is made of burnt or calcined earth, very hard, and black in 

 the inside; it has four little ears or handles; its sides are not half an inch 

 thick ; in it were seven quarts of burnt bones and ashes. The urn will hold 2 

 gallons and more ; its height is 134- inches, diameter at the mouth 8, at the 

 middle 1 1 , and at the bottom 6-^. 



Mr. W. describes also some ancient pillars and encampments ; and then 

 subjoins remarks on several nations that practised urn burials accompanied with 

 tumuli, &c. 



It would be tedious and needless, he adds, to enumerate all the nations that 

 burned their dead, and erected tumuli over them ; we need only remember, 

 that it was the custom among most eastern nations, and continued with them, 

 after their descendants had peopled the most western and northern parts of 

 Europe. Hence it is easily traced in Greece, Latium, Iberia, Gallia, and Bri- 

 tannia, as well as Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, till Christianity ap- 

 peared, and abolished it. 



That the Celtse and Britains inhabited here, need not be proved ; the relics 

 or remains of Druidism being traced in carneds, cromleches, meini gwyrs, for- 

 tifications, and the like. 



That the Phenicians first, and after them the Grecians, knew these islands, 

 and traded here for tin, long before the Romans' knowledge of them, is plain. 



