94 RECENT DISCOVERIES AT OKEFORD FITZPAINE. 



history may have been ; but this I trow, that when in the flesh 

 the individual owners of these bones little recked that their 

 osseous remains would be used for such utilitarian purposes as 

 the flooring of cottages and pigstyes, mending roads, and ram- 

 ming gate-posts. 



Breaks and other carriages then conveyed the party by the 

 pleasantest of roads on to one of the healthiest bits of open — the 

 Downs — where Mr. Eickman had been again at work, and had 

 unearthed some more skeltons from a barrow The bones lay 

 in a somewhat huddled fashion, four or five femurs having been 

 found east and west, but the general lay of the bodies was with 

 the feet to the east ; a special grave had been formed and roofed 

 with flint, upon which a mound some 10 or 12 feet high (a 

 barrow) had been raised. Mr. Eickman described this as one 

 of the most interesting features in the day's proceedings. " We 

 are standing on the centre of a most interesting radius of Celtic 

 or Belgie British earthworks and tumuli, and part of the barrow 

 open where I am now standing. It measures about 56 yards 

 square, 18 yards over the top, and is computed to be 9 to 10 ft. 

 high, containing 420 cubic yards of earthwork. Immediately 

 adjoining, to the north, is an important work, known as the Long 

 Barrow, 46 yds. long, and 36 yds. over the top, containing 1,850 

 cubic yds. of earthwork. To the northward yonder are three tumuli 

 in a row, and to the south-east is another large barrow. Many 

 others have disappeared under cultivation. In the north-west 

 looms the great and grand earthworks of Hod and Hambledon. 

 To the south, and near at hand, lies the Buzbury encampment, 

 to be referred to in another paper; and about due south 

 Spettisbury Castle. To the south-east Badbury Eings. Due 

 east you may observe the picturesque village of Eawston, and 

 farther on Eushton, where Mr. Penny has so kindly invited 

 you, if time permits, to view his church and geological collec- 

 tion ; and this but reminds that I must bring my paper to a 

 close, with a few remarks on the talent displayed in cutting into 

 this old monument of the Celtic, or may be still more ancient 

 aborigines of this island. 



