188 Silhury. 



at the base of 1423 feet. The tradition on the spot is that this 

 tumulus is the burying place of those who fell in a great battle 

 fought in the neighbourhood ages ago : and one old man (John 

 Richards) asserts that many years since bones were dug up there : 

 it is supposed however by the historian of the neighbourhood ' to 

 have been "erected by Celtic hands as a sacrificial mount of worship 

 to one of their deities, and that it was used by the Saxons as a place 

 of assembly for judicial and legislative purposes at a later period," 

 and he grounds his opinion, partly on the large space on the 

 summit, capable of accommodating a vast assembly, and partly on 

 the "name of the adjacent village of Witenton, which may imply 

 that the Witen or Witenagemot of the Saxons had here their place 

 of meeting." I cannot however coincide with this opinion, at least 

 as regards the primanj object of the hill, though it may have served 

 both these purposes in the course of ages. Another large tumulus 

 existed not long since in the same county, but is now unfortunately 

 destroyed, called "Oswald's Lowe " or "Mount," from which the 

 laws of Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, are said^ to have been pro- 

 mulgated ; and the name still exists in the hundred of " Oswaldslow." 

 This mound lay between Norton and Stowton in Kemsey Parish, and 

 its basis -is declared by Aubrey to be as large as Bloomsbury Square. 

 And there is yet another at Wick, near Pershore, described as " of 

 vast size," and called Pridsur-Hill. 



Dorsetshire also boasts a mound of large proportions called 

 " Shipton Barrow," lying between Dorchester and Bridport : it is 

 situated on an eminence, and is supposed to derive its name from 

 its form, for from a distance it very much resembles a large boat 

 or the hull of a ship turned keel ujiwards : the dimensions given by 

 Hutchins are,^ length 749 feet, breadth at the top 161 feet, and 

 slope of side 147 feet. The perpendicular height, and the angle 

 of elevation are not given : but though Hutchins concludes his 



perpendicular height to be 48 instead of 150 feet, the circumference of the base 

 1423 instead of 1680 feet, and the angle of elevation 20° instead of 45°. — The 

 diameter of the top measures 213 by 68 feet. 



' " Pictures of Nature round the Malvern Hills," by Edwin Lees, Escj. 

 ^ History of Worcestershire, by Dr. Nash. 

 ' Hutchins's History of Dorset. See also' " Barrow digger," p. 49. 



