352 



At the depth of rather more than 20 feet from the surface, 

 the natural ground level was attained, consisting of a compact 

 dark yellow gritty sand, overlying gravel. Upon the surface 

 of this sand the sculptured stone slab was found, and to the 

 north of it a rude long hollow was scooped out, dipping from 

 south to north at an angle of from 16° to 20°, containing the 

 skeleton of a human being. The skull, with almost the whole 

 of the bones, were thrown into the new excavation, and re- 

 buried ; but the femur and tibia of one leg, with the tibia of 

 the other, fortunately preserved, are in my possession, and at 

 the service of the British Museum. 



The stone slab itself is rather of a friable oolite, probably 

 Bath. Its dimensions are, 2 feet 4| inches long, 1 foot 1 0^ 

 broad, and 4 inches thick. It is broken into four fragments ; 

 a fifth was thrown into one of the concrete trenches, but its 

 loss is unimportant, as all the lower portion of the stone is but 

 roughly hewn, in the very rudest manner, and was evidently 

 inserted in the ground. 



The edge of the slab displays by the method of terminat- 

 ing its tooled surface (i. e. all of the stone which was not 

 buried) the angle of inclination at which this antique head- 

 stone was pitched. This was of about 30°, the sculptured 

 panel and front face of the stone making an obtuse angle of 

 nearly 60° with the ground surface. 



The faces of the sculpture have been coloured with a deep 

 tone of an almost black blue, still very perceptible in the ori- 

 ginal. 



The cast which accompanies this communication may be 

 relied upon as a faithful transcript of so much of the interest- 

 ing monument as it includes. 



It may be remarked, that although the Runic inscription 

 is considered incomplete by several English scholars, yet that 

 no trace whatever of any further writing is to be discerned 

 upon the slab, the finish and entire preservation of which lead 

 to the certain inference that no additional inscription did at 



