TUMULI. 91 



Crania Britannica, in thinking that the evidence which he 

 adduces is far from conclusive.* 



It is just possible that the comparative rarity of chambered 

 tumuli in Western Europe may be connected with the 

 greater mildness of the climate, which did not necessitate 

 the use of underground "winter-houses;" or it may be an 

 indication of a difference in race. Farther investigations 

 will, doubtless, decide this point. In the meantime, we 

 must remember that the so-called "Picts' Houses" are 

 abundant in the northern parts of Great Britain. These 

 curious dwellings are "scarcely distinguishable from the 

 larger tumuli ; but, on digging into the green mound, 

 it is found to cover a series of large chambers, built 

 generally with stones of considerable size, and converging 

 towards the centre, where an opening appears to have been 

 left for light and ventilation. These differ little from many 

 of the subterranean weems, excepting that they are erected 

 on the natural surface of the soil, and have been buried by 

 means of an artificial mound heaped over them."t 



According to Mr. Bateman, who has recorded the sys- 

 tematic opening of more than four hundred tumuli, (a very 

 large proportion of which were investigated in his presence), 

 and whose opinion is, therefore, of great value, " the funda- 

 mental design of them (i.e., the British tumuli), with the 

 exception of the very few chambered or galleried mounds 

 in Berkshire, Wiltshire, and Ireland, etc., as New Grange, 

 Wayland Smith's Cave, Uleybury and others, and those of 

 the incalculably later Saxon period, is pretty much the same 

 in most places ; the leading feature of these sepulchral 

 mounds is, that they enclose either an artless stone vault, or 

 chamber, or a stone chest, otherwise called a Kistvaen, built 

 with more or less care ; and, in other cases, a grave cut out 

 more or less below the natural surface, and lined, if need be, 

 * Crania Britannica, Lc Part 2, 5. f Wilson, I.e. vol. i., p. 116. 



