Mr. George Tate on Ancient Sculptured Hocks, 8fc. 157 



the hill is formed, a digging was made around and beneath 

 it, in the presence of Mr. Langlands, Mr. Robert Embleton, 

 and myself, to test the notion suggested by some, that such 

 inscribed stones marked places of sepulture ; the stone was 

 turned over and the diggings were carried down to a depth 

 beneath the natural and undisturbed sub-soil ; but no evi- 

 dences of any interment could be seen, nor were any relics 

 found.— Plate XI., /g. 1. 



The chief group of sculptures is however, on the stone first 

 discovered, which is about 100 yards eastward of the camp — ■ 

 Plate VIII., fig. 1. It is of an irregular quadrangular shape, 

 10 feet by 8 feet, sloping northward, and rising where highest 

 4| feet above the ground. Originally rough and uneven on 

 its surface, it has been further deeply hollowed and furrowed, 

 especially on its southern aspect by the play of the elements. 

 Evidence it gives, of the durability of the coarse gritty 

 siliceous moor-land sandstones of Northumberland; standing 

 so high above the ground, it has not like other sculptured 

 rocks had the protection of a growth of peat ; and yet, 

 though it has endured the wasting influence of storms, 

 not less than twenty, and it may be some thirty centuries, 

 twenty-seven figures are still traceable, when the stone is 

 viewed by the light of an evening sun. 



All the figures are of the common type ; indeed, there is 

 less variety on this stone than on any other of similar dimen- 

 sions. The figures however, being much connected with 

 each other, give the whole a strange maze-like appearance. 

 Imagination could revel amid these complicated forms ; life 

 budding might be seen — the passage of life to a higher life — 

 the transmigration of souls — central suns — orbits of planets 

 — attendant satellites — and perhaps too, divinity might be 

 thought symbolised by the central hollow ; and the radial 

 grooves penetrating through the circles and beyond them, 

 might represent a Divine influence pervading all the realms 

 of matter and spirit. 



For another kind of archaic marking this stone is remark- 

 able. We found on one of the inscribed rocks on Horton 

 estate, a row of shallow pits passing down its perpen- 

 dicular side ; but on this Old Bewick Stone, there is a 

 similar row passing nearly horizontally along its south and 

 east sides, each round hollow being from 2\ inches to 3 

 inches in diameter, and half an inch in depth ; and about 

 12 inches distant from the other — Plate IX., fig. 2. Prob- 

 ably the whole stone had been girdled with them ; now 



X 



