347 



Notes on the Cist opened at Lanton Mains, Roxburghshire, 

 in October, 1870. Communicated by Mr John Hilson. 



From time to time, what may be really termed British 

 graves have been discovered in Teviotdale. They are of the 

 short form, constructed of slabs pieced together, and the 

 walls occasionally supplemented by smaller pieces of stone. 

 We can call up instances of sepulture of this kind which 

 have within the last few years been opened by chance : at 

 Blinkbonny in the parish of Eckford, at Bonjedward, at 

 Newton, at Crailing Hall, at Spittal-on-Rule, at Teinside in 

 upper Teviotdale, and latest at Lanton Mains, about two- 

 and-a-half miles from Jedburgh. The grave at Blinkbonny 

 contained a number of beads and other relics, which have 

 been dispersed ; so did that at Spittal. That at Lanton 

 Mains was discovered in October last, on a gravelly knoll, 

 within a stones' throw off the turnpike road which runs 

 between Kelso and Hawick, and about one hundred yards 

 or so from the farm-house of Lanton Mains ; the covering slab 

 havingbeen dislodged by the plough. The contents, in addition 

 to portions of the skeleton, were secured by the tenant. These 

 consisted of unformed flint flakes, numbering about twenty, 

 and a clay urn in very perfect condition. The bones had, 

 in their long rest, been in a measure absorbed by the open, 

 gravelly bottom of the grave, which had no under slab ; and 

 only a part (a small portion of the curve of the head) of the 

 skull remained*. The urn seemed to have been placed by 

 the side of the body, which had been doubled or deposited in 

 a sitting posture, and to have fallen over as the skeleton 

 mouldered down. It was quite empty. The dimensions 

 of the Cist were 3 feet 8 inches long, £ feet wide, 16 inches 

 deep ; direction of the grave, east and west. Where the side 

 walls had not admitted of sufficient height, they had been 

 coursed with pieces of stone laid on horizontally! . The 

 whole appearance of the stony surrounding was rough, with 

 a look of great antiquity. The white pebble, such as has 



* Dr Hume, of Jedburgh, reported that it was the skull of a male ; that it 

 was small, and of the Brachycephalic type, which was the characteristic of 

 the Celtic or old British skull.— Dr Brydon, in "Trans, of the Hawick 

 Archaeological Society," 1872, p. 165. The whole of Dr Brydon's explora- 

 tions are of much interest. 



t Dr Brydon remarks : " The construction of the grave was peculiar, and 

 different from any I have examined or seen described. Its lower half was 

 formed by single stones placed edgewise for each side, and the other part was 

 regularly and neatly built with small stones." 



