Rev. W. Green well on Barrows at Ford. 391 



ground, it was contained in a cist, formed by four stones set 

 on edge, in the form of an oblong square, with a large irregular 

 shaped covering stone, which projected beyond the line of the 

 sides ; the joints of the four side stones were filled in with clay. 

 The cist lay north and south, and measured two feet eleven 

 inches in length, by two feet in breadth, and had a depth of 

 one foot seven inches. The bleached appearance of the in- 

 side of the cist, when first, after so long an interval, the light 

 was admitted, Avas very striking, and pointed to the lapse of 

 many a century since last it had seen the day. The sole con- 

 tents were an urn and a fragment of the skull of a child, of 

 about three or four years of age, both of which were found at 

 the north end of the cist, the urn empty and standing on its 

 base, the fragment of skull lying beside it. The urn — Plate 

 'Xll.yfig. 1 — is four inches high, and four and a quarter inches 

 wide at the mouth ; it is of the ordinary flower-pot shape, of 

 a greyish brown colour, well formed, apparently on the wheel, 

 and entirely covered with short incised lines arranged herring- 

 bone fashion. There Avas no indication that any other bones 

 had ever occupied the cist, the fragment which Avas found was 

 perfectly fresh, as though it had only been buried some fcAV 

 years, and strange as it may seem, it appears as if this por- 

 tion only of the body had been placed in the tomb, for Avhy 

 should it remain quite fresh, and the other bones have totally 

 gone to decay ? In a notice of the opening of a cist at Broom- 

 hill, near Dunse, an account of Avhich is given in vol. iii. of 

 our Transactions, p. 157, it is related that the sole contents 

 were an urn, a portion of a skull and a few fragments of 

 bones, so preserved as to make it difficult to account for the 

 absence of the remainder ; and in many cases Avhere undis- 

 turbed cists have been opened, no remains of bones have 

 been found. Whether in the Broomhill barroAv there had 

 ever been more of the body interred than the bones dis- 

 covered, must remain a disputed point until Ave have the 

 evidence of more interments to guide us to the truth. There 

 is, hoAvever, one singular fact Avhich Ave learn from this place 

 of burial, Avhich is this, that the principal interment was that 

 of a very young child. Some have held that only the chiefs 

 of tribes, or other notable persons, Avere honoured Avith the 

 raised mound over their remains, Avhilst the lower members 

 of the tribe were buried Avithout any mark to distinguish 

 where they rested ; nor indeed does this vicAV seem an im- 

 probable one, Avhen Ave consider hoAv few are the barroAvs, 

 even in a district so thickly peopled as must have been north 



2 C 



