158 REV. G. R. HALL ON A BARROW 



stand on sites considerably elevated. Some occupy positions, as 

 Dan's Cairn, which overlook the whole upper reach of the North 

 Tyne, and could be seen from the Scottish hills, in accordance 

 with the usual desire of a Pagan chief to have his name and fame 

 held in remembrance after his death. Of these the words of 

 the bard are descriptive, when he says of his buried forefathers, 



— "Tn garnedd 



Mewn gwerni niae 'n gorwedd :" 



" They are lying in the harrow on the moor." 



But respecting this tumulus, the site of which within memory 

 almost has been overgrown, like the rest of the valley-slope from 

 the river to the "Watling Street, with underwood and natural 

 oak, the answering description would be couched in another 



line — 



"Eu beddau a'u cudd gwyddwal :" 



" Their graves are hidden by the thicket." 

 The outline of the barrow has long been rendered indistinct by 

 yearly tillage ; but it can be remembered since it stood at least 

 two feet higher than it does now- The ring of larger stones 

 which usually encircles the base of such tumuli could be easily 

 seen at the east and north, within which the level surface appears 

 to have had a rough kind of pavement. Here, where many of 

 the stones were reddened throughout by fire, the funeral feast 

 may possibly have been held, as a kind of sacrifice to the manes 

 of the departed, according to the prevailing custom of ancient 

 mourners, civilised or barbarian — one, too, which has lingered in 

 this valley through both Pagan and Christian times to this day.* 

 The funeral pyre was also probably erected in this open space 

 for the burning of the body, whose calcined bones were enclosed 

 in the urn which was first discovered. The whole barrow must 



* In Brand's "Popular Antiquities," Vol. II, p. 237, (Bonn's Edition,) there is a full 

 description of these " Funeral Entertainments," which are traced down from very early 

 times. Hutchinson, in his " History of Northumberland," Vol. II, ad. fin., p. 20, assigns 

 the origin of the ArveJ-dmnev to the British period ; the word, still not uncommon in the 

 North of England, namely, Arthel or Arvel, being "frequently more correctly written 

 arddelw." The similar funereal banquet among the Greeks and Romans is well known- 

 See, especially, Juvenal, Satire V, 1. 85. An allusion to the same custom occurs in Hamlet, 

 Act I, sc. 2, who, speaking of his mother's marriage, says — 



" The funeral bak'd meats 

 Did coldly furnish forth the marriage-tables." 



