618 Notes on Barrows in South Wilts. 



BARROW 2. BULFORD. 



Whilst this barrow was being excavated two men were working 

 at another one about 200 yards due west of it, marked No. 2 on 

 the map. It was in a chaotic state, having been riddled by rabbits, 

 and much of the large quantity of flints composing its interior had 

 been carted away. I cannot help thinking that this barrow had 

 been disturbed by former excavators, and the flints may originally 

 have formed a large cairn, over which the rest of the barrow was 

 built. There was nothing amongst or below the flints, but on the 

 south side of them a skeleton of a man buried full-length was 

 come upon, but with no object near it and nothing to indicate a 

 period. 



Barrow 3. Bulford. 



The following year I opened a barrow half-a-mile north of those 

 just mentioned, marked on the map as No. 3. It was also called 

 and marked as the " Target " Barrow, and is slightly bigger than 

 No. I. 1 



A trench was cut on the east side and the soil wheeled away 

 clear of the barrow, the operations being carried on in much the 

 same way as in Barrow No. 1. 



This was a very remarkable barrow. The outside was covered 

 with a 2 foot layer of chalk, the surface of which, in many places, 

 was extremely hard and difficult to break, and portions of it had 

 quite a crystalline fracture. 2 This was chiefly noticeable on the 

 south side, the east side being not so hard. 



In its new state it must have presented the appearance of a 

 white dome, and I cannot help thinking that many of the barrows 

 must have presented this appearance, as they frequently have an 

 outside layer of chalk, but in this instance it must have taken years 

 for wind-driven soil to collect and grass to grow upon it. 



1 John Robbins, of the Lower Farm, at Bulford, was a rifleman, and had 

 an iron target at this spot. 



2 A similar condition of chalk rubble compacted together into a very hard 

 mass, apparently by a kind of stalagmitic formation, due to infiltration of 

 water, was found during the excavation of the ditch at Avebury. It was 

 there so solid that the workmen believed it to be the bottom of the ditch 

 ami it was hard enough to break the point of a pickaxe.— Ed. 



