the Traditions connected with it. 



327 



it. This is an opinion in which the writer is confirmed by a resident 

 gentleman of intelligence, who at his request, some years since, 

 examined the stones in reference to this question. There is, further, 

 every reason to suppose that, whatever may be the case as to the 

 western and terminal chambers, this eastern one has never been 

 cleared out to the bottom, and that it would repay the trouble of 

 excavation, by the disclosure of the original sepulchral deposit. It is 

 much to be desired that such an examination should be made, as 

 might be done at no great expense and without injury to this now 

 celebrated monument. Had the zealous antiquary, Mr. E. Martin 

 Atkins, of Kingston Lisle, been longer spared to us, he might per- 

 haps, with the permission of Lord Craven, and residing as he did 

 in the immediate neighbourhood, have undertaken this examination. 1 

 Nearly all the more remarkable sepulchral mounds of our country 

 bear traces, when excavated, of a prior opening. They appear to 

 have been rifled in search of treasure, in very early times, and 

 especially perhaps during the Roman period. This, on the White 

 Horse Hill, in the parish of Ashbury, seems not only to have been 

 dug into, but to have been in part levelled and cleared away, and 

 the contained chambers, or cromlechs, 2 as they are sometimes called, 



1 About the year 1810, the ground covering and surrounding the stones was 

 planted with fir trees and beeches, forming a circular plantation, such as the 

 people here call a " folly" — Wayland's Folly. Two years ago, the firs having 

 died were cut down, but the exterior ring of beeches remains. The whole spot is 

 now in a very neglected state ; covered with elder-bushes, briars and nettles, 

 which render its inspection very difficult and sadly interfere with the religio 

 loci. It is much to be desired that the whole enclosure within the beeches 

 should be cleared and put in order, as was done, by Lord Craven's direction, 

 some forty years since, when, as Scott tells us, the monument itself " was 

 cleared out and made considerably more conspicuous." It should be added to 

 what is stated above, that the shepherds and others say, that on driving a crow- 

 bar into the ground near the "Cave," a very hollow sound is produced, and 

 that they are satisfied there is a cavity beneath. 



2 Cromlechs are probably all sepulchral monuments ; but, with Sir Gardner 

 Wilkinson, the writer thinks a broad distinction is to be drawn between the 

 cromlech and the subterraneous chamber which has been covered with a mound, 

 such as was this of Ashbury. "The cromlech has been confounded with the 

 subterraneous chamber which frequently has a long covered passage leading 

 into it ; * * * but this last is not properly a cromlech," (JoUrn. Brit. Archaeol. 

 Assoc. vol. xvi, p. 116.) ; though it " has received that name, as the Cromlech 



2 f 2 



