164 



Barrows on Roundway Hill. 



out the soil. At the depth of two feet a small irregular layer of 

 wood ashes, and some fragments of burnt bone were found. It ap- 

 peared as if these were the ashes of the fire used for consuming the 

 body interred below, having been thrown up on the mound after 

 the interment. At five feet we reached the original soil ; on which 

 was a thin sprinkling of chalk. This being followed, on one side it 

 was found to increase in thickness, till at last it led to the cist. 

 On digging downwards, the chalk rubble suddenly gave way 

 beneath the feet, disclosing a hollow cavity, as the men said, like 

 an oven. The chalk that had fallen into it was cleared away, and 

 we shortly arrived at the interment, which consisted of incinerated 

 bones, mixed with wood ashes, heaped up in the centre, but cov- 

 ered with a layer of decayed wood, which extended to a length of 

 two and a half feet, and to a breadth of twelve or fourteen inches. 

 Beneath the bones was another layer of wood of the same extent, 

 but in a less decomposed condition, evidently the remains of a 

 board. As there was a considerable thickness of this substance at 

 the sides, we came to the conclusion that the burnt bones had been 

 enclosed in a rude chest or coffin, the decay of which had caused 

 the chalk to fall in, and thus produced the cavity mentioned above. 

 Under the bones was a small bronze spear, or more probably dag- 

 ger head, with three bronze rivets. The wooden handle of it, ap- 

 parently about a foot in length, crumbled to dust when touched. 

 The cist, contrary to that at the other end of the barrow, was 

 north and south. It was oblong, the south end square, the north 

 irregularly rounded; length five feet four inches, breadth three 

 feet, depth three feet six inches. Total depth from the surface to 

 the bottom of the cist eight feet nine inches. The bones in this, 

 as in the other instance, were those of an adult. Both the cists 

 were filled up with chalk, not with earth. 



No. 7. This interesting barrow was opened by the desire of the 

 late E. F. Colston, Esq. in 1840. An account of the investigation 

 was sent to the Devizes Gazette by the late Mr. Stoughton Money, 

 and a description of some of the articles found in it, accompanied 

 with an engraving, was published by J. Yonge Akerman, Esq., 

 Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, in his " Remains of Pmjan 



