326 



Examination of Barrows on 



rait a small defensive earthwork or camp. At the foot of this, 

 (close to the road to Kennet, and to the line of the old British 

 trackway which stretches by Avebury into Berkshire,) are two 

 defaced barrows connected by a dyke, extending sixty yards east 

 and west. 



19. To the south of the eastern mound, is a small low barrow 

 not two feet in height. In digging into it, a few pieces of burnt 

 bone were found, and near the centre, the carelessly buried skele- 

 ton of an infant. On the west side of the barrow, in a narrow cist 

 in the chalk, more than six feet long, was the skeleton of an adult 

 female of large stature, stretched at length, the feet to the east, as 

 in Christian cemeteries at the present day; 



" Mindful of Him who in the orient born 

 There lived, and on the cross His life resigned; 

 And who from out the regions of the morn 

 Issuing in pomp shall come to judge mankind." 1 



In the absence of any accompanying relic it is impossible to assign 

 a period to this last interment. From the traces of cremation, 

 however, it may be inferred that this was an ancient British bar- 

 row, which under peculiar circumstances had been used for the 

 interment of a woman and child in mediaeval times. Might it not 

 be the case of some unhappy infanticide or suicide, who, excluded 

 from the grave)^ard of the village church, had been taken for inter- 

 ment to this pagan burying place on the hill ? 



Within the area of the camp on Knap Hill, Sir R. C. Hoare 

 describes "two small barrows, and another on the outside." 2 



20. This last, to the south-west of the earthwork, is not more 

 than a foot high. An opening, of at least three yards square, was 

 made in the centre; but excepting some animal bones near the 

 summit, nothing was found after a most careful search. 



1 Wordsworth, it is true, here alludes to the orientation of churches; but 

 there can be no doubt that similar views have determined the position of the 

 dead in Christian cemeteries. The great mediaeval ritualist, Durandus, thus 

 writes: " Debet autem quis sic sepeliri ut, capite ad occidentem posito, pedes 

 dirigat ad orientem: in quo quasi ipsa positione orat et innuit quod, promptus 

 est ut de occasu festinet ad ortum." De Divinis Officiis: quoted by Abbe Co- 

 chet, Arch. vol. xxxvi. p. 261. 



2 Ancient Wilts, vol. ii. p. 12. Maps of Marlborough Station and of Waus- 

 ditch. 



