328 



Examination of Barrows on 



feet intending the temple." The Doctor obtained from this spot 

 " many bushels" of bones, of which he says, "he made a noble medi- 

 cine that relieved many of his distressed neighbours!" Cranium ho- 

 minis< has now lost its reputation, even in epilepsy; and if, at the 

 present day, a skull be removed from an ancient barrow, it is for pre- 

 servation in the cabinet of the anatomist ; where it is treasured for 

 the purposes of science. The low mound in this field is perhaps the 

 base of the barrow, which Dr. Stukeley says was levelled for plough- 

 ing, in 1720, in which was found an unburnt skeleton " within a 

 bed of great stones forming a kind of arch," and with it "several 

 beads of amber, long and round, as big as one's thumb end, and 

 several enamelled beads of glass, some white and some green." 1 



View from "Seven Barrow Hill," Overton Down, showing the village of West Kennet, 

 Silbury Hill, and a restoration of the Double Circle and Avenue of Stones leading 

 to the Great Circle at Avebury. (From a sketch by Mr. J. Waylen.J 



Our excavation, in 1854, disclosed deep trenches in the chalk and 

 bits of old fashioned pottery, several large nails, and a ring or loop 

 of iron. If not the remains of the barrow described by Stukeley, 

 it may perhaps have been the site of a windmill removed before 

 the time of Aubrey, and whence the name of the field. 



1 Abury, p. 44. 



