the Downs of North Wiltshire. 



331 



three fragments of black pottery, with a thin coin the size of half- 

 a-crown, which fell to pieces on removal. There were also some 

 ashes and slight traces of burnt bones. 



23. A disc-shaped, or so called, "Druid's" 1 barrow, on the brow 

 of the hill, a little to the north of that numbered 7, by Sir R. 0. 

 Hoare, was examined. It is figured by Dr. Stukeley, in Tabs. xix. 

 and xxii. of his " Abury." After digging down to the undisturbed 

 chalk in the small central mound, nothing whatever was discovered 

 to indicate its having been used for sepulchral purposes. 



24. To the south of this last, directly above West Kennet, are 

 two barrows, in a ploughed field called "Eight Acres." Some 

 years since, several projecting sarsen stones, we were told, were 

 removed from the summit of the most northern, when the skeleton 

 of a small horse with his iron shoes, 2 and three or four large urns 

 full of burnt bones were uncovered. In 1857, the skeleton of a 

 child, of two or three years, was found at a depth of about two 

 feet, with fragments of burnt bones, a bit or two of coarse pottery, 

 and the perforated head of a bone pin. Towards the south side of 

 our large excavation, several large sarsen stones were uncovered, 

 beneath which, at a depth of two and a half feet, lay an entire 

 skeleton of small size, in the contracted position, with the head to 

 the west, probably that of an aged female. The form of the skull 

 is remarkably similar to that of the large man found in the neigh- 

 bouring barrow, described above. (No. 1 on Sir R. C. H.'s plan.) 



The other barrow of larger size was excavated to a depth of more 

 than seven feet, before reaching the chalk rock, and yielded nothing 

 but a tine of deer's horn. We were afterwards informed that, many 



1 It is much to be regretted that this ill-founded designation of Stukeley's 

 (Stonehenge, pp. 10, 45,) should have been adopted by Sir R. C. Hoare; especi- 

 ally as he had come to the reasonable conclusion, from their contents, that the 

 barrows so called were the burial places of females. (Ancient Wilts, vol. i. p. 

 21; vol. ii. p. 110.) The designation of disc-shaped, which we propose for them, 

 seems sufficiently to express their form, which resembles a circular flat dish, sur- 

 rounded by a deep rim, presenting, sometimes, one or two slight eminences in the 

 centre. 



2 As neither the Britons nor Romans used horse-shoes, this skeleton must 

 have been a secondary deposit, possibly of late date. 



