15 



■ >ciation that he had found in excavations at Cranborne Chase bodies 

 uried without the head. If we were ignorant of the practices of other 

 ices we should be at a loss to account for such interments. As it is, we 

 sk ourselves whether these bodies are those of strangers whose heads have 

 een sent back to their own land, or their own tribe, in order to be united 

 1 one general cemetery with their own people ; or whether the heads 

 •ere cut off* and preserved by their immediate relatives and brought into 

 le circle at their festive gatherings to share the periodical solemnities of 



I he clan. Both these are savage modes of dealing with the dead, one of 

 -hich, indeed, left traces in Roman civilisation at its highest development, 

 'he knowledge of them puts us upon inquiry as to other burials of the 

 rehistoric inhabitants of this country, which may help us in reconstruct- 

 ig their worship and their creed. I for one do not despair of recovering, 

 y careful comparison of the relics preserved to us in the ancient monu- 

 , lents with the folklore of the existing peasantry and of races in other 

 arts of the earth, at least the outlines of the beliefs of our remote 

 redecessors. 



I Any such conclusions, however, must be founded on the essential unity 

 hat science has, during the last thirty years, unveiled to us in human 

 nought and human institutions. This unity has disguised itself in forms 

 S diverse as the nationalities of men. And when we have succeeded in 

 /iecing together the skeleton of our predecessors' civilisation, material and 

 atellectual, we are confronted by the further inquiries : What were the 

 pecific distinctions of their culture ? and How was it influenced by those 

 j'f their neighbours or of their conquerors ? This is a question only to be 

 letermined, if at all, by the examination of the folklore of the country. 

 »Ve may assume that the physical measurements, descriptions, and por- 

 raits of the present inhabitants will establish our relationship to some of 

 he peoples Avhose remains we find beneath our feet. And it will be 

 easonable to believe that, though there has been a communication from 

 >ther peoples of their traditions, yet that the broad foundation of our folk- 

 ore is derived from our forefathers and predecessors in our own land. In 

 Gloucestershire itself we have strong evidence of the persistence of tradi- 

 ion. Bisley Church is said to have been originally intended to be built 

 several miies off, ' but the Devil every night removed the stones, and the 

 irchitect was obliged at last to build it where it now stands.' This is, of 

 course, a common tradition. The peculiarity of the case is that at Bisley 

 ts meaning has been discovered. The spot where, we are told, 1 the 

 murch ought to have been built was occupied formerly by a Roman villa ; ' 

 md when the church was restored some years ago ' portions of the mate- 

 ials of that villa were found embedded in the church walls, including the 

 dtars of the Penates, which are now, however, removed to the British 

 Museum. 5 1 Here, as Sir John Dorington said, addressing this Society 

 I some years ago at Stroud, is a tradition which has been handed down for 

 ifteen or sixteen hundred years. This is in our own country, and it may 

 je thought hard to beat such a record. But at Mold, in Flintshire, there 

 s evidence of a tradition which must have been handed down from the 

 prehistoric iron age — that is to say, for more than two thousand years. 

 A cairn stood there, called the Bryn-yr-Ellyllon, the Hill of the Fairies. 

 Et was believed to be haunted ; a spectre clad in golden armour had been 



1 Gloucestershire J\. Q. vol. i. p. 390 quoting an article in the Building News. 

 See also Sir John Dorington's Presidential Address, Trans, li. S' G. A rch. Soc. vol. v. 

 ?• 7. 



