212 



Dru idle Ant iq uitzes. 



[No. 12, NEW SERIES, 



Sepulchres. 



Some very singular excavations were discovered between 

 Luckington and Badminster, Wilts, called the Giant's caves. They 

 are upon the top of a rising hill, in number about nine ; and some 

 of them are or were formerly cemented with lime. Some of them 

 are deeper, and some shallower, some broader and larger than 

 others. They lie all together in a row. The manner of them is 

 two long stones set upon the sides, and broad stones set upon the 

 top to cover them. The least of these caves is four feet broad and 

 some of them are nine or ten feet long. Sir R. C. Hoare pronounc- 

 ed them to be ancient sepulchres. 



These are precisely similar to a kind of ancient sepulchre met 

 with in India, and generally associated with Cromlechs &e. With- 

 in the precints of 'the village of Avanashy in the Coimbatore 

 Zillah in the South of India, I was shown a deep excavation 

 whence the stones forming a subterranean vault had been removed, 

 some of which were still lying about the mouth of the hole, the 

 large slab which covered the vault I was told had been sent to 

 Coimbatore. In the neighbourhood of Secunderabad in the Dec- 

 can are numerous vaults or artificial caves, exactly answering the 

 description of those in Wiltshire. 



But the most remarkable I have seen, are at Wodenhully in My- 

 sore. In the neighbourhood of this place, I found a vast number 

 of subterranean chambers, formed of large flag stones, and all full 

 of earth, the tops of the walls, each a single slab a few inches 

 above the surface, only appearing. They differed from those I 

 found on the Neilgherries, and from those in Wiltshire, in wanting 

 the flag stones covering the roof, which, I suspect, had been re- 

 moved in former times to Oosoor, or some place in this neighbour- 

 hood, as building materials. The Karkoon of Wodenhully as- 

 serted there were nearly two hundred of these curious structures, 

 a statement I am well disposed to believe, because when I went to 

 look at them, I felt as though I were walking over the remains 

 of a large town that had been buried under the earth, or the 

 cemetery of a great city. From my examination of edifices of the 

 same character on the Neilgherries I arrived at the conclusion 

 that they were ancient Sepulchres ; I entertain the same belief in 

 this case as well. 



