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thofe in another, The bones nearaft the fur face were lead 
decayed. No holes were discovered in any of them, as if 
made with bullets, arrows, or other weapons. I conjec¬ 
tured that in this barrow might have been a thoufand fke- 
letons. Every one will readily feize the circumftances 
above related, which militate againft the opinion that it 
covered the bones only of perfons fallen in battle;.and 
againft the tradition alio which would make it the com¬ 
mon fepulchre of a town, in which the bodies were placed 
upright, and touching each other. Appearances certdinly 
indicate that it lias derived both origin and growth from 
the accitftomary collection of bones, and depolition of them 
together ; that the tirft collection had been depofited on 
the common furface of the earth, a few (tones put over it, 
and then a covering ot earth ; that the fecond had been 
laid on this, bad covered more or lefs of it in proportion 
to the number of bones, and was then alfo covered with 
earth, and fo on. The following are the particular cir'- 
cumftances which give it this afpeft. i. The number of 
■bones. 2. Their cont'ufed pofition. 3. Their being in 
different ftrata. 4. The ftrata in one part having no cor- 
refpondence with thofe in another. 5. The different dates 
of decay in thefe ftrata, which feem to indicate a difference 
in the time of inhumation. 6. The exiftence of infant 
bones among them. But on whatever occalion they may 
have been made, they are of conliderable notoriety among 
the Indians : for a party paffing, about thirty years ago, 
through the part of the country where this barrow is, went 
through the woods dire£11 y to it, without any inftruftions 
or inquiry ; and, having (laid about it fome time with ex- 
preffions of forrow, they returned to the high road, and 
purfued their journey. There is another harrow, much 
refembling this in the low grounds of the fouth branch of 
Shenandoah, where it is crofted by the road leading from 
the Rockfifh-gap to Staunton. Both of thofe have, with¬ 
in thefe dozen years, been cleared of their trees and put 
under cultivation, are much reduced in their height, and 
fpread in width by the plough, and will probably difap- 
pear in time. There is another on a hill in the blue ridge 
of mountains, a few miles north of Wood’s-gap, which is 
made of f'mall (tones thrown together. This has been open¬ 
ed, and found to contain human bones as the others do.” 
Barrow (Ifaac), a very eminent mathematician and 
divine of the 17th century, was born at London, in Octo¬ 
ber, 1630, being the Ion of Thomas’Barrow, then a linen- 
draper of that city, but defeended from an ancient family 
in Suffolk. He was at fir ft placed at the Charter-lion fe 
fchool, where his behaviour afforded but little hopes of 
fuccefs in the profellionof a fcholar ; but, being removed 
to Felfted in Effex, iris difpofition took a different turn; 
and, having foon made a great progrels in learning, he was 
firft admitted a penftoner of Peter-houfe in Cambridge ; 
but when he came to join the univerfity, in Feb. 1645, he 
was entered at Trinity-college. He now applied himfelf- 
with great diligence to the (tudy of all parts of literature, 
efpecially natural philofophy. He afterward turned his 
attention to the profeflion of phytic, and made a confidera- 
ble progrels in anatomy, botany, and chemiftry : he next 
ftudied divinity; then chronology, aftronomy, geometry, 
and the other branches of the mathematics ; with what 
fuccefs, his writings afterwards mofl eminently fhewed. 
When Dr. Du port religned the chair of Greek profeffor, 
lie recommended his pupil Mr. Barrow for his fticceffor, 
who, in his probation exercife, fhewed himfelf equal to 
the character that had been given him by this gentleman ; 
but, being fufpefted of favouring Arminianifm, he was not 
preferred. This difappointment it feerns determined him 
to quit the college, and vifit foreign countries ; but his 
finances were fo low, that he was obliged to difpofe of his 
books, to enable him to execute that defign. He left Eng¬ 
land in June 1655, and vifited France, Italy, Turkey, &c. 
At feveral places, in the courfe of this tour, lie met with 
kindnefs and liberal afliftance from the Englifh ambafta- 
uors, &c. which enabled him to benefit the more from it, 
by protrafting his flay, and prolonging his journey. He 
x 
fpent more than a year in Turkey, and returned to Eng. 
land byway of Venice, Germany, and Holland, in 1639. 
At Conftantinople he read over the works of St. Chry- 
foftom, once bifhop of that fee, whom he preferred to all 
the other fathers. > 
On his return home Barrow was epifeopaliy ordained by 
bifhop Brownrig; and, i it 1660, he was chofen to the 
Greek profeflorfliip at Cambridge. In July^ 1662, he was 
elected profeftorof geometry in. Grefham-college : in which 
ftation, he not only difeharged his own duty, but fupplied 
likewife the abfence of Dr. Pope the aftronomy profefTor. 
Among his lectures, fome-were upon the projection of the 
fphere and perfpeCtive, which are loft; but his Latin ora¬ 
tion, previous to his lectures, is (till extant. About this 
time Mr. Barrow was offered a good living; hut the con¬ 
dition annexed, of teaching the patron’s fon, made him re- 
fufe it, as thinking it too like a (imonial contraft. Upon 
the 20th of May, 1663, he was elefted a fellow of the 
Royal Society, in the firft choice made by the council af¬ 
ter their charter. The fame year the executors of Mr. 
Lucas having, according to his appointment, founded a 
mathematical lefture at Cambridge, they felefted Mr. 
Barrow for the firft profefTor ; and, though Iris two pro- 
feflbrfliips were not incompatible with each other, he chofe 
to re-fign that of Grefham-college, which he did May the 
20th, 1664. In 1669 he refigned the mathematical chair 
to his learned friend Mr. Ifaac Newton, being now deter¬ 
mined to quit the ftudy of mathematics for that of divi¬ 
nity. ,On quitting his profeftbrfliip, he had only his fel- 
lowfliip of Trinity-college, till his uncle gave him a fmall 
finecure in Wales ; and Dr. Setli Ward, bifhop of Salif- 
bury, conferred upon him a prebend in his church. In 
the year 1670, lie was created doftor in divinity hv man¬ 
date; and, upon the promotion of Dr. Pearfon, matter of 
Trinity-college, to the fee of Chefter, he was appointed 
to fucceed him, Feb. 15, 1672 ; upon which occafion the 
king was pleafed to fay, “ lie had given it to the beft fcho¬ 
lar in England.” In this his majefty did not (peak from 
report, but from his own knowledge; for, as the doctor 
was then his chaplain, he ufed often to converfe with him, 
and, in his humorous way, to call him, an “ unfair 
preacher,” becaufe he exhaufted every fubjeft, aiid left 
no room for others to come after him. In 1675 he was 
chofen vice-chancellor of the univerlily ; and lie omitted 
no endeavours for the good of that fociety, nor, in the line 
of his profeflion as a divine, for the promotion of piety and 
virtue; but his ufeful labours were abruptly terminated 
by a fever on the 4th of May, 1677, in the forty-feventh 
year of his age. He was interred in Weffminfter-abbey, 
where a monument, adorned with his buft, was loon after 
erefted by the contribution of his friends. 
Dr. Barrow’s works are very numerous, and indeed va¬ 
rious, mathematical, theological, poetical, &c. and fiich 
as do honour to the Englifh nation. They are principally 
as follow : 1. Euclidis Elementa. Cantab. 1653, 8vo. 2. 
Euclidis Data. Cantab. 1637, 8vo. 3. Leftiones Optics 
xviii. Loud. 1669, 4to. 4. Leftiones Geometric;® xiii. 
London *<$70, 4to. 3. Arcliimedis Opera, Appollonii 
Conicorum libri iv. Theodofii Sphericorum lib. iii. nova 
methodo illuflrata, et fuccinfte demonttrata. Lon. 1673, 
4to. The ft ’flowing were publifhed after his deccafe, 
viz. 6. Lectio, in qua thcoremata Arcliimedis de fphaera 
et cylindroper methodum indivifibilium inveftigata, ac bre- 
viter inveftigata, exhibentur. Lon. 1678, 121110. 7. Ma¬ 
thematics Leftiones habits in fcholis publicis academia 
Cantabrigienfis, an. 1644, 3, 6, &c. Loud, 1683. 8. All 
his Englifh works in three volumes, Lond. 16S3, folio. 
Thefe, are all theological, and were publifhed by Dr. John 
Tillotfon. 9. Ifaaci Barrow Opufcula, viz. Determina- 
tiones, Condones ad Clenim, Orationes, Poemata, Sec. 
Lond. 1687, folio. Dr. Barrow left alfo feveral curious 
papers on mathematical ftibjefts, written in his own hand, 
which were communicated by Mr. Jones to the author of 
The Lives of the Grefliam ProfefTors,” a particular ac¬ 
count of which may be feen in that book, in the Life of 
Barrow. 
