intrenchment, of Roman or Barbaric workmanship, and which is known by the name of "Flower's barrow." If we pay any regard to the conjecture of Hutchins', in his Hiftory of Dorfetfhire, who derives the name of "Flower's barrow" from a fuppofed Roman General of the name of Floris, the question will be folved at once what people raised this strong intrenchment; and it will afford fome kind of prefumptive proof that the barrows below contained Roman remains. But we are to obferve, that he produces no proof whatever of any Roman General of the name of Florus ever having been in thofe parts; nor does the figure of the camp affect the Roman quadrangle, but feems rather to humour the natural fhape of the hill. Indeed part of it, by fome convulfion of Nature, appears to have funk below its original level, while no fmall portion of it has fallen into the fea below, which, at the depth of feven hundred feet, is for ever undermining its rocky bafe. In these two barrows we found promifcuously fcattered perfect human teeth, burnt human bones, together with thofe of animals, fuch as pieces of the jawbones of horfes or oxen, teeth of the fame animals, tufks of boars, fmall round ftones of the Portland kind, not bigger than children's marbles, pointed ftones that poffibly have been the heads of weapons, certain lumps of corroded metal, feemingly iron, but of an undeterminate fhape, a few particles of yellow metal, which being loft could not undergo the affay, fome crumbling pieces of dark-coloured unburnt urns, together with a few lumps of brick or earthen ware, that appeared to have been well burnt. In addition to all this, we perceived a confiderable quantity of fine, rich, black earth, with a certain white mouldinef's between the parcels, which must have been fetched from a conLiderable diftance, and which I have

invariably found ftrewed over the re mains of the dead in these ancient fepulchres. The bottom of one of thefe graves was paved with large, round ftones, that had been worked smooth by the action of the fea, and which apparently had been fetched from the adjacent fhore.

From the confufed ftate in which we found the contents of thefe two barrows, which indeed were fituated near what had formerly been an inhabited fpot, as the name of Arish Mill indicates, we were fatisfied they had been in fome paft time difturbed: we therefore determined to make our next refearch in a remote and inecceffible fituation. With this view we pitched upon a large barrow, being twelve feet in perpendicular height, and two hundred in circumference, fituated at the highest point of a lofty mountain about midway between the Points of Portland and Purbeck Iflands. This tumulus is known in the country by the name of Hambury taut, or toote, the first of which words, I conjecture, may be the name of the Chieftain there buried, while the other two appear to be the corruption of Saxon and British words expreflive of a barrow. Many of the fame articles were found on the furface and at the extremities of this, as in the former barrows, fuch as burnt human bones, bits of metal, &c. but on our approaching to the center, at about the depth of four feet from the furface, a fkeleton appeared, in perfect prefervation, lying with its head to the North, but fo tender, as to crumble into the duft with the leaft preffure; its pofture, which had that of a perfon fleeping on his fide, with the feet rather drawn up, one hand refting on its breaft, the other on its hip, prevented it from being accurately measured. The account of the people, however, employed in digging, we found afterwards had magnified it to the fize of feven, and

even of eight feet. But what may be faid with certainty is, that the thigh bon meafüred twenty inches, which in a well-proportioned man, I find, gives a height of fix feet and of about as many inches. One of his leg-bones appeared to have been fractured; but whether this had happened by fome wound in war, or by fome accident at the funeral, or by the weight of the fuperincumbent earth, it is impoffible to determine. On the breaft of the fkeleton was depofited a rude urn, too much decayed to be handled without falling to pieces, of about the measure of two quarts, but empty of every thing except the fame fine mould that covered the fkeleton. Near the neck of the latter were found many of the round ftones I have before mentioned, but of different fizes, from that of a pigeon's egg down to that of a pea. As they were imperforated, it is not improbable they had once been covered with metal, in which state they might have formed a necklace, or any fimilar ornament. The fubtance of the barrow, as high as the fite of the body, was formed of flints and tones; into which a thaft was funk to a confiderable depth, but without finding any thing worth notice. The next day, however, the country people, who had witneffed the diligence of our refearches, which they conceived must have had an object of greater value in view than bones and earthen veffels, being encouraged morover by a popular tradition, that a treafure lies hidden in the earth fomewhere between Weymouth and Purbeck Ifland, they affembled, I fay, and dug to the very bottom of the center of the barrow, where they found nothing but a large heap of afhes, in all probability the remains of a funeral pile which had been erected on that fpot. Another fmall barrow, that was opened the fame day, yielding nothing but bones and broken urns,

Unavoidable bufinefs, calling me home at the end of the week, my refpectable friend communicated to me, by letter, the refult of his fearches the enfuing week; of which the following is an extract.

"On the Thurfday after you left us, we pitched our tent near another of thefe barrows, and fet to work upon it. We dfcovered, at about the depth of two feet, no lefs than five diftinct skeletons; three of them were in a row, lying on their backs, two of which appeared to be of the comman fize, but that in the middle was a fmall one, probably of fome young perfon. The two others were at the diflance of a few feet from these, of the ordinary fize, with the h. ad of one lying on the breaft of the other. Each of the skeletons had an urn upon it; but thefe were fo perifhed, that upon being touched they fell into earth, except a few pieces near the top rim of one of them, which I have preferved for your inspection. Uader the head of one of the three that lay in a row we found a small earthen urn, about the fize of the cup part of an ordinary wine-glafs."

I have only to add to this account, that the fmall urn juft mentioned, which was of the shape with the reft we found, namely, that of a truncated cone, was about two inches high, and one in diameter, and that, though nicely covered with the fhell of a limpet, it was quite empty; likewife that the broken pieces of urn were ornamented by being rudely indented in a zigzag fashion; and that the five fkeletons were not all exactly on the fame level in the barrow, which appears to have been a fan ily fepul chie, but that the two laft mentioned feemed to have been depofited in the fide of the barrow without taking it to pieces.

Five or fix other barrows in the fame neighbourhood have fince been opened by the fame gentleman; but, as the contents of them all were near

ly

neral piles, barrows, and urns; as Montfaucon has difcovered in regard to the Gauls, and Gronovius with the other German Antiquaries in ref. pect to their forefathers; yet there is this ftriking difference between the two people, that the former, according to Cafar, were fond of the pomp of funerals, facrificing various animals as well as men on the oecafion, and burying with the dead whatever they had that was moft precious: whereas the latter, according to Tacitus, defp:fed the fruitless ambition, as they confider it, of magnificent funerals; and it was only on fome extraordinary occafion that the warrior's horfe was buried with his mafter. Morton adds, that the Saxons had laid afide the custom of burning their dead previous to their invafion of this ifland; but whether the laftmentioned affertion refts upon fufficient proof, or not, I think the evident confequences to be deduced from what has been alleged above, when confidered with respect to the contents of the barrows in queftion, like wife the very great antiquity of thefe barrows, manifeft by the condition of the metal, bones, and urns, found in them. Again, the coarfe nefs and rudeness of thefe urns, which, in my opinion, rather befpeak the manufacture of the favage Britons, than of the Saxons, wl.o by their very piracies upon civilized nations were a polished people at their conqueft of this ifland, compared with the fix hundred years before; ard, above all, the conformity between thefe barrows and thofe opened by Dr Stukeley and others in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge all thefe circumftances, I fay, confidered together, induce me to attribute the barrows I have def. cribed to the Aborigines of this ifland, the Britons, rather than to the Saxons, or any later people. With respect to the argument I have drawn from the conformity between these barrows and thofe near Stonehenge,

I take it for granted that this ftupen! dous pile of Barbaric magnificence is allowed to have been a Druidical temple; and that the barrows with which it is furrounded had fome relation with it, and belonged to the fame people by whom it was con ftructed.

A very great difficulty, however, remains to be explained, which is, that fome of thefe barrows contained nothing but urns full of burnt bones, while others contained entire skeletons, with urns placed upon them, and with burnt human bones, charcoal, and afhes, fcattered throughout the tumulus. To account for this, I must refer to the authorities adduced by the learned and ingeni ous author of the " Hiftory of Manchefter," to prove that the Ancient Britons were in the habit of ung both rites of funeral, that of burning, and that of burying entire. It is probable that, at Hambury Toote, and fuch other barrows as contain v tiges of both practices, the captives, flaves, and animals, destined to ap peale the manes of the deceafed chieftain, or to accompany his de parted fpirit, were killed and burnt on the fpot, and that afterwards i barrow was railed over their afhes, near the fummit of which the bed of the chieftain himself was burie enure. The urn placed on the breat of the corpfe probably contained ointments, or valuable articles belonging to the deccafed, in conformity with Caefar's account of the British funerals. This conjecture is confirmed, in my opinion, by the diminutive fize oi the fall urn covered with a limpet fhell, mentioned above, as it appears too fmall to have antwered any pur pofe we are acquainted with. It is poffible that one of thofe horrid facrifices, which the author juft que ted defcribes, might have made part of the funeral rite performed at fort of these barrows, in which a confider able number of human victims wert