Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/308

 [ 296 ]

a circular one of neat form, and stood about one

hundred feet to the eastward of the large campani-

formed barrow, called, from its superior size and

elevated situation, Upton-Barrow; its base was

fifty feet in diameter, and its perpendicular height

six feet. A ditch surrounded it. Its composition

appeared to be for the most part vegetable earth;

it must, therefore, have been raised entirely from

the turf of the neighbouring ground, as the chalky

stratum appears immediately beneath this verdant

covering. The workmen opened it by a cut in its

centre, six feet by north and south, by four feet

wide east and west. After paring off the turf on

the surface, a thin stratum of small flints appeared,

which from the manner in which they were placed

seemed to have been spread originally over the

whole of the barrow. From hence to the surface

of the common ground, the mound consisted of

common vegetable earth, mixed with which were

animal bones, and the teeth of horses, oxen, and

swmc. On reaching the level, a circular cavity

appeared cut in the chalky soil, nearly two feet in

diameter, and six or eight inches deep, containing

about half a peck of burned human bones, some

of which were c;;k:incd to powder, and all the others

blanched periecdy white, except a thigh bone and

snoulder blade, which seemed to be half burned

�� �