Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/242

224 primeval disturbance of the original ground; a dry or barren portion of land has often pointed to a shallow depth of soil, resting over a concealed grave or catacomb. These few remarks are added to those already made in the first part of these observations, intended for the use of the student.

It may be safely imagined that during the period when the Danes and Northmen issued from their haunts, spreading dis- may and terror over the lands on either side of the British Channel, and when they extended their rapine around the shores of ancient Gaul, that the "moraye" or "place of the dead" became, as in more modern times, an object of their diligent search for those treasures which might have been therein deposited. These, like the tombs of the east, fell a prey to their rapacity; destruction of their more friable contents followed, all that was valuable was removed, and this may account for the few substances which have been discovered entire, and shews why so many fragments are now found strewed exteriorly, immediately beneath the surface. These devastations may have been begun by the Romans, or by those nations which replaced the original inhabitants of Western Europe. Roman coins are not unfrequently found mixed with the ancient Gaulish, in the vicinity of these localities; but the original deposit contains no trace of metal, as far as my observations have extended. The absence of these memorials of the dead in the neighbourhood of large towns, may be attributed to the increase of population and civilization, their gradual removal keeping pace with improvements, or the agricultural clearing of the ground. Even in the Channel islands many have disappeared. The Rev. Mr. Falle, who wrote in the year 1734, mentions that many were observable in his day. Another writer, quoting a MS. which belonged to James II., now in the Harleian Collection, entitled "Cæsarea," states "there are in Jersey about half a hundred of them." Mr. Poingdestre, formerly Lieutenant Bailiff of Jersey, says that he "found about fifty collections of stones in that island," and he "reckoned only those which were visible above ground." It is a painful statement now to make, that not more than five or six monuments of this ancient period can be enumerated, including that curious and extraordinary arrangement of stones and cromlechs, which in a moment of enthusiasm and loyalty, was voted and presented to General