Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/281

Rh was uncovered, and many fragments of pottery were picked up. This floor lay at a depth of about a foot below the surface. One or two trenches cut nearer the river brought us only to the original chalk soil, so that it seems probable that the principal buildings did not lay on the water side. The walls observable in the bank overlooking the river have probably been passages descending to the water, as the floors on which they are raised are about ten feet below the level ground. A bath is said to have been discovered in this field about forty years ago, and to have been filled up without undergoing any further injury.

The valley of Maidstone is bounded on the north-west and north-east by two ranges of chalk hills, separated from each other by the gorge through which the Medway flows to Rochester. On these hills, and in the valley which lies between that portion of them commonly called the White Horse Hill and the Blue Bell Hill, there are most extensive British remains. Mr. Wright reported an examination which he had made of these remains, from the extreme western boundary of the parish of Addington on the west, to that of Aylesford on the east. "Some of these monuments," he observed, "have been long known to antiquaries,—others, in positions more removed from the high road and the general line of traffic, seem to have escaped their researches. My attention was first called to them by the Rev. Lambert B. Larking, who has resided in their immediate neighbourhood from childhood, and has therefore had frequent opportunities of observing them. The great extent of these remains had for many years occupied his attention, when he at last applied to me for my assistance in a closer and more regular investigation of them; I therefore devoted a few days in the early part of last August to that purpose, and we traversed the ground together. In the park of the Hon. J. Wingfield Stratford, in the parish of Addington, which adjoins that of Ryarsh on the west, and is situated about a mile from the foot of the Vigo chalk hill, are two circles of large stones (long known to antiquaries), and near them is an isolated mass of large stones, which appear to be the covering of a subterranean structure. Within the smaller circle are traces of large capstones, which probably form the coverings of cromlechs or sepulchral chambers. I would observe that the ground within this smaller circle appears raised, as though it were the remains of a mound which perhaps was never completed. In the southern part of the parish are several immense cones of earth, veritable pyramids, which have every appearance of being artificial. The church of Addington is built on one of them.

"A little to the north of the two circles, in a field at the foot of the hill adjacent to a farm named Coldrum Lodge, is another smaller circle of stones, and similar appearances of a subterranean cromlech in the middle. At the top of the Ryarsh chalk hill, just above Coldrum, we observed two large stones, resembling those which form the circle below, lying flat on the ground, and near them is the mouth of a circular well about twenty feet deep, with a doorway at the bottom leading into a chamber cut in the chalk. These pits arc found in some other parts of Kent. In the wood behind this pit, which runs along the top of the hill, and is known by the name of Poundgate or White Horse Wood, there are said to be other masses of these large stones.

"Proceeding from the circle at Coldrum, towards the east, we observed single stones, of the same kind and colossal magnitude, scattered over the fields for some distance, and it is the tradition of the peasantry that a continuous line of stones ran from Coldrum direct to the well-known monument called Kit's Cotty House, on the opposite hills at a distance of between five and six miles. Mr. Larking and myself have indeed traced these stones in the line through a great portion of the