Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/247

 ANCIENT CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 211 ground of Hoydon and Chisliall Downs on Lord Braybrooke's property, and may bo traced for a considerable distance, running lower than Ilcydon Grange, across the liarkway and Cambridge lload, till it loses itself on Melbourne Common. The frequent interruptions in their course, to which, for agricultural convenience, these great earthworks have been subjected, increases the difficulty of ascertaining them exactly, and indeed there is little doubt that in many places they have thereby been wholly obhterated. Without entering at large into a discussion on the " vexata qua)stio," as to their probable origin and purposes, whether they are to be viewed as the works of early Britons, Romans, or Anglo-Saxons, and were intended for defences, or as limits to kingdoms and territory, I shall take the opportunity of noticing some ancient remains discovered under my superintendence upon and around them, which may possibly throw some light on the subject, and proceed to the next branch of my survey, the Tumuli, with which the surface of the open country between Newmarket and Royston is studded in the vicinity of these dykes. I have examined thirty of these barrows, all in the neighbourhood, some close to, and others actually upon the earthwork. ]Iutlow Hill, the last opened, of which an account was given in this Journal in 1852,^ affords a ftiir criterion of the general contents of all. The same rude sun- burnt vases occur, except in one near Triplow, where a good Roman urn was found ; the same interments also by crema- tion, one case again only excepted near Chrishall Grange, with innumerable third brass coins of the lowest empire, or their rude imitations. Bowshaped bronze Roman fibulae were taken from several tombs, and in many there occurred small nests of the chipped flints commonly mis-called arrow-heads, but of which the Abbe Cochet has given a very simple and satisfactory explanation in his " Normandie Souterraine," where he details their discovery in graves along with the iron briquets for striking a hght. This accounts fully for their being found amongst the necessaries provided for the dead, as well as for their universal occurrence with funeral remains, whether of early or late antiquity, in my experience. •* Aivli. Joiini., vol. ix. p. -26.