Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/378

 316 DESCRIPTION OF A CHAMBERED TUMULUS down about the ciul of the year 1820. About that time, some workmen digging for stone discovered the character of the tnmuhis, bv laying open a chamber on the north side, which is stated to have contained two skeletons. This chamber a[)pears to have been completel}'^ broken up on this occasion. ^Irs. Purnell, who preceded Colonel Kingscote as the owner of the tumulus, gave directions for its being properl}"- examined, which was done on the 22nd and 23rd of Februar}', 1821. Notes of the examination, the existence of which had been almost forgotten, and which appear to have been made by the late T. J. L. Baker, Esq., F.S.A., have been kindly placed at the disposal of the writer, by the son of that gentleman. It is from these notes and a further memorandum by the late Dr. Fry of Dursley, now preserved in the museum of Guy's Hospital, that this account has been drawn up. Its accuracy has been, as far as possible, corroborated, and the details made more complete, by a further examination, in July of the present year, under the direction of jMr. E. A. Freeman and the writer ; on which occasion several members of the Institute and a numerous party of their friends were present.^ The tumulus is about 1 20 feet in length, 85 feet m greatest bivndth. and about l<i feet in height. Like many other long barnnvs, it is both higher and broader at the east end than elsewhere. The form of its ground-plan bears much resem- blance to the so-called vesica piscis of mediicval architects. At the east end, and al)out twentv-five feet within the area of the cairn, the entrance to a chamber was found, in front of which the stones on each side are built into a neat wall of dry niMSOiiry. faced only on one side, the s])ace between being filled u}) with loose stones. The entrance is a trililhon, formed l)y a lai-ge flat stone, upwards of eight feet in length, and four and a half feet in depth, and supported by two uprigiit stones which face each other, so as to leave a space of about two and a half feet between the lower edge of tlic large stone and the )i;itui"il gi-ound. On passing this entrance, a chamber or gallery appears, runm'ng from cast to west, al)(juL twenty-two feet in length, loni- and a half feet ■' 1(1 diinpliuiicc wiili a wihli cxiircsKcd clil (i|i, mil piTiiiils its cximiiiatioii ii( (III tliJH oirciiHioii, a iliior Iiuh Ix'cii |ilur<'i| niiy tiiiic <y iIiumc iiiliTcHiciI in kiicIi re- nt the (MitniiicM! of tlic rhntiiliiT, which iiiaiim. prcclinliH tlic iicct-Hhity for itH ln.iii}^