Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/133

Rh foundations also were found, of which all trace had dis- appeared from the surface, and which modern graves had cut through, but which had been originally laid in ignorance of the kistvaens. The whole churchyard had evidently been a populous burial-ground in the days of kistvaen interment : for small as the aggregate space was which we had altogether opened, twenty kistvaens at least were disclosed. We found also in the south-east corner that a narrow pathway, paved with round pebbles about the size of large apples, had crossed the churchyard about six feet below the present surface, leading from what was the ancient highway, towards the place where the chancel-arch now stands. In other places, less distinct lines, which the labourers called gravelled walks, presented themselves at the like depth, passing under the present nave. Every thing combined to prove that a cemetery, arranged with care and kept with neatness, had occupied the present churchyard so long before the Norman Conquest, that the existence of its kistvaens and its paved paths was unknown to the Norman builders.

Most of the kistvaens which we discovered were of course necessarily removed or mutilated in our endeavours to save the sacred edifice, though wherever it was possible we re- placed the bones of the removed part in the part which was allowed to remain. Two however were nearly saved, one by throwing a slight arch over it, and the other by turning the course of the drain. This last, though by no means the best, or that which I should have selected for preservation, has been marked and guarded by a low sunk wall, and covered with heavy slabs, so as to be hereafter accessible without great labour and I hope that no future churchwarden will sweep it away for the sake of the slabs.

It is a hollow, 5 feet 11 inches long, and about 10 inches deep, rudely excavated in the coarse and friable yellow lime- stone gault, or kale, (as it is here called,) which lies immediately over the limestone rock. The excavation is somewhat in the shape of a human body, rounded at the head, swelling at the shoulders to 13 inches, and at the elbows to 17, and contracting again to a few inches at the toes. Its sides are not upright, but incline to one another as they descend, the