Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/382

 286 BERKSHIRE ANTIQUITIES. bird, apparently a goose'', &c. ; lliere was also found a bone pin. Sept. 22. The last attempt was made upon the easternmost of the three tumuli, now ploughed over, and standing in a row on the brow of the hill overlooking Churn farm. It was 86 feet across, but little elevated, and of a regular bell shape. At a depth of 18 inches it produced simply a deposit of burnt bones, Avhich from their delicacy seemed to be those of a female or very young person, carefully placed in the soil ; and though no place of cremation could be discovered, the con- struction of the barrow was precisely similar to that of the larger one. It must have belonged to the same tribe. So far our enquiries would lead to the inference that the tu- muli scattered over these Downs are British. But this is by no means the case with all of them. For, as the line of country on the hills close by, along the edge of which the old Tiidgeway runs, has ])robably in all ages been open and free from wood, so it has ever been debatable ground. Briton, Roman, Dane, and Saxon, have possessed or disputed it in turn. At a period when most of England was a forest, the invader could only find access to the interior along the open hills, or by British trackways ; and in coming from the eastern coast, the Danes, there is every reason to suppose, made use of the old Ikenild way, which conducted them at once to the great ford of the Thames ; which when once passed, and they had gained Cuckamsley, the way up to Abury and Stonehenge was open before them, and the whole country seemed at their command. Meanwhile, the thick w^oods in the direction of Newbury, of- fered a secure retreat to the Briton, from wdiich he could sally forth and attack his enemy upon his inarch ; and here one at least of his secret fastnesses may still be seen ; and other inva- ders having used the same ])olicy, we find consequently in this locality, memorials not of one nation but of all. Scarcely two miles froniChurn,to the south-east,may be observed onLowbury (hlaew-bury) hill, the highest point of the whole district, the ' It is scarcely necessary to quote the and accurate. Iti one of the cross barrows well-known passage of Ciesar, on one part near Uslty, opened in IS^S, was found the of the customsof the ancient Britons, Lepo- skeleton of a tall and strong man, who ap- rein, et g. llinani, et anscrem, gustace fas pearcd to have died from the effects of a non ))ut'ant ; Iulh- tamen rihuit aninii volii])- wound inflicted hy a weapon, the iron liead of tatlMjUc causa." (Ue Bello Gall. v. 12.) which still adhered to one of the vertebrae. 15ut I here refer to it for the purpose of At his feet were the bones of a hare and a making the observation, that in this and duck, doubtless his pets: the bill of the every other particular, in which I have latter I have seen, been able to follow him, l.e is most exact