appeared to be carried the whole length of the bank. Against this, large flat stones, with their tops reclining against the wall, are placed. The portions of this which were laid bare are, with remains of interments, shown at C, D, E, and F. A large cist, or chamber, was discovered near the centre of the large mound at A. It was formed by four immense stones, inclosing an area six feet long, five feet wide, and about four feet deep. In all probability the capstone had been removed, as none was found. On the cist being cleared, a regular paved floor of limestone, entirely covered with a confused mass of human bones, was discovered.

An elliptical barrow, called Ringham Low, on being opened in the centre disclosed seventeen interments, and probably an equally large number remain in the undisturbed parts.

The barrows of the Romano-British period sometimes, as at Eastlow Hill, contained sepulchral chambers of large size. These were occasionally built above the ground, and then covered with the mound. At other times a simple mound over a grave, or over a sepulchral urn or other deposit, was raised. Frequently, however, the Roman placed his dead, when the burial took place in the open country, in the barrow of the ancient Briton, and thus both periods the primary being the Celtic, and the secondary the Romano-British-are represented in the same mound. Not unfrequently the Roman interment was made in a shallow grave,

sometimes in a cist composed of stones, or tiles, or wood, and over this the barrow was raised; this was usually of compact earth, or of earth and

stones.

The barrows of the Anglo-Saxon period were usually of much less size in diameter, and lower in altitude than those of the Celtic period-so low in fact, that they frequently rise but slightly above the surrounding land. In some districts they are found in extensive groups, often occupying elevated sites; at other times they are solitary, and commonly the elevation above the surrounding surface is so slight as to be scarcely perceptible except to the most practised eye. Fortunately the mounds and cemeteries are particularly rich in remains, and thus enable us to form a clearer idea of the habits, and manners, and lives of our Saxon forefathers than we can of their predecessors. In Kent, Sussex, and the Isle of Wight, Saxon graves abound on the Downs; and in Derbyshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Yorkshire, cemeteries of more or less extent and importance exist, with here and there a solitary barrow, or a group of barrows. Like their Roman predecessors, the Anglo-Saxons, to some extent, took possession of, and buried in, the grave-mounds of the ancient Britons, and it is not a very unusual occurrence to find, overlying the primary deposit, an interment of the Saxon period; indeed, in some

instances, the primary interment is Celtic, the secondary Roman, and a later still is Saxon, all in the same mound.

Fortunately, an early Anglo-Saxon poem, recounting the adventures of the chieftain Beowulf, is preserved to us, and gives us a valuable and highly graphic and interesting description of the ceremonies attendant on his burial; the lighting of the funeral pyre, the burning of the body of the hero, the raising of the mound over his remains, and the articles placed beside him in his last home. Dying, he

bær þær ge ge-poɲhton
æfter pines dæ dũ

in bal-rtede

beoph pone heán

micelne and mærne.-

which is translated :

"he bad that ye should make,

according to the deeds of your friend,

on the place of the funeral pyle,

the lofty barrow

large and famous."

His request was carried out, the funeral pile raised, and every preparation befitting his deeds was made. The pile was—

Then the heroes, weeping,
laid down in the midst
the famous chieftain,

their dear lord.

Then began on the hill,

the warriors, to awake

the mightiest of funeral fires;

the wood-smoke rose aloft

dark from the fire;

noisily it went

mingled with weeping."

The body of the hero having been consumed by the wood-fire, in the midst of weeping friends, the people began to raise the barrow over his ashes. This mound

was high and broad,

by the sailors over the waves
to be seen afar.

And they built up

during ten days

the beacon of the war-renowned.
They surrounded it with a wall

in the most honourable manner

that wise men

could desire.

They put into the mound.

rings and bright gems,

all such ornaments

as before from the hoard

the fierce-minded men

had taken;

they suffered the earth to hold

the treasure of warriors,

gold on the earth,

where it yet remains

as useless to men

as it was of old."

When the burial was simply by inhumation, the body appears usually to have been placed in a shallow grave, over which the mound was raised. The graves were of rectangular form, and of various depths. Sometimes the body was enclosed in a wooden chest or coffin before being placed in the grave; in either of these cases it was then filled in-usually with a tempered or "puddled" earth, which formed a close and extremely compact mass -and the mound raised over it. This mound, or hillock, was called a hlow, or a beorh, beorgh, or bearw, from the first of which the name now commonly used, low, is derived, and from the latter the equally common name barrow originates.