IX.—On Ancient British Barrows, especially those of Wiltshire and the adjoining Counties. (Part I. Long Barrows)

The results of explorations in the sepulchral tumuli of the pre-Roman or ancient British period of this country have never been exhibited in a distinct manner, or in a form useful for the purpose of comparison. Numerous investigations of these barrows, in nearly every part of England, some on a larger and some on a smaller scale, have at different times been made; but, if we except Sir John Lubbock's analysis of the results obtained by Mr. Bateman in Derbyshire and the adjoining counties, and of part of those obtained by Sir R. C. Hoare in Wiltshire, no one has been at the pains of analysing the results arrived at, or of pointing out the inferences to which they lead. As is well known, “Wiltshire is the county where the monumental remains of the ancient occupants of Britain are at once the most numerous and characteristic;” in no other district of the island are the barrows so numerous, and no examinations of them perhaps so important as those conducted by Sir R. C. Hoare and his coadjutor Mr. Cunnington; whether we consider the number excavated, the results obtained, or the character of the district, the seat of great Druidical fanes and places of resort, the ruins of which are found at Avebury and Stonehenge. In the magnificent but ponderous and costly folios of his “Ancient Wiltshire,” Sir Richard Hoare printed the details of his researches; but in this work they are exhibited in a far from convenient or accessible form, and they have never been subjected to a full and complete numerical analysis.