Wood Hill, being turned a few points further towards the north and south than is usual in tumuli of this description, if it were intended to represent the winter solstice; though the circumstances of the shape of the hill must to a certain degree have limited its position and affected its Orientality. Plutarch tells us that the inhabitants of these islands kept every thirtieth year a solemn feast to Saturn, when his star entered Taurus. Maximus Tyrius says that the great British feast of Belonus (Baal, 'the sun') was on the 1st of January, but the Romans changed it to December 25. It is not a little singular that it should correspond with the birth, or rising, of the "Sun of Righteousness." XA large tumulus in the parish of Duntesbourn, Gloucestershire, is called Jack's Barrow, and there is place in the neighbourhood called Jack's Green. It has been customary to suppose that this Jack was some great Danish or Saxon chief. May not Jack be only a corruption of Jacchus, a well-known name for the sun? τούνεκα μὶν καλέουσι Φάνητα τὲ καὶ Δίονυσον*. We find here the same evidences of Baal-worship. A place of British worship in Wilts. is also called Jack's Castle. The last of the Gloucestershire barrowsy which I Diod. Sic., lib. i. y Reference has been chiefly made to the tumuli of Gloucestershire, in consequence of the author having had the facility of personal inspection of the great majority of them; but Derbyshire, Cumberland, Cornwall, Lincolnshire, Wilts., Dorset, and other counties, bear out the same shall bring forward is that of Windmill tump, to which, on account of its peculiar interest, its more than usual perfect state, its singular confirmation of the views thus far adduced, and my own freer opportunity for examination, I shall not apologize for devoting a few pages. theory. In Appendix I. on Places retaining British Names, notices will be found of tumuli, temples, and other Druidical remains in other parts of England. THE TUMULUS OF WINDMILL TUMP AT IN the month of May, 1863, was commenced the opening of a tumulus on the Author's property at Rodmarton, Gloucestershire. Bird's-eye View of Rodmarton Tump. A remarkable tumulus, showing the burial of the two supposed races of Britons, has been opened by the Rev. Fred. Porter, of Yedingham, in presence of several archalogists, and in continuation of the researches of the Rev. W. Greenwell, of Durham, among the ancient burials of ancient Northumbria. The tumulus was situate on Sherburn Wold, near Scarborough, and remained from the recent diggins of Mr. Greenwell among the long barrows of the Wolds. This tumulus, however, was round, and of 60 feet diameter, very greatly ploughed down-in fact so much so that some of the contents were destroyed by the cultivation of the land. The opening was made on the north-west side, and very shortly a skeleton, laid on the right side, with body doubled up, knees and elbows together, and hands crossed over the breast, was found, the head being to the north-west. At the knees a very fine 'drinking cup," finely ornamented with triangularly. arranged lines of thong markings, was placed. The upper part, together with some of the face bones of the skeleton, had gone by the plough or harrow. One flint flake-knife and fragments of a second urn were found near the body.. At a short distance and due west of the centre another unburnt body of a female was found, but of a very different type. One fine knife and other six more or less wrought the walls of which flints were found, but no pottery. The most remarkable pse known by deposit was to the East, where an immense quantity of. broken up human bodies had been deposited in every variety length of the of disorder. mound is 180 ft. by 70 ft. broad, and about 10 ft. high. It lies as nearly as possible due east and west, as most other long-barrows which I have seen a. a Belas Knap and the Ablington barrow lie north and south. |