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cultivated since the time of the Roman occupation of this island, and the spot having always been, as it is at present, remote from crowded human habitations, there is but little probability of their having become mixed up with the relics of a later date."

What then was the date of these interments? And who were the people here interred? It would seem that they were heathens; at all events in all his excavations the General appears to have found no distinctively Christian symbol whatever, not even a cross, though he mentions knives, axes, arrowheads, bowls, coins, pottery, and even pins and bracelets in abundance, most of which are figured in his illustrations. It is clear from the coins found amongst them that the graves are of the date of the Roman occupation of Britain; and the small size of the bones of the males and of the females alike negatives the idea of their having been Saxons. Such being the case, the General suggests that in all likelihood the skeletons are those of some early weak tribe, which was forced to retreat westward under pressure from the Celts, or else that they belong to a race of Britons deteriorated in their physique by slavery, and by all their largest men being drafted into the legions of Imperial Rome; and he evidently leans to the latter of these two hypotheses.

Whoever and whatever they may have been, a careful observation of their graves and former habitations has brought to light one or two curious facts. It so happens that their abodes exhibit one singular feature, namely, that whatever defensive boundaries can be traced in their cincture are stronger on the eastern and northern sides than on the west and south; and from this the General infers, most reasonably as it would seem, that they occupied a border district, having their chief foes on the east and north rather than on their other sides.

Here too etymology comes in to his help, for it appears that many of the place-names round about end in "mere,' which denotes a border-ground. Rushmore itself in old maps and plans is spelt Rushmere, and Larmer is clearly Lavermere, and the chief neighbouring town is Mere; Bridmore, or Bridmer, or Bridmere, he can scarcely be wrong in supposing to be in its root Brit-mere, or the boundary of the Britons. And this harmonizes with another fact observed by himself and by other ethnologists and anthropologists, namely that the district even to the present day is "the frontier of a changed ethnological area," and that on travelling further westward we meet the first traces of a different race, and see a people remarkable, in comparison with those of Salisbury Plain and its vicinity, for their shortness of stature, their dark hair and dark complexions. It must be owned that the combined force of these three points of observation goes a long way towards confirming the truth of the theory which he so modestly advances.

The accounts given by General Pitt-Rivers of his excavations, both in Rushmore Park and on the adjacent downs, are given with a minuteness of detail which will astonish even the most scientifically-minded readers. The slightest undulations seen on the surface-soil by his keen and practised eye were at once selected as the spots which were to be subjected to experiment, and in scarcely any instance was his judgment found to be at fault. The mounds and depressions were found to be not accidental, but designed structurally, and the discovery of tools, coins, and articles of personal ornament in various spots, all in close relation to each other, proved that these little men and women lived a social existence, in some sort of village communities, whilst the pits of oyster-shells outside their little camps as clearly

pointed to the presence of Roman epicures. Nay, further, it will almost raise a smile on the lips of our readers to learn, from this slight outline of the contents of these volumes, that even in such primitive communities there would seem to have been, generally, a fashionable and an unfashionable district, marked off from each other by the nature of the "finds" brought to the light of day: the coarser tools being generally discovered at one end, and the personal ornaments and articles de luxe at the other. And this being so, it is a further matter of interest to know that the tools were mostly found in the eastern and the ornaments in the western portion, each village apparently having the same arrangement as is still so noticeable in London, in Brighton, and in other modern cities, where the fashionable quarter is almost always found to be the nearest to the setting sun. Our lady readers may feel an additional interest, when we quote the following from General Pitt-Rivers' collection of ornamental articles: fibulæ, or brooches, of bronze and mosaic, hair-pins, tweezers, ear-picks, finger and other rings of bronze, silver, and glass, studs—some with enamel still on their faces-cups, saucers, mugs, vases, plates, and other pottery for table use, too numerous to mention.

All the tumuli and villages, after having been excavated and subjected to a close examination of their contents, have been restored to their former condition and turfed over, a small medal, or as the General styles it, a "medalet," being left in each excavation, in order to place the work thus far achieved on permanent record against future ages. As for the contents of the mounds, very many of them have been placed in a museum which the General has built, a mile or two from his own house, near the village of Farnham, just across the Dorsetshire

border, where they have been classified and duly labelled, while accurate models of the villages themselves have been drawn and constructed to scale, so as to form an educational comment on the work of excavation. The museum includes also other objects of husbandry and of peasant handicraft; and that it attracts and interests the rustics of the neighbourhood may be inferred from the fact that on Sunday afternoons and other holidays it is often visited by over 200 villagers. The museum stands about a mile and a half from a certain old wych elm, which has served as a boundary for some five or six centuries at the least, and which was traditionally a "meet" for the royal hunters as far back as the reign of King John. Here, it is pleasant to learn that the Squire of Rushmore has established a pleasure ground and built a temple in the woods, with a private band of music, and that the village population, with their wives and families, often flock to it, many hundreds at a time, to listen to good music between the hours of divine service on Sundays. The educational value of such institutions, especially in rural districts, can hardly be estimated too highly.

The second volume, which is more recent in date than the first, gives an account of a second series of similar investigations, carried out with the same minute care and on the same plan at Rotherley, Windlebury, and at Woodcuts, all in the immediate neighbourhood of Rushmore, the chief addition being careful measurements of all the bones of domesticated animals that were found, and comparisons of them with those of animals recently killed. General Pitt-Rivers, however, in his preface to this volume, observes most justly that it will not be one of the least useful results of his labours if they should be the means of inducing other country squires to direct

their attention to a new field of activity, for which "the owners of land are beyond all others favourably situated.” He adds, "It is hardly necessary to insist on the large amount of evidence of early times that lies buried in the soil on nearly every large property which is constantly being destroyed through the operations of agriculture, and which scientific anthropologists have seldom the opportunity or the means of examining." It is not our fault if this admirable word of caution is not widely circulated by being quoted in these pages.

E. WALFORD,

K

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