Bekesbourne Grave 41

Is thirty-four feet in diameter, and fully five feet high. This tumulus consists almost entirely of flints. The grave, which was full five feet deep, was also filled with them, except that these last had a mixture of mould and chalk along with them. These stones must have been brought hither from some distance, as very few, in proportion to the numbers here found, are to be met with in the adjacent soil. The difficulty we met with in getting through them, suggest an expectation (a hope, at least) of discovering something worth our labor, bottom of them; for surely, thought I, the friends of the deceased would hardly have taken so much pains about his interment, if he was not some very extraordinary person. But, from what follows, will be seen how much I was mistaken. At different depths in getting down, we met with bones and one horn of a young ox or heifer; as also, here and there, many fragments of human bones, and a large sherd of a very large coarse ossuary, or bone urn, of blackish earth. At about half way down, we met with two different strata of black earth, wood ashes, and wood coals. The lower one, which was the thicker of the two, was nearly six inches thick. The earth beneath them was somewhat freer from flints than before; but no bones or remains of a coffin were to be perceived from thence to the very bottom of the grave, which was dug out of the rock chalk, like the rest. But on examining other parts of the tumulus, we lighted on another grave, at the northern extremity or verge of this same tumulus. At about the depth of five feet (at the level, that is, of the other grave) we found the bones of a child, pretty perfect, pointing, as usual, with the feet to the east. The coffin appeared to have been thick, and much burnt. Nothing.