Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/404

Chap. X. OF MANCHESTER. 369 «  on the margin of the northern fea 3 *. Thefe barrows were foiile* tifnes made of the common foil around them, and were ibme- times formed of three or four large flabs fet upon an edge, clofed with another flab above, inclofing a cavity for the body, and covered with cairns or heaps of little ftones. Of the former fpecies are all the barrows that have been opened upon Salilbury Plain 39 . -But the latter appears to have been far the. com- moner among us, and is found very frequently in Britain in Scotland and in Ireland. This model of a barrow appears to have been very antiently ufcd among the provincials n °. And this model of a barrow continued very late among the Britons. It furvived the introdu£tion of chriftianity. It continued beyond the departure of the Romans. Many Roman coins have been difcovered in one of thefe ftone-barrows among the Cornifh 4 And the Bedn Guortigern or grave of Vortigern in the moun- tains of Carnarvonfhire was a large colle&ion of fmall ftones covering a Kift-vaen, a ftony inclofure or cheft, and prote&ing the body of the king repofited in it 4 In thefe barrows it was the pra&ice of the Gauls and of the Britons to bury many par- ticulars with the bodies which the deceafed regarded in his life * Hence in the grave of a young Britifh womanr upon the plains of Sarum were found fome years ago beads of amber, globules of glafs, and the head of a (pear, the ornaments of the girl and the weapon of the heroine 4 Hence the warriors in Offian fb frequently order their bow, their (word, the horn of their hunting, and a bofs of their fhield, to be laid with them at their death in the dark and narrow houfe of the grave 4 And hence the broken remains of fwords, fome half melted by the funeral-fire, have fo frequently been found within the barrows of the Britifli warriors in Cornwall * 6 . This practice, a practice refulting from a juft but wildly devious belief in the immortality of the foul, was carried to fo great a length, that favourite animals were {lain in honour of the deceafed and their remains were buried in the fame grave with them. The cuftom was ob- ferved univerfally in Gaul to the days of Caeiar 4 And the cuf- tom was obferved occafionally in Britain, fome few of our bar- B b b row*