NEAR ULEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 327 on a smaller scale, are doubtless to be referred to the same category ; and there are other less characteristic examples in that country, of ^'hich notices have been given by anti- quarian and topographical writers. Very recently, Mr. A. Henry Khind has examined several tumuli in Caithness, in which the same principle of construction is to be traced, and which satisfactorily prove the existence of this form of sepulchral monument in the most remote part of North Britain.^ Did the limits of the present notice permit, we might bring together the details of these several examples, with the hope of presenting a connected history of the chambered tumuli of the British Islands. We may, however, observe that we search in vain amongst the sources open to us, for any notices of such tumuli out of this country. As regards the north of Europe, at least, we find no mention of any such in the pages of Worsaae ; and the statement of the Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen is decisive as to the fact that " nothing has as yet been observed approaching to the form of an arch in the sepulchres of the North," such as is to be traced in the tumuli under consideration, and in which these writers recognise " the earliest transition to the arch." ^ Perhaps the sepulchral monuments of Minorca, called Talayots, have more analogy with our chambered tumuli than any other monuments to which we can refer. As to these, however, and the ap23arently analogous Kurhags of Sardinia, we require perhaps more precise details to enable us to institute an accurate comparison, in connection with any inquiry as to the ethnological affinities of these struc- tures. It is to be regretted that we know so little of the ancient sepulchral remains, barrows, cairns, and megalithic chambers of the south of France, the Spanish peninsula, and the shores of the Mediterranean generally ; as it seems, on the whole, most probable that this is the direction in which w^e ought to search for the traces of chambered tumuli similar to those of Uley, Stoney Littleton, and New Grange. JOHN THURNAM, M.D.
- Ulster Journal of Arcliseology, vol. ii., ^ Guide to Northern ArcliJBology
P- 100. edited by the Earl of Ellesmere, p. 78.
