NOTES ON THE PRE-HISTORIC ARCHÆOLOGY OF EAST DEVON.[1]
By the Rev. RICHARD KIRWAN, M.A., F.S.A., F.E.S.L., Rector of Gittisham.
In conformity with an inexorable law, the generality of mankind have ever passed away unnoticed and forgotten; yet each succeeding age has produced individuals distinguished above their fellows, whose names have been rescued from oblivion. Hence the origin of sepulchral memorials. From an instinctive desire on the part of the survivors to embalm the memory of those who in life were eminent for their wisdom or their valour, and sometimes also from feelings of affection, an effort was made to secure their remembrance by setting up over their remains some enduring sign or symbol. Thus Jacob set up a monument or pillar over the grave of Rachel, and Absalom built himself a pillar to hand down his name to posterity.
Amongst the ancient Britons, the earliest sepulchral memorials, like those of other ancient nations in a similar state of barbarism, were simply mounds of earth or of unhewn stones; and these, if we except the cromlechs here and there remaining, were the only funeral monuments of this island previous to its becoming a province of the Roman Empire. These tumuli or barrows lie scattered over all parts of the kingdom, though they occur more particularly in the most barren and exposed districts. On the hilly and uncultivated downs of Dorsetshire and Wiltshire they abound, as also in some parts of Scotland and Wales, whilst in other parts they are comparatively unknown. Some have been destroyed at different times as agriculture has progressed, whilst those that still remain are commonly placed on elevated situations that have not yet been invaded by the
- ↑ Reprinted, by the author's kind permission, from the Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art. 1870.
