Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/381

BERKSJIIRE ANTIQUITIES. 285 Compton ; and qiiiirtcred about that place and towards Wan- tage, continuing about the hitter town till the 24th. And at a later period in the same year, after the second battle of New- bury, Mhich was fought on Sunday, October 27, Rushworth (vol. vi.) informs us that the Parliamentarians remained where they were, i. e., by Newbury, till Saturday, November 2, when they marched towards Oxford in pursuit of the king ; and that night their head quarters were at Compton. The next day (Sunday) they advanced towards BlcAvbury, and their head quarters were at Harwell ; at which place a council of war having been held, in consequence of the determination then adopted, upon the 5th their horse were drawn up on Chilton plain, and the whole army ordered to return the next day to Newbury, w^iich was accordingly done ; some of the ro^'al forces advancinsr the same nioht from AA'allinoford into o o O o the quarters from which they had lemoved. We have here the evidence of two (hft'erent writers, that in the course of the year 1644, both the Royalist and Parliamentarian armies passed over, if they did not occupy, the very ground in which the l)ones were found, being the valley leading from Compton to Blew- bury ; and if the description of Charles's Reading garrison, that they were " old soldiers," does not agree with the evident youth of the individual, yet it is to be recollected they had then been joined by the main army, and it might be one of these Avho was so unceremoniously disposed of. But as the Parliamen- tarians were a mixed body, and had been fighting only a few days before at Newbury, it is more probable that it was one of their number who had died of his wounds or perished from fatigue. The adjoining large barrow on the down was opened in part some years since by Messrs. Lousley and King, who found at the time remains of animals, an arrow-head, and some trifles, and abnndoned further pursuit of the work; but the soil coat- ing down owing to ]-ain, after their departure, disclosed many snull vessels of British pottery, which seemed to have been set in a circle. It does not appear that they penetrated to the main deposit, 'i'hree low barrows near Lower Chants and to- wards Compton, now ploughed over, Avere examined two years since, and ])roduced. British remains, viz., an urn of unbaked clay tilled with the debris of animals, as teeth of horses and swine, fragments of deers' antlers and bones, a bone of a large VOL. V. p p