NA TURE
460
ANCIENT BRITISH LONG BARROWS I
are many hopeful signs that the number of persons to whom all knowledge of nature is dear but it is, unfor its own sake is steadily on the increase
I'^HERE
fortunately, true that science still requires some adventitious aid to secure the attention of the general public. must, therefore, look upon it as a matter of congratulation that even the Irish Question has been found to have a scientific aspect, and has recently awakened some general interest in so obscure a subject as that of the
We
ethnology of England and Ireland. It is not our present intention to enter upon the longstanding controversy as to the physical characters of the so-called Kelts, as we think that the materials for a satisfactory solution of the various questions involved are still very insufficient, notwithstanding the large amount of really
I'ig-
Fig.
- .— Vessel with Primary Interment.
characters and affinities of the earlier races whose works and remains have come down to us. It may seem surprising that we should be long in doubt on matters
apparently so easily settled as the average stature, prevailing head-fonn, and distribution of colour of hair and eyes, in various districts of our own and neighbouring countries but it must be remembered that the number of persons interested in this branch of inquiry is extremely small, and that the collection of anthropological statistics by inaccurate or improperly instructed observers is very much to be deprecated. If the scientific study of existing populations is surrounded with difficulties and can reckon but few votaries, still more is this the case with the investigation of the character and affinities of the races inhabiting Western Europe at the dawn of history ind in pre-historic times. have had innumerable
We
3,
1870
of grave-mounds and endless discussion of the scraps of information handed down by Greek and Roman authors but of thorough and extended investigation of pre-historic monuments of any one class or of any given district, with a view to elucidating the ethnography and early history of the country rather than with the object of collecting specimens for the museum, we have all too little to show. The late Mr. Bateman devoted considerable attention to the pre-historic archeology of Derbyshire and the adjoining counties, but his extensive investigations do not appear to have been conducted with the care or described with the accuracy necessary for scientific purThe important researches for remains of our early poses. riflers
ancestors,madeby Sir Richard Hoare and Mr. Cunnington in the richest district in all England, were undertaken so long ago as the beginning of the century and although
I.—A LoxG B.KRow
trustworthy evidence collected of late years by Broca, Prur.cr Bey, and others in France, and by Barnard Davis, Thuinam, Bcddoe, and Wilson in our own country. Few persons have any idea of the time, skill, and patience nect ssary for any satisfactory investigation cither of the ethr.ic composition of existing populations, or of the
_March
(after Sir
RJ. Huare)
the explorations are recorded in full detail in Sir Richard's great work,"Ancient Wiltshire," thegencral results have not hitherto been fully and satisfactorily worked out. This want has, however, at length been supplied in a memoir* recently communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by Dr. John Thurnam, a gentleman who possesses the rarely com-
Norton Bavant, Long Barrow
(scale | linear)
bined qualifications of classical scholarship, antiquarian knowledge, and familiarity with scientific method, and is well known as one of the authors of the " Crania Britannica," undoubtedly the most valuable contribution to the ethnology of this country which has yet been published. The memoir in question is not a mere analysis of the labours of the Wiltshire baronet and his coadjutor; it is to a large extent a record of original explorations, more especially of a class of monuments somewhat neglected by Sir Richard Hoare, but to which the greatest interest attaches now that the advances in certain departments of anatomical knowledge enable us to turn to due account the evidence afforded by human remains.
who
On
ancient British Barrows, especially those of Wiltshire and the adPart I. Long Barrows. From the " Archajologia," vol. .Ui.
joining counties.
