VIII.
ANCIENT BRITISH BARROW AT TEDDINGTON.
This Barrow was opened under the direction and superintendence of Mr. Akerman, Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, during a meeting of the Surrey Archæological Society, held at Kingston-on-Thames, on the 30th June, 1854. It is situated on some ploughed land, long known as "Barrow Field," on the right hand of the carriage-road called "Sandy-lane," leading from Hampton Wick to Bushey. A portion of this tumulus was removed when the road was widened about twenty years since; but there is no record of any relics having been then discovered.
There were, as usual, many traditions—some of them wild enough—respecting the spot. The country people had a story that a man and his horse were buried beneath the mound; and many of the better educated believed that it covered the remains of numerous victims of the plague in the seventeenth century. This last notion had so possessed the mind of a late royal personage then residing at Bushey, that a contemplated opening of the Barrow some years since was positively interdicted!
This mound had clearly been previously assailed; doubtless by treasure-seekers, who, finding their researches opposed by a compact mass of sand, had desisted after cutting into the south side, and digging into the apex; in which latter assault they appear
