ON BRITISH KISTVAENS. Ill

foundations also were found, of which all trace had dis- appeared from the surface, and which modern graves had cut through, but which had been originally laid in ignorance of the kistvaens. The whole churchyard had evidently been a populous burial-ground in the days of kistvaen interment* : ibr small as the aggregate space was which we had altogether opened, twenty kistvaens at least were disclosed. AVe found also in the solith-east corner that a narrow pathway, paved with round pebbles about the size of large apples, had crossed the churchyard about six feet below the present sm-face, leading from what was the ancient highway, towards the place where the chancel-arch now stands. In other places, less distinct lines, which the labourers called gravelled walks, presented themselves at the like depth, passing under the present nave. Every thing combined to prove that a cemetery, an-anged with care and kept with neatness, had occupied the present churchyard so long before the Norman Conquest, that the existence of its kistvaens and its paved paths was unknown to the Norman builders. IMost of the kistvaens which we discovered were of course necessarily removed or mutilated in om" endeavom^s to save the sacred edifice, though wherever it was possiljle we re- placed the bones of the removed part in the part which was allowed to remain. Two however were nearly saved, one by throwing a slight arch over it, and the other by turning the course of the draui. This last, though by no means the best, or that which I should have selected for preservation, has been marked and guarded by a low sunk wall, and covered -w-ith heavy slabs, so as to be hereafter accessible without great labom% and I hope that no future churchwarden will sweep it away for the sake of the slabs. It is a hollow, 5 feet 1 1 inches long, and about 1 inches deep, rudely excavated in the coarse and friable yellow lime- stone gaidt, or kale, (as it is here called,) which lies inmie- diately over the limestone rock. The excavation is somewhat in the shape of a human body, rounded at the head, swelling at the shoulders to 13 inches, and at the elbows to 17, and contractino- asrain to a few inches at the toes. Its sides are not upright, but incline to one another as they descend, the •"* It liad probably been the cemetery of at present Ikivc n > covering slabs rcniain- a large district ; at Mont IMajnnr near Aries ing. were graves excavated in the rock, which