Chap. VIT. TIARALD HILDETAND'S TOMB. 283

inaclo. Unfortunately some "wedges of flint" have been found in the earth which was extracted from the cliambor, from which AVorsaae and liis brother antiquaries at once conchided that " it is beyond all doubt merely a common cromlech of the stone period " ^ — a conclusion that seems to me the reverse of logical. No one, I presume, doubts that King Hildetand was buried in a tumulus with rings and arms ; and if this tumulus was regarded historically as his, for the last 600 years, and tradi- tionally so from the time of his death, it is incumbent upon the antiquaries to show how worthless these traditions and histories are, and to point out where he really rests. To form an empirical system and to assert — a hich they cannot prove — that no flint imple- ments were used after a certain prehistoric date, and that conse- quently all mounds in which flint implements are found are pre- historic, seems most unreasonable, to say the least of it. It would be surely far more philosophical to admit that flint may have been used down to any time till we can find some reason for fixing a date for its discontinuance. In this instance an " instantia crucis " would be to dig into some of the circles at Braavalla, and see if any flints are to be found there. No metal was found at Moytura, though metal was, if history is to be depended upon, then com- monly used, and flint implements were probably not found because those who opened the tombs were not aware of its importance. Pending this test, the form of the grave may give us some indica- tion of its age. It is an oblong barrow, with an external dolmen at one end, and with a row of ten stones on each side, the two end ones being taller than the rest. A similar mound, known as the Kennet long barrow, exists at Avebury,^ so similar indeed that if this tomb at Lethra is historical so certainly is the English example. If, on the other hand, either can be proved to belong ' ' Primseval Antiquities of Denmark,' p. 113. ^ At one time I was, on the authority of a Saxon charter, inclined to believe that this tumulus wus the grave of Cissa, Saxon kmg of Winchester, who was contemporary with Ai'thur. I am now informed by tlie Ecv. Mi'. Jones, who from the ' Codex Winton.' fol. 54, refers to Overton in Hants, and not to Overton in Wilts, because Tadanliage (Tadley) is mentioned as part of it. As I cannot chspute the competency of so eminent an authority on such a question, its identi- fication with the tomb of King Cissa must for the present be withdrawn, but it by has carefully gone into the matter, that no means follows in consequence that it the Charter No. lOUl, which is taken may not be of his age.