IX .-- On Ancient British Barrows , especially those of Wiltshire and the adjoining Counties . ( Part I. Long Barrows ) . By John THURNAM , Esq . M.D. , F.S.A. , Local Secretary for Wiltshire . Read December 12th , 1867 ; February 20th and 27th , 1868 . The results of explorations in the sepulchral tumuli of the pre - Roman or ancient British period of this country have never been exhibited in a distinct manner , or in a form useful for the purpose of comparison . Numerous investigations of these barrows , in nearly every part of England , some on a larger and some on a smaller scale , have at different times been made ; but , if we except Sir John Lubbock's analysis of the results obtained by Mr. Bateman in Derbyshire and the adjoining counties , and of part of those obtained by Sir R. C. Hoare in Wiltshire , no one has been at the pains of analysing the results arrived at , or of pointing out the inferences to which they lead . As is well known , “ Wiltshire is the county where the monumental remains of the ancient occupants of Britain are at once the most numerous and characteristic ; ' in no other district of the island are the barrows so numerous , and no examinations of them perhaps so important as those conducted by Sir R. C. Hoare and his coadjutor Mr. Cunnington ; whether we consider the number excavated , the results obtained , or the character of the district , the seat of great Druidical fanes and places of resort , the ruins of which are found at Avebury and Stonehenge . In the magnificent but ponderous and costly folios of his “ Ancient Wiltshire , ” Sir Richard Hoare printed the details of his researches ; but in this work they are exhibited in a far from convenient or accessible form , and they have never been subjected to a full and complete numerical analysis . Having during many years occasionally sought relaxation in what a former Secretary of this Society has designated , not inaptly , “ a description of barrow digging at once tedious , irksome , and laborious , " . I had long been desirous to a Sir John Lubbock , Prehistoric Times , 1865 , chap . iv . Tumuli , pp . 83-118 . Trans . Ethnol . Soc . N.S. 1865 , iii . 307 ; 1867 , v . 114 . • Dr. R. G. Latham , in Dict . of G. and R. Geography , article “ Belgæ , " i . 387 . c J. Y. Akerman , “ On the Opening of Four Ancient British Barrows in South Wilts . " Archæologia , XXXV . 480 . VOL . XLII . Y *