ANCIENT EARTHWORKS The only other tumulus that can be called a long barrow is a low irregularly oval mound situated at Churn bottom, in the parish of Blew- bury, a little to the north of two round barrows. It has never been opened, so that nothing can be said definitely as to its age or purpose ; but from its irregular shape and low elevation it appears to be a rough, hurriedly formed grave of many men of a later date, rather than a long barrow of the neolithic type. ROUND BARROWS The round barrows, besides being much more numerous, are usually more regular and decided in their shape, though some have suffered severely from being ploughed over for many years. They have generally a ditch or trench around them, from which the earth has been taken to make the pile. They vary considerably in height, some measuring twelve feet or more from the bottom of the ditch, while others are scarcely raised above the level of the surrounding surface. This is by no means always due to the effects of the plough, since some of the lowest are to be found upon the virgin down. Several have been opened in recent years ; some of them have yielded many interesting relics both of primary and secondary inter- ments, while the absence of human remains in others tends to show that their purpose was not sepulchral. There are few which do not show evidences of having been dug into at some former time by treasure seekers. ASCOT. There were four barrows near Ascot station, which have been described by Colonel Cooper-King 1 as 64 feet in diameter, about 3 feet high, and with trenches 1 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep around them. They were mentioned by Gough, 3 who gives a detailed descrip- tion of them. The ground on which they stood is now enclosed, and has been laid out as gardens, and the barrows seem to have been removed about twenty years since, one of them, in fact, at an earlier date. 3 ASHBURY. There are three barrows on Idstone Down, on the top of the hill near a square pond. They have been opened by treasure seekers, but not by recent investigators. North of these, at the bottom of the hill, is a small unfinished barrow, with the ditch only completed for about three-quarters of the circumference. There is a small irregular barrow on Swinley Down, north of Alfred's Castle, and another in Swinley copse. These were examined in 1850.* There is also a barrow in Botley Copse at the extreme south of the parish. 1 Cooper-King, History of Berks, 29. * Cough's Camden, i. 237. 3 Hughes, Hist, of Winds. For. 314. Arch. Journ. vii. 391. 277
