Among the megalithic monuments of our islands the chambered barrows hold
an important place. It is well known that in the neolithic period the
dead in certain parts of England were buried under mounds of not
circular but elongated shape. These graves are commonest in Wiltshire
and the surrounding counties of Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, and
Gloucestershire. A few exist in other counties. Some contain no chamber,
while others contain a structure of the megalithic type. It is with
these latter that we have here to deal. Chambered long barrows are most
frequent in Wiltshire, though they do occur in other counties, as, for
example, Buckinghamshire, where the famous Cave of Wayland the Smith is
certainly the remains of a barrow of this kind. In Derbyshire and
Staffordshire a type of chambered mound does occur, but it seems
uncertain from the description given whether it is round or elongated.

[Illustration: FIG. 3. (_a_)--Barrow at Stoney Littleton, Somersetshire.
(_b_)--Barrow at Rodmarton, Gloucestershire.
(_c_)--Chambers of barrow at Uley, Gloucestershire.
(After Thurnam, _Archæologia,_ XLII.)]

Turning first to the Wiltshire and Gloucestershire group of barrows we
find that they are usually from 120 to 200 feet in length and from 30 to
60 in breadth. In some cases there is a wall of dry stone-masonry around
the foot of the mound and outside this a ditch. The megalithic chambers
within the mound are of three types. In the first there is a central
gallery entering the mound at its thicker end and leading to a chamber
or series of chambers (Fig. 3, _a_ and _c_). Where this gallery enters
the mound there is a cusp-shaped break in the outline of the mound as
marked by the dry walling, and the entrance is closed by a stone block.
The chambers are formed of large slabs set up on edge. Occasionally
there are spaces between successive slabs, and these are filled up with