lately, kept up by a daily diligence. An account of this remarkable monument will be found in the Archeologia Cambrensis of 1874, pp. 326-7. There will be found an accurate representation of the lintel referred to, as well as the ground-plan, which shows how the different chambers were divided by cross-stones, the greater part of which are in their places. On reference, also, it will be seen that the stones marked 2 and 3 are much more massive than the other supporting stones, as might have been expected, from the fact that the massive lintel rests upon them. This end of the chamber, as is usually the arrangement, was not closed by any solid slab, but either by dry rubble or thinner stone, not connected with, or in any way supporting, the lintel given in one of the illustrations. This sepulchral chamber, as well as the great one near Saumur, and much better known than that of Esse, are about 60 feet long, the latter retaining traces of a gallery leading to the interior, which also is open on the east side. The chambers at Uley, in Gloucestershire, and in Wellow parish, near Bath, had the same kind of approach, but are divided by cross-walls into separate recesses; but these structures, especially the one at Wellow, is of much later character than the ordinary type, whose immense masses of stone are employed, as at Plas Newydd, in Anglesey. In the same county also exists the most perfect gallery, opening into the chamber mentioned by Pennant.

"The earliest notice of this burial-place is given in the Arch. Cambrensis of 1856 (p. 91), accompanied by an accurate engraving by the Rev. J. Evans, at that time the incumbent of Pentre Voelas Chapel. He is now Archdeacon of Merioneth. It will be seen from this and other illustrations, that the form, as previously stated, is quite different from other sepulchral monuments, and very unlike the one mentioned by Mr. Freeman as existing on the Cotswold Hills. During the Ruthin Meeting, in 1854, Mr. Freeman's statement is not recorded in the Report of the Meeting, but we believe Mr. Freeman alluded to the Uley mound; but Mr. Evans must have misunderstood that learned authority, for there is no striking resemblance between the two. There are, indeed, sidechambers on each side of the passage, which runs in the same direction as the chamber, and not at right angles-a very important difference. In his description, Mr. Evans calls the capstone the cromlech, as if a single flat stone could be so called. By that name the chamber itself was formerly called, but of late years even that indefinite term has been dropped, and the plainer and more intelligible word chamber used instead.

"Dates to such remains as these cannot be found, seeing that the question who the builders were has not been answered, nor is likely to be; but it is very probable that the Tyn-y-coed chamber is considerably later than our more simple and more massively built chambers of the dead. "EDWARD LOWRY BARNWELL."

MR. WORTHINGTON G. SMITH'S DRAWINGS OF WELSH ANTIQUITIES. -The whole of the drawings made by Mr. Smith in North and

South Wales and the Border Counties for eleven years-viz., from 1875 to 1885 inclusive-were purchased by the late Mr. Barnwell. He caused them all to be mounted, and well bound in seven large volumes; and, very shortly before his death, last autumn, he presented them thus bound to the Library of the Shropshire Archæological and Natural History Society at Shrewsbury. The drawings are mounted on 240 mounts, but the actual sketches amount to nearly double this number. It is satisfactory to know that these drawings are placed so conveniently to the Principality. WORTHINGTON G. SMITH.

WEEPING CROSSES.-In Rimmer's Ancient Stone Crosses, p. 14, I find this statement:

"Weeping crosses were erected for the use of those who were compelled to do penance by the parish clergyman. There is an example of one of these in Flintshire, not far from Holywell. It is known by a Welsh name, which signifies the cross of mourning, and was formerly supposed to mark the site of some lost battle or other event."

Demurring altogether to the first paragraph, I ask, with respect to the second and third, What is the Welsh name? If Croes Wylan, what other crosses, similarly designated, besides this one and the one at Oswestry, are known to have existed? The site of the Shrewsbury "weeping cross" is also well known; but that was never described, I believe, as a Croes Wylan.

HENRY T. CLERK SHRAWARDINE.

ARCHEOLOGICAL APPOINTMENTS.-The Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland have this year selected Dr. Robert Monro, F.S.A.(Scot.), to fill the post of Rhind Lecturer, the subject to be dealt with being the Lake Dwellings of Europe. Dr. Monro's work on the Scotch Lake Dwellings is well known to archæologists, and the forthcoming lectures, which will be delivered in October next, at Edinburgh, promise to be of exceptional interest. The last two years have been spent by Dr. Monro in visiting the principal sites of the lake dwellings on the Continent, and studying the collections in the Swiss and Italian museums. It is impossible to understand the antiquities of this country, except after comparing them with the remains existing in other parts of Europe. The questions of the possible existence of a copper age, as well as one of stone and bronze, and whether bronze was introduced by a conquering race, still remain undecided. Dr. Monro's lectures will be the means, if not of solving these problems finally, at all events of throwing a flood of new light on the subject.

The Rev. G. F. Browne, B.D., has been appointed Disney Professor of Archæology at Cambridge. He will deliver six lectures during the Lent Term, on the "Sculptured Stones of preNorman Type in the British Islands." This is the first attempt

that has been made by any of our universities to encourage the study of the national Christian monuments of Great Britain. The result cannot fail to be of the highest importance to archæology; for once the public begins to understand the value of the splendid series of early crosses to be found in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and England, as illustrating Christian art in its most interesting stage, it will insist that the authorities who direct our museums shall devote at least as much space to exhibiting casts of these monuments as is given at present to Louis XIV furniture or Japanese flower-pots. J. ROMILLY ALLEN.

DISCOVERY OF HUMAN REMAINS AT BARRY.-On Monday, seven skeletons of human beings were found by the workmen employed on the Barry Dock works, in a field near Helton House; they were about eighteen inches below the surface of the ground, and on the top of the lias rock. Two of the skeletons were side by side, and the rest a little distance away. On Saturday three skeletons were found near the same place, and a short time ago five skeletons, twenty or thirty yards away from those found on Monday. A few pieces of pottery, some of it glazed, were picked up with the bones, and are in the possession of the resident engineer, Mr. John Robinson.-South Wales Daily News, Oct. 25, 1887.

The navvies employed upon the Barry Dock works, near Cardiff, have brought to light quite a graveyard full of skeletons, though, so far as is known, there never was a consecrated burial-ground upon or near the site of the present discovery. Some brief particulars of the unearthing of human remains at the great dock works appeared in our issue of yesterday, but up to the present the full number of the skeletons discovered has not been made known. Only yesterday afternoon, the pick and shovel of the navvies brought to light three more human frames, as well as the skeleton of a horse. The number of human skeletons unearthed so far has been as many as eighteen. The skeletons have all been dug up in a field at Holton-fawr. It appears that the presence of human remains was first noticed more than a week ago by some labourers who were engaged in making a tip siding at Holton-fawr, but as the bones, yielding to the pickaxe and shovel, came up in broken fragments, very little heed was paid to them, though they formed the component parts of no fewer than five skeletons. On Saturday, however, three more skeletons were found; and on Monday as many as seven were brought to the surface, as the result of which some of the men employed upon the works at this spot appear to have become a little alarmed, though apparently they were not all affected with the same fear, as many of them bore off, as grim mementoes of their gruesome "find", some human teeth, which they had no difficulty in extracting from the jaws of the disentombed skulls. Thus the discovery became noised abroad, and on Monday reached the ears of Mr. Robinson, the able and

energetic engineer of the Barry Dock, who at once repaired to Holton-fawr, for the purpose of making an investigation. He found that the remains had been struck at a depth of two feet from the surface, and it further seemed that the earth could never have been of greater thickness at this spot, as a huge rock intervened. In fact, the skeletons were found upon this rock, at a distance of twenty-four inches from what was for years a greensward flat, over which the cattle strayed and browsed. With the remains were found some broken pieces of antique pottery, of the rude and primitive design which belonged to a couple of centuries ago. Upon the bones being collected on Monday, the explorers were able to count fifteen nearly complete skeletons, all of them of fullgrown persons, though the sex could not be determined. The more complete of the remains were removed, and on Monday could be seen at the offices, amongst them being a skull which was completely filled with clay. A medical man attached to the Barry Dock works, who examined the bones, entertained a belief that they must have been under the ground for nearly two hundred years. The discoveries, however, did not close with the unearthing of the fifteen skeletons already alluded to. While our correspondent was at the inquirer's office on Monday, a messenger brought intelligence to the effect that the remains of three more persons had been dug up. Mr. Charles Walker, nephew of the contractor, gave orders that the skeletons were not to be touched, after which an engine was summoned, and a small party proceeded to Holtonfawr, the scene of the mysterious recent discovery. One of the three skeletons, which had been very little interfered with by the picks of the navvies, was found to be in a remarkable state of preservation. The frame reclined at full length, and slightly upon one side, the skull, ribs, and leg-bones all being intact, and in a natural position. The teeth, some of which our correspondent brought away with him, were wonderfully well preserved, being sound in substance, white in colour, and showing not the slightest signs of decay. On the supposition that the eighteen skeletons might be the remains of some ancient warriors slain in battle, a diligent search has been made for arms, but not the slightest trace of any implements of warfare can be found, whilst the entire absence of buttons, and such like things attached to clothing, seems to suggest that the bodies were buried in a state of nudity. The possibility of their having been washed up by the sea has been speculated upon, but this theory seems to be destroyed by the fact that the remains were less than two feet under ground. As before mentioned, no burial-place is locally known to have existed at this spot; and up to the present no satisfactory explanation can be given of the why and wherefore of the interment under the conditions described. It appears from the Ordnance Map, that similar discoveries to the foregoing have been made upon Barry Island in years gone by. In 1817, for instance, human remains were found near a chapel, which has since ceased to exist; and later,