hut, and the low circular vallum the basis upon which the superstructure rested, consisting of long rafters meeting at top over the centre of the area, like a pile of hop-poles; and these being strengthened, and closed in with boughs and thatch, formed the habitation-than which, we may suppose the noblest Briton, with his flint or copper spear-head, his pottery of unbaked earth, and other rude appliances, 'could boast no better home.' The circular embankment on which the rafters rested would serve to carry off the water as it trickled down the roof, and keep the interior dry and comfortable.

"To this rude cottage was added, in our present instance, a stone wall at the foot of the mound, to defend it from the intrusion of cattle or other injurious animals.

"The supposition of its being the site of a human habitation is strengthened by the discovery of the stones in that part of the crown of the circle which corresponds with the doorway in the wall, and were placed in the entrance of the hut, perhaps, to make the pathway firm; and also by the discovery of the broken millstone and pottery under the floor of the

area.

"To this use I am inclined to assign all the pond barrows, and that is the reason Sir R. Hoare so frequently found trinkets and articles of domestic use in them.'

In a letter afterwards addressed to the editor of the Garland, dated 16th Nov., 1836, the writer made the following additional observations (p. 426):

"The revision contemplated on the publication of my paper comprehended the addition of such explanations and illustrations as were given at the reading verbally, or by the exhibition of diagrams; with such supplementary matter as might be obtained in corroboration of the opinion of the real use of the pond barrow, and of such mounds as did not appear to be sepulchral, and yet were found associated with them; and, also, of the reasonable supposition that the huts of the higher orders of the semi-barbarous inhabitants of Ancient Britain were erected on these eminences; and that, in this instance (and perhaps in many more, where the stones have been removed), a fence wall served to give security and importance

to the edifice. It is not my intention to follow out the disquisition here; and there is not much room, in the same locality, for making new discoveries in the habits and practices of the Ancient Britons. But, since my paper was read, a curious stone mall, or pestle (see fig. 3), was found near the same spot (deposited by Dr. Forbes, at my request, in the Chichester Museum); and I have been able to trace a circular vallation, of five or six acres area, upon the open waste, on Hurston Warren, hard by the fastness' of Winterfield.' This ditch and vallum crowns an eminence rising over the spot on which there was lately made a remarkable 'find' of Roman coins, at Redford, in Storrington parish. The form of the encampment is circular; and, though the bank is not high, being crowned with palisades, it would closely resemble the 'pah' of New Zealand, and other strongholds of the South Sea Islanders. Two sepulchral barrows (one bearing the marks of having been rifled) are to be found on West Chiltington Common, adjoining to Nutbourne; and similar ones occur here and there in the line of sand-hills ranging from Washington, by Coldwaltham, to Lavington and the country south of Midhurst. But the writer has not been able to detect many specimens of the mounds like those here described as 'pond barrows.' There was one (levelled a few years ago) on what appeared to be, and still is, an unbroken piece of grass, in the priory grounds at Hardham, within a few hundred yards of the Roman camp there. There are also two or three mounds in Parham Park, west of the house, which are probably pond barrows, but they do not appear ever to have been examined."

Finally, this part of Sussex has afforded to the writer many indications of human occupancy in all historic times, attested by weapons and other memorials of "the stone," "the copper," and the "iron" ages. But it is only lately by the discovery of the celts near Billingshurst, and a celt or hammer of iron sandstone, now in the possession of Mrs. Weekes, and a flint spear-head at Brinsbury, that we have got assurance that the country, which must then have been an interminable forest of oak timber, gave shelter to, and was the huntingground of, the British savage.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATE.

Fig. 1.-Sword, with iron blade and hilt of brass, from Nutbourne Common, Pulborough.

Fig. 2.-Celt of flint; one of four found in making a new ditch in 1852, near Billingshurst.

Fig. 3.-Mall or pestle, made of a gray quartzose granite, 11 inches long, and 2 inches diameter. Found in digging ground near the walled tumulus. It was perhaps used with a mortarium, as referred to in Vol. VIII. of Sussex Arch. Collections, p. 287, and may probably be Roman, not Celtic.

Figs. 4, 5.-Fig.5 is a water-worn boulder of silicious stone, in which a hole has been bored to the depth of half an inch by the friction of fig. 4, which is another pebble of similar stone, highly polished. They were both found some yards apart in the ruins of St. Botolph's Priory, Pembrokeshire-illustrating the process of piercing fig. 8. In the pos

session of H. Latham, Esq.

Fig. 6.-Pierced bead of unbaked earth inch diameter, from Nutbourne Common, Pulborough.

Fig. 7.-Copper celt, found by a ditcher at Pulborough.

Fig. 8.-Stone hammer head, or weapon, of silicious hornstone, possibly from the gravel-pits in the vicinity. Found August, 1856, in grubbing an ash-tree root near Pallingham Quay. A similar stone, apparently prepared for boring, has been found at Pulborough, and is in the possession of Henry Latham, Esq., as are also 4 and 5. It measures 3 inches by 24, and is of an inch thick. It is not quite circular, tapering a little to one side, with a sharp edge all round.

DISCOVERY OF A TUMULUS AT HOVE, NEAR

BRIGHTON,

CONTAINING AN AMBER CUP, &c.

BY BARCLAY PHILLIPS, ESQ.

WESTWARD of Brighton, and extending from the sea-beach to the Downs, is a plain many miles in length, rising with a very gradual slope to the hill tops, and varying in width from one to three miles. It may be said to commence about the centre of Brighton, between which town and the village of Hove have existed till within the last few years, some remarkably level fields devoted to pasturage and the cultivation of grass for hay. Nearly in the centre of one of these fields, that which was the second out of Brighton parish, once stood a small hillock, about fifteen or twenty feet high, on the north of the pathway leading from Brighton to Hove Church, and situated about 100 yards N.N.E. of the new church of St. John the Baptist; and, till very lately, famous every Good Friday as the resort of hundreds of young persons of both sexes to join in the rustic game of "kiss in the ring."

Rising from a dead flat, and being unconnected with any other hills, this hillock always presented the appearance of an artificial mound, and therefore, when, some years ago, a road was cut through it to the Hove station of the Brighton and Portsmouth Railway, I was anxious to learn whether any antiquities had been met with; but not any were then found. Now, however, all doubt on the subject has been set at rest, and the hillock proved to be a barrow or monumental mound erected over the remains probably of an Ancient British chieftain.

In consequence of extensive building operations now going forward in the lower part of the field, labourers have recently