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DESCRIPTIONS OF CRANIA.
Littleton Drew*, and a trackway, evidently of great antiquity, leads directly past its western
end to tliis village, which it connects with that of Nettleton.
The tumulus is a long oval, ranging nearly due east and west, and measm-es about 180 feet
in length by 90 in breadth. Its greatest elevation is about 6 feet; but, being in a ploughed
Held, it has lost somewhat of its height in the memory of those living, and the rude sketch of
Aubrey shows that, two hundred years since, its elevation, at the east end, was still more considerable.
The south side of the mound is steeper and more deiined than the north, and was
much more so in the year 1821, the date of our view+. The most remarkable feature is the
trUith, or cromlech at the east end, which still gives its name to this " three-stone field: "
" Campus ab iUis
Dicitur, eeternumque tenet per SEecula nomeil."
These stones are placed on the slope of the barrow, about thirty feet from its base. The two
uprights, 6-| feet apart, are of a flattened pyramidal form, about 2 feet thick and 4 wide. That
to the south is feet in height; that to the north, from which part of the top seems to have
been broken, a foot lower. Recent excavations show that these stones are sunk 4 feet below the
surface. Resting on the mound, and leaning against the uprights, is the large table stone,
12 feet in length by 6 in breadth. There can be little doubt that this stone was originally
supported by the two uprights, aided perhaps by a third, or, as Aubrey thought, two others.
The stones are rough and unhewn, and ricHy covered with time-stains and lichens. Their first
inspection suggested the idea that they were the remains of a chamber, as in the long stone
barrows at Uley and Stoney Littleton i ; but the height of the uprights above the barrow is
sufiicient to refute such opinion. Sir R. Hoare had no doubt the primary interment was
placed " beneath the huge superimpending stones at the east end." This has been fully disproved,
by examiaations made in 1854 and 1855, when the space between the uprights was
excavated, and a considerable trench dug in front of them, down to the red clay of the natural
subsoil. A similar excavation was made on the western side of the stones. There were no traces
of human remains; and the only objects found were trifling fragments of black Roman pottery,
a foot or two from the surface—the indication perhaps of sacrifices; and at a greater depth, and
on the natural soil, fragments of bones and tusks of boars, with a flake or two of black flint.
It is hence concluded that these stones have formed what the French term a dolmen and the
English a cromlech, in aU probability devoted to sacrificial or other pagan rites §.
In 1821, an excavation, 150 feet in length, was made by Sir R. C. Hoare, along the whole
length of the mound, to the west of the trilith. What was probably the principal interment was
disclosed, about 60 feet from the east end. Here, on the natural soil, a slight cist had been scooped
* Both Aubrey and Sir Richard C. Hoare connect the barrow
with Littleton Drew rather than Nettleton, the latter insisting
on its neighbourhood to " Littleton Dru or Brew, a name evidently
of druidical antiquity." There is perhaps no diflBculty,
in its position beyond the boundary of the parish, in connecting
it with Littleton, rather than Nettleton; there being reasons
for concluding that the existing parochial divisions often
do not ascend beyond Norman times. The epithet Drew, however,
is here of late date, and can have no reference to the
Druids. In Domesday, the place is iim^lj Liteltone. Aubrey,
(Collections for North Wilts, 1821, p. 125) preserves a deed
of " Walterus Drw, Dominus de Littletone," probably of the
24.
13th century. The name Littleton Drew must be subsequent
to this charter, and as in similar cases, derived from that of
some Lord of the Manor—perhaps this very Walter Drw.
t The sketch, from which the view in our Plate is taken,
is by Mr. Crocker, the artist employed by Sir R. C. Hoare.
X See " Description of Skull from Chambered Tumulus, at
Uley, Gloucestershire," No. 5.
§ The writer holds there is evidence of two forms of cromlech—
the sepulchral and the sacrificial or religious^—and that
the trilith near Littleton Drew is the latter. See other examples
in "Wilts Archaeological Magazine," vol. iii. p. 173 ; where
the Littleton Drew tumulus is also fully described.
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