A proverb which, my landlady remarked, did not prove true on December 5th, when it rained as much as it had done all the rest of the week. W. H. M.

A farmer of Alwington, North Devon, told me that a calf, having a "rose" in front of its withers, will not live to maturity. J. H. P.

Horses' manes which have become tangled during the night are in some parts of North Devon believed to be pixies' stirrups."

J. H. P.

If two persons wash their hands together in the same vessel, they will quarrel before the end of the day.

J. H. P.

Some proverbs have come under my notice during the past few months, which appear to have in the main a local character. The two first-named were quite new to me; but I find they are not unfrequently used, and by no means of recent origin. All were heard either in Plymouth or the sister town of Devonport, and are evidently current in the neighbourhood.

Two are of a decidedly disparaging character-those that were quite new. One, applied to a youth who looked much younger than he really was, runs-"A great age for a pig, and not fat."

The other, which conveys much the same reflection, is, “A rum haporth to cut a pennorth out of, you are."

A third saying, hardly however proverbial, but very quaint, heard at Devonport, was, "Black and green, mourning for the devil."

A common remark in this neighbourhood when a person is heard snoring, is, "He is driving his pigs to market!"

R. N. W.

SEVENTH REPORT OF THE BARROW COMMITTEE.

SEVENTH REPORT of the Committee-consisting of Mr. P. F. S. Amery, Mr. G. Doe, Mr. P. O. Hutchinson, Mr. E. Parfitt, Mr. J. Brooking Rowe, and Mr. R. N. Worth (Secretary) -to collect and record facts relating to Barrows in Devonshire, and to take steps where possible for their investigation.

Edited by R. N. WORTH, F. G.S., Secretary.

(Read at Seaton, July, 1885.)

THE Barrow Committee beg to present their Seventh Report, which consists mainly of further instalments of the Barrow literature of the county, from sources hitherto unnoted.

They will be glad to receive original notes of observations on Devonshire Barrows, and earnestly appeal to the members for aid in this direction in their several localities.

J. BROOKING ROWE, Chairman.
R. N. WORTH, Secretary.

ALVINGTON, WEST.

"Upon the lands of Jonathan Hayne, esq., about a quarter of a mile North-East of the clump of firs at Sorley-Green, in the manor of Sorley and parish of West Alvington (now occupied by Mr. Samuel Heath,) a barrow or tumulus of stone has recently been noticed, where some labourers, employed in the month of August, 1818, to dig materials to repair the highways, found-stones standing on their edge, about 5 feet in length, which might be regarded as an ancient sepulchre. They said they saw nothing within but a fine earth and then destroyed it! On the report of these circumstances reaching messieurs Joseph Cranch and John Cowling of Kingsbridge, (two ardent and most zealous

antiquaries,) they went to see it, when they had the mortification to pick up some fragments of an urn broken in pieces.”Kingsbridge and Salcombe [A. Hawkins], 1819, p. 114.

BOLT DOWN.

"Here are two barrows, which appear to have been opened." Cited from JOHN CRANCH in Kingsbridge and Salcombe, p. 204.

Between Red-Throat Cove and the Bolt Tail-"A very lofty barrow, having a large pit in the top as if it had been opened, or else used as a watch-station."-Ditto. Ibid. p. 205.

DEVONPORT.

About twenty-five years since, in the process of removing a portion of the cliff facing the Hamoaze, immediately to the east of the landing steps, Mount Wise, Devonport, a skeleton was found just below the surface of the ground, under conditions that seemed to indicate a very ancient interment. The burial was at full length, and the remains were those of a man of gigantic stature. The thigh bone was more than two inches longer than that of a man above six feet with which it was compared, and the height indicated reached if it did not exceed seven feet. A very old thorn-tree growing immediately above the skeleton proved that the burial was at least antecedent to the erection of any buildings in the vicinity, when the hill which terminated in the low cliff next the Hamoaze was a rugged furze brake, a condition in which it had existed from "time immemorial." Nothing was found but the skeleton itself. R. N. WORTH.

HOUND TOR.

"I observed and measured a fine specimen [of a Kistvaen] in June, 1846, about a furlong south of Hound Tor, within a circular enclosure (constructed of slabs closely set) twenty-six yards in circumference. The Kistvaen itself is formed of four stones, one of the lateral slabs remains almost upright in its original position; it is not less than six feet one inch long, one foot in average thickness, and fifteen inches wide. At the south end, the head or foot stone remains erect, two feet three inches broad, and thus giving the breadth of this aboriginal sarcophagus. The other side and end stones are thrown down."-Rev. S. RowE. Perambulation of Dartmoor, 2nd edition, p. 43.

HUISH, SOUTH.

"About twenty yards to the south of this entrenchment [on an estate called Burley, half a mile north of Malborough church] towards the summit of the hill, a walled cave was discovered in the year 1788, which Mr. Lindon caused to be dug up. It was twenty feet long, seven or eight feet broad, and ten or twelve deep, but had nothing therein.”—Kingsbridge and Salcombe, p. 110.

66

LEW, NORTH.

"There are several barrows on the hills near it." [Broadbury Castle.-J. DAVIDSON. Notes on the Antiquities of Devon, p. 64.

MALBOROUGH.

"Twenty or thirty yards behind the [South-Down] house towards the sea are the remains of a very large conical eminence, which has greatly the appearance of a tumulus. Near it, towards the house, is the semblance of a smaller one, but which at present cannot so well be ascertained, by reason of a woodrick having lately stood upon it."-JOHN CRANCH, cited in Kingsbridge and Salcombe, pp. 205-6.

a

"From the Lower-Sewer farm-house . . . . we set out for Stare-hole Bottom. Just within the Warren gate . . . few yards south of the ruins of a small shepherd's cot, and of a pinfold, adjoining thereto, we observed a very large and lofty mound or rampart of earth and stones, which unless it were thrown up in order to shelter the house and pinfold, is probably a tumulus. Whether, being originally a tumulus, the founder of the cottage and pinfold took advantage of it as a sheltered situation when he built the place; or whether it was worth his while to form so enormous a bank for that purpose, I cannot confidently judge; but much incline to the former opinion, and that it may now well merit to be opened as a barrow."-Ditto. Ibid. p. 207.

MARTINHOE.

"There are several British Barrows on the lofty and exposed downs around this remote village."-J. DAVIDSON. Notes on the Antiquities of Devonshire, p. 60.

MEMBURY.

"A British sepulchral deposit was found in this village in the year 1809. On digging a foundation for a house the

workmen discovered a cavity in the limestone rock, in which was placed an urn of coarse unbaked clay, about nine inches high, and ornamented with a rude border. It contained a quantity of ashes with fragments of burnt bones and charcoal."-J. DAVIDSON. Notes on the Antiquities of Devonshire, p. 60.

See Lew, North.

NORTH LEW.

PILTON.

In this parish stand two remarkable maenhirs or single monumental stones. One of them approaches to a pyramidal form, and is about ten feet in height, The other, which is on Bradiford Hill, and is called Longstone, is about nine feet high, and stands in front of a rocky tumulus or cairn.”—J. DAVIDSON. Notes on the Antiquities of Devonshire, p. 66.

REWE.

"There have been found some sepulchral Cists, or holes, containing coarse baked Urns, near Rewe."-W. T. P. SHORTT. Collectanea Curiosa Antiqua Dunmonia, p. 20.

SHAUGH.

On the crest of the ridge immediately east of Shaugh church, known as Saddleback or Saddleborough, and a short distance to the north of a reputed cromlech (but which is undoubtedly a natural grouping of rocks) there is a barrow. It is forty-two feet in diameter, very slightly hollow in the centre, and at present not more than three feet high. It is thickly overgrown with heather, and so far as can be ascertained without definite exploration is chiefly composed of stones-in fact a cairn rather than a barrow in the ordinary acceptation. The site is commanding. On the eastern slope of the hill are traces of hut circles. R. N. WORTH.

STANBOROUGH.

"Messieurs John Cranch, William Cranch, John Gibbs, John Cowling, James Willcocks, and James Willcocks, junior, were led to search some of these barrows [at Stanborough, vide first Report Barrow Committee, Trans. Devon Association, vol. xi. p. 158] on the 21st of October, 1799, and the following MINUTE of their success was then made by the former:

"We opened a barrow about North of the intrenchment, by digging a section of 3 feet wide about N.W. and S.E. In the middle of this barrow, placed on the natural or original