Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Public Dinner Given to Mr. C. Roach Smith, at Newport, Isle of Wight on Tuesday, August 28th: And Conversazione at Ryde, Isle of Wight, on Wednesday, August 29th, 1855
Chessell Down faces that of Shalcombe, from which it is separated by a narrow valley. It is inferior in height to that of Shalcorabe, and its slope is more gradual. The sides of these downs opposite each other are each marked with a chalk-pit. Upon the ground above the pit on Chessell Down, and running a little way down its western side, is the cemetery excavated by Mr. Hillier. It must have been formerly of greater extent, as some of the graves are upon the very edge of the pit; and within the memory of man skeletons and weapons have been picked down into the pit by the chalk-diggers. Several of the graves were excavated by the late Mr. Dennett, who, at first, entertained the notion that the bodies here interred were those of persons slain in battle. This very popular and erroneous idea, it is believed, he subsequently abandoned. Mr. Dennett opened a tumulus upon Shalcombe Down; and he records the discovery, a long time since, of the two circular silver gilt fibulae set with garnets which were in his possession: the grave in which these and other objects had been laid, was undermined by men digging for marl. Without doubt valuable remains have from time to time been destroyed by persons ignorant of their archaeological value; in proof of which we may cite Mr. Dennett's story about the helmet with letters upon it which nobody could read; it was probably a bronze dish inscribed with runes. The downs in this as in other parts of the Island are dotted with tumuli of periods anterior to the Saxon.
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