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Long Barrow
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'Tumboracos' sent a letter to The Gentleman's Magazine in 1789 in response to Bere's. He sounds very (too?) level headed and he pushes for the date of the barrow to be accepted as pre-Roman. He doesn't believe Bere's story about an eight-foot skeleton either, and tells a little anecdote about breathlessly running to see a skeleton found in a barrow dug by three soldiers, who claimed it was that of 'a prodigious giant'. But actually when he held the femur up to one of them they had to concede it was of ordinary size (it made him feel better to have a little rant). And I guess it's true that people have "a natural promptness to magnify casual discoveries into the marvellous" as he says. Though that's quite nice sometimes.
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Posted by Rhiannon
3rd July 2011ce
Edited 18th November 2011ce
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