of Medicine; civil engineers, architects, and land surveyors; bankers, wholesale merchants, and manufacturers; yeomen possessed of lands of the value of $8,000, and of suitable education (but not farmers'); and all others who are of liberal education, or of independent means, and of manners so far refined as to admit of their associating on fairly even terms with such persons as are above particularly mentioned.

NOTE ON THE RIGHT TO ARMS DERIVED FROM USER.

From information supplied by Mr. WOLSELEY EMERTON, D.C.L. That rights are established by user is, in the Civil Law, a rule so notorious that the only difficulty is to choose one's authorities; and it must be noted that (contrary to the general principle of English statutes of limitation) the Civil Law does not only "bar the remedy of an opponent," but actually "confers a right" on the originally wrongful possessor. I give some authorities on this point as I know that antiquaries frequently find themselves compelled by more pressing avocations to leave the Institutes and the Pandects out of the list of their studies.

Institutes, Book II, Tit. 6.

"de Usurpationibus et.
Longi temporis possessionibus."

Digest or Pandects, Book XLI, Tit. 3.
"de Usurpationibus," etc.

Gaius, II, 42, 43, 44, 46.

Looking on the right to arms from the civilian's point of view, an unchallenged possession of twenty years at most would be sufficient as a rule.

It is important that the possession should have begun in good faith (which is, of course, presumed unless the contrary be proved), but it is not necessary that the good faith should continue till the time of "prescription" has expired.

In the reign of James I. Segar (who was Garter King of Arms), while opposing the view of Bartolus on "Arms by User," thinks it prudent apparently to make considerable concessions to the civilians as a body.

Mr. Round's argument from the wording of the proceedings in the time of Henry V. seems to me conclusive. It was very common in the middle ages to confirm rights which, as a matter of fact, stood in no need of confirmation, such as the right to arms conferred by

user.

Y

ON THE CAIRN AND SEPULCHRAL CAVE AT GOP, NEAR PRESTATYN.1

By PROFESSOR BOYD DAWKINS, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., F.S.A.

The cairn at Gop first to be described in the following pages stands in a commanding position, at an altitude of 820 feet, at the northern end of the picturesque line of hills forming the eastern boundary of the Vale of Clwyd. It is about two and a quarter miles to the southeast of Prestatyn, on the London and North Western Railway, and about six miles to the east of Rhyl. It commands a magnificent view, westward over the Vale of Clwyd to the Snowdonian range, northward over the Irish Sea, and eastward over the low-lying plain of Cheshire, to Liverpool and beyond. It is recognised generally in the neighbourhood as a tumulus, and is so described in the Ordnance maps. It is attributed in common talk to Queen Boadicea, in spite of the fact that there is no evidence that the famous queen of the Iceni ever set foot in that region. In 1886 Mr. Pochin, of Bodnant Hall, who had bought the Golden Grove estate, on which it is situated, asked me to undertake the examination of this conspicuous landmark, at his expense. The following are the results of the work carried on in 1886 and 1887, which I have been unable to publish before on account of the pressure of other work.

1 Read June 5th, 1901.

1. THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAIRN AT GOP. The cairn is composed of blocks of limestone, of a size easily carried, piled up so as to form an oval, with its long diameter 330 feet, pointing from north-west to southeast, and its short diameter 223 feet, from north-east to south-west (see Plan and Sections, Figs. 1, 2, 3). It is 46 feet high, with a truncated top, which may be due either to the removal of the stone for making field-walls, or by the giving way of a chamber in the area immediately beneath it. It rests on solid limestone rock.

The exploration was begun by sinking a shaft (6 feet 6 inches by 4 feet) in the centre, an operation of considerable difficulty on account of the instability of the limestone blocks, down to the solid rock forming the original surface of the ground. It was found necessary to use heavy timbers to allow of the work being carried on. The original surface was struck at a depth of 26 feet (see Figs. 1, 2, 3). A drift was then made, 6 feet high and 4 feet wide, in a north-easterly direction (B of Figs. 1 and 2) to a distance of 30 feet, following the original surface of the rock. Two other drifts were also made, C, C, intersecting B in the line of the Section Fig. 3. The only remains met with were a few bones of hog, sheep or goat, and ox or horse, too fragmentary to be accurately determined. They are, however, of the refuse heap type usually found in prehistoric habitations and burial-places. We failed to obtain evidence of the archæological age, or of the purpose to which it was put. If, as is usually the case, there was a central burialplace, we missed it. The question cannot absolutely be decided until the whole of the stones have been removed. The timbering necessary for our work was not only very costly, but rendered it very difficult to observe the condition of the interior even in the small space which was excavated.

Gop Cairn is probably sepulchral, similar to that in the same range of hills to the east, near Mold, used for years as a stone quarry, in which, in 1832, a skeleton was discovered lying at full length, clad in a golden corselet, and adorned with 300 amber beads. If it be a burial-place its large size implies that it was raised in memory of some chieftain conspicuous above his fellows.