Show T v i aa w ir i r bones of warriors who fell in in fierce E battle a ado remarkable collection stored in old english Eni ish church skulls olmen of men slain in conflict between britons and saxons many centuries ao ago I 1 special correspondence N I 1 interest Is be ing evinced in the re cent decision to which the vicar of st leon ard s church at hythe england has arrived in regard to the collection of human bones in the crypt of that church beneath the high al tar there Is deposited a vast lation of human remains the walls on either side are I 1 ned with sl alls some in all arranged in ledges extending almost to the beautiful groined ceiling neatly stacked on the floor at the back is a p ie le of bones about seventy five feet in length eight feet in height and over six feet deep these are probably liae remains of 7 people it is an historical fact that endear ors have been made for the past two or three hundred years to find some thing about these curious relics ot of past days it Is evident from a work written by rev J brome cheriton about two centuries ago that he made more than the vicar ot st leonard leonards s during daring the course of his investigation gave much credence to the conjectures of the historian hasted he tells how Vor timer a prince of the britons fought and slew an array army of saxons on the seashore not tor for from folkestone Folk estone folkestone Folk estone which is not tar far from hythe has similar relics relies piled in the vault of its church and this fact adds weight to mr dale s as sections sert ions that the whitened bones were gathered from the battlefield of the saxons with such material in hand mr hale set to work and has just given out his jils recently evolved theory as to the people whom these remains depre sent and the circumstances of their being in the crypt long ago in the year A D the english coast was inhabited by the britons who were constantly suffer ing from invasions by the saxon pi rates hythe was particularly the scene of bloody encounters between the two races the formation of the skulls shows distinct characteristics of the two tf I 1 3 W WW T T OR 1 aa az V V 1 e 1 fla 1 V 0 4 t 1 N t W 41 5 af f pa 0 P 6 r ay C A 0 tr 11 Y 1 4 W 0 im 31 arul ip 4 st leonard leonards s church one effort to gain some information from the townspeople in his book he says how or by what means they were brought to this place the townsmen are altogether ig borant and can find no account of the matter his conjecture that they are remains of some frenchmen who met their death in a battle at hythe near the end of the thirteenth century herbert dale the present rector of st leonard s and a historian and anti of note has proved to be far from correct A very careful examination was made of the remains by widely known ethnologists and the result of their investigation fitted with mr dale dales s own conclusions that the bones be longed to celts and goths living about it also confirmed the statement la in v 1 Y ali A V it I 1 t u interior of st leonards leonard s ane physiology of dr walker the dis anatomist anto ant mist who was of the firm opinion that the bones belong to the britons and barons as some were long and narrow and others short and broad ly a few which did not resemble these first two were ro man skulls races though in about tour four cases the skulls evidently belonged to danes and romans the latter coming over with the saxons and the romans hav ing lingered near the camp at lympne lymone 1 ha he fact that among the bones were those of women and children has been brought forward by some historians aa as proving that the bones are not the remains of those killed in battle but mr air dale shows that toe vie britons were defending their homes from the saxon invaders the mark of battle and the weapons of ancient britons are left in many a skull in some cases they are cleft almost from the top to the base it is mr dale s supposition that the bodies of the slain were left on the field ot of batti and years afterward the skulls which are bleached ole ached by tha the sun and many rains were gathered up by the monks and piled indiscriminate ly together in a stone vault formerly there were four other churches in hythe and in the vault of one of these the skulls and bones were stacked st leonard s was not built until the end of the thirteenth ce ury pre to that three of the four chur churches chesi were gradually destroyed and thai the bones removed from one church to the other in the reign of richard II 11 after the completion of st leonard s a terrible fire swept the town and tt tl e last of the four ancient churches perished in the flames st leonard s alone survived the disaster and in its crypt the bones and skulls of the ancient warriors were stored in the hope of discovering additional evidence mr dale had the bones re stacked and a few pieces of roman saxon pottery were found but nothing of greater importance the majority of the skulls still have teeth in their jaws there is not a decayed one among them and though some of them are worn smooth with age and use they are perfect |