A GIANT WARRIOR

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1927, 28 October 1926, Page 6

A GIANT WARRIOR

FOUR-CENT'URY-OiLD COFFIN IN NEW (FOREST. Thr-ra Coffins, one of which contains the skeUl.on of what is be'li'eved tlO' have been a soldier killed during the Wars of the Itofffis, have been uncovered by an archcaeologiisit in the ruins of Beaulieu Abbey, tin the heart of the I tew Fore|s't (states a 'special corre©pondetnlt of the London Daily Ex!UI2SS). IMr B. G. Lampiaird Vaoheill, of Pembroke Ciolkige, Oamtirfdige, the 33-year-iaid Welsh hockey international cap tain, and his assistan]: made the discovery when 'digging on the site of .the old church. This abbey was founded .in 1204 by King John in, says 'local 'legend, a penitential moment after a niglit of remorse, in which he dreamed that tliicl y monkis of 'the Cistercian order were “ flogging him unmercifully with securgh© and rh'ds.” The abbey was destroyed by the less superstitious Henry VIIL in 1539. .Hundreds of v-i'seito-rs, including many American tourists, have visited this Luxor of Hampshire since the coffins were uncovered. Accommodation at tfcte only hotel in the village has been booked up “ indefinitely ” by archaeological expert! s I found Mr Vachell examining some glazed! tiling that had formed the. floor of Ithe church. This was in excellent concl-ilDio-n, and the R}:rv. P. B. Clayton, pastor of Toe H and an authority on old church (tiling's, said that similar specimens couild he found only at Westminister Abbey. iMr Vachell inclcca't.ed the three uncovered .graves. Tire pwo coffins on the icdtsidlai were of stone, and contained the skeletons of two men. The middle one was of wood. It lay 7 feet 6 inchctels below the surface. “This coffin,” ipai-d Mr Vachell, “is unade of oak, and /it has we a the fled the centuries well. The records of Beaulieu A'bbLy were destroyed, and it is ? impossible to fitate at kh'e moment the exact age of the skeletons. The middle coffin was certainly used for •the t>u!rial of a man o;f great statur'e. He must have be-en more (than 6 feet 3 inches in height, anti his other measur-tan'ents were proportionate.” Professor Freeman has examined this skelleton of a medieval Goliiath and estimates its age at more than 400 years. Other experts wiill also ■examine it. The skef|efon is believed to have been that of a warrior who met hkj death in .the Wars of the Roses. The skull has a .hole at the top, and ft is believed that this was caused by an arrow loir a spear. The .firdt. Of the stone .coffins 'to be •unearthed was (only p. few inches under the surface; the other was two ail'd a half ffiet below the grcLfud level. The discovery, of the wooden coffin has astonlished the experts, since it .was not known that wooden coffins were used as- early ns the fiftekn'tlh -century.