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Fortunately he left a record of his depredations, together
with (drawings not only of tumuli and their contents (Figs. 4&5.), but of plans of barrow groups (Fig. 6.) and certain earthworks he came across on his travels. Little is revealed of his opening methods, but his very progress 31 tumuli excoriated in 28 days - bespeaks some measure of haste, especially as some of his cuttings descended some 10 ft or 12 ft into the tumuli he opened. Most of his victims were round barrows of the Wessex Early Bronze Age. Fortunately he came across the huge Neolithic long barrows of West and East Kennet, plus one on Alton Down, too late to include them in his digging schedule, although John Thuram investigated the former; somewhat cursorily 10 years later. As Merewether put it "these curious objects I visited at so late a period of my Wiltshire sojourn, that I Could not indulge in the gratification of examining them" a circumstance for which we should he duly grateful!
There was also time to indulge in an evening expedition, concluded under a bright moon, when he and his friends hired a coach crewed with ''a very docile pair of horses and driver" and proceeded to Oldbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort, afterwards following the line of a Roman road, which was accomplished despite the difficulties of taking a coach and horses along it. Eventually the party dismount ed, and 'traced the ancient way on foot and were ready to replace in its vertical position our tottering and almost subverted equipage." They eventually reached the Wansdyke, and, remounting their coach, retraced their steps back to Beckhampton and their quarters.
Merewether ranged over a wide area of the Downs on his expeditions. He also interrogated the local rustics respecting barrows, which had already been opened and in some cases destroyed. A shepherd informed him that one of the 'boys'' had ''hooked out of a little barrow on Bye Down Hill, a crock, but be knocked it to bits with a stick.''
One mound he inspected had been dug out to some depth and believing it to be a cutting sunk by an atiquary the Dean felt he would have been imprudent to interfere with his work. He was later mortified when a shepherd boy told him that evening that ''my father had dug that un out for shelter".
Another yokel he questioned had been present at the destruction of a fine-chambered long barrow called King's Mill barrow; near Monkton. The Dean interrogated this individual "who was employed in the profanation." The man recalled finding "a sort of room built up wi' big sarsens put together like, as well as a mason could set them; in the room was a sight of black stuff and it did smill nation bad."
The miscreant was obviously describing a stone burial vault, dismantled and swept away with the rest of the mound. Another low, flat tumulus, "reserved... for the examination of some of our friends" produced fragments of wheel-turned pottery near the surface, plus a quantity of small, late bronze Roman coins doubtless scattered when the plough had smashed the container holding them.
The inevitable idlers, were as usual in attendance, and were described by Merewether as "bystanders of the labouring class, who had on many occasions shown a disposition to watch our proceedings, under the impression, which in all quarters possesses them to my cost I know it, in some cases to the destruction of antiquarian treasure - that such excavations are made for the purpose of finding money."
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