of Mr. Rhind that they do occur there, as well as on rocks, and that they are attributable to human agency.

XII. The concentric rings and markings on stones have also been mentioned by me, and I therefore think it unnecessary to add more on this subject. But it is satisfactory to know that others have since been found in Northumberland, and that a description of them, as well as of those above alluded to, will shortly be given by Mr. Tate, of Alnwick; whose son has lately discovered a singular emblem carved on one of the fallen "trilithons" at Stonehenge. Convoluted ornaments are common on many megalithic monuments, as at New Grange, in Ireland; at Gavr Innis, in the Morhiban; and even at the Torre dei Giganti, in Gozo,2 where they resemble rude Greek scrolls (see plate 2, fig. 18).

XIII. The hut-circle, domed and bee-hive huts (see plate 7, figs. 1 and 2), I have described in a paper on Carn Brea, published in the Annual Reports of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, 1860, and I have offered some remarks on their construction in vol. xvii of this Journal. Hut-circles abound on Dartmoor. They are invariably circular. The rectangular one among those above Merivale Bridge is evidently of much later date, having been built over the wall of an older enclosure; and the same remark applies to the few met with in other places. They are generally about 23 feet in diameter (internally). The stones forming their walls, which are often from 4 feet to 8 feet in length, are placed upright, or on their ends, or on their edges, close together, sometimes in one, sometimes in two rows; with a doorway consisting of two upright stones covered by a lintel. Some few have a triple row of stones in their walls, and the upper blocks either lie across them, or follow the circular direction of the walls, the conical roof having been made of rafters covered with bushes, straw, or other perishable materials.

I shall presently have occasion to show that the hutcircles of Northumberland were very similar, in their form,

1 Journal, vol. xvi, pp. 118-121.

2 Gozo di Malta, already mentioned in p. 23, 112. If I have occasionally introduced what I have said before in this, or other papers, I hope that allusions to the same subject will excuse the repetition.

3 It is remarkable that the Celtic name for "hut," cut, or cut (pl. cyttiau) signifies also "roundness."

V. infrà, p. 120.

dimensions, and general character, to those of Southern Britain; and this fact is the more important since some have imagined the latter to be of very late date, and the mere rude huts of English miners. It is true they may have been inhabited to a late time, but neither this nor modern occupancy would alter their original date; and though they may have continued to be inhabited, and some to be built on the same model, in those secluded districts, during Saxon and even later times, they have not less claim to be of the family, and to illustrate the character, of older British habitations. Walls of such ponderous blocks are not such as miners would stop to construct, however gladly they might avail themselves of them if already built; many are in places where no mines ever existed, and the same type of hut-circle is found from the north to the south of our island. In some other parts of Britain the roof was domed, and formed of small stones; but such huts are readily distinguished by the mound in their centre, formed by the materials of the fallen dome.

The bee-hive huts are built of large stones, varying in size according to the nature of the rocks that supplied them, and the roof consists of slabs overlapping each other till they reach the centre, which is capped by a single block. An instance may be seen in vol. xvii of this Journal, plate 1, and a full account is given of some in Ireland in vol. xv of the Journal of the Archaeological Institute, as well as in Mr. Petrie's admirable work on the "Round Towers of Ireland." See also my paper in Report, R. Inst. Cornwall, 1860.

There is another kind of house roofed like the bee-hive hut with overlapping stones, but constructed in the thickness of a massive wall, a good instance of which may be seen at Chysoster, near Penzance, and which has been well described in the Journal of the Archæological Institute (vol. xviii, pp. 39-46) by Mr. Blight.

Hut-circles are often scattered over a large space, as in the neighbourhood of Prince Town, on Dartmoor; on the way to Hayter Tor, and near the tramway to King Tor, in the same neighbourhood; on the north of Hessary Tor; about Throwlsworthy; about Castor; on the hill opposite, and due north of, the rocking-stone of Rippon Tor; and in various parts of Dartmoor. Those above Merivale

bridge are very interesting and very accessible, being close to the high road from Prince Town; and their position and the extent of ground they cover may be seen from my plan in plate 8; which is a continuation of that I previously gave in vol. xvi of this Journal, plate 7, to illustrate the question of the form and direction of avenues or parallelithons. Among them will be seen the rectangular house already alluded to, which I have shown in my abovementioned paper on Carn Brea to be of later date than the hut-circles; and in the same locality are some low oblong mounds, the date and object of which are uncertain, though I believe them to be of very late time (see the plan).

In one or two instances a cist-vaen has been found within a hut-circle: one below Hound Tor, another among the many huts between Prince Town and Leedon Tor, and another below Rippon Tor; though this last appears rather to come under the denomination of circle-carn. It is however very possible that an individual may have been buried. in his own house, which at his death became his tomb.

In some parts of Britain the huts were doubtless of reeds and stakes, as described by Diodorus, and many had mere wattled walls; and this seems to be confirmed by the Celtic word adail, "building," signifying really "wattling."

XIV. The walled village, and pound. The former, on Dartmoor, consists of a mere wall of circumvallation, built of large stones placed upright on their ends, or on their edges, or sometimes flat on the ground as in horizontal work; and the upper blocks are placed, as in large hutcircles, either across the thickness of the wall or in the line of its direction. In many walls a principle of construction has been adopted, which I have also observed in those of the Cyclopean building called the Torre dei Giganti, "Giant's tower" in Gozo (already mentioned).2 This consisted in fixing tall upright blocks here and there upright in the ground, with a row of large stones on their edges in the space between them, the upright blocks serving as binders, and preventing the intermediate ones from sliding sideways out of their places.3

Of these walled villages the most remarkable is Grims

1 The spot obtained the name of "the plague market" during the plague at Tavistock, from the market held there at that time.

2 Pp. 112, 115.

3 Vol. xvii of this Journal, pl. 3.

pound, below Hamilton Down.1 It has a diameter of 502 feet by 447 feet, including the walls; and twenty-five hut-circles still remain within its area. The walls are from 9 feet, or 9 feet 4 inches, to 10 feet 10 inches in thickness, composed of large granite blocks, one of which measures 7 feet in length by 4 feet in breadth; another 8 feet 10 inches by 2 feet 3 inches; and a third 9 feet 9 inches by 4 feet 6 inches. A stream of water runs through one end of its area; and its position is well chosen to command the passage over the hills, and to intercept the communications through this part of the country. Here no doubt the old road passed from the east side of Dartmoor, traversing this difficult hilly country towards the west; and the position of the old bridge (at what is now called Post bridge) shows that it ran in former times directly in the line of Grimspound and of the valley in which it stands, between the heights of Hamilton and Hooknor Tor. The stones of the walls are far from being "thrown loosely together," as has been stated; and its site has not been chosen without due consideration of its merits in a military point of view. For though we should now consider it to be commanded by the hills on either side, the summit of one of which (Hooknor Tor) is distant only 1330 feet, this was no objection in olden times for the position of a fortified town; and the strong city of Mycenae, in Greece, is more immediately under a lofty hill, from which every movement of the garrison could be descried; and the same may be said of Greaves-ash in Northumberland, and other places. And as the object at Grimspound2 was to stop the enemy at this pass, it would be a matter of very little importance whether one or two agile spies ascended the hills to watch the operations of the garrison. Its hut-circles are of the usual size and construction; some being 16 feet 8 inches, others 15 feet 10 inches, 13 feet 10 inches, 12 feet 3 inches, or 10 feet 7 inches in diameter, and the doorways are generally turned towards the south.

On its eastern side was the entrance to the place, about 15 feet to the south of the present passage, which has been

1 This name is common in various parts of England, from Northumberland to Devonshire and Surrey; and is often more properly written Hamble-dun, or Hamil-dun. "Down" is merely a repetition of the last part of the name, "dun," hill.

2 Some derive this name from the Celtic grym "strength," rather than from the Saxon grima.