w Ji CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE WORDSWORTH COLLECTION FOUNDED BY CYNTHIA MORGAN ST. JOHN THE GIFT OF VICTOR EMANUEL OF THE CLASS OF I9I9 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in . the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924103707687 1. DOUBLE INTERMENT. 2. SUNBRICK. 3. MOORDIVOCK. £#? 4. BURNMOOR. 3". #*&&• 5. MOORDIVOCK. 6. DUNMALLARD. 7. C/ERTHANOCK. /*" «J* 6&- PRE HISTORIC REMAINS LAKE DISTRICT. _A_ PAPER Read before the Keswick Literary and Scientific Society, January Gth, 1879, W. KINSEY DOVER, F.G.S. KESWICK: PRINTED AT THE " VISITOR AND GUARDIAN" OFFICE, MAIN STREET 1880. I i Y fc(s5JLHO PREHISTORIC REMAINS IN THE LAKE DISTRICT. IfrN British Archaeology there are two extremes of A> a series. The' one of man, whose relics have been found in the drift gravel of Surrey, Kent, and Suffolk, and the caves of Brixham, on the Devon- shire coast, along with the remains of the rhinoceros, great cave bear, and huge carnivora, a circum- stance which takes his existence back in Britain to a period contemporaneous with the River and Cave Men of France and Germany, when very different conditions of climate prevailed, together with a different configuration of land and sea. At this time, probably, our country was connected with the continent, and the extreme cold of a glacial period had but partially abated. The reindeer, now only to be met with in the Arctic Regions, then lived in the South of France, and the mammoth and great cave bear roamed over the land which is now called Britain. The discovery by Mr. Skertchley (of the Geological Survey) a year or two ago, below the boulder clay, of rude flint implements and deposits of broken and scraped bones, together with burned clay underneath the bones, would take the existence still further back in time, to a geological era far beyond the computation of the archaeologist, should lie be correct in the geological position of those remains, which there can scarcely be a doubt about. But, however this may be, we know beyond question that when man existed on the continent along with now extinct animals, he was living 1 in Britain amongst them also. The other extreme of this series may be taken from the earliest records of history, which allude to man as existing in the British Isles with a certain amount of civilisation and knowledge of metals. From this point forward we can trace the remains of the Celtic Briton, the Pagan and Christian Anglo-Saxon, the Scandinavian, clown to the Norman and Mediaeval times. The intermediate period between these extremes is not at present clearly defined. The distinction between the Stone and Bronze Period, with different races of men, and the steps from a lower to a higher type, has not been cleared up ; yet upon the whole, a regular advance from rudeness to civilisation can be traced during that time. From researches among graves it has been discovered there were two distinct types of man, differing in form of head, who preceded the historical Celt in time in our islands. To one type the name of Dolichocephalic has been given, in consequence of the long formation of the head; the other had a small, round head, and has been styled the Brachy cephalic. The first named one coming, I will say, with the tiger and hippopotamus, whose bones are found in the Thames valley, from the south ; the other arriving with the Siberian mammoth and the reindeer from the north. The round-headed man being represented by the Laplander and the various races to the east of him ; and the lono--headed, by the Negro and Australian — which of these types occupied our country first is a disputed question. Some thousands of graves have been opened out and many skulls have been obtained from them with the object of settling the matter, yet there is nothing definitely proved. However, there are several workers still left, and among them Canon Greenwell, who seems to be the most enthusiastic, if his ardour has not somewhat abated since the publication, last year, of his very interesting book on British Barrows. He appears to give precedence in time to the long-headed type, and agrees with Dr. Thurnam's axiom — " long barrows, long heads ; round barrows, round or short heads." Professor Wilson maintains the existence of two Allophylian races in Scotland, and of the two the longheaded man came first in point of time. In Scandinavia the celebrated Swedish naturalist, Professor Nilsson, assigns to the more ancient the round (brachycephalic) form of cranium, and infers, from their implements and other remains that they were a wandering race of hunters and fishers. To these, he conceives, succeeded another race, with head lengthened in form, who devoted themselves to agricultural pursuits. I may mention that skulls resembling Lapps are associated with the reindeer and other arctic animals wherever their range has extended, a circumstance which can scarcely be accidental. This extension of range would probably bring these round-headed people in contact with the other primitive race and, from intermingling during the long period of the " polished stone age," have given rise to the intermediate types, which in some measure may account for the conflicting opinions we have heard of during the last few years among antiquaries and other learned men. Then we have the ethnologist, who assumes that Europe was peopled by several successive migrations, all derived from one point in the east. Of these, the two principal bodies were the Celts and Germans, both branches of the same race. The Celts, who were probably the oldest branch of the Aryan family, came first in time and made their way through the districts which border upon the Mediterranean. The Germans, following, entered Europe from the shores of the Black Sea and advanced through the central parts, where, coming up with the Celts, they drove them to the west and south-west. In their turn the Germans were driven westward by the Sclavonic, race who had settled upon the eastern part of Europe about the fifth century before Christ. At what date the earliest Celts landed upon our shores, and intruded upon the aborigines, it would be difficult to say ; but it must have been very recent, compared with the age of the races they met with whose memorials have been found amid the remains of animals that are now extinct. Yet there can be little doubt that the Celts must have been in possession of these islands for a longer period before the Roman invasion than the time that has since elapsed. From the historian, we learn that the first mention of our islands by name was by Aristotle, who lived about three centuries before Christ. He tells us that there are two islands — Albion and Irne — called the Britannic Islands which are beyond the Celtse. We know also that the Phoeneciaris from a very early period obtained their tin from Cornwall, but nothing was known relating to these islands until the time of Julius Caesar, who says amongst other things that the mass of the people were slaves to two classes — the priests and chiefs of clans, that the wild tribes of the interior did not cultivate the earth, but lived upon milk and flesh, and clothed themselves with skins and stained their bodies in blue dye. Their houses as described by Strabo, who lived fifty years before Christ, were merely temporary establishments, surrounded by a ditch and vallum of earth, with the entrance blocked up with trees laid across it, while within they made huts of logs and reeds. Julius Caesar, when also alluding to their dwellings, says they were the same as those of the Gauls and these we know, both from Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, were constructed of wood and of a round form, with tapering roofs of straw. Before going further it perhaps may be as well for me to make a few remarks upon the manner of disposing of the dead by our ancestors and the monuments the friends of the departed raised over the grave. Pre-historic man had two modes of disposing of the dead — one by inhumation, the other after the body had undergone a process of burning. In this latter form, the bones were collected and placed in a cinerary urn, or in a cist without the urn ; or, more frequently, the burnt bones were simply laid on the ground, and thus, as I have more than once ex- perienced, it is often difficult to find the grave when opening out a barrow or cairn. In the mode of inhumation the practice was to place the body in a contracted position, even though the grave was sufficiently large to contain it in an extended form. Bateman, in his " Ten Years' Digging," Sir Richard Colt Hoare, and others, Lave described the body as being placed with its head inclined forward, the knees drawn up to the chest, elbows on or near the knees, with the hands up to the face. The meaning of this singular contracted form is not known. There are several theories respecting it, but which I do not think worth entering into here. Only occasionally has the body been met with in an extended form, which appears strange, because one would suppose that when man had arrived at such a state of civilisation as to bury the dead, the most simple mode would have been the most natural one. A 9 friend of mine, when opening out a long barrow at Keiss, near Wick, in Caithness, found, ten or twelve graves where each of the bodies had been interred in full length, and placed within a cist along with, in two or three cases, some very rude stone weapons and implements of no advance upon those of the Paleolithic Age. But such rude implements, when found even in cases of this kind, are of themselves no criterion that they belong to the ancient Stone Age. I have seen many rude stone implemements in private and other hands, and particularly the very fine collection in the Museum of Scottish Antiquaries, Edinburgh, but never an authenticated paleolithic one, such as from the drift gravels of the Ouse and Thames. Over the graves the friends of the departed raised monuments (differing in material, shape, and size) which are known by the names, Cromlech (popularly called Druids' Altars), Stone Tumuli or Cairns, Mounds of Earth, including Long Barrow, Round Barrow, Turn Barrow, and Bowl Barrow. Of these monuments we have only the stone tumuli or cairns within the Lake District (that I have been able to identify), which may be attributed to the geological features of the country in a great measure, together with what must have been the state of the lower portions of it in that early time. In expla- nation of these cairns or stone tumuli of ours, I will quote a few sentences from Professor Wilson's " Pre- historic Scotland," because it is in that country where they are the most numerous and, consequently, 10 best known. " The most remarkable," he says, " of all the Scottish sepulchral monuments are the stone tumuli or cairns, many of which shew great labour and skill and enclose megalithic cists and galleries corresponding in form to nearly every class of earthen tumulus or chambered barrow. It undoubtedly belongs to the stone period, and appears to have been one of the most distinguished monuments throughout every successive period prior to the revolutions effected by Roman civilisation and the introduction of Christianity. The cairns in the old and new world correspond in form and materials, but it is by an intelligent comparison of their various contents that we are able to discriminate between races diverse in physical form, in sepulchral rites, and in style and development of their distinctive arts, to determinate a relative if not a positive chronology." The largest and most interesting one that I have met with is upon the summit of Knock - na-Rea, a few miles from the town of Sligo. These large kinds are not represented in the Lake District : ours are of a humbler kind, but interesting. I may, however, here remark that a larger monument does not always denote the grave of a more distinguished person than the smaller cairn. Diagram (l), an illustration copied from Jewitt's " Grave Mounds," gives a fairly good idea of what we have of them in this district, except that it represents a double interment — where the calcined bones of one person have been placed within an urn, and the others have 11 had little to protect them from the stones by which they are surrounded, and which is the usual manner they are met with. The bones are also often found to have been placed within a cist or kist, where the geological formation of a district will admit of one being made, and in that case they may be with or without the cinerary urn. In the northern part of Caithness and in Orkney, some very fine examples of the cist are to be met with, owing to the strata of the old red sandstone having been displaced by the action of the sea during storms, and the flag stones (as they are called) left in many places strewed about the shores, or thrown far above high- water mark in the cliff districts that I have met with. The nearest approach to a cist that I have seen in this district is at Moordivock, near Pooley Bridge, Ullswater. It is situated in a limestone district. Near to it a small portion of Skiddaw slate may be seen cropping out, which is interesting to recognise. This cist was uncovered a few years ago during the removal of stones from the cairn for road repairs. Fortunately the late Earl of Lonsdale heard of the discovery at the time and ordered that the place should not be disturbed further. The circumference of the cairn measures about one hundred and forty feet. The best example, however, of our district cairns (which have been but little disturbed except by what appears to me to have been done by the foumart hunter) is to be seen upon Stockdale Moor, about two miles north of Strand, Wastwater. They 12 are called in the district by the name of Samson's Bratfull and his Little Bratfulls. The latter ones are close together and measure in circumference about one hundred and eighty, one hundred and ten, and fifty-seven feet each. The former (Samson's Bratfull) is about four hundred yards to the west of them and is oblong in shape, such as might be expected by the addition of probably a second inter- ment. The circumference of this cairn is about two hundred and sixty feet, calculated by stepping it, which course I followed in every other case where a measurement is given, as an approximation is quite near enough when no two measure exactly alike. To me, one of the most interesting of our sepulchral cairns is situated close to the summit of Carrock Fell, within a British hill fort from which the mountain has taken its name — the Celtic word, Ccerog, fortified ; Cceivg Fell, the fortified fell. This is the only instance where the dead of pre-historic man appears to have been buried within any of our Lake District British forts. Like many others, this cairn has been opened out, but unfortunately its contents have not been recorded. I mean un- fortunately in a local sense only, for their characters are well understood. A group of five or six may be seen within an hour's walk from the Woodland station on the Coniston and Broughton railway, at High Heathwaite- They average about seventy feet in circumference and were opened out by sappers and miners, or " Government people " as they were 13 described to me by a farmer, who, as a boy, was present but could only recollect human bones having been got out of them. About a quarter-of-a-mile north from them, close to the road, there is what is called Samson's grave which had contained human bones, but of what nature, burnt or unburnt, I could not learn. As it now is the name it bears chiefly interests me. Upon Moordivock, near Pooley Bridge, two or three other cairns may be seen besides the one I have previously named containing the cist. On Binsey there is one, and at Dunmail Raise Gap about half way between Keswick and Ambleside there is a well-known cairn, from its situation being so close to the road. About it I shall have to make some remarks when I speak of the British Hill forts, as I call them, from the close resemblance in structure to what I have met with elsewhere, which are of prehistoric origin and bear that name. There is, or used to be, a sepulchral cairn on the road side before ascending the hill leading to Bolton Gate, from the direction of Ireby, which I remember from boyhood as being pointed out to me when driving past as the place where a giant's brat or apron string broke when he was carrying these stones to build Bolton Church, which, as the legend says, he built in one night. The name of giant's brat or apron, and also of Samson's Bratfull and his Little Bratfulls, in connection with several of our sepulchral remains, is interesting, as it appears to point to the use of the apron for the removal 14 of things by our ancestors in days gone by, as was the case I believe in Ireland, where the name of Firbolg was given to a race of people who lived previously to the Christian era, owing to the peculiar manner in which they were in the habit of using the apron or brat for the removal of earth and stones when making trenches and ramparts to their forts, raths, or duns. One end of the apron was carried over the shoulders and tied behind the neck, and when filled gave the Jlrbolg appearance, which literally means big belly, so I have been informed by Celtic scholars in Ireland. The prefix " Giant " and that of " Samson," also common in Ireland to sepulchral remains that I have met with, is not difficult to account for when we think of the huge monumental and other structures that are to be seen in so many parts of the United Kingdom, and which even at the present day perplex us in the con- sideration by what means they were raised or brought together. Little wonder then is there that they have been attributed to a race of giants and have that name attached to so many of them. With regard to megalithic circles (large stone circles) in general, I do not intend to enter into any of the theories respecting the purpose for which some of them were raised or constructed by a race of men we know nothing about, save the rude works they have left behind. Diagram (2) represents what is termed in the guide book maps of the Lake District, and by many people, a " Druids' Temple," 15 a name first given to such erections by Aubery in the seventeenth century, and Stukely in the eighteenth, and which has been adhered to by most people to the present day, notwithstanding the want of evidence of then having been used for such a purpose. This circle is not more than twenty- eight feet in diameter, and contains eleven upright stones, which are about three feet each in height, with the exception of one that appears to have given way or has been broken off near its base. It is situated on a moor between Sunbrick and Bardsea- in-Furness, which strictly speaking is not quite within the Lake District, but I have introduced it here, thinking that its appearance may help to explain some of those which we have within, and which in their turn may throw some light upon it. For instance, diagram (3), one upon Moordivock, near to Pooley Bridge, is similar to it both in diameter and in the number, height, and bulk of the stones ; but, as is shown, the area within this one is entirely filled by a sepulchral cairn which is absent in the Sunbrick one. Had therefore all traces of this cairn been removed from the interior of the former, as we know that such things have taken place, its appearance then would have been in every respect similar to the Sunbrick one and, probably, at this present time it might also have been called by that popular name, a " Druid's Temple." To the right hand of the old road, at a field distance from it, in going to Cockermouth from Ouse 16 Bridge at the lower end of Bassenthwaite Lake, there is a well known circle upon Elva Plain that was visited by some of our members during one of their field day excursions a year or two ago. There are fifteen stones in its circumference, The diameter is about ninety-six feet, which is considerably larger than the two last named. This one, like that at Sunbrick-in-Furness, has nothing within its area to point to what it had been used for, and is in this particular as uninteresting as it well could be. But the ground has been much cultivated about and within it, as can be seen by the ridge and furrow marks, and consequently had it contained any cairns they would have had to be removed and also several stones in the circle, which is plain to 1)3 seen has been the case with them. Between the upper part of Wastwater Lake and Boot, upon some high-lying uncultivated ground called Burnmoor, there is the one shown in diagram (4) which, in diameter, is within a foot or two (I made it ninety-four feet) of the last named, and also with the stones in the circle much alike in size to it but more numerous, there being thirty-nine. Within this one there are five sepulchral cairns, measuring each at the base about eighteen feet in diameter. Four of them have been opened out, and were found to contain a rude chamber of five stones, enclosing calcined human bones and horns of stags and other animals. About one hundred yards to the west of it there is one with a single cairn that measures fifteen feet in 17 diameter at the base. It has eleven stones in the circle with a diameter of fifty feet. To the north of these two, upon the ridge of the hill at a distance of about a quarter of a mile, two others, close together, may be seen. One of them contains two graves, the other one. That with the two cairns measures about seventy-five feet in diameter, and has twelve stones in its circumference ; the other is about fifty-one feet in diameter, and comprises eight stones. The cairns within each are similar to those just mentioned. To the east of Black Coombe mountain, near to Swineside, there is a very fine " Druids' Temple," as it is called in the maps and guide books of the district. This circle is interesting - in having two upright stones placed opposite to two of those in the circle on the outside, at an equal distance of about five or six feet. The same thing may be seen at Meg and her bairns, near to Little Salkeld. Both are on the south side of the circles, but what they mean no one can safely say. From within the Swineside megalithic circle, which has an inner diameter of about ninety-six feet, and fifty-one stones, exclusive of the two outer ones, two or three large stones were taken a few years ago, which now gives the interior the same skeleton appearance that distinguishes the Elva plain and the Sunbrick circles. Of the character and position of these stones that were removed I failed to obtain any information ; that they were removed is greatly to be regretted. In our well-known megalithic circle at Keswick, 18 which contains thirty-eight stones, the diameter is much the same as the last named, the one at Elva Plain, and the largest of the four at Burnmoor. Within its area-, on the south east side, there is an ohlong enclosure formed by ten stones, which not improbably points to where a grave may have been, as the celebrated archaeologist, Mr. James Ferguson, R.A., says in his interesting work on " Stone Monuments." I need scarcely say that if the stones forming this enclosure were taken away for any to purpose the interior of the circle would be like that of three of the others before mentioned. Diagram (5) intended to reja resent a circle of stones upon Moordivock, which differs in character from any previously named, by having larger stones in the circle connected with smaller ones rudely put together, one upon the other, for about a foot or two in height, or reaching about half-way up to the larger ones, which can be clearly traced on the south and south-east portion of the circle, and here and there in other parts. I have only met with one much similar to it, and that was about four miles from Dungloe, close to the Atlantic, in Co. Donegal. When I examined the Moordivock circle I was consequently much struck with it. There has been a grave on the south-east inner side, as the many loose stones indicate. The diameter of this interesting circle is about eighty-four feet, and there are twenty-six stones in the circumference. At about a quarter of a mile to the east there is a single 19 large stone called the " Cope Stone " which appears to me to be the only stone left of a circle which had had. its inner space entirely filled by a sepulchral cairn, now wholly removed. Close to this is the circle which I coupled with the Furness one, and not more than five hundred yards to the west, nearer Pooley Bridge, is the cairn containing the cist, to which I have before alluded. To the south of this cairn, about two miles, and, as the crow would fly about one mile from one part of Ullswater Lake, and a little to the west of the Roman road going over High Street, there is a circle called " The Stones," which, owing to the state of the weather the last time I was in that district, I was not able to examine. All this part of the country is deeply interesting to those who have a regard for Pre-historic remains and also that about Burnmoor, near Wastwater. When going about those two moors it is almost impossible not to be reminded that we are following close upon the footsteps of a busy people who have long passed away beyond the reach of our history in time, but who nevertheless have left evidences that they possessed some degree of civilisation. They had their pottery made by hand (if not exactly found in the Lake District), they ground corn, had their needles made of bone, and spun and wove. They wore ornaments of bone and stone, and had their bows, arrows, spears, and battle-axes, &c. , of stone and bronze. We also know they were a people having some idea of a future 20 state, from the relics found in their graves, of such articles as they supposed the departed might require hereafter ; and they had their funeral feasts which to some extent are kept up to the present day in the wine, bread, and cake that are handed about at funerals and the funeral breakfasts. Connected with megalithic circles, there are two or three legends that perhaps may be thought worth recording, which have arisen long after the races who raised them had passed away, and when their meaning and the object for which they were erected were forgotten, but became to be regarded by the people with a sort of superstitious fear. In Pembroke there is a circle called " The Wedding," where it is alleged a nuptial party when on their way to church with pipers and fiddlers were all turned into stone. There is a circle in Cornwall, called " Dance Maine," or the dance of stone, said to represent a party of young damsels who were turned into stone because they danced on a Sunday. In Oxfordshire there is a party of soldiers who were turned into stone when coming to destroy Long Compton. Stonehenge was called the Giants' Dance," and close at home we have Meg and her Daughters (sometimes called her bairns) at Little Salkeld. Meg and her children in the Keswick and Broughton circles, but the legend connected with these last three is unfortunately lost, a circumstance which is not surprising when we consider how much the language must have got mixed up, or changed 21 in those parts during the early Iron and Steel Age as I will call it. Some few years ago, when staying in Co. Sligo, I met with rather an interesting legend of this sort which is only very locally known. The stones are called " Mc.Dowd and his children." This Mc.Dowd, it appears, was a fisherman, and when pursuing his occupation in Killala Bay, was in the habit of meeting with a mermaid. These meetings ended in their betrothment and in his finally taking her home ; but on their way he perceived that she carried a wand which he felt some suspicion about, and after considering the matter over, he quietly arose during the night and hid it. When in the morning Mrs. Mc.Dowd discovered her loss, she became almost disconsolate. Years passed over, the wand was at last found, and, returning into the house, she touched with it each of her children and Mr. Mc.Dowd, and they were at once turned into stone, and then she fled back to her old sea life in Killala Bay, which is close to where these stones may be seen. These turning-into-stone legends that are to be met with in other countries, as well as in our own, are interesting in several ways. In the upright stone there is much that is mystical, whether applied to those in circles or to the single one (monolithic), or to the high stone (menhir). Of course there are several theories respecting them with which I will not take up time by mentioning but, there is another class still in use 22 that I might name. For instance, we have the " Coronation Stone," that was supposed to have given its assent or dissent at the crowning of the various kings at Tara, in Ireland, and which was removed from thence to Scotland, and deposited at Iona for the coronation of Fergus Mor Mac Earc, and afterwards taken to the Abbey of Scone, until Edward I. in the year 129G, ordered it to be conveyed to Westminster and placed under the Coronation Chair, where it still remains and forms a part of the chair. I have seen stones that are used for the cure of certain complaints in the head, but what the exact disease is I could not learn. One stone had become quite smooth from long usage, and the peojde held it in great reverence. Both in Scotland and Ireland there is the Elf-stone, which is in use for the cure of a disease in cattle ascribed in the former country to the animal having been shot at by the fairies with elfin arrows, and what is called " elf struck " in the latter. It is held in great faith at many places in both countries. I have seen many of those stones, which arc usually kept wrapped up in flannel and they are either flakes from the making of flint implements that have been picked up with an occasional flint arrow head, or knife or scraper of flint. An exquisite small flint saw, which I obtained in this way, I presented to the Royal Irish Academy. In both countries, when used, these stones arc put into a certain quantity of water, which 23 is given to the cattle to drink, and there are other observances which I need not name here. I was much interested in the account which appeared in the newspapers (taken from an election- eering speech of one of the members for the eastern division of this county) two or three years ago, of the burying of a living calf at Bassenthwaite. I believe it to have been nothing 1 more than the revival of a custom or rite of our Pagan ancestors, which consisted in the offering of a living sacrifice to appease the wrath of the evil spirits which had taken possession of the milk cows — as is still the belief in some uncivilised countries. Another instance of it took place upon a farm not far from Naddle Bridge, on the Penrith road, about fifty years ago ; but in this case the grave, instead of being made in the interior of the cow-house, and in front of the cows, as was the case in Bassenthwaite, I found upon making inquiries, was made at the cow-house door. The living call was placed in it, and then each cow driven over. Strictly speaking, it was not in Bassenthwaite parish where the occurrence took place, but on a farm close adjoining it in Uldale parish. The " Need " or " Force Fire " that a few years ago was used for the supposed cure of the murrain in cattle, and which was started at Grasmere and passed on from farm to farm through two or three of our dales where the complaint existed, I believe to be another Pagan custom or rite of the sacred fire, 24 from the presence of which fled the evil spirits that were supposed to have taken possession of the cattle. At Millbeck Hall flour mill, during the late old John Gibson's time, there was a well known " Need " or " Force Fire " man, to whom people from considerable distances often came to obtain the fire. In the island of Skye, when " Fire of Necessity," or " Force Fire " is used for the cure of cattle in the murrain, all fires in the island are put out. Eighty-one married men take two great planks of wood, and nine of them are told off in turns to rub one of the planks against the other until fire is produced, and from this each family is supplied. No sooner is it kindled in their houses than a pot full of water is set on it, and which being afterwards sprinkled upon the cattle that have the murrain is considered to make a cure. Such customs, and others that I could name, are interesting as they appear to connect us with a race of people who, in ancient times, had spread over the whole of the three kingdoms and can be traced in this way as clearly as by the different Celtic names that they have left behind to many places in the country, as well as by their sepulchral and other remains scattered about here and there. At what date these people first colonized our island it would be difficult to say, but it would not be too much to suppose that the earliest of them must have been here during at least the latter part of the Polished Stone Age, whatever might be the period 25 they finally subdued the aborigines and appear to have spread over the whole country. The next class of remains that I have to allude to are, what are called in Scotland (particularly in the northern parts), " Hill Forts" and " Duns," and in Ireland, " Forts " " Raths " and Duns," each giving a prefix to the name of many places. In some instances that I have met with the old fort is still to seen. In the Lakes District guide-books no notice is taken of them, as if they were of no interest. They are not uncommon, yet their situations are probably less known than the previous remains treated upon. Their structure and form are greatly modified by their situation. Where stone is not abundant, they often consist of a circular rampart of earth with an outer trench to it, or they may be without either a rampart of stone or earth and have merely the circular trench with the area within, slightly raised above the level of the adjoining ground ; or the trench may be absent and a rampart only formed. In other cases when there is a natural defence on one or more sides, a less distance of structural defence is found to have been made. Of our " Hill Forts " the best example is to be seen upon the summit of Carrock Fell. It is of an oval form to suit the situation and is raised with stones owing to the geological feature of the ground. This fine " Hill Fort " is of large extent. It measures from east to west about two hundred and forty yards, and from north to south about one 26 hundred and twelve; but as the features of the ground made it difficult to step I may be some few yards out in my calculation of its exact measurement. The rampart is composed entirely of stone of rather large size which has been placed or thrown loosely together. It is many feet in thickness in some parts at its base and must have cost much labour to raise. There are several breaches in it which give the impression of having been made by an enemy and the stones removed, at these places. About fifty yards from the east side there is a sepulchral cairn within it, marking the grave no doubt of some distinguished person, which is interesting, as it points clearly who were the constructors of the fort, independently of the evidence of structure. Near the cairn to the west an abrupt and broken rise of the ground takes place, which terminates close to the extreme west end in a sort of pike of the natural rock, forming the highest part of this fell or mountain, commanding an extensive view of the low lying country towards the north and east, an essential requisite in hill forts from which it is intended to watch and harass the enemy, as well as for defensive purposes, or as a place of retreat. The name given to the mountain has evidently been taken from the fort. The Celtic or Welsh word Ccerog, meaning "fortified." The fortified fell, Ccerog fell, now spelt Carrock Fell. In Shoulthwaite Gill, high up, there is a small Hill Fort, but of another description, which has had a strong natural defence except on 27 one side, where an earthen rampart and trench has been formed. I may say here again, before going further, that the structure of the class of remains I am now alluding to varies according to the differences in the geological features of the ground where they may be situated, and that this difference is very apparent in a district like ours where the mountains vary in their geological characters. Close to Pooley Bridge, Ullswatef, on the top of Dimmallard, a low-lying wooded hill, there is the fort shown in diagram (6) which is of an oblong form and surrounded by a trench, with an extra one on its north, the weakest side of defence against an enemy, owing to the less incline of the ground at that part. It measures ninety yards north and south, and only twelve yards east and west, a circumstance which the features of the ground fully explains. The prefix to the name of the hill has undoubtedly arisen from this fort or dun being there. The well known Dunmail Raise, in Wythburn, has also derived its name, I am inclined to believe, from a dun or fort that probably stood there at one time, like so many more places that I could quote, particularly in Ireland, where in some cases the old duns are to be seen at the present day, similar to the Dunmallard one just named. Our Dunmail and a Rathmaol or Dunmaol that I met within a couple of miles from the town of Ballina, and another of the same name about ten miles from it, at Esky, both in 28 Co. Sligo, have the affix of their owners' name attached to them, so also have others with which I am acquainted. Maol is not an uncommon name in early Irish history. We read of four brothers of that name who were hung at Ard- na-Biagh, Ballina, for the murder of their foster-brother, through envy about sovereignty. This occurred early in the fifth century. In King Dunmail's grave, as it is called, where a cairn of stones has been raised, I would be inclined to leave out the " Dun" in the name, and simply call it King Mail's or Maol's grave, which has shared a better fate than his dun, owing probably to the superstitious dread of disturbing it. Within a few hundred yards from Ptathmaol, Ballina, I opened out two small barrows a few years ago. In one there was a very fine bronze dagger that had been placed upon some human calcined bones ; the other merely contained calcined bones. The dagger I presented to the Boyal Irish Academy with full particulars where found. Near to Bassenthwaite Bailway Station, upon Castle Howe, there is a fort which is often used by the Cockermouth people for pic-nics and dancing. On the north and south sides, from the considerable inclination of the ground, it has had a natural defence. On the other two sides short trenches have been formed. That to the west, which has been the weakest side of defence, three or four trenches are to be seen. At the east end two have been thought 29 sufficient, in one of which it is interesting to see where some soft shivery rock of the Skicldaw slate formation has been cut through to the depth of about five or six feet. This fort measures from east to west about thirty yards, by about twenty-five north and south. I next come to a class of British Forts that are now situated within enclosed and cultivated land, and which are alike in one respect, being circular and having each the circular trench with the exception of one called " Maybrough," close to Eamont Bridge, near Penrith. It is situated upon a small piece of rising ground, from which circumstance it may have been thought that the addition of a trench was not needed for defensive purposes, or the nature of the ground may be such as not to admit of a trench being made — which I had no means of examining. The rampart in it is an extremely fine one, and is constructed chiefly of small surface stones, heaped together ; and from its size and the quantity of stones, it must have required an immense amount of labour to raise. Within it, near the central part of the area, there is a fine monolithic (single stone) which there can be little doubt must have been raised by the same race of people who formed the fort, and who have left behind at other places, similar megalithics of which I believe to have had a chiefly monumental origin. Closely connected with this single large upright stone, it is said, there were, at one time, two or three smaller ones forming an 30 oblong enclosure. If this was the case, they probably pointed to where there once was a grave. About two miles south of Eamont Bridge, close to Garden Bridge, upon the river Lowther, and about an hour's walk from Pooley Bridge, Ullswater, there is the remains of a fort that has had both a trench and rampart of earth attached to it, but which has been greatly cut up by a private cart road having been made through it on one side. The rampart on the other side has been torn up greatly by the roots of large trees that have been blown clown, a fate which probably will be that of Maybrough, from the trees planted in its rampart and which is much to be regretted. Another description simply contains the circular entrenchment. They have neither the rampart of loose stones, or of earth alone, or earth and stones together, whatever they may have had, when occupied, of felled trees or stockades. I have only met with two or three similar to these else- where. I will therefore give what Mr. Wakeman says of them in his interesting little illustrated hand- book of Irish antiquities. He there says " the earthern Duns or Baths, which are found in every part of Ireland, where stone is not abundant, often consist of a circular entrenchment, the area of which is slightly raised above the level of the adjoining land." This description is exactly what Cserthanock is, diagram (7), which is situated about two miles, by the fields, west of Pooley Bridge, or about a quarter of a mile south-east of Maiden Castle on 31 the Dacre road. Another, called " Cser-mote," is about three miles north of the Castle Inn, at Bassenthwaite. The area of the former within the trench measures about seventy-three yards in diameter. The complete circle can be clearly traced notwithstanding that part is cut through by a fence. Caer-mote is about seventy-five yards in diameter, and the entrenchment is equally clear. We have here again in these two forts the Celtic word Ccer, a fort, which is interesting. The other was Ccerog, fortified. Upon Latrigg there is what is called " Cserhuses " in two or three small green patches of earth, about eighteen or twenty feet in diameter. In one may be traced a small earthen enclosure extending to about one-third of the circle. Where the fort has been, as there evidently must have been one near by the name, I cannot make out clearly. " Arthur's Bound Table," at Eamont Bridge, near Penrith, is another similarly constructed fort, only that it has had an earthen mound or rampart on the outer side of the circular trench, which to me is quite new in this respect. When they are to be met together, and they are far from being uncommon, the rampart I have found invariably to be within the trench. There are one or two others of this last class of remains that are to be seen in this district but as their outlines are so imperfect I have thought it just as well to omit them in this paper. Within much similar structures to those that I have 32 just alluded (which are called by such names as Eath, Fort, and Lis in Ireland) the provincial kings of that country, their nobles and chiefs had their dwellings of wood or wattle houses, and in some few their caves lined with nncemented stones and connected by passages so small that not unfrequently I have had much difficulty in making my way through them going sometimes head first and into others feet first, in a creeping position. This latter way I generally adopted when I found the passage clear upon entering them from without, as the first one is always of a considerable descent and longer than the others except in one case that I have met with. The last constructed rath, we are told, was by King Leoghare in the year 429, and in 458 he was interred within it by his own wish, and not taken to Tara to be buried as was the case with previous Kings of Ireland. About this time the art of building with stone was first introduced into that country by the Christian missionaries, in their beehive houses and oratories, composed of nncemented stones well fitted together and roofed by the gradual approximation of the side walls from their base upwards. Then followed the stone forts or cathairs (as they are still called by the people) when rath building was given up and Christianity began strongly to take hold of the people in place of Paganism. In conclusion, I wish to remark that the word " pre-historic " in the title of this paper, which was given to Mr. Wood, our hon. secretary, in haste, perhaps is not one of the 33 best chosen of words. I now think, that " British " or " Pagan Celtic," either, would have been better, as it is difficult to say that not one or more of these remains were constructed at the early Roman period, close upon or even into historic times. Eknvever, what I have described of them are of neither Roman nor Anglo-Saxon origin, and prediistoric man, taking the word in its strictest sense, raised similar works and used them for similar purposes. Bakewell & Fitzjames, Printers, " Guardian" Office, Keswick.