Oct. 22. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



893 



purpose they could have been excavated, unless 

 for the purpose of sepulture in the times of the 

 aborigines, or of very early inhabitants of Britain, 

 SLS they in many respects resemble those stone graves 

 which are mentioned in Worsaae's Description of 

 the Primceval Antiquities of Denmark, translated 

 and applied to the illustration of similar remains 

 in England by Mr. Thorns. 



One of these cavities is situated on a remote 

 pasture farm, among the hills belonging to the 

 Earl of Lauderdale, called Braidshawrigg ; and 

 was discovered by a shepherd very near his own 

 house, within less than a quarter of a mile up a 

 small stream which runs past it, and on the oppo- 

 site side of the water, a few yards up the steep hill. 

 The shepherd had observed for some time that one of 

 his dogs was in the habit of going into what he sup- 

 posed to be a rabbit hole at this place, and when he 

 was missing and called, he generally came out of 

 this hole. At last, curiosity led his master to take a 

 spade and dig into it ; and he soon found that, after 

 digging down into tlie soil to the rock, the cavity 

 became larger, and had evidently been the work 

 of human hands. Information was given to Lord 

 Lauderdale, and the rubbish was cleared away. 

 It (the rubbish) did not extend far in, and after 

 that the passage was clear. The excavation con- 

 sists of a passage cut nearly north and south (the 

 entrance being to the south) through various 

 strata of solid rocks, partly grauwacke, or what is 

 there called whinstone), and partly gray slate : the 

 strata lying east and west, and nearly vertical. 

 The whole length of it is seventy-four feet. From 

 the entrance the passage, for four or five yards, 

 slopes downwards into the hill ; it then runs hori- 

 zontally the length of sixty-three feet from the 

 entrance, when it changes its direction at right 

 angles to the westward for a distance of eleven 

 feet ; when it ends with the solid rock. It is 

 regularly from three feet four inches to three feet 

 six inches wide, and about seven feet high, the 

 ceiling being somewhat circular. The floor is the 

 rock cut square. The time and labour must have 

 been great to cut this passage, as not more than 

 one man could conveniently quarry the rock at 

 the same time. It might have been supposed that 

 this was a level to a mine, as copper has been 

 worked in this range farther eastward ; but the 

 passage does not follow any vein, but cuts across 

 all the strata, and keeps a straight line, till it 

 turns westward, and then in another straight line ; 

 and the floors, sides, and roof are all made quite 

 regular and even with a pickaxe or a hammer. 

 There does not appear to have been at any time 

 any other habitation than the shepherd's house, and 

 another cottage a little lower down the stream, in 

 the neighbourhood. The discovery of this cavern 

 recalled to the recollection of myself, and some of 

 my family, that a few years ago, in cutting a road 

 through the rock into a whinstone quarry, about 



four miles south of Braidshawrigg, near a mill, 

 we had cut across the east end of a passage some- 

 what similar to the one before mentioned, but 

 running east and west ; that we had cleared it out 

 for a short way, but as it then went under a 

 corner of one of the houses belonging to the mill, 

 we stopped, for fear of bringing down the building, 

 as this passage, though cut out of the solid rock, 

 was not a mine, but had been worked to the sur- 

 face ; and, if it ever had been used for purposes of 

 sepulture, must have been roofed with flagstones, 

 and then covered with earth like other Picts' 

 houses. But these roof-stones must have been 

 carried away, and the whole trench was filled with 

 rubbish, and all trace of it on the surface was 

 obliterated. This passage we have lately opened, 

 and cleared out. To the westward it passes into 

 the adjoining water-mill, which is itself in great 

 part formed by excavation of the rock ; and the 

 east wall of the upper part of the mill is arched 

 over the passage. Beyond the west wall of the 

 mill which adjoins the stream, there is a continu- 

 ation of the trench through the rock down to the 

 water, which serves to take away that which passes 

 over the millwheel at right angles to where the 

 rock has been cut away to make room for the mill- 

 wheel itself. That which has been cut away in 

 making the trench, is a seam of clay slate about 

 three feet six inches in breadth, between two solid 

 whinstone rocks. The length of the passage, from 

 the east end, which terminated in rock, to the mill, 

 is sixty-three feet. The mill is thirty feet, and 

 the cut beyond it twelve feet : in all, one hundred 

 and five feet. The average depth is about twelve 

 feet ; but as it slopes down to the stream, some of 

 it is sixteen feet deep. It has been suggested that 

 it might have been dug out in order to obtain the 

 coarse slate ; but the difficulty of working a con- 

 fined seam like this, in any other way than by 

 picking it out piecemeal with immense labour, 

 seems impossible. It can never have been meant 

 to convey water to the mill, as the highest part 

 begins in the solid rock, and the object must 

 always have been to keep the water on the 

 highest possible level, until it reached the top 

 of the millwheel. Nothing was found in either 

 of these excavations. — After this long discussion. 

 Query, What can have been the purpose for which, 

 these laborious works can have been executed ? 



J. S. s. 



PRONUNCIATION OF " HUMBLE. 



(Vol. viii., pp. 229. 298.) 



It Is my misfortune entirely to differ from Mr. 

 Dawson (p. 229.) and Mr. Crossley (p. 298.) as 

 to the pronunciation of humhie ; and permit me to 

 say (with all courtesy) that I was unfeignedly 

 surprised at the Litter's assertion, that sounding 



