OF DEVONSHIRE. 107 



that they were wattle, turf, stone, or other material. 

 These vestiges strikingly illustrate the descriptions 

 which Diodorus Siculus and Strabo give of the habi- 

 tations of the Britons of their times. The former 

 describes them as poor cottages, constructed of wood 

 and covered with straw ; the latter as wooden houses 

 circular in form, with lofty conical roofs. The foun- 

 dation slabs, above-mentioned, generally stand from 

 eighteen to thirty inches above the surface. The 

 door-jambs in most cases higher, placed nearly at 

 right angles to the outline of the circle ; in a very 

 considerable proportion of examples the door faces 

 the south.'' 



These habitations were, in accordance with the 

 rude state of such as tenanted them, a confused 

 parcel of huts, placed, for the most part, in the 

 middle of a wood, its avenues being defended by 

 ramparts of earth, or trees felled to clear the passage. 

 Such were the dwellings of the serfs ; those of the 

 higher classes were erected with more attention to 

 the material of which they were composed, and with 

 still greater care for the situation chosen. The chief 

 sometimes fixed on some elevated knoll for his 

 abode ; at others, and more frequently, a site which 

 so strikingly coincides with the locality the antiqui- 

 ties of which are here attempted in description, that 

 we might almost fancy it drawn from the place itself. 

 The chief, we are told, usually had his abode on the 

 hill side, with a group of dwellings for his serfs near 

 the river below it, and a road wound along the 

 valley between them, gradually ascending to a bea- 

 con, which overlooked the whole. Thus the lord's 

 residence constituted a kind of fortress, which the 

 alarm of a scout might at any time garrison with his 

 surrounding tenantry. 



In following him to such a habitation, we shall 

 be introduced to scenes resembling those described 

 by Ossian : in some elevated seat — afterwards the 

 dais of the baronial hall — the rude lord, surrounded 

 by his principal guests, who sat on the skins with 



