k 



By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 125 



Cunnington on their object,* as the most ample exemplification of 

 this subject. But the Celtic tribes were not content with one 

 dwelling place : they must have summer residences as well : these 

 were very slight, and consisted only of a few stakes driven into 

 the ground, interwoven with wattles, and covered over with boughs 

 of trees.2 Then they learned to daub these wattled walls of their 

 bouses with clay, to fill up the chinks, and so make them warmer ; 

 and to whitewash the clay, after it became dry, with chalk. Then 

 they thatched their huts, first with boughs and afterwards with 

 straw ; and finally, they substituted solid beams of wood for the 

 stakes and wattles : and thus their temporary houses, intended 

 only for summer use, assumed a more permanent form, and were 

 continuously inhabited. Still they retained the circular form, 

 with high tapering roofs, at the top or centre of which was an 

 aperture for the admission of light and the emission of smoke. 

 These huts were scattered about the country, generally either on 

 the brink of some rivulet for the sake of water, or on the edge of a 

 wood, for the convenience of hunting. And sometimes such habi- 

 tations were grouped together, and surrounded by a mound and 

 ditch, for the security of themselves and their cattle, against the 

 incursions of their enemies. " And this " (CaBsar and Strabo 

 remark in a sneering tone) " is what the Britons call a town, no 

 other than a tract of woody country, for the forests of the Britons 

 are their cities." ^ I fear that the assertion of the above-named 

 authors was not without foundation, and that the Celts never 

 attained much knowledge of domestic architecture : or shall I say 

 that they evinced a contented mind, in being easily satisfied with 

 the humblest homes ? But I think we may safely sum up our 

 account of their dwelling places in the words of another historian, 



• WiltsMre Magazine, vol. vii., p. 242, 244. 

 Sir R. Hoare's Ancient Wilts, vol, i., p. 37, 234. 



2 Ovid: Metam: lib. i., 122. 

 Sharon Turner's History of England, vol. i., p. 16, 69. 

 Henry's History of Great Britain, vol. ii., p. 116, 



Compare Rawlinson's account of the reed, wattled and rush huts of the early 

 Chaldean settlers. [Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, i., 88, 89.] 

 ^Caesar Comment: de Bell: Gall: lib. v., 21. 

 Stiabo, lib. v., p. 197. 



