74 HULL SOIENTIFIC AND FIELD NATURALISTS’ CLUB. © 
But apart from the geological evidence, there are other indications 
of the former appearance of the country. I refer to the place-names. 
Goose Island, near Ulrome, is a hillock surrounded by grass 
fields; the mound is no longer an island. And we have quite a 
number of names indicating the former existence of meres and 
marshes. Marton, near Burton Constable; Sand-le-Mere or Sand- 
le-Marr, near Withernsea, and Marfleet, near Hull; Saltmarshe in 
Patrington, and Greenmarsh, near ‘'horngumbold, are examples.! 
The sites of these lakes and bogs of course are now occupied by 
fertile fields. ‘The Mere at Hornsea is the sole survivor of a series 
of meres or broads which were linked together, and doubtless 
precisely resembled the well-known Norfolk Broads.” 
There is ample proof also that the land not occupied by water 
was well wooded. We can therefore picture to ourselves the 
appearance of the country and the kind of life its primitive in- 
habitants would have to lead. On the east they were bounded by 
the North Sea and on the south by the Humber ; to the north and 
west were the Chalk Wolds. There is abundant evidence that 
the Wolds were thickly populated in Ancient British times; the 
scores of barrows, the entrenchments and other earthworks, together 
with the thousands of implements of all descriptions that have 
been found there, prove this. Whether these dwellers on the 
Wolds were friends or foes to the tribes on the low ground, or 
were one and the same people, we are not in a position to say ; but 
it is possible that the inhabitants of marshy and wooded Holderness 
would follow a life of a very different character from that of the 
occupants of the hills. The Holderness folk would probably be of 
a peaceful disposition, agriculturalists rather than warriors. It is 
with a brief account of these people, and of the relics they have 
left behind them, that I now propose to deal. 
To a certain extent the geographical conditions of a district 
govern the mode of habitation of the occupants of that district ; 
and we should naturally expect to find that the inhabitants of an 
area such as has been described would live either on the hill tops 
or in huts built upon the edges of the lakes. Such indeed was 
exactly the case. Fortunately the method adopted by the Lake- 
dwellers was all that could be desired on the part of those who in 
later ages are anxious to learn how their predecessors existed. 
(1) Mr. J. R. Boyle, F.S.A., has supplied me with the following further list :—Longmar- 
hill, in Welwick; Bowmerehill, in Owstwick; Pilmar-lane, in Roos; Withernsea Mere; 
Rowmere and Giltsmere, in Tunstall; Reddmere, in Preston; Braemere, in Flinton ; 
“The Marrs,” in Swine; Crossmerehill, in Aldbro’; Soumers (?), Whitemarr, and Bassmarr, 
in Skipsea , Braemarr-drain, in Beeforth ; Gunnymarsh-drain, in Ottringham ; Haymarsh, in 
Preston ; Greenmarsh, in Oamerton ; Slightmarsh and Ryehillmarsh, in Ryehill , Ottringham 
Marsh; Atwick Marsk (?) and Sallymarr, near Burton Constable; and “The Marsk,” in 
Nunkeeling. 
(2) Even so recently as medieval times the waters in some parts of Holderness were 
famous for their fish ; those near Skipsea for example, Vide the Chronicle of Meaux Abbey. 
