4 
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25 
DeEceMBER 141TH. 
ORDINARY MEETING.—DR. STEVENS ON THE 
LATE DISCOVERY OF PIT-DWELLINGS 
IN HAMPSHIRE. 
As a member of the Brighton and Sussex Natural History 
Society, he wished to introduce to the notice of the Society a short 
account of a cluster of hut-circles, evidently forming part of a con- 
siderable settlement of such, which were brought to his notice by one 
of the labourers engaged in digging a yard at a new Railway Station, 
‘situated ou a hill about half-a-mile from St. Mary Bourne, immediately 
overlooking the Upper Test Valley. The man had been employed by 
him in investigating some Roman buildings at Finkley, near Andover, 
during the late summer, and had become quite an expert in the recog- 
nition of rude objects of antiquity ; and finding that the subsoil of 
the yard contained calcined stones, broken pottery, and other evidence 
of past occupation, brought the matter to his notice, which led to the 
discovery of nine of these early habitations, of which, from their 
situation, two only could be completely investigated, and five others 
partially. There was no doubt they formed a portion of a large village, 
of, perhaps, the British period ; and that, with favourable weather, 
further investigations would be made at the site of these interesting 
remains. 
The pits occupied the space of about a quarter of an acre, and 
had all entrance shafts, sloping gradually downwards from their inlets, 
and widening as they approached the pits ; but a description of the 
dwellings seriatim would, perhaps, be the means of rendering them 
more easily understood. 
Pit 1 was oval or pear-shaped, having its entrance south- 
wards. Its length was 22ft, from the end of the pit to the 
mouth of the alley; greatest diameter 12ft. ; depth at the centre 
of the pit 5ft. It was the only circle that contained flints, of which 
12 cart-loads were removed ; and as some of the stones were arranged 
in courses, without mortar, around its circumference, and on each side 
of the alley, he had thought that the superstructure must have been 
of flint, and that ithad fallenin. The relics found were chiefly at 
the centre, where the fire-place had evidently been; the smoke 
' escaping probably through a hole in the centre of the roof, They 
consisted of about a bushel of calcined flints, bones of a small species 
