53 



some partly charred, with the rough stones used for crushing 

 grain, and fragments of pottery of a very rude and primitive 

 type. It appears certain that these depressions were used as 

 rude cooking-places — dwelling-places they scarcely can have 

 been. They are very shallow, excavated to a depth not 

 exceeding two or three feet, having the sides built up of 

 loose stones, and the floor formed of earth trodden hard. 

 On a former visit of the Club, many years ago, to Hampton 

 Common, General Younghusband, — since dead, — stated that 

 in India some of the native tribes are in the habit of forming 

 cooking-pits after the self-same fashion at the present day, 

 by excavating a hole and throwing up the earth in a heap on 

 one side. 



After dinner which had been served in a tent, the President 

 and Members adjourned to the neighbouring inn, where, around 

 a good fire, they discussed the question of the mounds and 

 entrenchments by the Kght afibrded by their recent excavations. 

 Mr. CuNNiNGTON, SO wcll known to antiquaries, by the reputa- 

 tion he has acquired in examining the tumuli of Wiltshire, gave 

 it as his opinion that he much doubted whether the earthworks 

 were raised for defence ; and as regarded the pit-like excava- 

 tions, he thought they were not British, but probably belonged 

 to more recent times. They were however the work of a rude 

 people, who from the few things found, he judged only occupied 

 them for a short time ; no metal was found. Two pieces of the 

 pottery found were not made upon a wheel, whilst some others 

 fairly worked, might be rather late Roman. Yery few remains 

 of animal bones were discovered. There was a httle slag. 

 Without giving a positive opinion, he thought they were of a 

 date shortly subsequent to the departure of the Romans. But 

 after all it would seem that from the scantiness of the evidence, 

 the actual date and attribution of these mounds and earthworks 

 remains still a matter of considerable doubt and uncertainty. 



The next Meeting of the Club — one to be in its annals, 



" For ever marked with white," 



took place on the invitation of Me. George Maw, F.G.S., at 



