46 PAPERS, ETC. 
mentioned on the beacon, though this may perhaps be 
accounted for by the woodland nature of the country, which 
would have furnished ample materials for palisade.. On 
the whole, I am inclined to the opinion, that Neroche, 
though undoubtedly a British work, is not one of the very 
earliest date, and probably owes its origin to the Belgie 
invasion. This opinion is, in some degree, confirmed by 
the relics of antiquity which have been from time to time 
discovered on the spot. None of the pottery is ofthe same 
kind as that dug up at Worle and Sand Point, but appears 
to be Roman ware, of a very coarse description, some 
fragments of which being evidently failures in the making, 
would lead us to suppose that there had been a manufactory 
of earthenware on the spot. As farasI can find out, no 
weapons or ornaments of stone or bronze have ever been 
found there. I have been told that iron arrow-heads have 
been found on the beacon, but I have not been fortunate 
enough to see one of them. An iron sword-blade is also 
said to have been found at the spot marked in the plan, 
which, from the description given of it, I imagine to have 
been similar to those found on Hamdon Hill, which are 
probably British, of the Roman period. Several skeletons 
have also been dug up from time to time, one of which is 
stated to have been enclosed in a wooden coffin of enormous 
thickness, and was probably an interment of the fourth or 
fifth century. Curious excavations have also been found; 
these are circular, eight or ten feet in diameter, and 
seven or eight feet in depth, but their shape, that of an 
inverted cone, (which, in one that I saw, was distincetly 
marked by the light colour of the sand that had filled 
it), forbids the supposition that they were hut circles ; 
but I offer no suggestion as to their use, unless they 
