EARTHWORKS NEAR BRUTON. 45 



powerfulj warlike, and partially civilized people, keeping 

 up a constant communication with their Continental rela- 

 tions, the Gauls, engaged in mining Operations and trading 

 in skins of beasts, possessing numberless flocks and herds, 

 and in some cases coining gold money, and superior both 

 in arts and arms to the aboriginal Britons whom they 

 had displaced. That the aborigines, though in some points 

 in communication with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, 

 were a race of warlike and untutored savages, can hardly 

 be doubted, whatever proficiency their Druids and Bards 

 had attained to in mystic philosophy, astronomy, and 

 mechanics ; and that even the Belgae were in a very im- 

 perfectly civilized state is evident from the remains of their 

 habitations, which were probably constructed much on the 

 same plan as, though inferior in comfort to those of the 

 M andan tribe, described by Catlin. Mr. Petrie, in bis very 

 beautiful and learned work upon the Ecclesiastical Archi- 

 tecture and Bound Towers of Ireland, has given a descrip- 

 tion of some houses probably constructed in the Celtic 

 manner. The first is the building known to the peasantry 

 as the Stone House of the Bock, situated on the North 

 side cf the great Island of Arran, in the bay of Gal- 

 way, and is probably of the 5th Century. It is stated by 

 Mr. Petrie to be in its interior measure 8 feet high, and 

 its walls are about 4 feet thick ; the door-way is but 3 feet 

 high and 2 feet 6 inches wide on the outside, but narrows 

 to 2 feet on the inside. The roof is formed as in all build- 

 ings of this class, by the gradual approximation of stones 

 laid horizontally, tili it is closed at the top by a Single 

 stone, and two apertures in its centre served the double 

 purpose of a window and chimney. The next is the house 

 of St. Finan Conn, one of the early Saints of Ireland, who 

 lived in the 6th Century ; this example exhibits the charac- 



