52 PAPERS, ETC. 



rounded on inost sides by steep and irregulär ground. 

 That part of the parish immediately adjoining the village 

 bears the most cultivated and improved appearance ; some 

 other parts of tbe vale, watered by the river Stour, have 

 also been brought into cultivation, but the greater propor- 

 tion still remains in its wild and desert State, covered with 

 brushwood, though stripped of its oaks and timber. The 

 extent of land comprised within our plan amounts to about 

 700 acres, of which nearly half have been brought into 

 cultivation. But I have no doubt but that the whole of 

 this fine piain was originally excavated into pits ; these ex- 

 cavations seem also to have extended along the Eastern 

 banks of the river Stour, as far as the farra house at Bon- 

 ham ; and froni the appearance of the ground on the oppo- 

 site side, I have reason to think they were continued along 

 the Western bank of the sanie river. These pits are in 

 their form like an inverted cone, and are very unequal in 

 their dimensions ; in some instances we see double pits, 

 divided by a slight partition of earth, and the soil in 

 which they are dug is of so dry a nature, that no water 

 has been known to stagnate in them. Various have been 

 the opinions and conjectures of those who have examined 

 these pits ; first, that the ground was thus excavated for 

 the simple purpose of procuring stone ; second, that the 

 Britons resorted to this spot for the querns or mill stones, 

 with which, in ancient times, they bruised their com ; 

 third, that they were made for the purpose of habitations, 

 or a place of refuge in times of danger. It would be ridi- 

 culous, even for a moment, to suppose that so large a tract 

 of land could have been excavated for the sole purpose of 

 procuring stone, for these excavations generally cease with 

 the upper Stratum of sand, which Covers a deep and fine 

 bed of hard green stone. I have found this Stratum of 



