EARTHWORKS NEAR BRUTON. 55 



population resided ; some in its immediate vicinity, some 

 in villages at a greater or less distance, of one of which, 

 with its cattle enclosure, I think I have observed faint 

 traces on the Western extremity of the hill on which 

 Pen Church is situated. These babitations would account 

 for the few marks of domestic occupation which have been 

 observed at the Pits, for no doubt a few hut circles may 

 be discovered among these extensive excavations, but the 

 idea that they are all the remains of habitations appear 

 to me to be totally untenable. In the first place, they 

 are so extensive that, had this been the case, they would 

 have afforded accommodation for the inhabitants of the 

 whole Island, instead of those of one district. In the 

 second, their arrangement is perfectly dhTerent from that 

 of any British town I have ever seen; instead of being 

 situated in scattered groups, they are all crowded together 

 in such a way as to Cover almost the whole area, with a 

 mass of confused hollows. And in the third place their 

 shape — that of an inverted cone — is the last that would 

 be considered adapted to human habitation. The only in- 

 stance in which I have ever heard of its being adopted, 

 being in certain mediaaval dungeons, where the object sought 

 after was the very reverse of comfort. There are a few 

 curious excavations of this form within the area of Castle 

 Neroche, but there is nothing to lead to the belief that 

 they are hut circles. 



With regard to the idea that they are the marks of 

 simple quarrying for stone, I can only observe that I know 

 of nothing which would lead us to suppose that the Bri- 

 tons, either in this district or elsewhere, were in the habit 

 of constructing stone buildings, beyond the dry piled 

 masonry of some very early ramparts, and perhaps the 

 lower part of their circular huts ; at all events, the stone 



