56 PAPBRS, ETU. 



dug here would probably have been used in the immediate 

 vicinity ; and I know of nothing that would lead us to 

 suppose that such has been the case. But, with regard to 

 the idea that they are the holes from which stone has been 

 dug for the purpose of constructing querns and other Uten- 

 sils of stone, I cannot think that the objections are 

 nearly so conclusive. That they did make querns here in 

 great numbers is certain, and the fact that those which 

 have been found on the spot have not been used, and 

 generally are unfinished or flawed, is fair ground for sup- 

 posing that the majority were taken away, probably to a 

 considerable distance, which is confirmed by my having 

 found the fragments of a small grindstone, for tools, bear- 

 the marke of use, during my excavation of the British 

 fortified pass at St. Kew's Steps, which was formed of the 

 same stone as those unfinished circular masses, which I 

 obtained from workmen who had just dug them up from 

 the bottom of one of the Pen Pits. 



Sir R. Hoare's Observation, that the Britons or any other 

 persons possessed of common sense, having found a bed of 

 stone suited to their purpose, would have followed that, 

 instead of excavating a large tract of rough ground, will 

 certainly apply to all people who can work with ease 

 through solid rock, but that this was not the case, at least 

 with the early Britons is evident, from the hut circles at 

 Worle Hill, where they have always followed the natural 

 fracture of the rock, and have invariably left off wherever 

 it was solid; and if the Britons of Pen, found separate 

 masses of stone large enough for their purpose by exca- 

 vating, however extensively, they were certainly more 

 likely to do so than to work the solid stone with their very 

 imperfect, and at the same time very costly tools. Now, if 

 Orchard Castle be of the very early date which I suppose 



