Early Inhabitants of the West of Europe. 151 



insulated, sometimes they are found in groups. It has been 

 conjectured by French antiquaries that these are the latebra of 

 the Roman historians, in which the Gauls so often eluded pur- 

 suit, and re-appeared as suddenly to harass the enemy. Dr 

 Hib'bert next proceeded to remark that these caves contmuedto 

 be used even during the feudal period. At Ceyssac, in the 

 province of Velay in France, the castle of the lord crowned the 

 summit of a hill, ail of which was excavated into caves, that 

 seemed either to have been used as chambers, or to have con- 

 tained regular stalls for horses, and one has evidently been cm- 

 ployed as a chapel. The entrance and lower apartments of a 

 castle which flanks Mont Perrier, in Auvergne, has been 

 scooped out of the solid rock ; and on the opposite eminence is 

 a system of grottoes, which served for the abodes of the retainers. 

 At Conteaux, in Velay, is a system of caves, one of which, ap- 

 parently the baron s hall, is twenty yards long, by six and a 

 half broad. Attached to it is a kitchen, opening to the top of 

 a superjacent terrace, and almost as spacious as the famous one 

 of the Abbot of Glastonbury. Among the caves of Roche 

 Robert is a hall twenty yards by five, hghted by a well-shaped 

 window. The period when these caves were abandoned by their 

 feudal proprietors cannot be ascertained. They became subse- 

 quently the haunts of banditti. 



The next portion of the memoir was intended to shew that, 

 even in the present day, whole villages of Troglodytes were to 

 be found even in the civihzed countries of Europe. In the 

 neighbourhood of Bagnovea, in the Pope's territories, is a vil- 

 lage, of which an Italian traveller has observed, that a few stones 

 for the purpose of closing the entrance of the cavern, a hole for 

 the smock to go out of, and an aperture to admit the light, suf- 

 fice to complete each habitation. In the Island of Ponza, near 

 the Ray of Naples, is another town of the same kind, the inha- 

 bitants preferring to reside in caves, although the island a- 

 bounds with the best materials for building. The caves are 

 described as being refreshing in summer, warm in winter, and 

 widjout the least humidity. In France, many villages of in- 

 habited caverns still exist, as at Cuzolo in the Cantal, at Mount 

 Perrier in Auvergne, and many other places. Swinburne has 

 described a village of the same kind, which occurs in the pro- 



