134 YORKSHIRE. EAST RIDING. 



mounds, which are still, after years of exposure to the destructive 

 agency of the plough and of removal for agricultural purposes, 

 sufficiently abundant, but also from the widely-diffused series 

 of defensive works ramparts and ditches with which the wolds 

 are covered. The multitudes of flint implements and chippings, 

 which it is no exaggeration to say are found by thousands, also 

 point to an occupation which must have been lengthened as well 

 as extensive. 



In the absence of other grounds of explanation of this fact, 

 we must probably look to the naturally strong and easily defended 

 positions which the district affords, for one of the main reasons 

 why its early occupants selected it for their place of abode. It 

 was nearly inaccessible on account of the flat, and consequently 

 swampy, ground which surrounded it on all sides ; and besides 

 this, in the thick coverts, which must at that time have existed 

 on those low-lying lands a fact which is demonstrated by the 

 frequent occurrence of trunks of trees and brushwood found in 

 the peat there was supplied the requisite shelter for deer, wild 

 swine, and other animals, which formed, no doubt to some extent, 

 an element in the food of a people by whom the processes of 

 agriculture were but very slightly pursued. At the same time 

 it must be admitted, that the evidence of the barrows makes 

 it quite certain that these people were possessed of domesticated 

 animals of various kinds, and if we are to judge by the bones found 

 in the sepulchral mounds, it appears that the flesh of wild animals 

 formed a very small item in their food, when compared with that 

 of oxen, goats, and swine. With a few exceptions, the numerous 

 bones which have been met with in the barrows are those of 

 domesticated animals. 



The dryness of the soil was also, no doubt, a great inducement to 

 a people whose habitations were of a very imperfect kind, and 

 to whom a wet or swampy situation must have been both incon- 

 venient and unhealthy. Nor can it be doubted that the comparative 

 absence of wood was a circumstance which must have materially 

 influenced settlers, such as we may consider the early wold- 

 dwellers to have been, in their choice of a place of abode. To 

 men who were in possession of no cutting instruments better than 

 axes made of stone, or at the best of bronze, the clearing of land 

 from forest trees, and even brushwood, must have presented almost 

 insuperable obstacles. And as in the humblest stages of agricul- 

 tural and pastoral life a certain proportion of land must necessarily 



