CHEDDAR, WELLS, AND GLASTONBURY. Ixv. 



work, stating that ^50 or ^60 would be required. He did not 

 expect to find many relics ; but what he wanted to prove was 

 whether or not it was a Roman amphitheatre, and whether there 

 were any tiers of seats for spectators. Some authorities con- 

 sidered it to be of earlier origin. 



The Glastonbury Lake Village. 



Mr. St. George Gray shortly afterwards gave an able, lucid, 

 and instructive lecture on the Lake Village at Glastonbury and 

 the discoveries which have been made there during the past 

 sixteen years by Mr. Arthur Bulleid, F.S.A., of Midsomer Norton, 

 and himself. Glastonbury, noted for the ruins of its superb 

 abbey, had of late years had its fame considerably enhanced by 

 the discovery and excavation of the lake village in its immediate 

 vicinity. It had directed enquiries to Glastonbury from all parts 

 of the world, these lacustrine habitations marking the cultural 

 epoch known as the pre-historic Iron Age, concerning which 

 comparatively little had been known before. Mr. Bulleid, who 

 was the discoverer of the village, and himself were preparmg a 

 thick quarto book on the subject, embodying all their discoveries. 

 By means of a fine series of 70 photographic slides, shown by 

 Mr. Sheldon with the limelight, Mr. Gray gave his attentive 

 audience a vivid impression of the lake village, the clay hearths 

 superimposed one upon the other, as in turn they gradually sank 

 into the peaty soil, the stakes of the surrounding palisades, the 

 stones before the doorways, and the great variety of articles of 

 domestic use. He assigned the lake village to the period from 

 B.C. 200 to A.D. 70. It might be the work of the Belgae, and it 

 was striking that Camden, in his map of Somerset dated 1580, 

 indicated that " The Belgae " inhabited that lake district. The 

 relics found, not considering pottery, numbered about 4,000, and 

 included bobbins, weaving-combs, loom-weights, spindle-whorls, 

 parts of looms, affording clues to the weaving industry of the 

 inhabitants. The relics were found for the most part on the 

 floors of the houses. Mr. Bulleid and he had not discovered the 



