ENCLOSURES AT SMALLACOMBE, 15 



of a very primitive type. Great blocks were set on end, with 

 smaller stones built in between. In some parts where rocks oc- 

 curred in sUu, they were permitted to remain, and the masonry 

 joined on to them. On the north side, one block of this kind is 

 curiously buttressed by two others placed against it. It appears 



to have been natui^ally in a leaning position, and was thus sup- 

 ported to bear the weight of superincumbent masonry. 



North of this enclosure are others, less defined in shape, occu- 

 pjdng a considerable portion of ground, and known as the Fares.* 



About 25 yards from the principal entrance (A), and immedi- 

 ately adjoining the paved way on the east side, are the remains of 

 a dome, or bee-hive, shaped structure (r), the external diameter of 

 the base measuring 15 feet. Its present height is 4 feet, but the 

 upper portion has fallen in. There is nothing to indicate the pur- 

 pose of this building ; possibly it may have been raised over a 

 spring, since dried up. This mode of building with stones over- 

 lapping has been found elsewhere in this neighbourhood. Sir 

 Gardner Wilkinson has, in the Reports of this Society, described 

 some as existing on the east and west sides of Brown Willy, and 

 has given figures of them in the Journal of the British Archceological 

 Association. Sir Gardner says : " I am disposed to think them of 

 " later date than the hut-circles, and, like those in Ireland, of Christ- 

 " ian time." This conclusion had been arrived at partly from the 

 excellent' condition of the examples which had been examined ; but 

 the overlapping masonry, as a principle in the rude architecture of 

 the times, is to be seen in some of those structures attributed to 

 the earliest period of which we have remains of places formed for 

 habitation. I have, howevex', seen bee-hive structures of stone, 



* Fare (Cornish) — field, or enclosure. 



C 2 



