THE NEIGHBOTTBHOOD OF BROWN WILLY. 349 



the summits of tlie highest rock, and nowhere else : — the " High- 

 place," — the "Hill-altar." It seems well-nigh impossible to 

 account for such exclusiveness of locality, wholly and solely on 

 natural grounds ; it looks rather as if nature had completed and 

 intensified, that which, in some cases at least, had been begun by 

 man. However, whether they be partially artificial or not, the 

 situation of the basins is interesting from quite another point of 

 view ; for the topmost crags form look-out stations for ravens and 

 other large birds, and they are pretty sure to bathe in the basins ; 

 so that a scrutiny of any feathers left in the water may indentify 

 a visit paid by some wandering buzzard, peregrine, or other 

 falcon, that has managed to escape the notice of both eye and 

 ear. 



Of Hut-circles there are numerous examples near at hand; 

 on the slope between Rough Tor and the monument ; on Scaddick 

 Hill; Carne Down; and Hendra. One specimen only — at the 

 eastern foot of Brown Willy — has the domed roof remaining ; 

 this may be relatively modern, as it is much smaller than the 

 usual type, and is a solitary hut, which is rather suspicious, 

 unless we may suppose it to have belonged to the last of the 

 prehistorics. Usually these huts are found clustered near 

 together, either within or contiguous to the small but massive 

 wall-ruins of oblong cattle pens ; they are to be looked for on 

 that slope of a hill lying towards the South East or North East, 

 the builders having selected such a site, partly no doubt so as to 

 be sheltered from the Western gales, and partly, perhaps, so 

 as to face the quarter whence danger was anticipated. For 

 these British villages give one the idea of having been made not 

 only for a permanent occupation, but with a view to protection 

 from foes, human and animal, as may be well noticed on Scaddick 

 and Carne Down. The base of a typical hut consists of an 

 outer and inner circle of large unhewn blocks, frequently 

 triangular, set on edge, with the heavier ends well bedded in 

 the soil ; both circles leaning inwards towards the centre, 

 shewing that the interior of the hut presented no perpendicular 

 walling, but contracted from the ground. Of course the space 

 between the circles was filled in, and horizontal courses laid 

 thereupon. Perhaps not more than six or seven feet high inside, 



