Mr. Tate on Yevering Bell, Sec. 447 



time, there appears little or no change in their habitations 

 and modes of life ; for we cannot detect the introduction of 

 any new architectural ideas into their Fortlets and dwellings. 



To the early period when flints were in general use, we 

 may refer the wood rings which had been applied either to 

 ornament the arms or to cincture the hair of women, and, 

 perhaps too, the copper fibula found on the top of the Bell. 

 The pretty glass armlet might be claimed as Roman ; but as 

 glass beads of similar manufacture have been obtained from 

 Celtic deposits, this may have been imported, probably by the 

 Phoenicians, and it doubtless adorned the arm of some Ancient 

 British beauty. 



The glazed pottery however is a relic of the latest period 

 of occupancy. That it had been left from the breakage of a 

 vessel used by a shepherd when taking his meal is improbable ; 

 for it occurs in two different Fortlets, in considerable quantity 

 and under debris of some depth. As it is in fragments, the 

 size and shape of the vessels to which it belonged are not 

 determinable. Such pottery might belong to any period be- 

 tween the Romano-British and mediaeval times ; and it has 

 been held, that some hut circles have been inhabited down to 

 this latter period ; but the absence of other mediaeval relics in 

 the Yevering Fortlets throws doubt on the supposition as ap- 

 plied to them. Such frail structures indeed would be untenable 

 in the Border-land at this period, when it was necessary for 

 the protection of life and property, that dwellings should be 

 clustered around and defended by pele towers with strong 

 walls of stone and lime. Until however some further in- 

 formation is obtained relative to this pottery, I would not 

 speak positively as to its age ; but I am inclined to think, 

 that it betokens Roman influence on Ancient British fictile 

 art, and that it belongs to the period when Rome had 

 established her dominion over Britain, but had not altogether 

 revolutionised the habits of the people, 



I have been informed, that a glazed pottery, similar to 

 that in the Yevering Fortlets, has been found in France 

 in deposits of the Romano-Gaulish period. I knoAV of tAvo 

 instances only of a glaze on relics, which could be supposed to 

 belong to the Ancient British people ; one is an opalised 

 glass armlet with a yellow glaze, which was found under 

 a large cairn at Bogheads, Aberdeenshire, along with beads 

 made of cannel coal, and which is now in the Museum of the 

 Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh ; the other is recorded 

 by the late Mr. Bateman in his "Ten Years Diggings." In a 



2 Ff 



