264 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1908 



of Northumberland, it had been prepared for by careful and 

 systematic excavations, with the view of revealing more of the 

 character of the place, and, if possible, of throwing light on a 

 dark and distant period of the history of our country. Mr 

 David Milne Home of Wedderburn, the distinguished antiquar- 

 ian and geologist, was President for the year, and of the 

 company of members then present the sole survivor is Mr 

 Wm. B. Boyd, Faldonside. With that meeting also is connected 

 Mr George Tate's most valuable paper entitled "The old Celtic 

 Town at Greaves Ash,"* which remains the recognised classic 

 on the subject, and ought to be consulted by those who 

 aspire to a particular study of the remains. At the latter 

 meeting, which was attended by no fewer than fifty-two 

 members, when the general configuration and identity of the 

 hut-circles were as completely obliterated by overgrowth as 

 they are to-day, nothing further seems to have been elicited 

 in the way of enlightenment or explanation. Greaves Ash 

 is one of the most extensive examples of an early British 

 Fortified Town. A roadway on the South side united the 

 three forts composing it, all of which are constructed of 

 Cheviot porphyry, without lime or clay, and with no dis- 

 tinguishable tool-marks. The storms of twenty centuries have 

 indeed exerted their disintegrating force in obliterating the site 

 and demolishing the encircling walls, but their dilapidation 

 has been still further expedited by their too ready adaptation 

 to the purposes of quarrying. In consequence, hut-circles 

 as well as outside walls have been to a great extent reduced, 

 though the Western fort on examination supplied evidence 

 of a considerable number of the former, the floors of some 

 of which were found partially paved with stone slabs. The 

 ordinary habit in the huts of the period was to light the fire 

 in the centre of the floor, and allow the smoke to escape as 

 best it could ; but a remarkable exception was brought to 

 light in one of the huts on the South side of the inner 

 rampart. . In the masonry an aperture was observed, which 

 on examination proved to be a flue, or rude underground 

 chimney, formed under the level of the flagged floor for the 

 purpose of carrying away the smoke. A considerable quantity 



* B,N.O„ Vol, iv„ Part 8, pp. 298.8X9, 



