A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 
trict ; but of their homes and the life they led we know but little. For 
that little the curious must refer to writers who deal with broader areas 
than the district with which this book concerns itself.' But those who 
do so must bear in mind that the inhabitants of this district would be 
more barbarous than those of southern and eastern parts of Britain, 
where the Belgic immigrants from comparatively civilized Gaul exercised 
a considerable influence. 
Other remains there are in the districts—traces of what may have 
been the dwelling-places of these prehistoric people ; these it is difficult 
to assign to their proper period, for race after race would successively 
seize on the same spots for their dwellings. No doubt the round-headed 
man with the bronze weapons, after enslaving the long-headed man and 
appropriating his women, would not hesitate to steal his home. At 
Barnscar, near Devock Water on Birkby Fell, in the parish of Muncaster, 
are the remains of an extensive settlement, consisting of: (1) The ruins 
of a group of small inclosures and hut circles, situated at the extreme 
west end of the settlement ; (2) sundry banks and works ranging for the 
most part nearly parallel with the ridge occupied by the settlement ; 
(3) a multitude of cairns scattered irregularly over the ground east of the 
village. These cairns in round numbers are about 400. About the 
year 1890, Lord Muncaster, to whom the property belongs, cut a few 
trenches, examined some of the huts in the villages, and dug into a few 
of the cairns. In these were found, in an inverted position, several small 
cinerary urns, full of ashes, and of the type mentioned earlier in this 
section, and also some fragments of pottery, which do not seem to have 
been preserved. Further investigation was abandoned owing to the 
reluctance of the local peasants to dig among the cairns and disturb the 
ashes of the dead. Enough, however, was found to connect the settle- 
ment with prehistoric people who buried after cremation.’ Similar 
remains—and for the most part apparently of the same age—are scattered 
over the fells in the vicinity. Another similar settlement is to the south- 
east of Threlkeld railway station (near Keswick), between Threlkeld 
Knot and the old mountain road to Matterdale. Attention was drawn to 
this settlement by the late Mr. Clifton Ward, F.G.S., who pronounced it 
to be the ruins of a prehistoric settlement, and pointed out that many 
of the cairns or heaps of stones were such as would be formed by the 
collapse of a domed or beehive-shaped hut of stones.* In an appendix to 
this section a list will be found of similar settlements in Cumberland, 
made by the late Mr. Clifton Ward. In the neighbourhood of Castle 
Carrock near Brampton, on an outlying spur of the great fell, are some 
circular excavations, which the late Mr. Rome Hall, F.S.A., considered 
to be pit dwellings, similar to those described by Professor Phillips as 
* See Boyd Dawkins on Early Man in Britain, Sir John Lubbock on Prebistoric Times, 
and the other books mentioned in this section. 
® A detailed account of this settlement by Mr. C. W. Dymond, F.S.A,, is in the 
Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archeological Society, vol. xii. 
pp. 179-87. 5 Ibid. ut ante, vol. iii. pp. 247, 248. 
250 
