EARLY MAN 
existing in Yorkshire, and by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in Wiltshire,’ 
habitations of a type anterior to those on Birkby Fell. One or two of 
these circular excavations on Castle Carrock have been partially explored, 
but they yielded nothing. As the geological formation is limestone, 
these supposed pit dwellings may be mere swallow holes. Some have 
imagined they had found circular pit dwellings upon Caldbeck Fell, but 
an ancient of the place said they were old trial holes for surface coal. It 
would be satisfactory to clear out some of these circular excavations, 
and to search in their vicinity for the kitchen-middens. 
With the arrival of the Romans the prehistoric era ends, and the 
historic period commences, but the histories give us very little informa- 
tion as to the people the Romans found in possession. 
The Roman historians tell us of the skill of the Britons in the art 
of enamelling. This is evidenced by a remarkable sword found at 
Embleton, near Cockermouth. It was in a sheath ornamented with 
enamels of various colours. Sir John Evans, K.C.B., assigns it to a date 
not far from the Roman invasion.” A fine bronze beaded torque found 
in Carlisle was also assigned by Sir John to the late Celtic age. 
It has been stated that this prehistoric people—the men with the 
long heads and the men with the round heads—saw this district in its 
chief features much as we see it now. But there were differences. The 
country was mainly forest, resembling the uncleared forests of Canada 
and America, and covered with dense scrub of oak, ash, thorn, hazel and 
birch. At Alston and other places the stools of ancient hazel and birch 
trees are found beneath the peat. The antlers of red deer of much larger 
size than of the present day have been found with Roman remains in 
frequent numbers, showing that the deer must have had abundance of 
‘brooze’ or scrub for their support, extending over a great range of 
country. The valleys were swamps, and the alluvial flats bordering on 
the Solway and stretching eastwards from Rockcliffe along the north to 
Carlisle, for many miles were vast morasses, now dwindled into the puny 
survivals of Solway Moss, Bowness Moss, Wedholm Flow and Scaleby 
Moss. Edmund Sandford, who wrote in the time of Charles II. a 
gossiping account of the country, printed and published in 18go, tells us 
that great part of the country was even then forest. In prehistoric 
times the higher hill tops probably stood up bare and naked. The 
climate was cold and wet. The crops ripened but slowly. 
The following is a list of prehistoric settlements in Cumberland, 
compiled by the late Mr. Clifton Ward, F.G.S., of the Ordnance Survey. 
The figures refer to the sheets of the 6-inch Ordnance Map on which 
-the remains are, and the letters to the quarters of the sheets. The list 
first appeared in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland 
1 Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archeological Society, 
vol. vi. pp. 462, 463; Yorkshire, by Phillips, 2nd edit., p. 203; see Wright’s The Celt, 
the Roman, and the Saxon (1852), chap. ii. p. 87. 
2 Archaeological Fournal, vol. xxxix. p. 442; ibid. p. 442 ; Transactions of the Cumberland 
and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archeological Society. 
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