A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE 



1 2 in. Two cooking-stones were found in it, and curiously enough the bottom of this pot, which 

 was cracked, had been mended in situ with white china clay, a mass of clay having been pressed into 

 the bottom to fill up cracks and cement together the broken fragments. This pot had a hemispherical 

 bottom, and could not have stood on a plane surface. Judging from the fragments it was hand- 

 made, but not of such primitive shape as that found at Raddick Hill. 



Other finds in this interesting group consisted of many fragments of rudely ornamented pottery, 

 flint implements, and a wedge-shaped rubber stone which had been pierced from both sides with a 

 hole for suspension, but never completely perforated. 



Blackslade Common (O. S. cviii, NW). — There is a considerable collection of hut circles in 

 and about some remains of enclosures known as Foales Arrishes. The ancient name of this group 

 of hut circles is Torr Town or Torr Hill. It probably received its modern name from some 

 squatter who seems to have hazarded its cultivation, for attempts appear to have been made to gather 

 the surface stone in heaps, so that a scanty tillage might be carried on between them. 



Croker^ states that this 

 place possessed a circular 

 pound almost as large as 

 Grimspound enclosing hut 

 circles. The road-menders 

 have been busy since 1851, 

 for no trace of the enclosure 

 can now be recognized. 



One of the still existing 

 hut circles (No. . 1) merits 

 a brief description, for the 

 cooking-place is outside the 

 hut in a semilunar shaped 

 erection (see fig. 6). It con- 

 tained a cooking or fire hole 

 and a hearth with much char- 

 coal and some fragments of 

 thin pottery. The whole of 

 the floor of this kitchen was 

 paved. 



Considering the size of 

 the hut circle, from 30 to 

 31 ft. in diameter, involving 

 a large roof, which would be 

 most difficult to keep weather- 

 tight in the winter, and the 

 position of the main fire and 

 cooking-place, the reasonable 

 supposition is that this hut 

 represents a summer habita- 

 tion, and if this surmise is 

 correct it is an interesting 

 illustration of the great anti- 

 quity of the summering of 

 cattle on Dartmoor, for these 

 huts and enclosures on the 

 , jj , , . . moor generally are the dwell- 



ings and paddocks of a primitive people, whose chief support was evidently obtained from their 

 flocks and herds. Some of the smaller huts were doubtless permanent habitations, but the large 

 examples were probably only occupied in the summer, when herbage is plentiful, and when a far 

 greater head of stock could be supported than in the winter. 



The exploration of the hut itself yielded fragments of blackened pottery and a flint knife. A 

 curious feature was a small stone standing 6 in. above the floor, just inside the western side of the 

 entrance, and two more standing side by side 15 in. above the floor near the north-western circum- 

 ference. These stones seemed to have been fixed so as to follow the sweep of the circle, and were 

 firmly earth-fast. They were not observed between these points. They had a surface length of 

 only 8 in. or lom., and were merely thin slabs of granite let into the ground for some unknown 

 purpose. They were not suitable for supporting planks of wood to form seats, nor could they be 



' Guide to Eastern Escarpment of Dartmoor (1851), 

 354 



FOALES ARRISHES , HUT A/"/. 



— Scaie. - /O feet to / inch 

 Fig. 6. — Foales Arrishes, Hut No, i 



