270 



Selwood Forest. 



plain enough. But it is farther up, beyond the outer court or 

 baily, that our puzzle begins. The surface of this ridge-part of the 

 common is scooped out very irregularly into hollows or pits —some 

 large, some small, some roundish, basin-like, others more of a square 

 or oblong shape. They are in no sort of order, but occur at inter- 

 vals ; some are close together, divided by a partition bank, along 

 which you find your way about from one to the other. It is not 

 fair to' compare them to a honeycomb, because that is constructed 

 with surpassing evenness and regularity, but there is a distant and 

 rough likeness. The pits on this ridge are said to be spread over 

 about one hundred acres. But they did — and this is very curious — 

 they did, within memory, spread also over the platform at the top, 

 covering altogether seven hundred acres ; a vast number have been 

 filled in and levelled for agricultural use. There are similar pits, 

 but fewer in number, on the other side of the valley, over the brook, 

 and some in the plantations in the demesne of Stourhead. A person 

 might walk or ride over Pen-common a thousand times without 

 seeing anything at all of these pits, or being even aware of their 

 existence, because, on the ridge, they are completely hidden from 

 view by very thick underwood, brambles, and shrubs, so dense that 

 it is very difficult to force one's way along it in some parts. 



Now what were these pits ? The late Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 

 the celebrated Wilts historian and antiquary, lived twenty-five or 

 thirty years at Stourhead. The greater part of the pits were on his 

 land. He gave a great deal of consideration to the subject. He 

 never quite made up his mind ; but proposed three explanations, 

 either (1) they were excavations for the simple purpose of procuring 

 stone ; (2) that the ancient Britons may have made them in searching 

 for mill or grind-stones {querns used for bruising corn) ; or (<3) that 

 they were inhabited as places of refuge in times of danger. Now, 

 as to digging for stone, either for building or grinding, no doubt 

 stone fit for grinding is very valuable. If you can find on your 

 land a bed, for instance, of what the French call buhr-stone, 

 your fortune is made much safer than by finding a gold mine. 

 Underneath the surface of this hill there is a layer of this useful 

 stone; and an examination of the floor of some of the pits has 



