SUPPLEMENTARY.

REMAINS OF LAKE-DWELLINGS IN ENGLAND.

As indicated by the title, the special object and scope of this work is to illustrate the phenomena of lake-dwellings as explored in Scotland. This limitation has been adopted, not with the intention of implying that there is any necessary identity between the area marked out by the general distribution of lake-dwellings and that included within the geographical limits of the kingdom of Scotland, but because, hitherto, their recorded remains south of the Scottish border were so few and undecided in character that there could hardly be any justification in deviating from the commonly entertained opinion that these structures were not to be found in England. But after finishing my labours under this impression, some additional facts have come under my cognisance which greatly strengthen the idea, rather hesitatingly expressed at the conclusion of my last chapter, viz., the probability of the lake-dwelling district being found to coincide with the former extension of the Celtic area in Britain. Partly to support this theory, but more particularly to make this work more complete by including the actual materials that could be supplied were it to appear under the more comprehensive title which the substitution of the word British instead of Scottish would give to it, I have collected together, in the form of this supplementary chapter, all the scattered notices of such trustworthy observations as can now be fairly construed to indicate the sites of lacustrine abodes in England. It will be noticed that some of the recorded observations here reproduced were actually made before antiquaries had time to realise the magnitude of the Continental lake-dwellings, or the subsequent promulgation of Dr. Robertson's views on the Scottish crannogs, and consequently at a time when their real importance was apt to be overlooked; otherwise, it is impossible to conceive how such highly suggestive facts did not at once lead to more definite information.

Wretham Mere, Norfolk.

Sir Charles J. F. Bunbury, as early as 1856, noticed some appearances in a drained mere near Wretham Hall, Norfolk, which clearly point to being the remains of a lake-dwelling. In a communication on the subject to the Geological Society,[53] he says:—"About Wretham there are several meres, or small natural sheets of water, without any outlet. The one to which my attention was particularly called by Mr. Birch occupied about forty-eight acres, and was situated in a slight natural depression, the ground sloping gently to it from all sides. The water has been drawn off by machinery, for the purpose of making use, as manure, of the black peaty mud which formed the bottom....

"Numerous horns of red-deer have been found in the peaty mud, generally (as I was informed) at 5 or 6 feet below the surface, seldom deeper; many attached to the skull, others separate, and with the appearance of having been shed naturally. What is most remarkable, several of those which were found with the skulls attached had been sawn off just above the brow antlers—not broken, but cut off clean and smoothly, evidently by human agency. Some of these horns are of large size, measuring 9 inches round immediately below the brow antler....

"Numerous posts of oak-wood, shaped and pointed by human art, were found standing erect, entirely buried in the peat."

Pile Structures at London Wall.

On December 18th, 1866, General Lane Fox, F.S.A., read a paper at the Anthropological Society, entitled "A Description of certain Piles found near London Wall and Southwark, possibly the remains of Pile-Buildings."

The author commenced by observing that his attention was directed to this locality by a short paragraph in the Times of the 20th October 1866, stating that upwards of twenty cart-loads of bones had been dug out of the excavations which were being made for the foundations of a wool warehouse near London Wall.

The excavation in question commenced at 40 yards south of the street pavement; therefore, in all probability, at about 70 or 80 yards from the site of the old wall. The area excavated at the time of General Lane Fox's visit was of an irregular oblong form, 61 yards in length, running north and south, and 23 yards wide.

A section of the soil consisted of—

"1. Gravel similar to Thames ballast at a depth of 17 feet towards the north, inclining to 22 feet towards the south end.

"2. Above this, peat of unequal thickness, varying from 7 to 9 feet.

"3. Modern remains of London earth, composed of the accumulated rubbish of the city."

Regarding the remains of piles, the author makes the following important observations:—

"Upon looking over the ground, my attention was at once attracted by a number of piles, the decayed tops of which appeared above the unexcavated portions of the peat, dotted here and there over the whole of the space cleared. I noted down the positions of all that were above ground at the time; and as the excavations continued during the last two months, I have marked from time to time the positions of all the others as they became exposed to view.

"Commencing on the south, a row of them ran north and south on the west side, to the right of these a curved row, as if forming part of a ring. Higher up and running obliquely across the ground was a row of piles, having a plank about an inch and a half thick and a foot broad placed along the south face, as if binding the piles together. To the left of these another row of piles ran east and west; to the north-east again were several circular clusters of piles; these were not in rings but grouped in clusters, and the piles were from eight to sixteen inches apart. To the left of this another row of piles and a plank two inches thick ran north and south. There were two other rows north of this and several detached piles, but no doubt several towards the north end had been removed before I arrived.

"The piles averaged six to eight inches square; others of smaller size measured four inches by three; and one or two were as much as a foot square. They appeared to be roughly cut, as if with an axe, and pointed square; there was no trace of iron shoeing on any of them, nor was there any appearance of metal fastenings in its planks; they may have been tied to the piles, but if so, the binding material had decayed. The grain of the wood was still visible in some of them, and they appear to be of oak. The planks averaged from one to two inches thick. The points of the piles were inserted from one to two feet in the gravel, and were, for the most part, well preserved, but all the tops had rotted off at about two feet above the gravel, which I conclude must have been the surface of the ground, or of the water at the time these structures were in existence."

The relics were exclusively found in the peat or middle layer (which varied from 7 to 9 feet in thickness), but "interspersed at different levels from top to bottom throughout it." According to the author the vast majority of them belonged to the Roman era. He says: "Amongst them are quantities of broken red Samian pottery, mostly plain, but some of it depicting men and animals in relief; one specimen is stamped with the name of Macrinus. All this pottery, in the opinion of Mr. Franks, to whom I showed it, is of foreign manufacture. Other samples are of the kind supposed to have been manufactured in the Upchurch Marshes in Kent, and upon the site of St. Paul's Churchyard. Bronze and copper pins, iron knives, iron and bronze stylus, tweezers, iron shears, a piece of polished metal mirror, so bright that you may see your face in it (this Dr. Percy has pronounced to be of iron pyrites, white sulphuret of iron without alloy), an iron double-edged hatchet, an iron implement, apparently for dressing leather, a piece of bronze vessel, and other bronze and iron implements, which, thanks to the preserving properties of the peat, are all in excellent preservation. Amongst these were also a quantity of leather soles of shoes or sandals, some apparently much worn, and others, being thickly studded with hobnails, may be recognised as the caliga of the Roman legions; also a piece of a tile with the letters P · PR · BR · stamped upon it. Specimens of these are on the table. The coins found are those of Nerva, Vespasian, Trajan, Adrian, and Antoninus Pius....

"In addition to the Roman relics above mentioned, others of ruder construction remain to be described. They consist of what, in the absence of any evidence respecting their uses, may be called handles and points of bone. The former are composed of the metacarpal bones of the red-deer and Bos longifrons cut through in the middle, and roughly squared at the small end; the others, which are called by the workmen spear-heads, are pointed at one end and hollowed out at the other, as if to receive a shaft. Both Professor Owen and Mr. Blake concur in thinking these implements may possibly have been formed with flint, but I cannot ascertain that they were found at a lower level than the Roman remains, nor have any flint implements, to my knowledge, been found in the place. With them were also found the two bone skates on the table; they are of the metacarpal bone of a small horse or ass, one of which has been much used on the ice. Exactly similar skates also of the metacarpal of the horse or ass have been found in a tumulus of the stone period at Oosterend in Friesland; a drawing of them is given in Lindenschmit's Catalogue of the Museum at Mayence, etc. Others have also been found in Zeeland, at Utrecht, and in Guelderland, and there is a specimen in the Museum at Hanover. Professor Lindenschmit attributes all these to the stone period, but the specimens on the table are evidently of the iron age, the holes in the back having been formed for the insertion of an iron staple. Similar skates have been found in the Thames, but they have not hitherto been considered to date so early in England as in Roman times."

Throughout the peat were several kitchen-middens. One deposited a foot and a half above the gravel is thus described: "A layer of oyster and mussel shells about a foot thick, with a filtration of carbonate of lime permeating through the moss. In this kitchen-midden Roman pottery and a Roman caliga were found. Close by, the point of a pile, part of which is exhibited, was found upright in the peat; it had been driven in in such a manner that the point descends to the level of the kitchen-midden and no further. Now, as a pile, in order to obtain a holding, must have been driven at least two feet in the ground, it is evident the peat must have grown at least one foot above the summit of the kitchen-midden before this pile was driven in."

A second kitchen-midden is noted at a height of 3¹/₂ feet above the gravel, "composed of oyster, cockle, and mussel shells, and periwinkles, with Roman pottery and bones of the goat and Bos longifrons, etc., split lengthwise as if to extract the marrow, with the skulls broken and the horns cut off. It is about a foot and a half thick in the centre, thinning out towards the ends as a heap of refuse would naturally do, and from 12 to 14 feet long; above this is peat for about a foot or a foot and a half, and above the peat another kitchen-midden of the same kind as the preceding. Lastly, the soles of shoes and Roman pottery of the same kind as that found lower down have been taken out at the very top of the peat."

The author being subsequently anxious to obtain further evidence as to the thickness of the stratum in which the Roman remains were found, states that he determined to watch the workmen for four or five hours together during several successive days, while they dug from top to bottom, commencing with the superficial earth, and passing through the peat to the gravel below. The result was as follows: "Roman red Samian ware is found as high as 13 feet from the surface, but very rarely, and in small quantities. At 15 feet it is frequently found, and from that depth it increases in quantity till the gravel is reached at 18 to 21 feet. The chief region of Roman remains is within 2 to 3 feet of the gravel."

Amongst the animal remains were, according to Professor Owen, those "of the horse or ass, the red deer, the wild boar, the wild goat (bouquetin), the dog, the Bos longifrons, and the roebuck. The horns of the roebuck, I afterwards ascertained, were all found at a higher level. These, and also the horse and goat, entered the superficial earth, in which glazed pottery was also found; but the remainder, including the red deer, wild boar, and Bos longifrons, appeared, so far as my observations enabled me to judge, to be confined to the peat."

Subsequently Mr. Carter Blake identified amongst these remains no less than four different kinds of the genus Bos, viz., primigenius, trochoceros, longifrons, and frontosus; as also a specimen of the ibex of the Pyrenees.

Some human skulls were also found in the lowest formation of the peat, or immediately over the gravel. Along with the skulls only three human bones were found; but this, according to the author, was not the result of an oversight, as both the Celts and the Romans were known to have practised decapitation.

The piles at the south end were identified as elm, the remainder were oak (Quercus robur).

General Lane Fox stated that recently similar piles with large horizontal beams and Roman pottery were discovered in New Southwark Street.

I find it impossible, even with the above large extracts, to give more than a very general idea of this most interesting and highly suggestive paper, and the important discussion to which it gave rise in the Society.

Crannog in Llangorse Lake, near Brecon, South Wales.

In Keller's book on Lake-Dwellings,[54] there is a notice of a "crannoge, or stockaded island, in Llangorse Lake, near Brecon (South Wales)," by the Rev. E. Dumbleton, M.A., in which the author describes an island 90 yards in circumference, the highest part of which is 5 feet above the level of the water, on which "some small trees and brushwood have fastened," and around which numerous cleft oak-beams have been detected. In examining the interior by perpendicular openings, they invariably led down to the shell-marl, "showing first a stratum of large, loose stones, with vegetable mould and sand, next (about 18 inches above the marl) peat, black and compact; and beneath this, the remains of reeds and small wood. This fagot-like wood presented itself abundantly all round the edges of the island, and in the same relative position, namely, immediately upon the soft marl; the object of it being, of course, to save the stones from sinking." Pieces of charcoal, broken bones, "a piece of leather pierced with several holes, in some of which, when discovered, the remains of a thong might be observed," three or four scraps of pottery, and a stone that seemed to have been ground, are the only indications of human occupancy recorded. Remains of log platforms, which were observed, are also described in this article. Some of the bones were sent to Professor Rolleston, of Oxford, who wrote that "the chief points of interest respecting these were: first, the presence of two varieties of horse—one small, such as a Welsh pony is; and the other large (as I am informed large horses appear to have existed, as well as mere Galloways, in the very earliest human periods in this country); and, secondly, the smallness of the then ordinarily eaten mammals, Sus, Bos, Ovis. The horse was eaten formerly, especially by the Pagans, and it may have been eaten by the inhabitants of your crannoge; but there is no evidence, from splitting or burning, that they did so." "Some other bones, found subsequently, were exhibited at the meeting of the British Association at Exeter, and were examined by Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins, who pronounced them to be those of the red deer, the wild boar, and the Bos longifrons. He stated that the group altogether, from the greater percentage of wild than domestic animals, indicated a remote period."

Barton Mere, near Bury St. Edmunds.

Professor Boyd Dawkins, under the heading Habitations in Britain in the Bronze Age, writes as follows:—"Sometimes, for the sake of protection, houses were built upon piles driven into a morass or bottom of a lake, as for example in Barton Mere (explored by Rev. Harry Jones in 1867,—Suffolk Inst. of ArchÆology and Natural History, June 1869), near Bury St. Edmunds, where bronze spear-heads have been discovered, one 18 inches long, in and around piles and large blocks of stone, as in some of the lakes in Switzerland. Along with them were vast quantities of the broken bones of the stag, roe, wild boar, and hare, to which must also be added the urus, an animal proved to be wild by its large bones, with strongly-marked ridges for the attachment of muscles. The inhabitants also fed upon domestic animals—the horse, short-horned ox, and domestic hog, and in all probability the dog, the bones of the last-named animal being in the same fractured state as those of the rest. Fragments of pottery were also found. The accumulation may be inferred to belong to the late rather than the early Bronze Age, from the discovery of a socketed spear-head. This discovery is of considerable zoological value, since it proves that the urus was living in Britain in a wild state as late as the Bronze Age. It must, however, have been very rare, since this is the only case of its occurrence at this period in Britain with which I am acquainted."—(Early Man in Britain, p. 352.)

Professor T. Rupert Jones on English Lake-Dwellings.

In 1878, Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., communicated to Nature a short notice on "English Lake-Dwellings and Pile Structures," in which, after drawing attention to the previously published articles of General Lane Fox and Sir Charles Bunbury, he writes as follows:—

"Since writing the above I have been informed that Mr. W. M. Wylie, F.S.A., referred to this fact in 'ArchÆologia,' vol. xxxviii. in a note to his excellent memoir on lake-dwellings. I can add, however, that remains of Cervus elaphus (red deer), C. dama? (fallow-deer), Ovis (sheep), Bos longifrons (small ox), Sus scrofa (hog), and Canis (dog), were found here, according to information given me by the late C. B. Rose, F.G.S., of Swaffham, who also stated in a letter dated August 11th, 1856, that in adjoining meres, or sites of ancient meres, as at Saham, Towey, Carbrook, Old Buckenham, and Hargham, cervine remains have been met with; thus at Saham and Towey Cervus elaphus (red deer), at Buckenham Bos (ox) and Cervus capreolus (roebuck); at Hargham Cervus tarandas (reindeer).

"The occurrence of flint implements and flakes in great numbers on the site of a drained lake between Sandhurst and Frimley, described by Captain C. Cooper King in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, January 1873, p. 365, etc., points also in all probability to some kind of lake-dwelling, though timbers were not discovered.

"Lastly, the late Dr. S. Palmer, F.S.A., of Newbury, reported to the 'Wiltshire ArchÆological Society' in 1869 that oaken piles and planks had been dug out of boggy ground on Cold Ash Common, near Faircross Pond, not far from Hermitage, Berks."—(Nature, vol. xvii. p. 424.)

Holderness, York.

A few weeks ago my attention was directed by Mr. Joseph Anderson to a communication which he had just received from a gentleman near Bridlington anent some antiquarian remains indicating lake-dwellings in that district, of which, at my request, the discoverer has kindly favoured me with the following interesting notice:— "Ulrome Grange,
Lowthorpe, Hull, Feb. 28, 1882.

"Dear Sir,—This part of the county of York (Holderness) appears formerly to have been intersected by numerous irregular lakes, which were drained about eighty years ago.

"In the spring of the year 1880 the Commissioners of the Beverley and Barmston Drainage found it necessary to deepen one of these drains (the branch called the Skipsea drain).

"A short time after this was done I was walking in one of my fields adjoining, and picked up some perforated bone implements. I shortly afterwards had the earth, which had been excavated at this place, turned over, and found more implements of the same class. Also two made from the antlers of the red deer, and a small piece of red ochre, with several stones which bear traces of having been utilised.

"In the month of May 1881, the water in the drain at that time being very low, and having obtained the services of half a dozen men accustomed to similar work, I had the water dammed, and dug through the peat to a bed of gravel, 9 ft. 6 in. from the surface.

"We found three more perforated bone implements, all in the side of the drain, and at the depth of seven feet, also several stakes and piles with remains of brushwood.

"I then determined, when opportunity offered, to excavate in the field, and proceeded to do so in December last.

"We commenced by digging a trench parallel with the drain and sixty feet in length. This trench and the drain formed two sides of a square, running north and south. Commencing at the south end, we came upon a layer of gravel at the depth of two feet, which dips to the north, and is overlaid by a bed of peat, six feet in thickness, at the north end of the trench.

"As this trench filled with water, we began at the same point and dug a similar one on the south side, running east and west, and connected the first trench with the drain. The gravel slopes also to the west, and dips quite abruptly when at a distance of forty feet from the drain. When the trenches were dug a gravel slope at the south-east corner of the square prevented the water from running out of the first trench. I therefore had the earth turned over on this slope, when we found great numbers of stakes, with some brushwood, the earth being a peaty marl.

"When clear of the slope there is a decided layer of brushwood about two feet thick, also studded with stakes, and along the inner side of the south trench we found a number of piles from five inches to seven inches in diameter, in a line, and mostly upright. One of these we got out quite perfect. It is of oak wood, four feet in length, six inches in diameter, and has a forked top which has apparently been intended for carrying a horizontal beam or support. The piles are about four feet apart. One had given way and been replaced.

"As the trench is not exactly in a line with the piles, several are now left standing and partially exposed. In this portion of the digging, we found several bones of animals, a peculiar grinding-stone of whinstone or granite, almost semicircular in shape, 12 inches long by 7 broad, a flint core, a stone with the centre hollowed, a pounding or hammer stone, and two fragments of rude pottery, evidently British.

"Hazel nuts are numerous; several I have picked out appear to have been opened by squirrels.

"After making these discoveries I suspended work, as I felt that I should like some one acquainted with similar explorations to give an opinion with respect to the course I ought to adopt.

"Whether the place is a lake-dwelling or not, further research will determine. It is undoubtedly a pile structure, and of a very early date.

"At this season the spring-tides tend to impede further investigation, the water having risen to the height of 7 feet in the trenches on the 19th inst. And as we may hope for warmer weather with longer days, I shall probably defer further exploration until April. I believe I have discovered another similar place, but on a larger scale, and the timbers appear much larger. The two are not more than half a mile apart, and are situated on the same lake as the earthworks and mound at Skipsea (described in Poulson's Holderness). In the meantime, any suggestions you may favour me with will be gladly received by yours very faithfully,
"Thomas Boynton.

"Dr. Munro, Kilmarnock."

Concluding Remarks.

It may be some time yet before further research will throw much additional light on the appearances and discoveries above recorded, but should they turn out to be the genuine remains of ancient lake habitations, it is more than probable that they will be found to be no exceptional instances, but remnants of a more widely distributed custom. Meantime, however, they appear to me sufficiently suggestive, especially when taken together with the evidence I have already produced as to the prevalence of such structures amongst the Celtic races in Scotland and Ireland, and the distinct statement made by Julius CÆsar that the Britons made use of wooden piles and marshes in their mode of entrenchment (sylvis paludibusque munitum), to entertain the hypothesis that the original British Celts, from whom in all probability have descended the modern Gaels, were an offshoot of the founders of the Swiss Lake-Dwellings, that they emigrated to Britain when these lacustrine abodes were in full vogue, and that, as they spread northwards and westwards over Scotland and Ireland, they retained, and probably practised, the habit of resorting to insular protection long after the custom had fallen into desuetude in Europe. As, however, the lake-dwelling mania subsided and gradually came to a close on the Continent, subsequent immigrants into Britain, such as the BelgÆ, Angles, etc., being no longer acquainted with the subject, cultivated new principles of defensive warfare, or, at any rate, ceased to resort to the protection afforded by the artificial construction of lake-dwellings, whilst the first Celtic invaders, still imbued with their primary civilisation, when harassed by enemies and obliged to act on the defensive, had recourse to their peculiar and inherited system of protection, with such variations and improvements as better implements and the topographical requirements of the country suggested to them. Hence it would follow that the range of the British Lake-Dwellings, both in space and time, would vary according to circumstances and the vicissitudes of their founders; but, speaking generally, it is only reasonable to suppose that its limitation first commenced in those districts most accessible to fresh swarms of Continental immigrants. But this problem, as well as many other subsidiary questions which follow in the same line of inquiry, must be solved by further researches; and should these remarks in any way lead to renewed application in this department, they will serve a good end, whatever may be the result of the hypothesis thus broached regarding the primary sources of the ideas that led to the development of British Lake-Dwellings.