HUTS, OR DWELLINGS.

inhabitants, are found in profusion in almost every part of Dartmoor. It is worthy of remark how little attention has been paid by topographers and historians to these curious and unquestionable vestiges of the primitive population of our island. The observations of Sir R. C. Hoare, in reference to Wiltshire, will, for the most part, apply with equal if not with greater pertinence, to Devonshire. "It is somewhat singular," remarks that learned antiquary, "that the discovery of our British settlements should not have been made previous to my own researches, and that they had escaped the notice of Aubrey, Stukely, and every subsequent writer on our national antiquities. Their eyes seem to have been dazzled with the splendour of an Abury and a Stonehenge, and to have noticed only the tumuli of the Britons, without turning a thought towards the residences of the living, to whose memory these sepulchral mounds were raised at their decease." So the Drewsteignton Cromlech and Logan-stone are the theme of every topographer; but the hundreds of ruined dwellings, scattered over the highlands of Devonshire, appear, for the most part, to have escaped observation, or to have been deemed unworthy of attention.

I have however observed, that these ruined abodes of our rude forefathers are more numerous along the declivities, on the skirts of the moor, and on the hill-sides in the interior, which slope down to the water-courses, than in other parts. The principal groups of houses, (villages or towns,) are invariably found in such situations. For miles in the heathy table land round Cranmere Pool, I have only been able to find a single insulated dwelling, while in the slopes of almost all the vallies, especially those fronting to the south and west, they are of frequent occurrence. The large aboriginal village near Merivale Bridge has a western aspect, and is situated on the side of a hill, gently rising from the banks of the Walkham. The fortified town at Grimspound, with its Cyclopean circumvallation, is built on the western declivity of Hamildown, with a spring rising on the eastern side of the inclosure. But in whatever situations the rude dwellings of the primitive Britons are found, whether inclosed within walls as at Grimspound, or in unwalled villages as at Merivale,-they are all observed to be similar in design,—and all, with only one ascertained exception, in the same completely ruined condition, with nothing but the foundations and

G

*

the door jambs remaining. These HUT CIRCLES, as they have been called, to distinguish them from the sacred circles (from which they differ essentially) are all circular in plan; and consist of granite blocks, set firmly in the ground on their edge, and placed closely together, (instead of at wide intervals as the sacred circle,) so as to form a secure foundation for the superstructure, whether it were constructed of stone and turf, wattle, or other material. To adopt the language of Whittaker, in describing the houses of the Lancashire Britons, "they were, as we have every reason to suppose what the general houses of the Gauls and Britons were, great round cabins, built principally of timber on foundations of stone, and roofed with a sloping covering of reeds." It would however appear that where stone was abundant, as on Dartmoor, the cabins in some instances at least were constructed entirely of stone, as the same author remarks of the remains of British buildings in Anglesea and Wilts. In this kind of masonry the interstices were filled with turf or earth, as, according to Whittaker, was the practice in the Western Isles of Scotland, who might have found modern examples of the same kind of building in England, since this "rough-and-ready" method of erecting walls seems to have been handed down from the earliest. times, and prevails among our Dartmoor peasants to this day.

The remains of the aboriginal habitations in Devon, as abovementioned, consist for the most part of foundations only, with the door jambs, in many instances; and the superstructure in these, was most probably of wood and other perishable materials. But one example has been discovered of the description just referred to, where the hut is in a state comparatively perfect, having been constructed entirely of stone and turf, the upper part only having fallen in. It appears to have been shaped like a bee-hive, the wall being formed of large stones, which seem to have been chosen with care, for the purpose of forming the widely arched roof; and which evidently had their interstices filled up with smaller stone and, probably, turf.

The Danmonian huts have their counterparts in the shealings of the Orkneys, some of which are of this form, and are constructed of stone and turf; others have a base of stone consisting of two circles one within the other, with a roofing of fir poles, converging to a

Junctæ cortice virga.-OvID.

point and thatched with branches or heather. Both kinds appear to have existed on Dartmoor; and the vestiges which still remain, sufficiently accord with the descriptions given by Diodorus Siculus, and Strabo, of the habitations of the Britons of their times, to induce the belief that they had received the accounts from some of those enterprising mariners, who had seen the buildings, in their trading voyages to the isles of tin.

The ruined basement, which constitutes the hut circle, consists, in the majority of examples, of a single course of stones, but in some instances, a double circle is observed. These stones stand generally from eighteen inches to thirty above the surface. The door jambs also of stone, are, in most cases, higher placed, nearly at right angles to the outline of the circle: in a very considerable proportion of examples, the door faces the south. These dwellings measure from twelve to thirty feet, diameter; the most usual size being about twentysix feet, though some occur of much larger dimensions, and these were probably appropriated to the chieftain of the clan. Cæsar describes the houses of the Britons as similar to the dwellings of the Gauls, lighted only from the door, and on this Fosbroke remarks, that his account was perfectly correct, from the representation of the British cabins on the Antonine column, where they appear as circular buildings, with sloping or domical roofs, having an opening at the top for the emission of smoke.* The Britons of the interior were a pastoral people, as we may safely conclude from Cæsar's account of their mode of subsistence; "Interiores plerique frumenta non serunt; sed lacte et carne vivunt." The nomadic life and habits evidently implied by this brief but comprehensive description, their inattention to tillage, and their subsisting upon milk and flesh, would be quite in keeping with the nature off the wild uncultivated tracts of Dartmoor. Hence we may infer that the Britons had out-buildings and inclosures for the folding of their cattle, and that therefore some of the ruined foundations which have been described above, are the remains of build

Ency. Antiq., p. 76.

Like the Nomades of the antient times, and the more modern Tartars, our Britons resided upon the hills, sheltered by huts from the inclemency of the weather, and subsisting on the produce of their cattle, and the venison, which the woods supplied in abundance. The numerous remains we have discovered in each district of our country, sufficiently prove the original residence of the Britons to have existed upon the hills; but in later times, when civilized by the Romans, they probably began to clear the vallics from woods, and to seek more sheltered situations in the vales, and in the vicinity of rivers. Ant. Wilts., vol. ii., p. 106.

POUNDS, OR CIRCUMVALLATIONS.

ings raised for purposes of this kind, and as in our own times, in most cases, adjoining the habitations of the owners of the flocks and herds. For the protection of cattle, those curious inclosures, which occur in so many parts of the moor, are traditionally supposed to have been constructed, and are therefore popularly called POUNDS by the moormen. That they were intended to protect the inhabitants as well as their cattle, on any sudden emergency, there can be no doubt, although it would appear that the most perfect of them, Grimspound, was designed as the fortification of a permanent settlement, rather than as a temporary strong-hold, to which, as we learn from Cæsar, the Belgic Celts were accustomed to retreat, with their families, flocks, and herds, on the approach of danger. These inclosures are either low walls of stones piled rudely together, in a ridge-like form, or belts of huge granite blocks, placed erect in the ground. Their general form is circular, but some examples are elliptical. Remains of habitations are in most cases found in these primitive entrenchments, so that we may justly conclude that they were originally constructed for purposes of security and defence.

A fine specimen occurs, on the commons, west of Castor Rock, adjoining a moorland road which forms the boundary between the parishes of Chagford and Gidleigh, where the Round Pound, as it is called by the moormen, exhibits the foundations of a house within the inclosure, which itself forms a kind of courtyard round the dwelling, with the jambs at the entrance still erect.

Grimspound is by far the finest and most extraordinary of all the relics of this class. Viewed from Hooknor Tor, which commands its entire area, it presents to the spectator an object of singular curiosity and interest. Its situation is on the N.W. slope of Hamildon, on the borders of the parishes of Manaton, North Bovey, and Widdecombe. The wall or mound is formed of moorstone blocks, rudely piled up, but so large as not to be easily displaced. The base of this rampart covers in some parts a surface of twenty feet in breadth, but the average height of a section taken at any point would not exceed six feet. With the exceptions of an opening on the east and west sides, the inclosure is perfect, surrounding an area of about four acres. The original entrance is supposed to have been on the south The vestiges of antient habitations within this primitive entrenchment are