Page:Once a Week Volume 7.djvu/595

. 15, 1862.] feet; and it is remarkable that between these two ramparts there is the appearance of there having been a wall of less width and rudely built. The order of the circumvallation being—first, the outermost wall carried along the edge of a steep declivity, its outer face being composed of large stones carefully laid; then, at a distance of ten feet, the intermediate wall, the space between being filled with small stones, so as to remove the idea that it has formed a separate line of bulwark; in fact, it appears to have been thrown up in order to increase the bulk and substance of the outer wall; and, lastly, with an interval of two feet, the inner rampart, which is six feet wide. To what height those ramparts may have been originally raised must be matter of conjecture; but with such a substance for their base they may well have reached an elevation of from twelve to fifteen feet. On the north, east, and west sides the space between the outer and inner ramparts opens to a breadth of about fifty feet. At the east side is a gateway, from which a road is carried down the hill to the Lynhope Burn, apparently with a view to the supply of water, although there is a spring on the hill side a little to the southward of the outer rampart; another hollow-way extends from the west wall down the hill to the Lynhope Burn, and takes up on the opposite side and ascends the hill of Ritta, where it joins another group of fortified towns lying on the hill-side. On the eastern side of the town there are three gateways in succession in the three ramparts placed diagonally to each other, so as to command from their angular position three several points of vantage, a display of military strategy observable in other Celtic fortifications.

The inner gateway remains pretty entire, with a passage eight and a-half feet broad. The sides are composed of very large blocks, some laid lengthwise and others set upright. On the north side of this gateway there is a guard-chamber, divided by a wall into two compartments, in one of which is a large stone, which seems to have served the purpose of a rude bench. Several other chambers are observable on the inside of the inner wall, some built on and others constructed in the substance of the wall itself; in most of these charcoal and broken pottery have been found, and in one of the wall-chambers a conduit was observed to penetrate the entire substance of the wall, opening on the outer side, and from being found to contain a quantity of charcoal it is conceived to have been constructed for the purpose of a flue, being twelve inches in height and fourteen inches wide at the bottom, narrowing to ten inches at the top. The area lying within the walls is occupied by the circular foundation of dwelling-places, eighteen of which remain clearly defined, and the traces of several more are discernible. These circles enclose a space varying from eleven to twenty-seven feet. The entrances are facing the east and south-east, some of them showing a rise in the pavement of three and a quarter inches, intended to serve as a check to a door. The floors have been paved with slabs of porphyry. It is only by speculation and comparison that we can arrive at a conception of the superstructures which once stood upon those basements. In some of the western isles of Scotland the people still use the ancient circular buildings for their dwellings. These are beehive-shaped constructions, the stones being so laid as to form a dome-shaped roof, the opening left being covered by a slab of stone. This mode of building is even practised to the present time where families increase so as to require additional habitations. The Cloghams in Ireland are similar; and, indeed, this mode of construction is so easy and simple—as may be observed in the grottoes of oyster-shells raised by the urchins at street-corners in London—that it may be taken as a fair type of the efforts of a rude people in the endeavour to provide for themselves a shelter from the elements; and something similar may be observed in the huts of most rude or semi-cultivated peoples, from the wigwam of the Hottentot to the ice-built winter habitation of the Copper Indian of North America.

The ramparts which surround the western town of Greaves Ash are carried on by some strong works, which display no small skill in military strategy, to a smaller town to the eastward, which occupies a position somewhat higher on the hill-side. This site, although much less than the other, is remarkable for the large size of the stones employed in its construction, some of which laid in the rampart reach the length of four feet. Several hut-circles lie scattered between the western and eastern ramparts. A gate in the rampart of the eastern town communicates with a road which is carried up-hill to a third town of still higher elevation. This station is planted to the north-east, at a distance of 100 yards, being near a ravine through which a small stream of water flows, and which probably supplied the more elevated retreat. This site is of an irregular figure, measuring 220 feet from north to south, by about 200 feet from east to west. Here the rampire stands, in some parts at a height of eight feet from the central area. This area is divided into two parts by a wall, which crosses it in a north-east direction. Within the sites thus divided a number of hut-circles appear, together with enclosures of an oval form. The rampire here has several openings, but one on the west leading to the lower forts is the principal. It is constructed of large blocks of stone particularly well laid together. The interior of this fort contains, besides the main dividing wall, several smaller enclosures or subdivisions, with the vestiges of fifteen hut-circles, the walls of which, in some instances, remain at a height of three feet. One of those huts, standing upon ground elevated about five feet, is reached by a short flight of rude steps.

This triple group of fortified dwellings forms, it will be perceived, a connected series of town and suburbs, and it seems not improbable that those to the east may have served the purpose of places of retreat in case of siege or assault, the easternmost having perhaps been reserved as a citadel for the last desperate struggle in defence of the place.

The vast strength of the walls, and the vestiges of numerous habitations, show that this place has