Page:The history of Little England beyond Wales and the non-Kymric colony settled in Pembrokeshire.pdf/41

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One characteristic of these early camps is well illustrated at Old Castle, viz., a means of exit to the shore. In most of them this may be traced, though in some instances it has ceased to be practicable in consequence of the disintegration of the rocks. Some of the early camps are on such stony ground, that it was impossible to dig ditches to fortify them; in these cases the engineer raised stone walls. Instances of this sort may be seen at St. David's Head, and on the inland camp of Carn Fawr, near Strumble. Perhaps it was the shelter of the walls that tempted the builders to form permanent dwelling-places; but it is strange that in both of these walled camps there are a number of hut foundations. Within Carn Fawr there is water too. I have found neolithic remains within the precincts of many cliff castles, and were the ditches searched no doubt they might be discovered in most of the others. The hut circles on Old Castle Head, St. David's Head, and Carn Fawr, may, with a fair show of probability be set down in the list of neolithic remains. They are enclosed by camps, either containing flint flakes, or exactly corresponding with others that do so. But there are other and more important groups of hut circles in Pembrokeshire which have not as yet been examined with sufficient care to justify even a guess at their probable date.

The little peninsula of Gatholm contains a good many circles, and I was informed by the boatmen that on the rock known as Midland, in Jack Sound, there are one or two. But the largest collection I ever saw are grouped on Skomer Island, where they may be counted by hundreds, and many of them are surrounded by an enclosure marked out with single stones, containing about a quarter of an acre. In this yard or garden there is generally a small cairn. The number of these hut circles is so great, that if they had been inhabited at one and the same time, it would certainly have been necessary to import food from the mainland. Who were their builders? It is impossible to say without a very careful examination, whether indeed they were neolithic folk flying from the dreadful bronze axes, or Gaels pursued by Kymry, or as Mr. Davies, the occupier, fancies, Scandinavian robbers who formed a depôt on this out-of-the-way island to store their booty; or perhaps they may even have been pilgrims who came on certain occasions to hear some holy mediæval preacher. This is all pure guesswork, for from neolithic times until the present day circular huts have been built on stone foundations. Indeed, the shielings in which the inhabitants of some of the Scotch islands live seem to be an exact reproduction of a stone age house.

The most instructive neolithic find that has hitherto been discovered in Pembrokeshire, was unearthed from the cave known as the Little Hoyle, in Longbury Bank, Penally, by Mr. Wilmot Power, the late Professor Rolleston, General Pitt Rivers, and myself, in the years 1876-77-78. We found the remains of certainly nine, if not eleven, human beings, large quantities of the bones of domestic and wild animals, birds, shells, pottery, charcoal, stone and bone innplements. These were mixed up with black earth and angular stones in a sort of hotchpotch which, to the writer, seemed to indicate that men and beasts had been alike eaten