Fig. 322.—From A Mound of Many Cities (Bliss, J. B.).
The British built their oppida not infrequently in the form of an eye or optic, and also of an oeuf, ova, or egg. The perfect symmetry of these designs point conclusively to the probability that the earthworks were not mere strongholds scratched together anyhow for mere defence: the British burial places or barrows were similarly either circular or oval, and that the Scotch dun illustrated in Fig. 324 was British, is implied not only by its name Boreland-Mote, but by its existence at a place named Parton, this word, like the Barton of Dumbarton, no doubt signifying Dun Brettan or Briton.
Fig. 323.—From The Motes of Kirkcudbrightshire (Coles, F. R.). (Soc. Antiq. Scot.).
Fig. 324.—From The Motes of Kirkcudbrightshire (Coles, F. R.). (Soc. Antiq. Scot.)