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.