A few weeks ago my attention was directed by Mr. Joseph Anderson to a communication which he had just received from a gentleman near Bridlington anent some antiquarian remains indicating lake-dwellings in that district, of which, at my request, the discoverer has kindly favoured me with the following interesting notice:— "Ulrome Grange,
Lowthorpe, Hull, Feb. 28, 1882.
"Dear Sir,—This part of the county of York (Holderness) appears formerly to have been intersected by numerous irregular lakes, which were drained about eighty years ago.
"In the spring of the year 1880 the Commissioners of the Beverley and Barmston Drainage found it necessary to deepen one of these drains (the branch called the Skipsea drain).
"A short time after this was done I was walking in one of my fields adjoining, and picked up some perforated bone implements. I shortly afterwards had the earth, which had been excavated at this place, turned over, and found more implements of the same class. Also two made from the antlers of the red deer, and a small piece of red ochre, with several stones which bear traces of having been utilised.
"In the month of May 1881, the water in the drain at that time being very low, and having obtained the services of half a dozen men accustomed to similar work, I had the water dammed, and dug through the peat to a bed of gravel, 9 ft. 6 in. from the surface.
"We found three more perforated bone implements, all in the side of the drain, and at the depth of seven feet, also several stakes and piles with remains of brushwood.
"I then determined, when opportunity offered, to excavate in the field, and proceeded to do so in December last.
"We commenced by digging a trench parallel with the drain and sixty feet in length. This trench and the drain formed two sides of a square, running north and south. Commencing at the south end, we came upon a layer of gravel at the depth of two feet, which dips to the north, and is overlaid by a bed of peat, six feet in thickness, at the north end of the trench.
"As this trench filled with water, we began at the same point and dug a similar one on the south side, running east and west, and connected the first trench with the drain. The gravel slopes also to the west, and dips quite abruptly when at a distance of forty feet from the drain. When the trenches were dug a gravel slope at the south-east corner of the square prevented the water from running out of the first trench. I therefore had the earth turned over on this slope, when we found great numbers of stakes, with some brushwood, the earth being a peaty marl.
"When clear of the slope there is a decided layer of brushwood about two feet thick, also studded with stakes, and along the inner side of the south trench we found a number of piles from five inches to seven inches in diameter, in a line, and mostly upright. One of these we got out quite perfect. It is of oak wood, four feet in length, six inches in diameter, and has a forked top which has apparently been intended for carrying a horizontal beam or support. The piles are about four feet apart. One had given way and been replaced.
"As the trench is not exactly in a line with the piles, several are now left standing and partially exposed. In this portion of the digging, we found several bones of animals, a peculiar grinding-stone of whinstone or granite, almost semicircular in shape, 12 inches long by 7 broad, a flint core, a stone with the centre hollowed, a pounding or hammer stone, and two fragments of rude pottery, evidently British.
"Hazel nuts are numerous; several I have picked out appear to have been opened by squirrels.
"After making these discoveries I suspended work, as I felt that I should like some one acquainted with similar explorations to give an opinion with respect to the course I ought to adopt.
"Whether the place is a lake-dwelling or not, further research will determine. It is undoubtedly a pile structure, and of a very early date.
"At this season the spring-tides tend to impede further investigation, the water having risen to the height of 7 feet in the trenches on the 19th inst. And as we may hope for warmer weather with longer days, I shall probably defer further exploration until April. I believe I have discovered another similar place, but on a larger scale, and the timbers appear much larger. The two are not more than half a mile apart, and are situated on the same lake as the earthworks and mound at Skipsea (described in Poulson's Holderness). In the meantime, any suggestions you may favour me with will be gladly received by yours very faithfully,
"Thomas Boynton."Dr. Munro, Kilmarnock."
Concluding Remarks.
It may be some time yet before further research will throw much additional light on the appearances and discoveries above recorded, but should they turn out to be the genuine remains of ancient lake habitations, it is more than probable that they will be found to be no exceptional instances, but remnants of a more widely distributed custom. Meantime, however, they appear to me sufficiently suggestive, especially when taken together with the evidence I have already produced as to the prevalence of such structures amongst the Celtic races in Scotland and Ireland, and the distinct statement made by Julius Cæsar that the Britons made use of wooden piles and marshes in their mode of entrenchment (sylvis paludibusque munitum), to entertain the hypothesis that the original British Celts, from whom in all probability have descended the modern Gaels, were an offshoot of the founders of the Swiss Lake-Dwellings, that they emigrated to Britain when these lacustrine abodes were in full vogue, and that, as they spread northwards and westwards over Scotland and Ireland, they retained, and probably practised, the habit of resorting to insular protection long after the custom had fallen into desuetude in Europe. As, however, the lake-dwelling mania subsided and gradually came to a close on the Continent, subsequent immigrants into Britain, such as the Belgæ, Angles, etc., being no longer acquainted with the subject, cultivated new principles of defensive warfare, or, at any rate, ceased to resort to the protection afforded by the artificial construction of lake-dwellings, whilst the first Celtic invaders, still imbued with their primary civilisation, when harassed by enemies and obliged to act on the defensive, had recourse to their peculiar and inherited system of protection, with such variations and improvements as better implements and the topographical requirements of the country suggested to them. Hence it would follow that the range of the British Lake-Dwellings, both in space and time, would vary according to circumstances and the vicissitudes of their founders; but, speaking generally, it is only reasonable to suppose that its limitation first commenced in those districts most accessible to fresh swarms of Continental immigrants. But this problem, as well as many other subsidiary questions which follow in the same line of inquiry, must be solved by further researches; and should these remarks in any way lead to renewed application in this department, they will serve a good end, whatever may be the result of the hypothesis thus broached regarding the primary sources of the ideas that led to the development of British Lake-Dwellings.
APPENDIX.
ADDITIONAL DISCOVERIES ON THE CRANNOG IN LOCHSPOUTS.