The resemblance between the remains found in the Scottish and Irish lake-dwellings, as well as other antiquarian finds of Celtic character, must also not be overlooked. Combs, similar in structure and ornamentation to those from Buston, have been found in several of the Irish crannogs, in the brochs and other antiquities of the north of Scotland, and in many of the ruins of the Romano-British towns in England. (See [Figs. 105], [108], and [176].) Iron knives and shears, variegated beads of impure glass with grooves and spiral marks, ornaments of jet and bronze, implements of stone, bone, and horn, besides querns, whetstones, etc., are all common to Celtic antiquities, wherever found.
That many of these relics were the products of a refined civilisation is not more remarkable than the unexpected and strangely discordant circumstances in which they have been found. For this reason it might be supposed that the crannogs were the headquarters of thieves and robbers, where the proceeds of their marauding excursions among the surrounding Roman provincials were stored up. The inferences derived from a careful consideration of all the facts do not appear to me to support this view, nor do they uphold another view, sometimes propounded, viz. that they were fortified islands occupied by the guardian soldiers of the people. Indeed, amongst the relics military remains are only feebly represented by a few iron daggers and spear-heads, one or two doubtful arrow-points, and a quantity of round pebbles and so-called sling-stones. On the other hand, a very large percentage of the articles consists of querns, implements and tools, crucibles, various domestic utensils, etc., from which, not to mention the great variety of ornaments, there can be no ambiguity as to the testimony they afford of the peaceful prosecution of various arts and industries by the lake-dwellers.
There is, in my opinion, only one hypothesis that can satisfactorily account for all the facts and phenomena here adduced, viz. that the lake-dwellings in the south-west of Scotland were resorted to by the Celtic inhabitants as a means of protecting their lives and movable property when, upon the frequent withdrawal of the Roman soldiers from the district, they were left, single-handed, to contend against the Angles on the east and the Picts and Scots on the north. It is not likely that these provincials, so long accustomed to the luxury and comforts of Roman civilisation, or their descendants in the subsequent kingdom of Strathclyde, would become the assailants of such fierce and lawless enemies, from whom, even if conquered, they could derive no benefit. Hence their military tactics and operations would assume more the character of defence than aggression, and in order to defeat the object of the frequent and sudden inroads of the northern tribes, which was to plunder the inhabitants rather than to conquer the country, experience taught them the necessity of being prepared for emergencies by having certain places of more than ordinary security where they could deposit their wealth, or to which they could retire as a last resource when hard pressed. These retreats might be caves, fortified camps, or inaccessible islands, but in localities where no such natural strongholds existed the military genius of the Celtic inhabitants, prompted perhaps by inherited notions, led them to construct these wooden islands. From the final departure of the Romans to the conquest of the kingdom of Strathclyde by the Northumbrian Angles, a period of several centuries, this unfortunate people had few intervals of peace, and with their complete subjugation ended the special functions of the lake-dwellings as a national system of protection. No doubt some of them, as well as caves and such hiding-places, would continue to afford refuge to straggling remnants of natives, rendered desperate by the relentless persecution of their enemies; but ultimately all of them would fall into the hands of their Saxon conquerors, when henceforth they would be allowed to subside into mud or crumble into decay.
III.—ENGLISH LAKE-DWELLINGS.
The discovery of lacustrine abodes south of the Scottish border, though the examples are by no means so numerous or so prolific in industrial remains as those of Scotland and Ireland, is, nevertheless, of special interest on account of the intermediary position in which England stands geographically to the areas of their earliest and latest development in Europe. It will be noticed that some of the recorded observations here reproduced were actually made before antiquaries realised the importance of the subject; otherwise it is impossible to conceive how such highly suggestive facts did not at once lead to more definite information.
THE MERES OF NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK.
Wretham Mere.—Sir Charles F. Bunbury, as early as 1856, noticed some appearances in a drained mere near Wretham Hall which clearly point to being the remains of a lake-dwelling. In a communication on the subject to the Geological Society he says:—
"Wretham Hall, the seat of W. Birch, Esq., is situated about six miles north of Thetford, in that extensive tract of open sandy plains which may be called upland in comparison with the fens, but of very moderate elevation above the sea-level as is shown by the slow course of the streams flowing from it. About Wretham there are several meres or small natural sheets of water without any outlet. The one to which my attention was particularly directed 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. This black mud, which is in parts above twenty feet deep, is nothing else than a soft, rotten, unconsolidated peat; or perhaps it should be described as vegetable matter in a more complete state of decomposition than ordinary peat, showing no distinct trace of vegetable structure. Numerous horns of red deer have been found in this 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 the 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."
It appears that in 1851 a more remarkable "find" became visible on draining another mere on this same estate, though the events remained unrecorded till the years 1858 and 1862. The following notice is compiled mainly and almost verbatim from Mr. Newton's observations, which he states were directly obtained from Mr. Birch, the proprietor:—