visit to Tara is admirable. The old woman who was in charge of it, and who boasted of having raised the neighbourhood, and routed intending excavators, sang to the visitors (presumably in English) “a long ballad of past glory", touching on O'Connell and the Repeal Meeting at Tara, which she remembered. In fact, the sobering influence of solid objects appears in the short chapter on some of the megalithic remains of Ireland.

It should be mentioned that Giraldus is not otherwise a seer than as Mr. Bonwick is. He was a Norman with a keen eye for folk-lore.

It is difficult to give a fair idea of the theories; but on the subject of the Round Towers, fifteen are named, while there is no mention (unless it is included in the et cetera) of that which makes them places of refuge for the priests of the church, with the church plate, which was a great object of the Norsemen's incursions. This would make the oldest date from the ninth century. It is certain, in two cases at least in Irish history, that ecclesiastics took refuge in them.

Mr. Bonwick is probably right in supposing (what is hardly denied now) that there are many old Ossianic poems (all comparatively short), but none of the authorities he quotes, except Miss Brooke, seem to see that any historical basis they may have must belong to the former period, the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, as they chiefly concern fights with the Norsemen.

The "old religions" mentioned by Mr. Bonwick are chiefly Oriental, and have no connection with Ireland.

As to the Druids, he certainly gives them a wide scope, his views about them being decidedly eclectic. He identifies them with the Ollamhs mentioned by the Four Masters in the tenth century B.C.; with the old missionary, and probably Patrician, Church of the Seven Bishops (in Iona); with the Culdees, of whom we know very little, except that they appear as married clergy (apparently in the position of canons) in the centuries immediately before that in which the marriage of the clergy was finally prohibited. If the Four Masters really mention them in 806, it must be about the earliest occurrence of the name, and the animosity which it is alleged Bede entertained against them must be interpreted as referring to the much secularised Irish. clergy. Further, it is said that Druidism probably lingered among the Irish clergy down to the sixteenth century. But there is no need to limit it at all. Dr. Joyce, who is, perhaps, more in touch with the subject than any other writer, says that in the west of Ireland a cunning-looking man would be called a Shan-dree, or old Druid, still; and in some parts of the Scotch Highlands a witch is a Ban-drui, or woman-Druid. It may be added that in the parts of the Highlands where the English-Latin equivalent has not been adopted, "sending for the doctor" is respectfully phrased as "asking the Olla" (or learned man) "to come."

Stonehenge and its Earthworks.—The existing works on Stonehenge are either expensive monographs like that of Stukeley's (now out of print), and therefore inaccessible to the general public), or small handbooks which deal with the subject in a very superficial manner.

The object of Mr. Edgar Barclay's proposed volume on Stonehenge and its Earthworks is to give a concise summary of the information already published and the various theories held by the leading authorities, supplemented by copious plans and general views, which will enable the reader to test the value of the theories for himself. Reproductions of old drawings of the monument will form an important feature in the work, as an opportunity is thus given of understanding the changes that the stones have undergone in the last few centuries, and of comparing them with the author's representations showing the state of the monument as it is at present.

It is hardly necessary to say that great care has been taken to ensure absolute accuracy in all views and plans given in the work; and it is hoped that the volume will prove useful both as a handbook for persons visiting Stonehenge, and also as a book of reference for the library. It will be published by Mr. Chas. J. Clark, 4 Lincoln's Inn Fields, at the subscription price of 108. 6d.

Dictionary of British Folk-Lore. Edited by G. LAURENCE GOMME, Esq., F.S.A., President of the Folk-Lore Society, etc. Part I, "The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland; with Tunes, Singing-Rhymes, and Methods of Playing according to the Variants Extant and Recorded in Different Parts of the Kingdom." Collected and annotated by ALICE BERTHA GOMME. (Vol. i, xx-433 pp. Demy 8vo. Cloth, 12s. 6d. net.) -The work here announced will be completed in two volumes, the second of which will be ready in the autumn. It forms the first section of a Dictionary of British Folk-Lore, for which the President of the Folk-Lore Society and Mrs. Gomme have been accumulating material during the last fifteen years. It depends upon the reception accorded to this, the first instalment of the Dictionary, whether the remainder of the work shall see the light. If, as may be hoped with some confidence, that reception is of a nature to encourage Editor and Publisher, the "Games" will be followed next year by the "Traditional Marriage Rites and Usages of the British Isles."

The scope of the work is sufficiently defined by its title; its merit is sufficiently guaranteed by the name of the Editor to preclude the necessity of dwelling upon either. It need only be noted that the second volume will contain an elaborate Appendix, which will, to quote from the Preface, "give a complete analysis of the incidents mentioned in the Games, and attempt to tell the story of their origin and development, as well as compare them with the games of children of foreign countries."

The price of the present volume has been fixed at 12s. Ed. net, and it may be had post free from Mr. D. Nutt, the publisher, or from all booksellers, at this price. The publisher reserves the right of raising the price later.

Mrs. Gomme has also made a selection of the Chief Singing Games for the Nursery and Schoolroom, illustrated and decorated throughout by Miss Winifred Smith.

Lydd and its Church. By THOMAS H. OYLER. (London: Chas. J. Clark, 4 Lincoln's Inn Fields.)-This work is in the press, and will be ready in a few weeks. It contains a full description of the architecture of the church, and the whole of the inscriptions with their quaint phraseology; also numerous interesting extracts from the town records and other sources. The book will be illustrated from original sketches.

This little volume has been compiled by the author with a twofold design. On the one hand it is hoped that the care which has been bestowed upon its preparation will ensure it a welcome from the antiquary as an accurate and thoroughly trustworthy epitome of the present state of a most interesting church and its monuments. On the other hand, the addition of matters of less moment, but of greater general interest, should commend it to the attention of visitors and tourists.

Price to subscribers, bound in cloth, 1s. 6d. ; post free, 1s. 8d. The price will probably be advanced after publication, as only a limited number of copies will be printed beyond those subscribed for. Subscribers' names should be sent to the Author, Langley Lodge, Sutton Valence, Staplehurst, Kent; or the publisher.

THE JOURNAL

OF THE

British Archaeological Association.

SEPTEMBER 1894.

THE VITRIFIED FORTS OF THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND,

AND THE THEORIES AS TO THEIR HISTORY.

BY MISS RUSSELL.

(Read 16th May 1894.)

THE vitrified fort of Dunnagoil, in the island of Bute, which was seen by the Association during the Glasgow Congress, was, I find, the starting-point of all the more modern investigations of that curious class of structure.

The subject was pretty well worked in the last century, when attention was first drawn to it, and I do not know that any one has seriously carried on investigation of them since, until the lamented Dr. Angus Smith was captivated by the chemical and archæological problems in combination, which they offered him. But Dunnagoil was the one originally known to him, and he says he had some specimens from it, though it is not quite clear whether his analysis was made from them.

Some years, before his Loch Etive papers appeared (that is, in 1869), an excellent paper on the general subject, also to be found in the Proceedings of the Antiquaries of Scotland, was written by Dr. John Stuart, partly from personal observation, on the occasion of receiving, through Dr. Ferdinand Keller, who translated it, an account of similar vitrified forts in one part of Bohemia. They must be very much like the Scotch forts, sometimes supporting a great mass of loose stones.

1891

13

One is known in Brittany, and four or five in Ireland, on the side towards Scotland; but much the greater number of those known to exist are in Scotland, north of the Forth and Clyde; while there are said to be about some four or five in Galloway and Carrick, immediately south of the Firth of Clyde.

It should be explained here that the vitrified forts are, generally speaking, hill-forts, in most respects precisely the same as the other hill-forts which so abound in Scotland both north and south of the Firths, and which have ramparts either of loose stones, or, at all events, stones without mortar, or of earth. These latter often of such comparatively small size, that, as Dr. Joseph Anderson remarked in one of his well-known lectures, they give the idea that they must have been supplemented by palisades. They are generally placed either on the tops of the lower hills, or on rising grounds or knolls, the lines of which are followed by the ramparts. And Mr. John Williams, who is still probably the best, as he was the earliest, authority about the vitrified forts, lays great stress on their identity, in all respects, with the other forts, except for the peculiarity that the generally small stones of which the ramparts are constructed have been cemented together by fire; that is, partly melted so as to adhere together, which they do still, in long lines of a sort of artificial rock, or rather lava, which they more resemble than true stone.

Mr. Williams certainly had great advantages for examining them. He was a mining engineer employed by the Commissioners of Fortified Estates after the "civil war", as it was called, of 1745; who, contrary to what might have been expected, seem to have gained golden opinions in Scotland. By their directions Mr. Williams made an examination of the vitrified forts. He came to the conclusion that they were artificial, not natural, and that they could only have been constructed by some such process as this: the erection of two banks of earth along the line of the intended wall, and the filling of the space between them with wood and branches; and on the top of them, loose stones. He supposed that the wood was set on fire, and allowed to burn out; and that when the wood was completely burnt, and the stones sunk to the