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TERRIERS.

These are documents that contain much information. From these I find that customs once common are no more. I will mention only one, viz., that of funerals being preceded by the parish clerk, tolling, as he walked along in advance of the procession, a small hand-bell; which bell is mentioned in the terriers as property belonging to the church. Terriers also throw considerable light on tithes, and on other matters bearing on the life of our forefathers.

The loose papers, as receipts of briefs, indentures of lads, copies of wills, etc., are not without a certain value, and these may be looked through by any one searching our parish chest.

With one more remark I will bring my lengthy paper to a close. These records that I have laid under contribution are not, I am sorry to say, kept as carefully as they deserve. They ought to be bound; and the contents of the parish chest might be made public, so that on a change of ministers in a parish, no risk of loss of a single document might be incurred. And I will add that vestry-records ought to be deposited in the parish chest, and not be, as often they now are, in the hands of private individuals.

26

ANCIENT BRITISH HUT-DWELLINGS
NEAR BALA, MERIONETHSHIRE.

BY THE REV. C. H. DRINKWATER, M.A.

(Read at Denbigh, August 1887.)

Plan of ancient British Hut-Dwellings on the South Slope of Y Foel Caws,
near Llanuwchllyn.

In the year 1885 an attempt was made by the late Edward Jones, of Newport, and myself to photograph the famous "pictured rocks" in the valley between two hills above Llanuwchllyn, which are marked on_the Ordnance Map respectively "Y Foel Caws" and "Penmaen", on the right hand side of the road leading from Bala to Dolgelley, not far from the springs or fountainheads of the Dwfrdwy. The day we selected was not propitious. It had been raining more or less for many hours; and although there were occasional gleams of sunshine which gave us hopes of success, they were suddenly dashed, on our arrival at the spot, by the burst of a tremendous thunderstorm.

As we were hurrying across the south-west shoulder

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of Y Foel Caws I exclaimed, "See, here are the vestiges of an ancient village!" To which my friend replied, 'Never mind, get along as fast as you can"; and with another hasty glance through the driving rain I had to be content. However, I was not satisfied with leaving it so, and therefore asked a friend at Llanuwchllyn to visit the spot, and make a careful examination. He did visit the neighbourhood, but failed to identify the spot; seeking, I suppose, too far to the east.

On Thursday, July 14th, I made another effort, and the day being fine and dry and clear, managed to reach the place, and proceeded to make a rough plan, which I have placed at the heading of this paper.

It will be seen that there are at least five enclosures of rough, unhewn stones, two of which are double, consisting of two rooms each. In A, E, and F (see the plan) only one range of stones is visible; but in B, C, and D there are several courses of stone, the wall between these two double dwellings being between 4 and 5 ft. high. The entrances of A and B are towards the south, while those of c and D are in the opposite direction. These buildings are roughly rectangular, with the exception of F, which is circular, and is on a mound so irregular in shape that it cannot be considered of natural formation. The dimensions are much alike, being 15 to 20 ft. long by 9 to 12 ft. wide. It is difficult to estimate the size as the walls are by no means of uniform thickness.

From the building or circle marked F there is a clear view up and down the valley, which cannot be had from the other houses; and, with the exception of the point of the crag which dominates the whole, this is the most important post for observation.

It was the shape and position of this circle that inclined me to believe that I had lighted upon an unmistakable settlement of the very earliest times, and not a summer sheiling of the inhabitants of the lake-shore to the north-east. Extensive excavation within and around these buildings might furnish evidence of the

age of their builders and occupiers, but nothing more than conjecture is warranted by the remains above found. That the buildings B and C, D have been occupied in comparatively modern times is possible; but this could not be the case with A, E, and F, of which only a circle or a parallelogram of unhewn stones, disconnected in some instances from each other, remains above ground.

The area is far from level, a being some 16 ft. higher than B and C, D, while E is lower still; but F is higher than E, and from it there is a better range of view up and down the valley. There is no spring or stream of water near, but a quarter of a mile away, to the northwest, there is a good stream; and down in the bottom of the valley there is the Dwfrdwy, which, although very shallow, does not seem to have failed altogether during the unusual drought of last month.

I can do little more than point out the locality of these, to me, very interesting remains, and leave to others more capable of dealing with them the responsibility of pronouncing upon their uses and age of erection.

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