This occupation of the Victoria Cave by the Brit-Welsh is a mere episode in its history. It was inhabited by man in the neolithic age, at a time so remote that the interval between it and the historical period can only be measured by the rude method by which geologists estimate the relative age of the rocks. At the entrance the dark Romano-Celtic or Brit-Welsh stratum (Fig. 20, No. 4; Fig. 21, No. 4) lay buried, as we have seen, under an accumulation of angular fragments of stone which had fallen from the cliff. It rested on a similar accumulation (Fig. 20, No. 3; Fig. 21, No. 3) which was no less than six feet thick, and at the bottom of this, at the point where it was based on a stiff grey clay, a bone harpoon (Fig. 26) was discovered, as well as charcoal; a bone bead (Fig. 27), three rude flint flakes, and the broken bones of the brown bear, stag, horse, and Celtic shorthorn (Bos longifrons). The harpoon is a little more than three inches long, with the head armed with two barbs on each side, and the base presenting a mode of securing attachment to the handle which has not before been discovered in Britain. Instead of a mere projection to catch the ligatures by which it was bound to the shaft, there is a well-cut barb on either side, pointing in a contrary direction to those which form the head. Ample use for such an instrument would be found in Malham tarn, some three miles off, and very probably also in that which formerly existed close by at Attermire, but which has been choked up by peat, and is now turned into grass-land by drainage. The remains of the brown bear consist of numerous hollow bones and teeth, and the shaft of a femur with its articular ends broken off, has been polished by friction against some soft substance, so that its surface has a lustre like that of glass.
The question naturally arises, who were the ancient inhabitants of the cave whose rude implements occur in this lower stratum? From the few remains which we discovered, they were hunters and fishermen, and the possessors of domestic oxen, and possibly horses, and in a much lower state of civilization than the Brit-Welsh inhabitants who succeeded them in the cave after a long interval. There is no proof that they used a coinage, or that they were acquainted with metal. The conclusion that they were neolithic is based on the following evidence:—In 1871 the Exploration Committee examined a small cave about 200 yards off, in King’s Scar, and obtained the broken bones of the stag, Celtic short-horn (Bos longifrons), goat, and horse, a whetstone, and a rudely chipped scraper, to which, subsequently, Mr. John Birkbeck, jun., made the important addition of part of a human thigh-bone. This set of remains, the human thigh-bone excepted, agrees with those in the lower stratum in the Victoria Cave, not merely in the absence of metal, but also in affording signs of a comparatively rude civilization; and we might reasonably expect that the two caves so close to each other, would have been occupied by the same people at approximately the same time. If this be allowed, the thigh-bone may be assigned to one of these earlier inhabitants, the place of habitation being, as is frequently the case, subsequently used for purposes of burial. The thigh-bone itself is characterized by the great development of the muscular ridge known to anatomists as the linea aspera, implying the peculiar flatness of shin which is termed by Professor Busk platycnemism. This peculiar form has been met with in the neolithic tumuli of Yorkshire, explored by the Rev. Canon Greenwell, as well as in the human remains which I have discovered in the neolithic caves and chambered tombs of Denbighshire; and since it has not been observed in any human skeletons in this country which are not of that age, it may be fairly taken to prove that a neolithic people formerly lived in Ribblesdale. And further, since the traces of rude culture met with in these two caves are the same as those which characterize neolithic burial and dwelling places throughout Europe, they may be assigned to that remote age. Similar human remains were obtained by Mr. Farrer from the Dowker-bottom Cave, and imply that that cave also was used as a neolithic burial-place.
The identification of this race with the Basque or Iberian stock, from which are descended the small, dark peoples of Derbyshire, Wales, and certain parts of Ireland, must be referred to the chapters on the Neolithic Caves.
The reputed discovery of an adze (Fig. 28), of a variety of greenstone which Mr. Wyndham identifies with melaphyr, many years ago in the Victoria Cave, may offer additional evidence as to its having been occupied by a neolithic tribe. It was presented to the Museum of the Philosophical Society at Leeds by Mr. Jackson, and figured by Mr. Denny among the remains from the Caves of Craven, and presents characters that have not, to my knowledge, been met with in any other neolithic implement found in Great Britain: one end being roughly chipped for insertion into a socket, while the other is carefully ground into a chisel edge. In these respects, as Mr. O’Callaghan and Mr. Denny have observed, it bears a striking resemblance to the stone adzes used by the South Sea Islanders, and especially in Tahiti;—a resemblance so strong that, unless it had been traced from the hands of the discoverer into the Museum at Leeds, it would be considered by many archæologists as an implement actually obtained from the South Seas. It may have been derived from the lower stratum, which furnished the equally peculiar harpoon, Fig. 26.
From the position in which these remains occurred, it is obvious that a neolithic tribe occupied the cave before the accumulation of the angular fragments, six feet in thickness (Fig. 20, No. 3; Fig. 21, No. 3), just as the date of the Brit-Welsh occupation is fixed as being after this, and before the accumulation of the two feet of débris above (No. 5). And in this we have a means of roughly estimating the interval of time between them. It is clear that the accumulation of two feet of angular fragments, torn away by the action of the weather from the cliff, has been formed in about 1,200 years, i.e. between the Brit-Welsh occupation and the present time. If it be admitted that equal quantities of the cliff have been weathered away in equal times, it will follow that the thickness of six feet between the Brit-Welsh stratum and that under examination was formed during a time thrice as long, or 3,600 years; and that consequently the date of the earlier occupation of the cave by man is fixed as being about 4,800, or 5,000 years ago. It is perfectly true, that in ancient times the frosts may have been more intense than they are now, and therefore that the rate of weathering may have been faster. To the objection that possibly a large mass of cliff may have tumbled down at one time, and subsequently been disintegrated, it may be answered, that at the point at the entrance where the section was taken there was no evidence of any such fall; the angular blocks, both above and below the Brit-Welsh stratum, being as nearly as possible of the same size, and not lying with their faces parallel to each other, as would have been the case had they been disintegrated fallen blocks. Nevertheless this attempt to fix a date cannot lay claim to scientific precision, and in that respect is neither better, nor worse, than any other similar attempt founded on the rate at which a valley is being excavated, or alluvium being deposited, or on the retrocession of a waterfall, such, for example, as Niagara. It is merely valuable as enabling us to form some sort of idea of the high antiquity of the neolithic men who left these remains behind in the cave.
As the trench (see Figs. 20, 21) begun on the outside passed into the entrance of the cave, the accumulation of stones above the neolithic stratum disappeared, and the latter became intermingled with the Brit-Welsh layer above, so that it would have been impossible to distinguish the one from the other had not the talus marked the interval in the plateau outside. The talus also above the Brit-Welsh stratum ceased at the entrance, although here and there large blocks of stone, fallen from time to time from the roof, rested on its upper surface.
Immediately below the neolithic stratum, a deposit of stiff grey clay of unknown depth occupies both the entrance and the inside of the cave (Figs. 20, 21), containing fragments of limestone and large angular blocks which had fallen from the roof. A shaft sunk to a depth of twenty-five feet near the entrance failed to arrive at the bottom, but presented the following section in descending order: stiff grey clay with layer of stalagmite six feet thick; a finely laminated calcareous clay twelve feet thick; and below, a similar bed of clay to that on the surface. In a second shaft sunk to the depth of twelve feet farther within the cave, the base of the grey clay was not reached.72
A third shaft, at the entrance, however, penetrated the clay, No. 1 of Figs. 20, 21, 29, at a depth of about five feet, and revealed the existence below of a reddish-grey loamy cave-earth (Fig. 29, A), containing bones and teeth of the same animals as those from the caverns of Kent’s Hole, Wookey Hole, and others, which belonged to a group that invaded Europe before the glacial period, and that inhabited the region north of the Alps and the Pyrenees in pre- and post-glacial times.73
We subsequently discovered the cave-earth to be from three to four feet thick, and that it rested on an accumulation (Fig. 29, B) of large blocks of limestone, the interstices between which were filled with clay, sometimes laminated and at others homogeneous, as well as with coarse sand. Below this we broke into an empty passage, one side of which was formed by the solid rock, and the other of blocks of stone imbedded in the clay.
As we opened out a horizontal passage towards the cave-earth, A, from the outside, the talus (Fig. 29, C) of angular débris was cut through first, which gradually became more and more clayey in its lower portions: at one point, D, there were several glaciated blocks, some imbedded in clay and others perfectly free. It rested obliquely on the edges of the cave-earth, and passed gradually at the entrance into the clay occupying the interior of the cave.
The remains of the spelæan variety of the spotted hyæna were very abundant in the cave-earth, consisting of fragments of skulls, jaws, and bones, and especially of coprolites, which formed irregular floors, accumulated during successive occupations of the cave by that animal. All the bones were gnawed and scored by teeth, the lower jaws were without the angle and coronoid process (see Fig. 92), and the hollow bones which contain marrow were broken, while those which were solid and marrowless were for the most part perfect: and this held good, not merely of the remains of the hyæna, but of those of all the animals which constituted their prey. The bones, for example, of the woolly rhinoceros are represented merely by the hard distal portion of the shaft of the humerus, and of the solid bones of the ulna and radius, while the only portions of skull are the solid pedestal offered by the nasal bones on which the front horn was supported, and a few smaller fragments. The pedestal in question is depicted by the dark shaded portion of Fig. 30, the outline of the skull and lower jaw being taken from one of Professor Brandt’s plates of the Woolly Rhinoceros found in Siberia.74 The teeth which imply the presence of the mammoth (milk molars 3 and 4) were those of a young individual, as is very generally the case in caves which have been occupied by hyænas. The young would naturally be more exposed to the attack of those cowardly beasts of prey than the adult, armed with its long curved tusks, and defended, not merely by its thick skin, but also by the covering of wool and long hair which is peculiar to the species. Besides these animals, the reindeer, red-deer, bison, horse, the brown, grizzly, and great cave bears, were preyed upon by the hyænas and dragged into the cave. All these species were discovered within an area of a few square yards of cave-earth, which passes into the interior of the cave under the grey clay. They belong to that well-defined group known as pleistocene, quaternary, or post-pleiocene, which was proved to have inhabited Yorkshire75 in ancient times from Dr. Buckland’s discoveries in Kirkdale, and Mr. Denny’s examination of the river-deposit at Leeds, in which the remains of the hippopotamus were obtained.
The last and most important addition to this fauna is that of man, a fragment of fibula in the same mineral condition as the rest of the pleistocene bones, having been identified by Professor Busk with an unusually massive recent human fibula. Although the fragment is very small, its comparison with the abnormal specimen in Professor Busk’s possession removes all doubt from my mind, as to its having belonged to a man, who was contemporary with the cave-hyæna and the other pleistocene animals found in the cave.
Is this occupation of the Victoria Cave by the pleistocene mammalia pre-glacial or post-glacial?—before, or after, the great lowering of the temperature in northern Europe? This difficult question can only be answered by an appeal to the physical history of the clay and cave-loam, and to the evidence as to glacial action in the district, and to the distribution of the mammalia in Great Britain during the pleistocene period. Glaciers have left their marks in nearly every part of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and especially in the neighbourhood of the Victoria Cave. The hill-sides around are studded with large ice-borne Silurian rocks; boulder-clay occupies nearly every hollow on the elevated plateaux; and moraines are to be observed in nearly every valley. At the entrance of the cave itself, ice-scratched Silurian grit-stones are imbedded in the clay, which abuts directly on the cave-loam, and passes insensibly into the clay, with angular blocks of limestone within the cave. They may possibly be the constituents of a lateral moraine in situ, as Mr. Tiddeman suggests, or they may merely be derived from the waste of boulder-clay which has dropped from a higher level.
The latter view seems to me to be most likely to be true, because some of the boulders have been deprived of the clay in which they were imbedded, and are piled on each other with empty space between them, the clay being carried down to a lower level and re-deposited. Their position, however, on the edges of the cave-earth implies, in any case, that they had been dropped after its accumulation.
There is another point to be considered in the physical evidence. The deposits above the cave-earth, occupying the interior and entrance of the cave, have been introduced by the rains, either through the entrance, or through the crevices which penetrate the roof, and consist of a finer detritus washed out of the boulder-clay on the surface at a higher level. The cave-earth, however, although it has been introduced in the same way, cannot be accounted for on the supposition that it was derived from the boulder-clay, with which it contrasts in the fact that it is a loam, of a reddish grey colour, containing a large percentage of carbonate and phosphate of lime.
Similar deposits, characterized by their red colour, are to be found in nearly all the caves of the south of England, in France, and southern Europe, not complicated, as here, by the glacial phenomena of the district. Had the layer been formed in the Victoria Cave, from the destruction of the boulder-clay, it would have been identical in composition with the deposits above.
The laminated portions of the grey clay are considered by Mr. Tiddeman to have been formed by the flow of water through the entrance, derived from the daily melting of the glacier which occupied the valley in ancient times, and he compares it with a similar lamination in the boulder-clay at Ingleton, which has been described by Mr. Binney in the neighbourhood of Clifton, near Manchester, under the expressive name of “book-leaves.” Since, however, similar accumulations are being formed at the present time at the bottom of pools in many caves, as, for example, in that of Ingleborough, they cannot be taken to imply a glacial origin. They are not found merely in one spot in the Victoria Cave, but are scattered, more or less, through the general mass of the clay, and occur abundantly even below the cave-earth, having been deposited in the interstices between the large blocks of limestone. In these positions they are of uncertain age, and there is no reason why some of the hollows which we discovered below the cave-earth (Fig. 29, B) should not be filled with them at the present time by the heavy rains. They dip at all angles, and are conformable to the surfaces on which they have been dropped.
The most important argument in favour of the pre-glacial age of the mammaliferous cave-earth is afforded by the range of the animals in Great Britain during the time that certain areas were occupied by glaciers. In a paper read before the Geological Society in 1869, I showed that those areas in Great Britain in which the marks of glaciers were the freshest and most abundant coincided with those which were barren of the remains of the pleistocene mammalia, and I therefore inferred that this was due to the fact, that the areas in question were covered by ice at the time that pleistocene animals were so numerous in the caves, and river-deposits of southern and eastern England, and on the continent. In a map published in 1871, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Lancashire, and the greater portion of Yorkshire are represented as being one of these barren areas, in which no pleistocene mammalia have been observed. It is obvious that the hyænas, bears, mammoths, and other creatures found in the pleistocene stratum, could not have occupied the district when it was covered by ice; and had they lived soon after the retreat of the ice-sheet, their remains would occur in the river-gravels, from which they are absent throughout a large area to the north of a line drawn between Chester and York, whilst they occur abundantly in the glacial river deposits south of that line. On the other hand, they belong to a fauna, that overran Europe, and must have occupied this very region before the glacial period, since their remains have been found in pre-glacial strata to the north in Scotland, to the south at Selsea, and to the east in Norfolk and Suffolk. It may, therefore, reasonably be concluded that they occupied the cave in pre-glacial times, and that the stratum in which their remains lie buried, was protected from the grinding of the ice-sheet, which destroyed nearly all the surface accumulations in the river-valleys, by the walls and roof of rock, which has since, to a great extent, been weathered away.76 This view is also held by Mr. Tiddeman.
The exploration of the Victoria Cave, which has hitherto yielded such interesting evidence of three distinct occupations—first by hyænas, then by neolithic men, and lastly by the Brit-Welsh, is by no means complete. The cave itself is of unknown depth and extent, and the mere removal of so much earth and clay as it is at present known to contain will be a labour of years. The results of the exploration, up to the present time, are of almost equal value to the archæologist, to the historian, and the geologist, and prove how close is the bond of union between three branches of human thought which at first sight appear remote from each other. The discussion of the problems connected with the neolithic and pleistocene strata must be referred to the fifth and following chapters.
Other caves in this country, besides the group under consideration in Yorkshire, have been occupied by the Brit-Welsh. That known as the Kirkhead Cave, on the eastern shore of the Promontory of Cartmell, on the northern shore of Morecambe Bay, explored by Mr. J. P. Morris,77 and a Committee of the Anthropological Society in 1864–5, contained remains of the same type as those of the Brit-Welsh stratum in the Victoria Cave. In the débris which formed the floor and extended to an unknown depth below, a coin of Domitian, “a trefoil-shaped Roman fibula,” a pin, ornamented with green enamel, and a bronze ring were discovered in association with broken remains of domestic animals—Bos longifrons, pig and goat, dog and horse, as well as stag, roe, wild goose, and many human bones. A bronze celt and a spear-head were also found, at a depth respectively of five and six feet, and a flint flake at a depth of seven feet; and fragments of pottery, a bead of amber, cut bones, the perforated head of the femur, and other articles. From this group of remains it may be inferred that the cave was occupied by the Brit-Welsh, and before them by the users of bronze, and possibly by a neolithic people, and that it had at some time or another been used as a place of burial. Just inside the entrance, which overlooked the sea at a height of 45 feet, a semi-circular breastwork of large stones rendered the cave habitable, and capable of easy defence.
Mr. Morris’s view that the discovery of a bronze celt, flint flakes, and coins in this cave proves that all three were in use at the same time, and by the same people, is not borne out by the published account of the excavation. There is no proof that the deposit had not been disturbed, or that the articles were not dropped at different times. And in support of this conclusion, it may be advanced, that there is no case on record of the discovery of bronze celts or swords along with any Roman coins under conditions which would prove that they were in use at the same time. Had such been the case the ruins of the many Roman villas and cities, destroyed by the English, would have furnished some examples. At Silchester, even such a rare article as a Roman eagle has been met with. There is every reason to believe with Sir John Lubbock, Mr. Evans, and other eminent archæologists, that the use of bronze for weapons had been superseded by that of iron before the dawn of history in this country. It is otherwise with the flint flakes; since my discovery of several inside a Roman coffin at Hardham, near Pulborough, in Sussex, in a cemetery that belongs to the later portion of the Roman dominion in Britain, proves that they were used for some purpose at that time.78
In the collection of articles obtained from Poole’s Cave, in Buxton, in Derbyshire, I identified, in 1871, in company with Mr. Pennington, bronze Roman coins, minimi, Samian and other ware, and large quantities of broken bones of the same animals as those from the Victoria Cave. A bronze harp-shaped fibula of the type of Fig. 5 of the coloured Plate is inlaid with silver, and is so perfect that it might still be used.
A cave also, in Staffordshire, four miles from Ilam, explored by the Midland Scientific Association in 1864,79 under the supervision of Mr. Carrington, has furnished articles of the same kind as those of Yorkshire. It is known as Thor’s cave, and penetrates the lofty cliff of limestone, on the south side of the river Manifold, at a height of about 254 feet from the bottom of the valley, and about 900 feet above the sea, running horizontally inwards, and being divided inside by a row of buttressed columns into two noble gothic aisles. Its bottom was occupied by clay, in which, near the entrance, there were thick layers of charcoal at depths of two, three, and four feet below the surface, mingled with broken bones and pottery, that indicated the spots where fires had been kindled. The articles discovered were as follows:—
“Bronze.—Armlet, two fibulæ of harp pattern (see coloured Plate, Fig. 5), two plain breast-pins and rings, a curious wheel-shaped instrument.
“Iron.—Large triangular fork, arrow-heads, lance-heads, several knives and a chopper, of singular shapes, reaping hook (?), adze, pins, two girdle hooks (?), &c.
“Bone.—Seven snags of deer’s horns, variously cut and perforated, several others not perforated, curious bone comb ornamented with circles, flat bone perforated with four holes, two leg-bones carved at the ends, pin, a large quantity of bones of animals that had been consumed for food.
“Stone.—Greenstone pounder, fragments of querns, perforated disk, &c.
“Pottery.—A large collection of fragments of various periods, among the rest several pieces of true Samian ware.”
Mr. Edwin Brown, from whose report this list is taken, concludes that Thor’s cave was occupied during “the late Celtic and Romano-Celtic periods.” The harp-fibulæ are of a pattern identical with several of those discovered in the Victoria Cave, and the holes at their upper ends were probably intended for the reception of enamel. The bronze instrument, consisting of a disk cut out into a flamboyant pattern like that of the round brooch from the Victoria Cave (Fig. 25), and joined to a central stem ornamented with waved lines, was intended for suspension; possibly, as Mr. Carrington suggests, it may have been used for spinning. It is a remarkably fine example of Brit-Welsh or late Celtic art. The bone comb is of the same type as those from the Brit-Welsh caves of Yorkshire. It is evident, from Mr. Brown’s account, that there were distinct layers of occupation; but, unfortunately, the articles found in each were not separated from the rest. One armlet (Fig. 31), composed of a thin plate of bronze, and ornamented with a dotted-line pattern, is of the peculiar type which is characteristic of the bronze age.
The cave had also been used as a place of sepulture, for near “the pulpit rock,” and at a depth of five feet from the surface, a skeleton rested in the sitting posture which is so characteristic of neolithic interments in Europe. It had also been entered by man even before any of these accumulations. “In the south recess, behind and below any traces of man’s occupation, the diggers came upon a kind of flooring of tabular masses of breccia stretching almost across the cave, and on one side attached firmly to the wall,” beneath which rested, in the undisturbed clay, a deer’s horn, rudely sawn across and perforated by two holes.
Thor’s Cave, therefore, like the Victoria, has been occupied by man in the Brit-Welsh stage of the historic period, as well as in the bronze, and possibly in the neolithic ages.
The discovery that caves were used as habitations by men accustomed to the elegance of civilized life, not merely in Yorkshire, but in districts so far removed from each other as Staffordshire and the extreme north of Lancashire, during the fifth and sixth centuries, implies the pressure of a far-reaching calamity by which they were driven from their homes. It completes and rounds off the story of the social condition of the country during these troubled times, which is revealed in the sacked and burned Brit-Welsh cities and villas, as well as in the scanty records of the English invasion.
Subsequent investigation will probably show that caves were occupied at this time in every part of the country which was conquered by the English. In the upper stratum of Kent’s Hole, for example, near Torquay, similar articles, with the exception of the enamels, have been discovered. There, however, the occupation may have been considerably later than in the caves of Yorkshire, because the Roman civilization was not supplanted in Devonshire by the English until the beginning of the ninth century. The river Tamar then marked the frontier between the English, and the Brit-Welsh of the promontory of Cornwall, which represented the dominion of West Wales in the days of Ecgberht.80
In the numerous caves of Wales, on the other hand, which I have explored, there is no trace of inhabitants of the fifth and sixth centuries, a circumstance that is easily accounted for by the fact that Wales was not invaded at that time by the English. There would therefore be no reason for the civilized Brit-Welsh to fly to caves for refuge.
The following are the more important animals and articles found in the group of caves under consideration. The species are identical with those which I have tabulated from refuse-heaps of Roman age.81
| Animals. | Victoria | Kelko | Dowker Bottom. |
Kirk- head. |
Poole’s Cavern. |
Thor’s Cave. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic. | ||||||
| Canis familiaris—Dog | X | X | X | X | X | ? |
| Sus scrofa—Pig | X | X | X | X | X | ? |
| Equus caballus—Horse | X | X | X | X | X | ? |
| Bos longifrons—Celtic Short-horn | X | X | X | X | X | ? |
| Capra hircus—Goat | X | X | X | X | X | ? |
| Wild. | ||||||
| Canis vulpes—Fox | X | ... | X | X | X | ? |
| Meles taxus—Badger | X | ... | X | ... | ... | x |
| Cervus elaphus—Stag | X | ... | X | X | X | ? |
| Cervus capreolus—Roe | X | ... | X | X | ... | ? |
| Roman coins or imitations | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Enamelled ornaments in bronze | X | X | X | X | ... | ... |
| Bronze ornaments inlaid with silver | X | X | X | ... | X | ... |
| Iron articles | X | X | X | ... | X | X |
| Samian ware | X | ... | X | ... | X | X |
| Black ware | X | X | X | ... | X | X |
| Bone-spoon fibulæ (Fig. 22) | X | X | X | ... | ... | ... |
| Bone combs | X | X | X | ... | ... | X |
All the less important animals and articles are omitted from this list. It will be observed that the brown bear, the wolf, and the fallow-deer are absent. The brown bear was probably at this time very rare in Britain, since its remains have been met with in but two out of the many Roman refuse-heaps in the country, at London and Colchester. The well-known lines of Martial, however, imply that it was imported from Britain to Rome at this time—
It probably became extinct about the ninth or tenth century. The wolf obviously would not be likely to be used for food, although it probably was abundant in the district. The fallow-deer also had not penetrated into the hilly districts, although it had become naturalized in this country by the Romans, so as to have been frequently used as an article of food before the English invasion. I have seen its characteristic antlers in refuse-heaps, both in London and Colchester, which have furnished Roman coins and pottery.
The beaver was probably very rare in the fifth and sixth centuries, and has been met with in no cave-deposit, either historic or prehistoric, in this country. It was, however, known to the Anglian conquerors of Yorkshire (Northumbria), who called Beverley (lea, leag-) after its name.
The broken bones of the horse, in all the caves above mentioned, leave no room to doubt that horseflesh was a common article of food at that time. It was so, indeed, throughout Roman Britain, and after the English invasion was used as late as the Council of Celchyth,82 in the year 787. It was forbidden by the Church because it was eaten by the Scandinavian peoples in honour of Odin. In Norway,83 Hacon, the foster-son of Æthelstan, was compelled to eat it by the bonders, in 956, and the revolt of the bonders which ended in the bloody battle of Stikklestadt, in which Olaf met his death, in 1030, was caused by his cruelties to the eaters of horseflesh. As Christianity prevailed over the worship of Thor and Odin, it was banished from the table. The present prejudice against its use is a remarkable instance of the change in taste, which has been brought about by an ecclesiastical rule aimed against a long-forgotten faith. The rule was not, however, always obeyed, for the Monks of St. Gall, in the eleventh century, not only ate horseflesh, but returned thanks for it, in a metrical grace, written by Ekkehard the Younger (died 1036):—
The cave of Longberry Bank, near Penally, in Pembrokeshire, may also be classed with those which were inhabited in historic times, since it contained red fine-grained pottery of a kind commonly found in the ruins of Roman villas. It was explored by the Rev. H. H. Winwood, in 1866, in whose collection are the remains of the Bos longifrons, goat, badger, dog, as well as shells of oyster, large limpets and mussel from the neighbouring shore. Some of the bones are burned. Several human vertebræ and a metacarpal were probably the traces of an interment of unknown date; and the two flint flakes are of uncertain age.
The results obtained by the exploration of the caves described in this chapter are to be taken merely as the first-fruits of a new line of inquiry, which is likely to throw light on many points relating to art, history, and the range of the animals, and not as being perfect or final. On the continent, no historic caves of importance have as yet been explored.