A book of the west. Volume 2, Cornwall : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 2, Cornwall : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Cornwall (England : County)
The roof was thus gathered in about a smoke-hole, which was itself
finally closed with a wide, thin granite slab, and thus the whole roof
and sides were buried in turf, so that the structure resembled a huge
ant-hill. Most of this encasing flesh and skin has gone, and the bone
beneath is exposed. Nevertheless; it does remain in some cases, and
has been the means of preserving these curious structures. One such,
very perfect, is on the river Erme, above Piles Wood, on Dartmoor. Into
this it is quite possible to crawl and take refuge from a shower. It is
completely watertight, but it is not easy to find, as it is overgrown
with dense masses of heather. Another is close to the farmhouse of
Fernaker, between Brown Willy and Rough Tor, and it has been spared
because the farmer thought it might serve his purpose as a pig-sty or
a butter-house. This Fernaker hut is rudely quadrangular, and one side
is formed by a great block of granite rising out of the ground five
feet and nine feet long. On this basis the house has been built and
roofed in the usual manner by five courses of overlapping stones. The
highest peak of Brown Willy is occupied by a huge cairn that has never
been explored, owing to the expense and labour of working into it. It
probably covers some old Cornish king. Immediately below it, some forty
feet, are two beehive huts, in very fair condition, one eight feet in
diameter, with a second, much smaller, only four feet six inches in
diameter, close to it, opposite the door, with an entrance so small
that it probably served as a store-chamber. One huge slab of granite,
some twelve feet long and six feet wide, forms half the roof of the
larger hut; the remainder has fallen in.
[Illustration: BEEHIVE HUT
(_By kind permission of “The Daily Graphic”_)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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