[Footnote 51: _Proceed. of Soc. of Antiq. Scot._ vol. x. p. 476; xi. p. 305; and xii. p. 669.] [Footnote 52: _The Past in the Present_, by Arthur Mitchell, LL.D.] CHAPTER VI. _SUPPLEMENTARY._ REMAINS OF LAKE-DWELLINGS IN ENGLAND. As indicated by the title, the special object and scope of this work is to illustrate the phenomena of lake-dwellings as explored in Scotland. This limitation has been adopted, not with the intention of implying that there is any necessary identity between the area marked out by the general distribution of lake-dwellings and that included within the geographical limits of the kingdom of Scotland, but because, hitherto, their recorded remains south of the Scottish border were so few and undecided in character that there could hardly be any justification in deviating from the commonly entertained opinion that these structures were not to be found in England. But after finishing my labours under this impression, some additional facts have come under my cognisance which greatly strengthen the idea, rather hesitatingly expressed at the conclusion of my last chapter, viz., the probability of the lake-dwelling district being found to coincide with the former extension of the Celtic area in Britain. Partly to support this theory, but more particularly to make this work more complete by including the actual materials that could be supplied were it to appear under the more comprehensive title which the substitution of the word _British_ instead of _Scottish_ would give to it, I have collected together, in the form of this supplementary chapter, all the scattered notices of such trustworthy observations as can now be fairly construed to indicate the sites of lacustrine abodes in England. It will be noticed that some of the recorded observations here reproduced were actually made before antiquaries had time to realise the magnitude of the Continental lake-dwellings, or the subsequent promulgation of Dr. Robertson's views on the Scottish crannogs, and consequently at a time when their real importance was apt to be overlooked; otherwise, it is impossible to conceive how such highly suggestive facts did not at once lead to more definite information. _Wretham Mere, Norfolk._ Sir Charles J. F. Bunbury, as early as 1856, noticed some appearances in a drained _mere_ near Wretham Hall, Norfolk, which clearly point to being the remains of a lake-dwelling. In a communication on the subject to the Geological Society,[53] he says:--"About Wretham there are several _meres_, or small natural sheets of water, without any outlet. The one to which my attention was particularly called 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....