much skill and ingenuity in the erection of these cyclopean structures. It is curious indeed that as civilisation progressed, primitive architecture became not only simpler but meaner, the ingenious builder learning to supply his wants by easier methods; while also the gregarious social ties which such laborious and extensive structures indicate were exchanged for the more refined separation into families, with, as we may assume, the gradual development of those virtues and affections which flourish only around the domestic hearth. The first step in the descending scale indicative of the abandonment of the cyclopean architecture for simpler and less durable modes of construction, appears in a class of dwellings of similar character to the "_Picts' houses_," but inferior in their masonry, and generally smaller in size and less complete in design. Examples of this class have also been found in various parts of Scotland. They are generally more entirely subterranean than the "Picts' houses," partaking in this respect more of the character of the weems. They occupy, however, an intermediate position, being excavated for the most part in the side of a hill, so as to admit of an entrance level with the ground. They are also found more frequently in groups, and have probably been each the dwelling-place of a single family. In these, oaken rafters appear to have supplied the place of the more ancient cyclopean arch, and the walls are generally built of smaller stones. Weems of this more fragile character have been discovered at Prieston, near Glammis, in Forfarshire; at Alyth and Bendochy, Perthshire; and at Pennycuick, Mid-Lothian, as well as in other districts. One in particular, found at Alvie, Inverness-shire, measured sixty feet in length. These may be regarded as works of a later age than the more massive and enduring structures previously described, when the domestic habits of the old builders had survived their laborious arts and monolithic taste. One of the most singular groups of this latter class is a series of contiguous excavations, on the ridge of a hill immediately to the north of Inchtuthill, Inverness-shire, known in the district by the name of "the steed's stalls." Seven circular chambers are cut in the side of a steep bank, separated by partitions of about twelve feet thick. The floors are sunk about twenty feet, and each chamber measures fifteen feet in diameter. A long passage of about four feet wide has formed the original way of ingress, but the rafters, which most probably formed the roof, have long since disappeared, and only a very partial estimate can now be formed of the appearance presented by these singular chambers when complete.