5 OCTOBER 1907, Page 30

UNWRITTEN HISTORY.

!To Till EDITOR OF THE " SPROTATOR.1

Sin,—The interesting article on the lake village near Glaston- bury in your issue of September 14th has in it an incorrect assertion, though the point is perhaps not of serious import- ance. It says there was no elm [wood] in the village : " that came in with the Normans, and the fallow-deer," &c. Messrs. Macdonald and Park have written a very detailed and complete description of the result of the careful excavations made by Mr. Alexander Whitelaw at Bor Hill, near Cray, on the Autonine wall. Elm is one of the kinds of wood noted there. The garrison of Netherlanders, perhaps the ancestors of the men of the Lothians, had—in addition to alder, ash, birch, and oak and willow that the Glastonbury people used—pine, hazel, mountain ash, and thorn at hand. The beech and the lime famous in Danish saga and Saxon song did not occur. The Romans had brought walnuts with them,—as Mommsen says, they neglected the far South-West ; and the " French " brought the nuts to Devon, according to Earle. There are several in the very interesting museum at Gartshore.—Apologising for

intriding on your space, I am, Sir, &c., YTENS.