said to have
been the residence of Sebastian Cabot at one time, and at another that of
_Sir Walter Raleigh_. Whether the tradition be true or not, the house is
very curious, and worth a visit, if not worthy of being sketched and
engraved to preserve its memory. Perhaps the photograph in this case could
be applied.

It is not impossible that Sir John de Pulteney or Poultney, to whom the
manor of Poplar was granted in the 24th of Edward III., resided on this
spot. My reasons for thinking it are--this fact, which connects him with
the neighbourhood; and the inference from two other facts, viz. that the
house in which Sir John resided in town was {264} called _Cold Harbour_,
and that _Cold Harbour_ is here also to be found. Sir John Pulteney is thus
connected with both the places known by this name.

I would give my name in verification, but you have it, as you should have
the names and addresses of all your correspondents.

B. H. C.

Poplar.

* * * * *

PICTS' HOUSES IN ABERDEENSHIRE.

A short time ago, one of those remarkable remains of a very remote
antiquity, and called by the country-people Picts' Houses, Yird, Eirde, or
Erde houses, was discovered by Mr. Douglass, farmer, Culsh, in the parish
of Tarland, Aberdeenshire, near his farm-steading, on the property of our
noble Premier. It is a subterranean vault, of a form approaching the
semicircular, but elongated at the farther end. Its extreme length is
thirty-eight feet; its breadth at the entrance a little more than two feet,
gradually widening towards the middle, where the width is about six feet,
and it continues at about that average. The height is from five and a half
to six feet. The sides are built with stones, some of them in the bottom
very large; the roof is formed of large stones, six or seven feet long, and
some of them weighing above a ton and a half. They must have been brought
from the neighbouring hill of Saddle-lick, about two miles distant, being
of a kind of granite not found nearer the spot. The floor is formed of the
native rock (hornblende), and is very uneven. When discovered it was full
of earth, and in the process of excavation there was found some wood ashes,
fragments of a glass bottle, and an earthenware jar (modern), some small
fragments of bones, and one or two teeth of a ruminant animal, and the
upper stone of a querne (hand-corn-mill, mica schist), together with a
small fragment, probably of the lo