sometimes nearly a foot in length. The largest tusk, however, taken from. a jaw found at Castle hill did not altogether exceed five inches.

Thus the remains of the red-deer and of the boar, as well as those of the other animals exhumed with them, indicate no specific time when they had been buried. We must resort to more unerring tests, if we would discover the occupants of the edifice on Castle hill; and we may perhaps learn their names by an examination of the structure of the dwelling and the various instruments preserved in its ruins. As on the north bank of the Ribble, so on the south, British remains are not uncommonly met with. On the draining of Martin Mere, seven canoes were disclosed, all formed from the trunks of trees by fire and the axe. They were different from, as well as older than, the two skin and wicker coracles of the Fylde Marton Mere. I say older; because the Britons had not then attained such skill in the weaving of baskets, as to enrich the language of Rome with the term "bascauda." A bronze celt was likewise discovered in the vicinity of these canoes, which Dr. Leigh pronounces to be," one of the greatest relics in the universe;" nor will we criticise his enthusiasm after seeing a representation of one of Nimrod's sappers and miners making use of a similar weapon or tool, against the fortifications of a walled city. But British remains can be appealed to much nearer to the scene of our history; for Mr. Hardwick affirms, that they exist beneath the Roman debris at Walton. Nay, the old name of Penwortham is of British origin, thus,-Peneverdant is formed of three words-pen, werd or werid and want, as Caer werid, the green city (Lancaster) and Derwent, the water, that is the green hill on the water. Such being the case, we may not unreasonably expect traces of our Celtic ancestors at Castle hill. Let us bring to the test the discoveries made there.

It is difficult to write correctly about the dwellings of any ancient people; so very perishable are the materials with which they were constructed. Their tombs are the best memorials of their existence and the preservers of their domestic utensils; since the dwellings of the dead have proved more permanent than those appropriated to the living. The Britons in summer occupied the summits of circumvallated hills, which the Welsh call "Caers" and the Gauls "Duns." Cæsar records,- "What the Britons name a town is a tract of woody country surrounded by a vallum and a ditch." Strabo corroborates Cæsar, and Diodorus Siculus tells us what the houses were. "The dwellings of the ancient Britons

were wretched cottages of a circular form with a tapering roof covered with straw, at the top of which was an aperture for the smoke to escape: the walls were wattled and the chinks filled with clay to exclude the cold." Such were the better kind of "tuguria;" but the huts of the humblest were little better than the holes of foxes. The ancient abode on Castle hill seems to have some little resemblance to the above description; yet there always is a similitude in the efforts of any people, climbing the first step of civilization. Castle hill, however, was never circumvallated, according to my judgment; nor was the erection of the dwelling a first effort; as its extensiveness, the ingenuity displayed on the roof, the use of an iron axe and a borer, &c. clearly demonstrate. Neither had it possessed a tapering roof after the fashion of a child's rush cap, or like the British cab lately disclosed beneath Pilling moss by the Rev. J. D. Banister, where the trench in the clay proved its circular shape, and the long alder poles lying near, amidst huge trunks of charred oak trees, proved the use for which they had been prepared—the formation of outer walls and a conical roof. Besides, the articles pronounced by some to be of British construction are of very doubtful origin. The hand paddle, fig. 1, pl. iii. found near A on the outside of the ruins, is assuredly such a one as might have belonged to a primitive race. The blade is broken on one side; but restored like the other, it is very similar to those with which the islanders of the Pacific handle their light canoes. If you assert that it was the paddle to some fishing coracle, you create an argument against its ever having had a Celtic owner; because Xiphilimus relates-"that the Britons never taste fish." Yet that such was its use is probable from mussel shells being buried at the same depth in the debris, as well as two net weights,—the pieces of lead, fig. 3 and 6, pl. iv. the one round with a hole in it and the other rolled up; unless, together with a pierced upper part of the head of a red-deer's thigh, or shoulder bone, you aver, that they have been amulets. Besides the presence of goose, hare, and rabbit remains, with these articles, militates against the assertion; for the flesh of the two former was eschewed as food, and the latter was introduced by the Roman conquerors of Britain. We must look therefore elsewhere for the occupants of the dwelling on Castle hill.

Dr. Kuerdon with much ingenuity attempted to fix a Roman station at Preston; but his learning was of no avail, because he was unable to produce a single Roman vestige that had been found within its precincts.

He was aware, that there must be a castrum somewhere not far distant; but although ever since his day many antiquaries have hunted about for the identical spot, it was the fortune of Mr. Hardwick to earn the crown, worthy to adorn the brow of such a discoverer. He has proved Walton to be the site of Coccium, so earnestly sought for, by the production of coins, fibulæ, pottery, &c., which he had there collected. And the agger, that branches from it southward, abounds with memorials of Roman occupancy on both sides. In Leyland, many discoveries have been made,—a gold finger ring with S. P. Q. R. marked upon it,-also four brass ones interlaced like a chain, and twenty-eight coins in its moss. Nor has the adjacent country been less prolific. At Worden there were found in 1850 no less than one hundred and twenty six coins; at Euxton a coin of Cæsar; at Whittle a numerous treasure of copper denarii; and towards the end of the seventeenth century an urceolus, which contained two hundred others, from fifty different dies, and two gold rings of the Equites Aurati. All these "finds" were made to the east of Penwortham, but not one, if I am rightly informed, in its immediate neighbourhood, or on its heights; for I conceive, that the pavement of boulders discovered by Mr. Marshall of Penwortham Lodge can have been nothing more, from its narrowness, than an ancient bridle path, very common throughout the country. Still on such a position an antiquary would expect to find some signs of an outpost, or at least an outlook, whence a view of Walton to the east and Kirkham to the west might be obtained, as well as a command of the Ribble and its ford. And such an opportunity seems not to have been neglected. The nail, fig. 4, plate iv. with its flat, oval-shaped head, which was taken from the ruins at Castle hill is similar, or nearly so, to one discovered at Walton by Mr. Hardwick. The other also, fig. 5, is supposed to be Roman, and the iron rivet, Fig. 2, is in every respect the counterpart of that etched by Roach Smith as found at Settle. The instrument fig. 1, is an article of great rarity. Mr. Franks of the British Museum showed to Mr. Hardwick a paper by the Hon. R. C. Neville in the Archæological Journal of March, 1856, where several such are figured and described as having lately been discovered at Chesterford in Essex. It is pronounced to be a late Roman key. The make of it is significant :-the hoop attached it to the belt, or chatelaine; the spattle beneath gave support to the forefinger and thumb, when in use; and the square loop at the end acted as the barrel of a modern key upon the fulcrum of the lock. Here