Without the spike by which it was attached to its shaft, it measures seven and a half inches in length. It is nearly three inches broad at the widest part, where it is three-eighths of an inch in thickness. (Pl. xv, fig. 1.) It is not formed like the Roman spear-head, which presents a convex contour like the blade of a surgeon's lancet: on the contrary its. contour is concave. In this respect it resembles the Saxon weapon figured by Mr. Wright (No. 7) opposite p. 404 in his Celt, Roman and Saxon. But these Saxon spear-heads are all of iron, whilst those of British warriors were generally, if not universally, of bronze, and of a somewhat similar form. As the spear-head found at Darwen is of bronze, the probability is that the remains pertain to the ancient British period. The character of the barrow and the mode of interment answer exactly to the description of an authentic British burial place of this class. Consequently, the locality may have been the cemetery of the chiefs of some powerful tribe of the Volantii or Setantii, or of the Brigantes, with whom they were incorporated before the advent of the Roman legions. Or it may have been the burial place of chieftains who fell in some of the numerous engagements which took place between the Romans and the Brigantes, from the time of Venutius (the husband of Cartismandua, the Brigantine queen who betrayed the brave Caractacus), soon after the middle of the first century, to the year 79, when Julius Agricola completed the conquest. The remains interred without an urn may have been those of some captive or captives, immolated as a sacrifice to the manes of some distinguished warrior slain in battle.

The mound is situated at the head of the romantic valley of the Darwen. Near the junction of this river with the Ribble, opposite to Preston, the present writer, about ten years ago, discovered the remains of a Roman station, where he, Dr. Robson and others, in a revision of the ordinarily ac

cepted Roman topography of Lancashire, place the station Coccium, of the Itineraries. The site of this station forms part of the battle-field on which Oliver Cromwell defeated the Scottish army, led by the Duke of Hamilton, in 1648. The victory is referred to by Milton in the following line in his sonnet to Cromwell :

---

"Darwen's stream with blood of Scots imbued."

I heard that there is a tradition, yet implicitly relied on, which speaks of a battle fought in "the olden time," somewhere in the neighbourhood of Tockholes, in the Roddlesworth valley, and stories that remains, including those of horses, have been found, which are believed to confirm it. Respecting this I may have something to say in a future paper. A superstitious reverence for the mound near Whitehall has descended to the present day. The country people speak of the place as being haunted by "boggarts," and children have been known to take off their clogs or shoes and walk past it barefooted, in the night time, under the influence of some such feeling.

In Lancashire and other parts of the country these barrows or tumuli are sometimes termed "lows," from the Anglo-Saxon hlow. It is not, therefore, improbable that the name of Mr. Shorrock's mansion, "Low Hill House," may have some remote reference to the tumulus near which it is situated.

I forward with this paper a drawing I made some time ago from an ancient British burial urn found beneath a low mound, with a circle of stones at its foot, on the property of R. Townley Parker Esq, at Extwistle, near Burnley, in 1858 (Pl. xv, fig. 3.) Some Yorkshire antiquary had dug it up; but on Mr. Parker's remonstrating, he forwarded the urn to Cuerdale Hall, where, I believe, it now remains. The most perfect ones found at Darwen are of a similar character.

They are, however, wider at a a and narrower at the bottom bb, which causes the angle of the profile at a to be more acute. Mr. Parker very kindly expressed his willingness to incur the expense of the necessary labour, if the Historic Society, or any section thereof, wished to explore several other ancient mounds and entrenchments on his estates at Extwistle.

NOTE. The remains which form the subject of the foregoing paper, and a small urn with its contents undisturbed which was subsequently found at the same spot, are now in the Society's Collection in the Mayer Gallery of Antiquities, Free Public Museum, Liverpool. The objects figured in the illustration opposite p. 273 are (1) the spear-head noticed at pp. 275-6; (2) the small urn already mentioned in this note: it measures 7 inches in height, the external diameter at a a being the same; (3) the urn found at Extwistle, mentioned at p. 277; and six fragments of the other urns found at Over Darwen, described at pp. 274-5-[ED.]

DISCOVERY OF A ROMAN HOARD IN EAST

LANCASHIRE.

By Charles Hardwick,

Author of "The History of Preston and its Environs."

(READ 4TH JANUARY, 1866.)

BEING in the neighbourhood of Bury in July, 1864, and learning that a quantity of Roman coins and other objects had been discovered near "Grant's Tower," I visited the locality and examined such of the remains as had escaped dispersion. I was fortunate in meeting with three gentlemen, into whose hands the chief objects had fallen, each of whom courteously afforded the fullest opportunity of minute inspection. On arriving at the locality of the find I was likewise with equal freedom permitted to examine all the coins and other articles which then remained in the possession of the farmer who made the discovery. From these sources I have been enabled to gather the following trustworthy information respecting this interesting contribution to local archæological knowledge.

The urn, or small earthenware vessel, in which the coins &c. were deposited, was found buried in the earth, near a modern occupation road leading to a farm house inhabited by Mr. Nuttall, on "Throstle Hill," in the township of Walmersley. The locality is situated about three miles, in a straight line, to the north of Bury, and about half a mile to the east of "Grant's Tower." It is distant about three miles from the Roman highway which leads from Manchester, by Cockey

Moor, to Ribchester. The old road from Bury to Burnley and Colne passes near the spot.

The earthenware vessel which contained the hoard was covered by a small flag. It was buried on the edge of the moorland overlooking a well cultivated but secluded and picturesque valley. It contained from five to seven hundred bronze coins, chiefly of the small or "third brass," all of which belong to what is termed the "lower empire." None that I have seen are earlier than the time of Gallienus and his wife Salonica. (A.D. 253-268). The latest, in point of date, are coins of Maximianus (286-310), and Carausius (287-293). I noticed others of Posthumus (260-267), Victorinus (265-267), Claudius Gothiens (268-270), Tetricus (267-272), Quintillius (270), M. Claudius Tacitus (275-276), and M. Aurelius Probus (276-282).

The following articles were deposited with the coins:—

A pair of silver bracelets, slightly, not elaborately, ornamented, one with the vine leaf the other with bunches of grapes. The latter was broken, the former perfect. The workmanship is not of a superior character, but rather suggestive of provincial inferiority, or a low period of artistic skill.

A plain bracelet of massive silver, about one-third of an inch in breadth, broken.

Two armlets, one about one-eighth of an inch in thickness, formed of twisted silver cord, the other about one-tenth of an inch thick, formed of a single wire fashioned so as to resemble the one made of two twisted cords.

Two fragments of another armlet, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, formed of thick silver wire twisted round a bar of bronze.

Three silver finger rings, one with a red stone attached.

Several pieces of broken silver rings, like wedding or ear