REMAINS IN CAVES, CRAVEN, YORKSHIRE. Adze-head of Trap, similar to one brought A few rude Flints. Cave Tiger Man (presumed Ancient 1.-PRIMEVAL. European Bear British) Badger Wolf Wolf illegible. Bronze: Fibula (6); Bone: ornaments; 3.-ROMAN AND ROMANO-BRITISH. Silver: Head of Bronze Hairpin (?). *Including 3 B of Gallienus, Cl. Gothicus, Victorinus, Aurelianus, Maximus, Constantinus Max. Constantius II, Crispus, and numerous + Some of these resemble in an extraordinary manner the small brass tacks with semi-globular heads used until lately by upholsterers; similar examples, no doubt of the Roman period, are found imbedded in a species of stone, of course of recent geological formation, but yet used for building purposes, procured in Malta. Having thus surveyed the caves and noted their varied contents as recorded up to present date, I proceed to an examination of the different theories propounded in reference to their natural relationships, leaving the purely geological questions connected with the former to the discussion of abler writers. Mr. Denny of Leeds enters very fully into these in a paper read by him before the Geological and Polytechnic Society of the West Riding of Yorkshire, at the meeting held. at Sheffield in 1859, and subsequently published in its Transactions of that year. To this valuable paper I am likewise indebted for several notices of discoveries in other caves throughout England, here reproduced for comparison. Mr. West, in the appendix to his Guide to the Lakes, published in 1793, gives a somewhat exaggerated, yet interesting and informing description of the Ingleborough and Dowkerbottom caves, but it was reserved for Dr. Whittaker, the able historian of this district, to direct attention to the fact of some of them having been the residence of man-remarking, "several of the caves appear to have been the haunts of "banditti, or perhaps the retreats of the first inhabitants." In the first volume of that invaluable bibliographical of archæology the Collectanea Antiqua, Mr. Charles Roach Smith gives a short description of the relics previously found by Mr. Jackson, chiefly in Kelco, Dowkerbottom and Victoria caves, illustrated by several plates and a plan of the last named with a sketch of its approaches. He does not hesitate to acknowledge these caverns as the resort of the Romanized British inhabitants, and that the presence of fragments of sepulchral urns of their fabrication proves the occasional use of the recesses and ledges of these retreats for the reception of ashes of the deceased, although by no means for sepulture alone. Mr. John Dixon, a Yorkshire antiquary, has also written upon the subject, his remarks being quoted at length by Р Mr. Denny; they all "tend to show that the Craven caves "would seem to have been occupied for a considerable length "of time (from urgent necessity, and not as a matter of choice) "by a numerous family (!) who have left unmistakeable proofs "of their acquaintance with Roman luxury and some of the "civilized arts; that they were occupied up to very near the "close of the Roman dominion in Britain is at once evidenced "by the occurrence of many coins of Constantinus and "Constantius." Mr. Denny himself, after broaching the theory of their having been the temporary habitations of lead and other miners, during the Roman period, discards it from the large proportion of ornaments (unlikely to be worn by so poor a class) appearing among the remains, and concludes by adopting Mr. Dixon's views, as to their having been the unavoidable resort of people in troublous times, more especially those immediately preceding and succeeding the Roman evacuation, embracing the latter part of the fourth and the first half of the fifth centuries. 66 Lastly, Mr. Thomas Wright, the able Saxon scholar and careful historian, writes of them as "caves in which objects made by man and remains of man himself are found intermixed "with the remains of animals, which also must have become "extinct at a very remote period, while the caves themselves "are supposed to have been removed by some natural convul"sion out of their original positions, since these deposits have "been made." "The neighbourhood of Settle must in early "times have been a very wild and uncultivated district;" again, a great variety of objects of antiquity, most of them evidently "of Roman work and apparently late, and a good number of "coins; these latter established beyond a doubt the lateness 66 The Early History of Leeds: a lecture delivered before the Philosophical Society of Leeds, April 19th, 1864, by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A. Privately printed by Baines and Sons. "of the date at which these caves had been occupied by men. "Some of them were Roman, chiefly of the Emperors of the "Constantine family, which formed the mass of the monetary "circulation in Britain at the close of the Roman period; but "the greater proportion of them consisted of the rude imitations "of the coinage of these Emperors, which were made and "circulated after the withdrawal of the Roman power, and "which cannot therefore be older than the fifth century. "Some of these caves in Craven have been more fully "examined since the account printed by Mr. Roach Smith, and "the new discoveries have been well described by Mr. Denny. "Objects of the same description were found with the addition, "in one of the caves, of bones of the wolf, the hyæna and "the cave tiger, but the remains of these animals, long extinct "in our island, were very few. It is curious that, in most of "these caves yet explored, the objects found which come under "the examination of the antiquary, of which the date can be given, belong to nearly the same age, although mixed to a "small degree with works of ruder make, such as stone "implements. I conclude that the time when people resorted "to these caves was that of the turbulence and confusion "which marked the decline of the Roman power, and the "equally turbulent period which immediately succeeded it. "With our entire ignorance of the exact state of society "during that period, it would be idle to attempt to give "a reason for this resort, and therefore to assign a merely "conjectural cause for their having been frequented at any "particular period is absurd. The passion for conjecturing "without sufficient knowledge has been the bane of archæ"ological science during the past age. I must, however, "urge that the circumstance of finding in these caves "evidence of their having been resorted to at a late date, "entirely cuts away the ground for assuming that the remains "of man found in them must be coeval with the fossil bones or remains of extinct animals which occur in company "with them." I have quoted from the disquisitions of other archæological writers, whose opinions are worthy of respect, more largely than would have been the case had I not been desirous of rendering those opinions, as far as possible, in their own words; and because whilst agreeing, to some extent, in their deductions, I have yet a lance to break with several of them, especially with Mr. Wright, whose recent assertion that all early bronzes found in these countries (save perhaps daggers) are necessarily of Roman introduction, if not fabrications-is, I am glad to note, most deservedly assailed by abler pens than mine. Abjuring the stringently artificial division between the stone, bronze and iron periods of the northern antiquaries, it surely is not necessary, certainly not philosophical, to rush hastily, with our yet most imperfect evidence, to the opposite extreme? Again, a thorough antiquary will welcome in a generous spirit any sensible theory propounded in necessary discussions for the elucidation of truth. Before discussing in detail the archæological relics and their inherent testimony, a careful review of the district, as displayed through the geologic lens, is essential to a clear comprehension of the subject:-A wild expanse of elevated country appears, whose barren and uncultivable character proves its main feature, broken here and there by deep valleys, generally of limited width. Throughout the upland region-the site of a great "fault"-the escarpments of the limestone rock, upheaved by volcanic or other action, rise up on every side, often in much angular confusion, their bases strewn with débris, dislocated, partially in the process, partially by frost and tempest (each cause still operating), leaving the crests of these rugged hills at an immensely greater elevation than when inhabited by the tiger, bear and other large beasts, |