prevailing pilgrimage propensities and priestly inflictions of the dark ages, the writer may mention the occurrence upon the neighbouring shore of a "Sign of Our Ladye of Roc St. "Amador," which must have been brought from that once celebrated shrine in the distant and ancient province of Quercy in France.*

The existence of the church and religious establishment, however small, points necessarily to a burial place in the immediate vicinity; and so convinced was the writer, after the discovery of what may be termed a churchyard cross, or cross connected with the holy rood or sacred enclosure adjacent to the cell or oratory, of the ultimate discovery of sepulchral remains that he only awaited a convenient opportunity for commencing some investigation. The cross has been illustrated both in Ancient Meols and in the Historic Society's Transactions,† and is certainly of Saxon character. It was found by the telegraph keeper, Mr. Thomas Hughes, when breaking into the rubbly surface of the ground for stones wherewith to repair his adjacent roadway from the beach. He was similarly employed, within a few feet of the site of the old cross, when the writer, paying a visit to the island on 21st September last, took the opportunity of examining a little lower and further, when the side of a stone of considerable size was disclosed, and thought at first to be the foundation-stone or basement of the cross. Further examination, however, proved its sepulchral character, and on clearing the soil from the face of the slab, the ornamentation, though in low relief and rudely executed, was at once apparent. This, as usual, is on the upper end or head of the slab, and consists of a plain cross limbed at the extremities and continued through two concentric circles; a pellet occupies the centre and others the angles of the cross. The whole is bordered by an outer bead

* Vide the writer's account in Ancient Meols, pp. 283-4, pl. xxvii, fig. 6. Vol. iii, N.S., p. 233.

T

at the edge of the stone, the dimensions of which are-length, five feet four inches; breadth at head, twenty-one inches; shoulders, twenty-two inches; foot, seventeen inches; thickness varying from five to six inches. The weight was found to be so great, that removal at the time was out of the question; and the superincumbent débris proving so bad to excavate, it was necessary to be contented with a careful examination of the soil beneath the slab, sinking below it on the side first exposed.

Thus operating, several deposits of human remains were encountered; in one case of a child of eight or nine, and in another of a young person of some fifteen years of age, and their burial may have disturbed the repose of the more important skeleton under the stone, which was found to be very imperfect, not through decay, although by far the earliest inhumed, but from some early displacement, most of the ribbones and vertebræ being wanting and the skull much crushed and projecting forward from the rest of the skeleton. The only perfect skeleton was a fourth, which proved by far the most recent interment-possibly of some drowned person, buried within the last two or three centuries; it lay in a diagonal direction as regards the slab. This, depicted in the accompanying plate, was placed east and west, and still remains in situ. Its ornament or configuration betokens an eleventh or twelfth century date, with which the condition of the sub-incumbent osseous remains agrees; the natural animal gluten having almost wholly disappeared. These bones have belonged to a full-grown man, whose skull was of unusual strength and thickness; and such were admirable qualites when might rather than right held sway throughout the land. The cutting-teeth which remain are worn very obliquely flat, implying a vegetable diet.

Not the slightest trace of any coffin appeared in connection with these interments; and the animal fluid had, as usual

9, Sugnall Street,

Liverpool.

27th Febman 1854

You are requested to attend

a meeting of the Commitee of the Historie eting the Shakspeare Lercentenary at by p. in. on toaday the 29th instant at my presideme Yours fait really, Iteun

Society respecting

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OF LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE.

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