in one of his interesting lectures on the Ribble, in 1845, gave some particulars respecting the destruction of these roads, which are the more valuable, and the more worthy of preservation, as the progress of modern improvement has nearly obliterated all traces of them. He observed :—

'In the course of our enquiries about the roads, we were fortunate in meeting a fine old man, upwards of ninety years of age, named Richard Dewhurst, living on Cadley-moor, in a cottage in which he, and his father before him, were born. His memory respecting this road seemed very clear. He recollected 'breaking up'-seventy years ago-the gravel of which it was formed, beginning from the Withy Trees, crossing Cadleymoor, and continuing past Mr. Grimshaw's house, in the direction of Cottam Mill. There can be no doubt that this was a portion of the Watling-street; for the old man's memory brings it to Tanteston Hall, where its traces re-appear. Mr. Cartwright and I found faint evidences of it yet remaining near Plungington, and also near the lodge of water belonging to Cadley Mill. Our informant also well remembered that another road, constructed also of similar materials, crossed Preston-moor, and entered the Watling-street. On this road his fellow-workmen, employed in removing the gravel, found some Roman coins. The tradition which had come down to our venerable informant was that these roads stretched across the whole country. The one reaching from east sea to west sea; the other from north sea to south sea!' And as to the maker of the roads, tradition further declared that they were all made in one night, by the author of evil!"

I have, myself, heard, from good authority, that another old man, named Thomas Myerscough, who died last year, when upwards of ninety years of age, frequently stated that in his youth he had assisted to cart away the gravel from off Watling-street.

Dr. Kuerden, in his quaint way, describes these roads as they appeared nearly two hundred years ago. The learned doctor laboured hard to prove that Preston occupied the site of the Rigodunum of Ptolemy. He makes Ribchester the Coccium of Antoninus, and Lancaster the Longovicus of the Notitia. Speaking of the road from the coast to Ribchester, he says:—

"This highway, by the country people at this day cald Watling-street, & was well vewed by the learned and incomparable antiquary, William Dugdell, Norroy King of Armes, in his last visitation of the Gentry within

the county of Lancaster, An. Do. 1664, where by him and many other diligent observers there finding a rampire cast up with gravel, & the largeness of the bulk thereof, was judged to be a Roman strata. Besides, it was observed that from this Ribodunum (Preston) to the other Roman garrison, the Longovicus, or Caer werid of the Britons, their Green Citty (Lancaster) there was another lesser strata leading betwixt them, as diuers signes of a like rampire ouer Preston and Fulwood, more towards Garstang by Broughton, are yet conspicuous to the observations of many learned men as well as vulgar people."

Dr. Kuerden likewise mentions that not many years previous to his recording the circumstance, a "Roman Vrne in which was found great store of antient coynes," was dug up in Myerscough Park, near the line of the Roman road. The doctor states that he had himself seen most of these coins which were originally in the possession of " that ingenious gentleman, Edward Townley, Esq., the proprietor and owner of the park of ground where this urne was found."

Some of the elder antiquaries were of opinion that the great Roman road from the south to the north crossed the Ribble by the ford at Penwortham, and passed between Tulketh Hall and the Maudlands. This was first conjectured by Percival, and immediately ridiculed by the Rev. John Whitaker. Yet, with characteristic daring, he afterwards mentions the circumstance as probable, when it did not affect his favourite theory. The notion was followed by Edward Baines and others. The absence of discovered remains at Penwortham and Tulketh, and the presence of them at Walton and elsewhere, now clearly demonstrate the upper ford to be the one where the great road crossed the Ribble. The pretensions of the "square area at Maudlands (lately destroyed) to Roman construction have been fully exploded.* It was, doubtless, an outpost in connection with the works erected by Col. Rosworm, the celebrated German engineer, after the capture of Preston by the parliamentary forces under Major-Gen. Seaton, on the 9th of February, 1643. † The town was re-captured, by the

* It contained a brick chamber, about six feet deep, and sufficiently broad to permit the descent of one of the workmen. This is supposed to have been constructed for a powder magazine. Some rude oaken staves were found in the ditch. These appeared to have formed part of a railing or palisade. The discovery in the mound of fragments of clay smoking pipes demonstrated its relatively modern construction.

+ See Rosworm's pamphlet in "Civil War Tracts," published by the Chetham Society.

Earl of Derby, on the 21st of the following month, and the defences destroyed. Baines confounds Maudlands with Tulketh, aud hence the blunder. West, the author of the "Antiquities of Furness," speaks, in 1774, of what he fancied to have been a Roman outpost; but his mound and ditch were situated at the head of the high promontory at Ashton, to the " SOUTH WEST OF TULKETH HALL."* A few months ago this mound was levelled; I examined it several times, but discovered no Roman remains. The ditch was evidently, to some extent, an artificial work. The locality may have been used by the Romans, or some of their successors, as an outpost, as it commands a magnificent prospect of the entire estuary, and a considerable portion of the valley to the eastward. Beneath the roots of the grass on the outside of the ditch, fragments of building materials were visible, probably the remains of the ruins described by West as existing in his day, and which had been occupied by the monks under Evanus, during the erection of Furness Abbey. The Domesday record testifies to a Saxon castle on the opposite headland at Penwortham. The site is termed "Castle Hill" to this day.

The discovery of a station at Walton is an event of great importance with reference to the determination of the route of the 10th iter of Antoninus. The recent discoveries in South Lancashire and Cheshire had shaken the hypothesis of the two Whitakers and others, that the iter traversed the county by Manchester and Ribchester. It only required proofs of Roman occupation near Preston to confirm the theory propounded by Mr. Robson, that it passed through Warrington and Lancaster. These are now

found. Had the station been situated on the north instead of the south side of Preston, as Mr. Robson anticipated, the result would have been perfectly satisfactory, and the figures of Antoninus have required no emendation. † I may further add, that travelling in a direct line from Lancaster, by Cartmel, to near the head of Windermere Lake, where a Roman

*The "Maudlands" is to the east of Tulketh Hall. On the ordnance map, the site of the temporary "monastry" is marked nearer to the present Tulketh Hall than the mound alluded to. Both are now totally erased.

+ Mr. Robson expected the remains of a post station, at least, might be found near the crossing of the Roman roads on Fulwood Moor. This is about two miles to the north of Walton, and agrees with the figures in the iter. This circumstance, together with the belief that Ribchester had been a seaport during the period of the Roman occupation, may, perhaps, account for the indifference with which the mound at Walton, situated amongst the alluvial soil of the valley, has hitherto been regarded by local antiquarians.

camp is marked by West, we get very nearly the distance of the next station from the one named Bremetonacis, viz.: 27 Roman miles. This would answer for Galacum. Doubtless, the three other stations men

tioned in the iter may yet be found in Cumberland.

Overborough is on the Lune as well as Lancaster, and may, with equal propriety, claim to be the Ad Alaunam of Richard, or the Longovicus of the Notitia. If Walton be Coccium, the distance will about agree with the figures in one of the copies of Richard, which places Ad Alaunam at 36 miles north of that station, and account for the upper portion of his line presenting no similitude to that of Antonine.* The simple fact that Ptolemy mentions Rigodunum, and that Antonine does not, is, in my opinion, the best possible evidence that the 10th iter of the latter did not pass by that place. This Coccium has been a sad trouble to the Roman topographers of Lancashire. Both Whitakers fused it into Rigodunum by an etymological process. The historian of Manchester informs us that Rigodunum means the "Fortress of Royalty," and that Caer Coccui is the "City of Supremacy." This is, however, a somewhat different interpretation from that of his erudite namesake and successor. With him Rigodunum is Red River, and Coccui, Red Water. Dr. Whitaker assumed that there were not two stations on the Ribble. The discovery at Walton solves the problem, and relieves him of the difficulty, the red rock, earth, &c., being characteristic of the Ribble equally near Preston and at Ribchester. The station at Walton likewise completes a double line of forts, within the territories of the Setantii and the Volantii, the first being at the head of the estuaries, which, Tacitus says, Agricola "surveyed himself, and marked out the stations," namely, Stockton Heath on the Mersey, Walton on the Ribble, and Lancaster on the Lune. The second or inland line, higher on the same rivers, were Manchester, Ribchester, and Overborough. As a mere route for either military transit, or for postal communication, the lower, or coast road, from the level character of the country,

The route of the former appears to have traversed the eastern portion of Westmoreland, that of the latter "The Lake district," from the mouth of the Solway, or the western extremity of the "Picts' Wall." The roads unite at Lancaster, and are there joined, according to Percival, by a third from Carlisle. The circumstance that Richard has omitted a station at Lancaster is of little consequence. He did not profess to give all, and must have passed over more than one in the same iter, for he makes the distance from Brocavonacis to Ad Alaunam 47 Roman miles.