Transactions of the Historic Society Lancashire and Cheshire, Vol. 5: Session 1864-65 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Transactions of the Historic Society Lancashire and Cheshire, Vol. 5: Session 1864-65 It is amongst these wild and dreary wastes that the eye of the geologist will not fail to observe the immense masses of weather-worn rock and boulders of the millstone grit forma tion which rear their heads above the heather and seem, by their numbers and positions, to have been scattered abroad in the wildest profusion by some freak of nature. A little closer examination, however, will convince him that most of these occupy very nearly their original positions. All the detached boulders are of the same coarse sandstone and their parent rocks may be seen in situ at no great distance. Some of the groups may represent the ruins of ancient sea-cliffs, which have almost become levelled by the hand of time others seem to have been transported from higher to lower levels; and all pretty nearly indicate the outcrops of the strata which form the boundaries of the faults between the millstone grits and the succeeding limestone shales. On a former occasion I directed the attention of this Society (vol. Ix, pp. 21-42) to the ancient fortifications, tumuli &c., which still exist on the lower ridges of the hills in East Lancashire. They formed an important item in my attempt to fix the site of the Battle of Brunanburh in the neighbourhood of Burnley but, apart from this, they are interesting in themselves, as illustrating the modes of defence adopted by the different races of people which have successively occupied this portion of our county. In that communication I hinted that some of these remains pointed rather towards religious rites than the exigencies of war. On further examination I am still more inclined to suppose that one or two of these circular, or Druid Barrows, as Dr. Stukely termed them, (fosbroke's Antiquities, vol. Ii. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.