At Claughton, in the parish of Garstang, a tumulus of this period was opened in 1822, and found to contain, in addition to charred human bones, large convex brooches of white metal, beads of coloured paste, iron and stone axes, spear-heads and a sword;[54] remains very similar in character to these were also dug up at Crossmoor, in Inskip, in 1889.[55] In the time which immediately preceded the coming of the Norman Conqueror, Lancashire must have been very sparsely populated; in every part of it there were vast forests, and great stretches of moss and fern; agriculture was everywhere neglected; towns, in the modern sense, there were none; but here and there, clustering as if for protection round some Saxon Thane's castle or fortified dwelling-place, were groups of wooden houses and rude huts, and scattered sparsely over the county were the clearings (_assarts_ or _rods_) and the _tons_ of the primitive settlers, with, in some districts, a wooden building doing duty as a church. Except where the old Roman roads were still in use, the means of passage from one place to another was difficult and dangerous; the people were of many tribes and nations--remnants of ancient British families, Angles, Saxons, Danes, Scandinavians, and even Normans contributed to the general stock--and as there were many tribes, so were there various religions, although Christianity had now become the general accepted faith. But for all this, much had been accomplished by time and experience to prepare the mind of the people to accept the tenet that union is strength, and that only by an undivided kingdom could come peace, wealth, and prosperity. [Illustration] [Footnote 39: Authorities differ as to this locality: one writer places it on the Firth of Forth, another in Worcestershire.] [Footnote 40: Pp. 36, 39.] [Footnote 41: Sanderson's "History of England," p. 44.] [Footnote 42: A.D. 923.] [Footnote 43: After the death of Cnut, in 1035, the kingdom was again divided, and Mercia and Northumbria fell to Harold. Harthacnut was (in 1039), however, King of all England.] [Footnote 44: Vol. i., p. 12, 2nd edit.] [Footnote 45: Coucher Book, Duchy Office, No. 78.] [Footnote 46: Originally a tax paid to the Danes, but afterwards appropriated to the King. It was always a very unpopular tax.] [Footnote 47: Plan of this in Fishwick's "History of Rochdale," p. 66.] [Footnote 48: "Eccles. Hist.," lib. iii., cap. 8.] [Footnote 49: Baines' "Hist. of Lanc.," ii. 205, 2nd edit.] [Footnote 50: The following account of it is compiled from an article in _Archæologia_, vol. liii., part iii., by H. Swainson Cowper, Esq., F.S.A.] [Footnote 51: See _Lanc. and Ches. Arch. Soc._, v. 1 _et seq._] [Footnote 52: See _Lanc. and Ches. Arch. Soc._, v. 227.] [Footnote 53: Saxon Chronicle and the Chronicle of Simon of Durham.] [Footnote 54: _Arch. Journal_, vi. 74; and "History of Garstang," _Chetham Soc._, civ. 5.]