Many tumuli belonging to the early British settlers have been opened, as at Briercliffe, near Burnley, where the covering of earth had been partly wasted away, leaving a rudely-marked circle of stone, near to which in 1885 was found a sun-baked hand-made urn of pre-Roman origin, containing the remains of an adult and a child. At Wavertree, near Liverpool, in 1867, a large tumulus, since called Urn Mound, was opened, and six urns containing partly-calcined human bones were discovered, all of which were early British. Near to these were found a flint arrow-point and several "scrapers."[6] Canoes assigned to this period have not infrequently been dug out of peat which once formed the bottom of lakes, such as Marton Mere, in Poulton-le-Fylde, and at the estuary of the Ribble, near Penwortham. A very remarkable bronze beaded torque of the late Celtic period was found by some workmen in 1832 at Mowroad, in the parish of Rochdale. This ornament had probably been worn round the neck of some person of rank; it weighed one pound five ounces, was made of bronze, and was of superior workmanship and ornamentation.[7] The British tribes did not congregate in such numbers as to establish anything like a town, or even a large village, in these Northern parts; but no doubt when the Romans took possession they found here and there clusters of hut dwellings, which the geographer Ptolemy afterwards described as British settlements. One of these was Regodunum, which was somewhere near the mouth of the Ribble, perhaps at Walton-le-Dale. The author just referred to (who lived about A.D. 140) mentions the estuaries on the west coast, three of which, from the latitude and longitude given, clearly refer to Lancashire rivers; they are named as the Estuary Moricambe, the Haven of the Setantii, and the Estuary Belisama. Belisama was the old name for the Mersey; the Haven of the Setantii was at or near the mouth of the Ribble; and the other estuary was at the conflux of the Kent with the waters of Morecambe Bay.[8] At Walton-le-Dale and at Lancaster the Romans are believed to have founded their stations on the sites of British settlements, as in both these places have been found celts, arrow-heads, cinerary urns, and other signs of the earlier race. [Illustration] [Footnote 3: Engraved, with other flints, in "History of Rochdale," p. 4.] [Footnote 4: A complete list, up to date, will be found in Rev. William Harrison's "Archæological Survey of Lancashire," which will appear in the next volume of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society.] [Footnote 5: H. Swainson Cowper, Esq., F.S.A.] [Footnote 6: _Hist. Soc. of Lanc. and Ches._, xx. 131.] [Footnote 7: Engraved in "History of Rochdale," p. 5. See also _Archæologia_, xxv. 595.] [Footnote 8: See _Transactions of Hist. Soc. of Lanc. and Ches._, xxx. 81.] [Illustration] CHAPTER III. THE ROMANS AS CONQUERORS AND RULERS.