and warning the inhabitants below to prepare for the approaching danger. Castlesteads, about half a mile further east, is an elevated plateau of rock, having a sloping level surface of about half an acre, covered with bent and moss. On nearly every side it presents an escarpment of rock from three to fifteen feet high; along the top of this has been a rude wall or barricade of stone to serve partly as a defence against attack, or more likely as a fence to enfold horses and cattle. Within it on the south side are two oblong enclosures about twenty yards long by eight each, and on the north-west side is a large pile of stones as though it may have been a rude tower. This elevation is situated in a hollow and immediately all round it is an impassable plain of rocks and chasms. These are continued, more or less similar, for a mile or more on every side; so that this stronghold could only be gained by horses and cattle by circuitous windings, known only to those most familiar with the locality. In this place and others similar, then, in ages past, we may conclude that in times of invasion or when marauders ravaged the country, the inhabitants of Orton and Crosby would remove their cattle and other goods for security, which it certainly would afford, if such were to be had; first, from its secluded situation, for, unless previously known, it would escape discovery, and if known, a few men well armed and familiar with the crags would have baffled and perhaps overcome a whole army. Some authors suppose the word Castlesteads to be associated with Roman works, and possibly this place may have held out and been reduced by them. However this may have been, at no great distance to the north were found in April 1847 a beautiful silver brooch (Fibula Vestiaria) and a silver torque, in a crevice of the rock at a depth of about five feet. Possibly these may have been in the possession of some reckless Roman captain whose hardihood and reckless daring led him amongst the treacherous scars and hardy Britons, which when he discovered, in his haste to retreat flung away his cloak to free himself of its encumbrance, unmindful of its valuable ornaments.[5]