80 



Lancashire was occupied by the Northumbrians immediately- 

 after the battle of Chester, and that the Northumbrian 

 dominion embraced mid-Lancashire shortly after the fall of 

 Elmet, and finally that the Welsh occupying tlie more north- 

 ern portions were subdued about the years G70-685 A.D« 

 And it must be remarked that the cause of the Celtic popu- 

 lation of Strathclyde remaining to this day in the portions 

 latest conquered, in Cumberland and the south-west of Scot- 

 land, while it has disappeared from south Lancashire, is due 

 to the change in the religion of the conquerors on the 

 interval between the two conquests. When the battle 

 of Chester laid south Lancashire at the feet of ^thel- 

 frith, the English were worshippers of Thor and Odin. 

 When Carlisle was taken by Ecfrith, they were Christians 

 warring against men of their own faith. In the one case 

 the war was one of extermination, in the other merely of 

 conquest. 



"On some Human Bones found at Buttington, Mont- 

 gomeryshire," by W. Boyd Dawkins, F.RS. 



Among some papers which have lately demanded my 

 attention, there is one relating to the discovery of human 

 bones in Buttington Church-yard, a hamlet near Welshpool, 

 Montgomeryshire, which is worthy of being placed on 

 record, and being brought into relation with history. In 

 the year 1838 the late Rev. B. Dawkins, the incumbent of 

 the parish, made a most remarkable discovery of human 

 remains while digging the foundations for a new schoolroom 

 at the south-west corner of the church-yard, and in making 

 a path leading from it to the church door. He discovered 

 three pits, one containing two liundred skulls, and two 

 others containing exactly one hundred each; the sides of the 

 pits being lined with the long bones of the arms and the 

 legs. Two other pits contained the smaller bones, such as 

 the vertebrae and those of the extremities. All the teeth 

 were wonderfully perfect, and the condition of the skulls 



