78 DEEPDALE CAVE. 



angular pieces of limestone." The objects found in the black 

 mould ranged from pre- Roman and Romano-British times to the 

 date of an 1846 sixpence, while those of the deposits below 

 reached far back into pre-metallic ages. The parallel between 

 the surface deposits of the two caves is obvious enough, as also is 

 that of the charcoal immediately under the stalagmite. There is 

 a contrast, however, between the lower deposits in respect of 

 objects of human manufacture — while none for certain has been 

 found below the top deposit at Deepdale, many of remote pre 

 metallic times have been yielded by Kent's Cavern, The former 

 is, rather than the latter, after all, what one would expect ; for the 

 stalagmite certainly points to a time when the cave was wholly, or 

 at least partially, closed to animals and man, and if the cave-earth 

 was washed in by flood water, it was no suitable residence for even 

 primitive man. 



Whatever the use may have been that the cave was put to by 

 the Romano-Britons, the evidence of their presence is so over- 

 whelming that it may be said to have crowded out of view all 

 indications of earlier and later occupancy. It is very puzzling to 

 understand why people so cultured as the finds indicate them to 

 have been, and, indeed, as history describes the natives generally 

 under the Roman sway, should have frequented a damp and 

 gloomy cave like this of Deepdale. Professor Boyd Dawkins' 

 theory is that they were refugees of the time of the English 

 invasion. There is little doubt that the Britons did resort to 

 caves for safety during this event, and there is no reason to 

 doubt that our cave was such a hiding-place when the district 

 fell into the hands of the English after the capture of Chester in 

 613 But it is quite inconceivable that this episode in the history 

 of the cave was of sufficient duration to have accounted for the 

 remarkable abundance of Romano-British objects and the thick- 

 ness of the deposit in which they were found. The victorious 

 advent of the invader would cause general consternation through- 

 out the district, and we can well imagine a party of Britons 

 hurrying from Buxton to our cave. If capture meant death or 

 bondage, as popular history represents, their only chance of 



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