4 
but it is probably a peculiar kind of horseshoe. Only a few have 
been discovered in England and on the continent of Europe: but 
all those known have been found among remains of the late 
Roman civilization. Therefore this implement fixes the date of 
the settlement in which it was found: it was about the time when 
the Romans left Britain. 
To the Briton, who had received a certain varnish of civilization 
from his Roman master, succeeded the stronger and ruder Saxon 
conqueror. All down the Lune valley the Saxons have left the 
earthen mounds which were their castles and homesteads. Some, 
as in the vicarage grounds at Kirkby Lonsdale, a simple mound 
surrounded by a ditch; others on a larger scale, as at Burton-in- 
Lonsdale, an inner fortress for the lord and his household, an 
outer enclosure for the serfs and cattle. The Saxon came, a 
heathen ; before long, the church sought him out, in this district 
through Celtic missionaries from the North and West, and 
converted him to Christianity. The earliest trace of Christianity 
in the Lune valley is the rude stone cross at Barbon, specially 
interesting because it stands close to the old Roman road; and 
there is some reason to think that the stone was placed there as a 
heathen emblem, long before the cross was cut upon it to make it 
Christian. 
Once more came heathen invaders: the Danes forced their way 
up the valley of the Lune from Morecambe Bay, as they did into 
many other of our peaceful dales. Here is a trace of them. Some 
heathen Danish chief wore this silver brooch to fasten his plaid or 
cloak ; and as he went along the Roman road, the one highway 
then and for many centuries afterwards, death overtook him. It 
may have been from some sudden illness ; it may more probably 
have been by the sword or arrow of one of the natives of the valley 
he was plundering. But at all events, there he died and was 
buried hard by the side of the Roman road, some time in the 
roth century; and, nine hundred years after, his brooch was 
ploughed up, and then put away in a cupboard and forgotten 
for another fifty years, and then was just going to be sold for 
a few pence as old metal, when happily, by a mere accident, 
