a 
2 — 
inte etn poesia ela 
5 
attention was- called to it, and its history was routed out. I 
tell you the story now, that you may realize the good of local 
archzeological societies, which would keep alive the memory of 
such finds in their several localities, and perhaps provide museums 
in which they might be preserved. 
And then the Dane’s children or grandchildren in their turn 
became Christian, and the name of Kirkby Lonsdale, the church- 
town of the Lune valley, commemorates the change, and the 
foundation of a parish church. And then came the Norman, and 
began to rebuild it; and each century from then till now has left 
its marks still legible upon the fabric. 
I have taken the neighbourhood which I happen to know best, 
as an illustration of the manner in which materials for archzo- 
logical illustrations of the history of two thousand years may be 
found within an afternoon’s walk by many or most of us; and by 
following these up we may not only provide a most interesting and 
healthy pursuit for our leisure time, but also help in preserving the 
record of many noteworthy objects which might otherwise pass 
away and be forgotten. I know much less personally of this 
immediate neighbourhood, but I have seen or read enough to be 
sure that it also may furnish materials for interesting study and 
provide many illustrations of our national history. Thus, to begin 
with the prehistoric age. You have near here (as is recorded in 
the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archzeo- 
logical Society) instances of those cup-and-ring marked stones, the 
meaning of which is a problem yet unsolved. You havea Roman 
camp within a few hundred yards of this place, and in its immediate 
neighbourhood has been discovered perhaps the most remarkable 
_ collection of Roman altars which has ever been found in England. 
They are preserved safely and close to you at Netherhall, and we 
shall visit them, I hope, this afternoon. At Dearham and Cross- 
_ canonby churches, are hog-backed tombstones and carved crosses 
of Early Saxon times, when the Christianity of the English people 
was still isolated from that of southern Europe, and retained 
something both of the thoughts and of the art of their heathen 
