34 BOROUGHBRIDGE EXCURSION, AUG. 7, 1876. 
end of this paper arises from the fact that the district is comparatively 
virgin ground, 
The members who visited Staveley were very courteously received | 
by the Rev. Percival Hartley, Rector of Staveley, who showed them 
over the church, and other objects of interest in the vicinity. 
The first assemblage was at 1-30 p.m., at the church of Borough- 
bridge, when the vicar, the Rev. R. D. Owen, M.A., showed the 
remarkable ancient Norman stone carvings, relics of the old church, 
preserved in the vestry of the newer edifice. 
At 2-30 p.m. the members again assembled at the “ Devil’s 
Arrows ”—three immense gritstone monoliths, 18, 223, and 21 feet 
in height, standing in a line at distances of 129 and 361 feet from 
each other. The most southerly one had ‘been excavated for the- 
occasion, to show the depth to which it was imbedded in the soil, four 
feet. Geologically speaking, these stones have been quarried in 
Plompton grit, the uppermost member hereabouts of the millstone 
grit series. Prof. Phillips says*:—‘‘ At Plompton great and lofty 
cliffs of solid rock appear, such as may have yielded the Deyvil’s 
Arrows, those massive monoliths of the British settlement which 
preceded ancient Isurium.” Plompton is eight miles from Roecliffe, 
but the same grit is seen in place at Lingerfield, about six miles off, 
the nearest point at which the stone can have been obtained, 
An address upon the “ Arrows” was delivered by the Rev. W. C. 
Lukis, M.A., F.S.A., rector of Wath, near Ripon—so well known in 
connection with the investigation of similar prehistoric remains in 
Brittany. He did not support the hypothesis given in various guide 
books as to their being Roman in their origin, remarking that it is not 
at all flattering to that highly civilized people, of whose architectural 
skill we have evidence in Isurium close by, to suppose that they 
would condescend to imitate the rude barbaric art and customs of a 
dark age. He pointed out that writers on prehistoric monuments 
have been too apt to look upon ruins as perfect and typical examples, 
and to forget the enormous amount of destruction to which all such 
remains are subjected. Leland spoke of four of these pillars as 
existing in his day, one of which was afterwards destroyed to build a 
bridge over a stream in the vicinity, while the northern stone shows 
* Quart. Journ. Geol, Soc., xxi, 235. 
7 
