Cavp. 1.] GENERAL HISTORY. a 



He mentions a street wliicli is tlie Eoman road running directly north- 

 ward up the feU caUed " Green Gatd." " It passes over Langridge, 

 so through Bowland Forest." 



The AiJCiE>^ Britons aijd S.ixoxs. 



Perhaps a brief account of the religion of the Ancient Britons^ and 

 Saxons, and Danes, should be given, as many places in the district 

 still retain the names of the heathen places of worship, and some of 

 the customs of the people may be due to the sacred rites of the Pagan 

 inhabitants. The Eev. J. Davies states :— 



In the midtUe of the county we have Angle-Zark. The first part of the word is, 

 without doubt, from the name of this [Angles] tribe ; the second is found also in 

 Grimsarch, Kellamargh, Mansargh, antl Goosnargh, all names of places not far 

 from Anglezark, and is probably the old High German haruc, old Norse horgr, 

 An.'lo-Saxon hearb, gen. kearges, a heathen temple or altar. The old Norse hbrga 

 (.rs-°r«(ii.»( editius) shows that it means primarily a lofty grove, and thence a temple 

 encircled with groves (according to Bede's description of a heathen temple, " lamim 

 cum omnibus reptis suu"), and, lastly, a temple. It answers, therefore, to the 

 Danish luml (a sacred grove). We know from Tacitus, that all the Germanic races 

 were wont to celebrate the rites of their dark and cruel worship m the gloomy 

 shades of forests or groves, and the word teaches us, as n'edneshough (WodeiisfieM), 

 ^aiterthwalte (Scetere) and Lund, that the Angles were worshippers of the old 

 Teutonic deities, when they took possession of Lancashire. The name was pro- 

 bably given by the Angles themselves; and, if so, it indicates that the Anglian speech 

 approached, in some words, to the high German form. 



The Rev. W. Thornber, referring to the ancient superstitions still 

 lingering in the Pylde and other parts of Lancashire, says : — 

 The conjoint worship of the Sun and lloon, the Samen and Soma, husband and 

 wife of nature, has been from these early times so firmly imiilanted that ages have 

 not uprooted it. Christianity has not banished it. The .Saxons were guilty of it. 

 Nay, in my youth, on Halloween, under the n;ime of Teaula fires, I have seen the 

 hills' throughout the country illuminated with sacred fiaraes, and I can point out 

 many a cairn of fire-broken stones, -the high places of the votaries of Bel,-where 

 his rites have been performed on the borders of the Ribble age after age. 



1 MunsiffuorGradweUstates that Ed.h, priests in Lancashire and that they held 



in his " Lifa of St. Wilfrid," distinctly lauds on the banks of the Ivibble. 



tells us that Aegfriths found liritish 



