163 



from the circumstance of Caesar's not having spoken of this sub- 

 stance, whilst describing this island and its productions, that coal 

 had not then been discovered by the Britons. But, according to 

 Whitaker, pieces of coal, with a quantity of slack, were dug up 

 under the Roman way to Ribchester ; and the same writer observes, 

 that in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and particularly in the neigh- 

 bourhood of North Brierley, several large heaps of cinders have 

 been found, which he supposes to have been deposited there by the 

 Romans: a conjecture rendered probable by a number ofRoman 

 coins having been found in one of these mounds. Horseley, in his 

 Britannia Romana, remarks, that there was a colliery not far from 

 Brierley, which, in the judgment of those who are best capable of 

 determining on such a point, appears to have been wrought by the 

 Romans. Wallis, in his History of Northumberland *, says, that 

 the Romans were as well acquainted with our pit coal, as with our ores 

 and metals. In digging up some of the foundations of the Roman 

 walled city Magna, or Caervorran, in 1762, coal cinders, and some 

 very large, were turned up. Mr. Pennant also observes, that a flint 

 axe, used by the aborigines of our island, was discovered stuck in 

 certain veins of coal exposed to the day in Craig y Pare, Mon- 

 mouthshire; and in such a situation as to render it very accessible 

 to unexperienced natives, who in early times were incapable of 

 pursuing the veins to any great depth. 



Excuse me if I have been rather tedious, in thus producing au- 

 thorities in proof of this commodity having been known and used by 

 the primaeval Britons. Remember that I am treating of that, which, 

 from the great abundance in which it exists in this island, and from - 

 its superior quality, adds in a direct manner to the number of our 

 comforts ; and also gives indirectly to the country many peculiar and 

 important advantages. This substance was not brought into common 



* Vol.i. p. ii. 



