136 TKANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



presence and opinions I had no knowledge, rose up and said, { You are quite 

 right. The Calderstones Avere originally a dolmen on the top of a tumulus at 

 some distance from where they now stand.' He went on to give interesting 

 particulars, derived from an old gardener, as to the condition of the tumulus 

 and the stones before the present roads in that neighbourhood were made. 

 Mr. Cox was followed by Dr. Newton, who had also heard from a former 

 generation of the original position of the Calderstones in a tumulus, and of 

 the remains found in the tumulus when it was cleared away. I believe that 

 Mr. James Thornely can also give some evidence bearing on this opinion — at 

 which I had arrived entirely from an examination of the carvings and a 

 comparison with similar incised stones elsewhere — that the Calderstones, now 

 standing in a small circle, were originally part of a dolmen. 



" I write this letter at the request of several members of the Biological 

 Society, for the purpose of suggesting that Mr. Cox and others who have 

 clear evidence to give bearing upon the question should be invited to put 

 what they know as to the earlier condition of the Calderstones upon record. 

 The writings of Sir James Simpson, Mr. Romilly Allen, and Sir James 

 Picton, describe the stones in their present position, except that one of the 

 six stones has evidently been erected between the dates of Sir James 

 Simpson's (1865) and Mr. Romilly Allen's (1883) papers." — Yours, &c, 



W. A. HERDMAN. 



As a result of that enquiry the following letters, amongst 

 others, appeared in the " Daily Post " of November 21st. 



To the Editor of tlie Daily Post. 



"Sir, — It is pleasant to find from the letter of Professor W. A. Herdman 

 that some interest is at last being taken in the investigation of our neglected 

 local antiquities, which are more interesting and greater in number than is 

 commonly supposed, and I gladly respond to the wish expressed by him to 

 give the evidence I have collected relating to them, and of which a short 

 note by myself has already been contributed to the ' Proceedings of the 

 Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. ' The best plan is, I think, to 

 give as nearly as possible the exact words of my informant, followed by my 

 own conclusions based upon them. By this means other archaeologists can 

 estimate whether or not they are correct. 



"About twenty years ago, my gardener, John Peers, who was a member 

 of an old local family, a most trustworthy, honest, and intelligent man, who 

 died a few years ago at over ninety years of age, informed me, in reply to 

 questions I asked him as to local antiquities, customs., and condition of the 

 neighbourhood, that he had begun his work on Calderstones Farm as a boy 

 of about fourteen years of age. He remembered the Calderstones well, before 



