188 
Of this description was the province of Brigantia ; and 
we owe to a Roman general the first knowledge of its in- 
habitants. When Julius Caesar interrogated the Belgae, 
whom he found on the coast opposite Gaul, near the modern 
town of Deal, as to the tribes of the interior, he learned that 
the Brigantes were the most powerful and numerous ; and 
that from the remoteness of their occupation, their ancestors 
were believed to have been the spontaneous production of the 
soil. Prior to the Roman invasion, they had penetrated to 
the western shore, and had formed a kingdom consisting of 
two provinces — Brigantia and Brigantia Proper. This latter 
division extended from the bounds of the Parisii northward 
to the Tyne, and from the Humber and Don to the mountains 
of Lancashire, "Westmoreland, and Cumberland. Beyond 
the mountains which separate the counties of York and 
Lancaster, were located the Yolantii and Sistuntii, two tribes 
united in compact alliance. The former had spread them- 
selves over the western parts of Lancashire, and the latter 
the west of Westmoreland and Cumberland, as far as the 
wall of Severus. The Yolantii owned for their capital 
Yolanty, the present town of Elenborough, in the latter 
county, and the Sistuntii Reregonium, the Ribchester of 
North Lancashire.* It is in the kingdom of Brigantia, 
including the territories of these subjugated tribes, that we 
are more immediately interested. And this arises from the 
fact of the parish of Halifax occupying a large extent of 
the hilly country on the western confines of Brigantia Proper; 
and being so situated that several ancient roads, which are 
supposed to have been laid down between the towns and 
fortresses which surrounded it, necessarily passed through it. 
Before entering upon the question of these ancient roads of 
our parish, it is requisite that we should know something of 
the places from whence they came and to which they led. 
* Whitaker's Manchester, vol. i, p. 9. 
