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to restrict still more the field of inquiry, who is there who is 
not curious to learn something of those who have inhabited 
in former times the place in which he was born, or in which 
he lives, and of the events in which they were engaged ? It 
was for this reason that, when asked to read a paper before 
the Geological and Polytechnic Society, I chose for my 
subject the early history of Leeds and of the district 
surrounding it. Leeds has, during the whole known historic 
period, been a place of considerable importance. Beginning 
with the earthworks raised by a primitive people at some 
unknown date, — I will not venture to say whether Britons, or 
Romans, or Saxons, — which formerly crowned that part of the 
town now covered by houses and lanes between High Street 
and Charles Street ; your town appears to have been the 
resort of Anglo-Saxon princes ; it was intimately connected 
with the first introduction of Christianity into these northern 
parts of Anglo-Saxon Britain ; it was occupied by a Norman 
castle of some importance ; and it took its full share in all 
the great political movements in the history of our 
country, until it has now become one of the principal centres 
of its wealth and national resources. 
It is evident that to take this full expanse of your history, 
would require a bulky volume, and that it would be absurd 
to attempt to bring it within the narrow limits of this paper. 
I will, therefore, venture to take for our subject this evening 
only the earliest and least known portion of the history of 
Leeds, which, nevertheless, contains much which is interesting 
in relation to primitive monuments still remaining among 
you, and much which is intimately connected with the early 
glories of our Anglo-Saxon race. In tracing back our 
national antiquities to their earliest date, we were always 
obliged to halt at an indefinite period which it was not 
thought safe to place long before the time at which our 
island was first visited by its Roman conquerors ; but at the 
