376 
Third. — Of the Iron Period I need say nothing — we all 
know that, from the time when the use of iron was first dis- 
covered, this metal has never ceased to be employed. 
Through the discussion of these questions, which I fear 
some will think almost irrelevant to our subject, we approach 
the period when history begins to dawn upon us, and we 
begin to have a clearer notion of the condition of the country 
around us. The geographer Ptolemy informs us, and his 
statement is confirmed by other contemporary writers, that 
the greater part of the interior of Britain was occupied by 
the extensive tribe of the Brigantes, probably the oldest 
of the British tribes then existing. All that I can say more 
of the Brigantes approaching to anything like certainty is, 
that they are considered as one of the branches of the great 
Celtic race in the West. In Ptolemy's time there was a 
tribe of the same name in Ireland so situated as to render it 
almost certain that one was merely a division from the other, 
but which was the original I will not venture to decide, 
though it appears more probable that the Brigantes of Britain 
had emigrated into Ireland, than the contrary. This would 
lead us to suppose that the original population of the interior 
of Britain, before the Romans took possession of it, may 
possibly have been Gaels. 
With regard to the country around Leeds, all we know is 
that it lay in the heart of the territory of the Brigantes. 
Its pleasant valleys were probably covered with thick woods, 
and thinly inhabited. But the face of this country was soon 
changed when the Roman invaders came to take possession 
of the land, and under their enterprising activity the pri- 
meval forests yielded place to excellent roads and flourish- 
ing towns. Within a short distance from Leeds, at the place 
now called Castleford, on the river Aire, stood the Roman 
town of Legiolium, on one branch of their great Northern 
road, and it was no doubt a town of some importance from 
