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queen, and again during the civil wars, from the year 52 to 
70 ; or it may have been one of the last strongholds of the 
Britons, to which they retreated from the invading forces of 
the Romans under Petilius Cerealis, and also subsequently 
that of the Anglo-Saxons. 
On glancing at the Ordnance Map, embracing that portion 
of the Hambleton Hills in the neighbourhood of Thirsk, 
numerous tumuli are indicated — on Boltby Moor, Hesketh 
Moor, Hawnby Moor, Kepwick Moor, and Southwoods, — 
nearly all of which have been examined by the Rev. ~W. 
Grreenwell, of Durham ; Mr. Craster, of Middlesbrough ; 
Mr. Verity, of Southwoods ; and Mr. Murray, of Daleside ; 
with varied results, some of which I purpose to detail. My 
own attention was first called to this locality and its sepul- 
chral mounds by an interesting series of objects presented to 
the Museum of the Philosophical Hall by Jas. Fox, Esq., C.E., 
which had been obtained by Mr. Johnson, of Hesketh Hall, 
on the 9th of July, 1864, from a tumulus on the adjoining 
moor, 1,025 feet above the level of the sea. As these objects 
presented a somewhat varied character, and also differed 
in manufacture so as to suggest a difference of date, it 
appeared highly desirable that another examination of the 
tumulus should be made, and all the circumstances of dis- 
interment carefully inquired into as far as was possible. I 
therefore visited the locality myself on two occasions, in 
August and September, as also in company with Mr. Fox 
and Mr. Abraham Horsfall, of Leeds, and explored what 
remained of this tumulus, and of three others in the adjoining 
fields ; and I can bear witness to the zeal which both these 
gentlemen displayed in the laborious task of grave- digging. 
The tumulus just referred to was about 50 feet in diameter, 
and probably 3 feet 6 inches in height above the surface of the 
moor, of a conical shape, and appeared to contain indications 
of having been used on more than one occasion as a place of 
