432 
THE L\<T DECADE. 
well as to inter the dead. About a mile further along the cliff he 
had also discovered and described a small cave. Whilst removing 
the earth from the cave fragments of Roman Samian pottery and the 
bones of rabbit, hare, fox, sheep, red deer, wild ox, a human lower 
jaw, and other bones were found. Outside the cave there was evi- 
dence of burnt stones and charcoal, together with slightly burnt 
pottery, and the whole presented the appearance of having served for 
human habitation. All the objects found, as well as those from the 
ancient burial ground, are deposited in a room set apart for a 
museum by the Honourable W. Orde Powlett at Bolton Castle. 
During the same year a meeting was held at Wakefield, at which 
]\lr. T. ^y. Embleton presided, and contributed a lengthy account of 
ancient coal mining. He traced the historical evidence of the use of 
coal by the ancient British tribes, and of the Romans who succeeded 
them, in the occupation of this part of the country. Near Stanley, 
in Derbyshire, some years ago, some colliers were driving in the 
Kilburn coal, and broke into some old excavations, in which they 
found picks made of solid oak. The implements were entirely desti- 
tute of metal, and cut out of one piece of timber. In other instances 
stone hammer heads, and wedges of flint, bound to hazel sticks, had 
been discovered, as well as wheels of solid wood. The evidences that 
the Romans were acquainted with the use of coal are more numerous, 
and excavations have repeatedly been found which contained more 
or less indisputable traces of their having been made by this people. 
In the 13th and 14th centuries, grants of right to obtain coal are 
not infrequent in the districts around Newcastle. When coal was 
first taken by sea to London, an impression arose that the smoke 
arising therefrom contaminated the atmosphere, and was injurious to 
the public health : and it was said that the nice dames in London 
would not come into any house where sea coals were burnt, or willingly 
eat of the meat that was roasted with it. For a long time there 
appeared to be great objection to the use of coal, and King Edward 
the First and his Parliament issued a proclamation forbidding the 
use of this fuel, which was repeated at several subsequent periods. 
The prohibition, however, did not last very long, and in the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth the coal trade flourished greatty, and was regarded 
