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that has now passed away. The last recorded case of 
their being used by man as a place of refuge was in the 
rebellion of 1745, when the eldest son of one of the gentle- 
men in the neighbourhood was hidden in a large cave, in 
the fear that the Scotch would pass southwards in that 
direction, instead of by the Preston route. 
The first cave chosen by the committee for exploration is 
that found by Mr. Jackson on the coronation day of our 
Queen, and which is therefore known as the Victoria cave. 
It consists of a series of large chambers and passages, which 
are nearly filled to the roof with reddish grey clay and stones. 
It must at one time have been of wonderful beauty, for 
there are the remains of massive stalactites and of thick 
pavements of stalagmites ; but now they are so decomposed 
by the carbonic acid that they are reduced to the condition 
of very soft mortar. Curiosity hunters have also been doing 
their usual ruthless mischief. Mr. J ackson obtained, when 
it was first opened, a remarkably large series of ornaments 
and implements of bronze, iron, and bone, along with pot- 
tery and the remains of animals, from the chamber at the 
original entrance. They were all derived from a superficial 
deposit, and could not be assigned to any earlier date than 
that of the Roman occupation. The pottery was of the 
same kind as that so commonly found in the refuse heaps 
round Roman villas, and some of it was Samian. There 
were also Roman coins. The broken and in some cases 
burnt bones belonged to the Celtic short-horn ( bos longi- 
frons), the sheep or goat, the horse, dog, red deer, and 
roe-buck. The two former animals were by far the most 
abundant. The exploration committee resolved to follow 
up this discovery by a thorough examination of the cave, 
which they are able to undertake by the courteous per- 
mission of the owner, Mr. Stackhouse. 
Outside the entrance of the cave, and at lower level is a 
small plateau, composed of debris, which lies at the exact 
