163 
from the circumstance of Cesar’s not having- spoken of this sub- 
stance, whilst describing this island and its productions, that coal 
had not then been discovered by the Britons. But, according to 
Whitaker, pieces of coal, with a quantity of slack, were dug up 
under the Roman way to Ribchester : and the same writer observes, 
that in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and particularly in the neigh- 
bourhood of North Brierley, several large heaps of cinders have 
been found, which he supposes to have been deposited there by the 
Romans : a conjecture rendered probable by a number of Roman 
coins having been found in one of these mounds. Horseley, in his 
Britannia Bomana, remarks, that there was a colliery not far from 
Brierley, which, in the judgment of those who are best capable of 
determining on such a point, appears to have been wrought by the 
Romans. Wallis, in his History of Northumberland*, says, that 
the Romans were as w-ell acquainted with our pit coal, as with our 
ores and metals. In digging up some of the foundations of the Roman 
walled city Magna, or Caervorran, in 1/62, coal cinders, and some 
very large, were turned up. Mr. Pennant also observes, that a flint 
axe, used by the aborigines of our island, was discovered stuck in 
certain veins of coal exposed to the day in Craig y Pare, Mon- 
mouthshire ; and in such a situation as to render it very accessible 
to unexperienced natives, who in early times were incapable of pur- 
suing the veins to any greet depth. 
Excuse me if I have been rather tedious, in thus producing au- 
thorities in proof of this commodity having been known and used by 
the primaeval Britons. Remember that I am treating of that, which, 
from the great abundance in which it exists in this island, and from 
its superior quality, adds in a direct manner to the number of our 
comforts ; and also gives indirectly to the country many peculiar and 
important advantages. This substance was not brought into common 
* Vol. i. p. 119. 
