24 
inscription to a local deity of tlie Brigantes, which, he was in¬ 
formed, had been found at Gretland, where a small stream called 
the Black Brook joins the Calder. Camden did not himself, how¬ 
ever, connect this altar with Cambodunum, but placed that station 
at Almondbury, about two miles south of Huddersfield, where 
there are some very remarkable remains, but nothing Homan. 
Horsley dismissed this idea, but fixed on Gretland ; and though he 
could find no traces of a Eoman station there, he thought his 
opinion confirmed bj^ the circumstance that Eoman coins and tiles 
had been discovered at Elland and Grimscar, both in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Gretland. It was to the Eev. Mr. Watson, author of a 
history of Halifax, that Slack is indebted for the honour of being 
identified with Cambodunum. He was a field antiquary, ex¬ 
ploring on foot every part of that extensive parish, and particularly 
directing his attention to the traces of Eoman occupation. He 
found in a farmer’s yard in Stainland, not far from Elland, an altar 
with a Eoman inscription, and on inquiry, was informed that 
Slack, which lies a little to the west of Stainland, and near 
Eipponden, was the place from which it had been brought. It 
was a votive offering to Fortune, by Antonius Modestus, of the 
Sixth Legion, so long quartered in York. Subsequently various 
other Eoman remains were found at Slack, and Mr. Whitaker, the 
historian of Manchester, as well as the Eev. Hr. Whitaker, declared 
in its favour as the site of Cambodunum. The subject naturally 
came under Mr. Wellbeloved’s consideration when treating of the 
Eoman roads and stations in Yorkshire, and in his Eburacum 
(p. 157) he mentions Horsley’s decision in favour of Gretland, and 
Watson’s doubt respecting the discovery of the altar at Gretland. 
This produced a communication to him from the late Eev. J. 
Hunter, in which he says, “ There is not the slightest ground for 
Mr. Watson’s doubts respecting the discovery of the altar at Gret¬ 
land. I have found a most exact and punctual notation of the 
discovery, in April, 1597, by a Halifax antiquary of that period, 
who fixes precisely the place, as well as the person by whom the 
altar was discovered. Camden was in that neighbourhood in 
August, 1599, when he became acquainted with the discovery, and 
introduced a notice of it in the next edition of the Britannia, pub¬ 
lished in 1600. This gives Gretland at least an equal chance with 
Slack to be Cambodunum, and so I suspect it will at last turn 
out—to the honour of Horsley more than of Watson, or either of 
the Whitakers. I mean to print the circumstance forthwith.” 
