Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/137

 its fibrous formation. Beneath the peaty layer is a thick bed of clay, having imbedded in it, either partially or wholly, large trunks of trees—oak, yew, fir, etc., which, by their frequency and arrangement, show that at some period the extensive tract must have been a dense woodland, but at what particular era it is impossible, with any degree of exactness, to determine. The disinterment, however, of certain Celtic relics from the substance of the peat, which may be supposed to have belonged to the aboriginal Britons of the section, inclines us to the opinion that the lower layers of the moss were formed, and consequently the forest overthrown, anterior to the Roman occupation of our island, but how long before that time it was standing, must remain purely a matter of conjecture, unless some reliable proofs of its more precise antiquity are disclosed during operations in the turf. The manner in which the demolition of the forest was effected is also somewhat wrapt in obscurity, although it is probable that the noble trees of which it was composed were overturned and uprooted by the fury of some wide-spread inundation or the violence of some terrific hurricane. The fearful devastations, both or either of the elements here brought into action can accomplish, are too well marked in the histories of other countries for us to hesitate in ascribing to them the power of overthrowing, under similar turbulent conditions, even so substantial an obstruction as the forest must have been; but a careful study of the locality and of the several sudden incursions of the tide which have occurred during recent years, leads to the belief that the sea was the chief destructive agent, and that the gale which hurled the raging volumes of water over the low-lying lands at the south of Blackpool, and the then level wooded tract beyond, assisted only in the ruinous work. In support of such a hypothesis may be instanced the flood of 1833, when a tide, only estimated to rise to a height of sixteen feet, but greatly swollen by a furious storm from the south-west, burst over at that spot, swept away several dwelling-houses in its course, battered down the hedges, and laid waste the fields far into the surrounding country. Had this inundation occurred during the high spring tides, it is impossible to say to what extent its ravages might have been carried, but the incident as it stands, being within the recollection of many still living, and by no means a solitary example of the usual direction