Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/20

 other towns or hamlets of the unfortunate Saxons. Numerous relics, chiefly of the Roman soldiery, have been dug or ploughed up at different times out of the soil, bordering on the road, or found amongst the pebbles of which it was composed, and amongst them may be mentioned spears, both British and Roman, horse shoes in abundance, several stone hammers, a battle axe, a broken sword, and ancient Roman coins, all of which were picked up along its line between Wyre mouth and Weeton. Several half-baked urns marked with dots, and pieces of rudely fashioned pottery were discovered in an extensive barrow or cairn near Weeton-lane Heads, which was accidentally opened, and is now pointed out as the abode of the local hairy ghost or boggart. In the neighbourhood of Kirkham there have been found many broken specimens of Roman pottery, stones prepared for building purposes, eight or ten urns, some containing ashes and beads, stone handmills for corn grinding, ancient coins, "Druids' eggs," axes, and horse shoes; in the fields near Dowbridge, where several of the above urns were discovered, there was found a flattened ivory needle, about five or six inches long with a large eyelet. A cuirass was also picked up on the banks of the Wyre; but the most interesting relic of antiquity is the boss or umbo of a shield, taken out of a ditch near Kirkham, which will be fully described in the chapter devoted to that township. The Romans were accustomed to make three kinds of roads, the first of which, called the Viæ Militares, were constructed during active warfare, when they were engaged in pushing their way into the territory of the enemy, and easy unobstructed communication between their various encampments became a matter of the utmost importance. The second, or public roads, were formed to facilitate commerce in time of peace; and the third were narrower paths, called private roads. The county of Lancaster was intersected by no less than four important Roman routes, two of which ran from north to south, and two traversed the land from west to east. The course of one road, and perhaps the best constructed of the whole four, we have just followed out; of the remainder, the first, commencing at Carlisle, passed near Garstang and Preston, crossed the Irwell at Old Trafford, and maintaining its southerly direction, ultimately arrived at Kinderton, in Cheshire. The second extended from Overborough to Slack, in Yorkshire, passing on its