Aldwark was a manor consisting of eight carucates; but in the Conqueror's age, it was also waste. This decrease, it will be seen by the following pages, extended throughout the whole of the wapentake. Every other county of England likewise experienced a similar reduction. In this inference, therefore, we conceive that the defalcation or waste in the manors, instanced by Mr. Hunter, is no proof that they were visited by the especial vengeance of the Northmen, or that the manor of Hallam was destroyed and wasted by the Conqueror. This admitted, we see no reason to suppose that the earth-works at Bradfield were thrown up as a refuge for the Saxons. Waltheof was beheaded in the ninth year of the conquest; but the survey was not begun for a period of five years subsequently, and the depreciation in the value of the manor did not exceed that of many others recorded in the book of Doomsday. After the death of Waltheof, it was given to that great favourite, Roger de Builli, with whom and the Conqueror, terms of the warmest friendship always subsisted.

To whom, then, it will be asked, would we attribute these formidable bulwarks? We answer, unhesitatingly, to the Britons; who, we know, fled from the Romans, and took shelter in the wilds and natural fastnesses of their country, and there so far defended themselves as to bid defiance to the imperial eagles. No men, however savage and uncivilized, would, we think, dwell by choice in the interior of this vast wilderness; but driven by the imperious hand of necessity, no fitter place for refuge could be found. The yoke of bondage is rarely hopeless. After retiring to the caves, the rocks, and the mountains in their rear, they would naturally render themselves as secure as possible, by fortifying the front of their position, and there, prompted by the antidote of all human ills, wait the event of time and chance. The Romans, ever anxious after dominion, would, it is probable, keep up a border warfare, and eventually dislodge their opponents; hence the name of Roman-slack is yet borne by a portion of the moors in the district we allude to. The occasional discovery of Roman and British remains, such as coins, implements of war, sacrifice, &c. are of themselves no proof that the places where they are found were settlements belonging to the owners or fabricators of such relics; but the celt found by Mr. Wilson, in one of the tumuli on the moor of Broomhead, proves beyond contradiction the identity

of the barrow. But if discovered on the surface of the earth, or slightly embedded therein, no inference, calculated to establish a rational theory, can be reasonably drawn therefrom.

The name of Bradfield, we also presume, may be more consistently derived from the British, than from the Saxon language. Brad, in the former, implies treason, or some foul act committed on bodies of men or individuals; an etymon somewhat ominous, it must be confessed; but Brade, in the latter, signifies broad, ample, expansive, or spacious. How far the former may apply, we are at a loss to tell; but the latter is obviously exceedingly inapplicable. The terminal is unquestionably Saxon.

For the true etymology of Bailey-hill, we know not where to look; but we are not aware that any portion of it is Saxon, except its termination, which, like that of Felz, is frequently added to a British or Roman appellative. Whitaker says, that it is an old name for a fortification: in this assertion he is supported in a number of instances.

Touching Castle-hill, we are willing to subscribe to the opinion of Mr. Watson, and think with him, that it was an advanced post, formed for the purpose of flanking Bailey-hill, with which it immediately communicated. From it, also, a different and in some instances a more extended view of the country was commanded; hence it became an important outwork to the principal fastness, by rendering it less liable to surprisal.

At the eastern end of Bardike, is a vast range of irregularly shaped hills, supposed by Mr. Watson to be tumuli, and which might probably, he thinks, be the graves of those who fell in the attack of the Saxons by the Danes, at this end of the artificial dike. But on a closer inspection, we are well assured, that this singular group of hills is rather an eccentricity in nature, than an artificial assemblage-the sport or fury of deity, than an act of man. They are denominated Kenhere or Kenyer hills, which, the learned gentleman above noticed presumes, might be derived from the Saxon Cyne, royal, and Here, an army.

In other parts of this vast station-for so we have elsewhere called it—vestigies, wearing the aspect of great antiquity were observed by Mr. Watson; particularly a large mass of stone, called the Apronful-of-stones; a piece of rock, which bore the appellation of the Hurkling-stone; a druidical circle on "the side;" and a range of tumuli. Whatever might be the state of these remains in the age of our reverend surveyor, their present appearance would require a large draught of antiquarian credulity, ere the hand of art could be deemed the author of their formation.

The small hills denominated tumuli, are most certainly artificial eminences; but that they were all thrown up for the purpose of sepulture, is very questionable. In the two which we, in company with James Rimington, Esq. and Mr. S. Mitchell, jum, opened, no remains whatever, confirmatory of that opinion, were found. On their original much uncertainty hangs. In some of them, however, the relics of humanity have been discovered, together with a celt, which is now in the museum of Mr. W. Wilson, of Sheffield.

The rivers that traverse this extensive district are, as might be reasonably expected, tolerably numerous; the most important whereof is the Don or Danus. Mr. Camden derives its orthography from the British, Dan, a word which implies a deep and low channel.* Mr. Whitaker is of a different opinion, and refers its original to the D'Avon of the same people. But it ought to be remembered, that D'Avon simply implies the water," and is therefore totally devoid of a locally discrimi nating character; hence, the judicious reader will not fail to perceive, that the same term might with equal propriety be applied to any other, or to every other stream. On the former etymon, it is probable, Milton had his eye, when he designated it the "gulphie Dun;" but Harrison is clearly wrong, when he describes it as the "swift Done;" for after its departure from the mountains of the Peak, it slowly winds it way, in a remarkably flexuous manner, until it arrives at the point, where the Flemings turned its course, for the purpose of aiding their designs, in draining the vast adjacent level. The various hills, which thwart and intercept its course, augment in a great measure the inconvenience that arises from the mass of water which is often poured into its channel by its tributary streams, and prevent it, by the sinuosity of its bed, from making its way to its destination in a very rapid manner; hence the numerous and destructive floods, which have often marked its devastating course.

The course of this river is poetically traced by the muse of Drayton; while the memorable actions and places which have occurred and are situated upon it, or in its vicinity, are elegantly poetized by the Latin hexameters of Dr. Dering, Dean of Ripon. Dodsworth, the eminent Yorkshire collector, observes, that "the river Dune riseth in the upper part of Pennystone, thence to Bolsterstone by Midhop." "Leaving Wharncliffe chase (stored with roebucks, which are decayed since the great frost) on the north, belonging to Sir Francis Wortley, where he hath great iron works. The said Wharncliffe affordeth two hundred dozen of coals for ever to his said works. In the chase he had red and fallow deer and roes; and leaveth Bethuns, a chase and tower of the earl of Salop, on the south side. By Wortley to Wadsley, where in times past, Everingham of Stainbro' had a park, now disparked. + Hist. of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 81.

Britannia, vol. ii. p. 61.

Thence to Sheffield and washeth the castle walls, keepeth it course to Attercliffe, where is an iron forge of the earl of Salop; from thence to Wincobank, Kymberworth and Eccles, where it entertaineth the Rother, coming presently to Rotherham, then to Aldwark-hall, the Fitzwilliams' ancient possessions; then to Thriberg park, the seat of Reresbys, knights; then to Mexbrough, where hath been a castle, thence to Conisbrough parke and castle of the earl of Warrens, where there is a place called Horsa's tombe. From thence to Sprotbrough, the ancient seat of the famous family of the Fitzwilliams, who have flourished ever since the conquest. Thence by Newton unto Doncaster, Wheatley and Kirk-Sandal, to Barnby-Dunn, by Bramwith and Stain forth to Fishlake, thence to Turnbridge, a porte town, serving indifferently for all the west parts, where he pays his tribute to the Aire.*" From the time of the general drainage, however, the waters of the Don have forsaken the lower part of their bed, and now pour themselves into the Ouse near Gool. Previously to this event, the Don, on its arrival at Thorne, divided itself into two channels; one of which communicated with the Aire, as is observed above, while the other emptied itself into the Trent, a little prior to its junction with the Ouse. This branch of the Don constituted the boundary line of the county of York, and the southern extreme of the Brigantian kingdom.

Most of the waters composing the smaller rills, which have their progress through our district, such as the Dove, Dearn, Rother, Blackburn-bec, Holbrook, Sheaf, Porter, Loxley, Yewden, &c., serve to augment the current of the Don, and with it eventually rendezvous in the Auv xo of Ptolomy, or the Humber; that great and magnificent receptacle of all the rivers issuing out of the southern side of the British Appenines, as Dodsworth significantly calls the range of mountains that pass north-west of Sheffield, and extend to and hold communion with those of Scotland.

So early as the reign of Edward II., the navigability of the Don became an object of inquiry with the justices of sewers ; when John de Doncaster, Roger de Cloherne, and Robert de Amecotes, were appointed commissioners to inquire into the nature of, and to remove the obstructions. In the twelfth year of the same king's reign, three other commissioners were chosen to view the banks of the Don in Marshland, and to repair them in such places and in such manner as they might deem requisite. In the 17th Edward III., "Sir Thomas Ughtred, Sir Gerard de Usefleet, and Sir

*Dodsworth's Coll. in the Bodl. Lib. The direction of the Don, as here described by Dodsworth, is tolerably correct, excepting the upper part thereof. That it rises in the bosom of the moors, beyond Penningston, is, we believe satisfactorily ascertained; but the stream which passeth Midhope, and rises in the vicinity of Ladies-cross, in the wapentake of Staincross, bears a different name.

† Dugdale's Hist. of Draining, &c. p. 115.

William de Redness, Knights; John de Beckingham, and John de Langeton, were assigned to view the banks betwixt Turnbridge near Rowcliff, and the ancient course of the river Don, in the parts upon Marshland; as also those upon the rivers of Aire, Ouse, and Don, thereabouts, which were then broken by the floods of fresh waters, and to take order for the repairs of them.

"In the same year, upon a petition exhibited to the King in parliament, by the inhabitants of Marshland in this county (Yorkshire), and they of Axeholm in Lincolnshire, shewing, that whereas, King Edward II., at the suit of them the said inhabitants; suggesting, that the river of Done, which is the division betwixt the said counties, where the course of the waters had wont to be, as well for the passage of ships from the town of Doncaster unto the river of Trent, as for the drainage of the adjacent lands, was obstructed by the sea tides; and thereupon gave commission to John de Doncaster, and others, to clear the same, and reduce it to its ancient course. Which commissioners did accordingly cause a trench of sixteen feet and one grain of barley in breadth to be digged at the charge of the men of these parts, from a certain place called Crulleflete-hill unto Denmyn; aud did thereby reduce that stream into its ancient course. And that since the trench so digged, there were bridges, flood-gates, and divers other obstructions, made anew in the said stream, so that it had not sufficient breadth, but that the passage of ships was hindered, and the adjacent grounds overflowed; he therefore constituted Roger de Newmarsh, Thomas de Levelannor, John de Ludington, and John de Rednesse, his commissioners, to remove these obstructions." In the twenty-third year of the same reign, Sir Thomas Ughtred, Sir Gerard Ousflet, Knights; Robert de Midelham, Robert de Haldenby, Thomas Proctour of Rednesse, and William Gatorest, were assigned to view and repair the banks upon the rivers of Ouse, Don, and Aire, in the parts of Marshland. The next year following, William de Percy, Brian de Thornehull, Ralph de Lassel, William de Ayrmyn, William de Notton, William de Henchden, Illard de Useflet, and Thomas de Egmanton, had the like assignation for those upon the rivers of Humber, Ouse, Derwent, Aire, Skelfleet, Longdyke, Fulne, and Don, in the parts of Spalding-mere, Howdenshire, Draxsoken and Marshland, and in the wapentakes of Barston and Herthill, betwixt Ouse and Derwent. So also Thomas de Ughtred, Robert de Pickering, Robert de Middleham, William de Gatonesse, and Thomas Proctour of Rednesse, for those upon the streams of Ouse, Aire, and Don, in the parts of Marshland and Osgodcross. In the 33d Edward III., John de Mowbray, Sir Marmaduke Constable, Sir William de Aldeburgh, Sir Ralph de Lassels, Knights, and others, were appointed commissioners to view and repair the banks of the Ouse, Derwent, Aire, Skelfleet, Langdyke, Fulne, and Don. In the 36th of the same reign, John de Mowbray, Thomas de Ingleby, William de Fyncheden, and others, were assigned to the same end. In this year also there were "divers presentments" made against several persons who had neglected to repair the banks,