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ANCIENT MOUNDS.- The observant traveller through Lunesdale cannot
but be struck with several artificial mounds, which greet his
eye. About half a mile from Hornby, on the road to Gressingham,
is the most remarkable of these ancient works. According to Dr.
Whittaker, 'this is a magnificent Saxon fortification, intended
to guard the pass of Lune, as it commands the river upwards and
downwards. Its form is a regular ellipsis, at the north end of
which the axis major is a circular mount, separated from the area
below by an interior second fosse. The whole area is 2A. 9P. It
is, perhaps, not too bold a conjecture to suppose that it was the
Castle of Horne, the first founder.' It has been assumed by other
writers, that these elevations constitute the Agraria of
the Romans. It is remarkable that a majority of them are situated
near our old parish churches: for instance, at Halton, Melling,
Arkholme, Kirkby Lonsdale, and Sedbergh.[1] For whatever purpose
they were originally designed, whether as places of defence, or
'moot-hills' where justice was dispensed; in latter days they
appear to have been put to more ignoble uses. 'I find,' says
Whittaker, ' 'The Gallow Hill of Melling' mentioned in the
records of Hornby Castle.' And the small one, on the glebe
immediately behind the Vicarage at Kirkby Lonsdale, appears to
have been used for a less useful purpose, being known to this day
by the soubriquet of 'Cock-pit Hill.'
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