a ready acquiescence, and an extent of credence, which no written records can attain. Scriptory documents are always questionable, because the individuals who have composed them were subject to the usual infirmities of our nature; and, by the exercise of prejudice and partiality, even truth may be perverted, and falsehood made to assume its appearance; but in the monuments of the early Britons, every thing which is thrown up by the spade and pickaxe, may be depended on as conveying a just memorial of antiquity; for they did nothing for posterity; they had no follies to flatter; no prejudices to gratify; and little thought that their places of sepulture would ever be desecrated by the prying curiosity of remote generations, occupying the same soil. In their interments they simply complied with the prescribed rites and ceremonies of their religion.

Those standing monuments of British industry and perseverance, which are distributed throughout the land, point out, with unerring certainty, the precise situation of British settlements; and mark, unquestionably, the places which different tribes selected as their peculiar residence. They were thrown up for various purposes; some for tumuli, some for altars of sacrifice, some for defence, and some for habitation; and all served as telegraphic beacons for the communication of important intelligence. These were placed under the guardianship of the Druids, who thus became the conservators of the public

safety; and in their custody was reposed the security and even the life of every individual, from the prince upon his throne to the naked peasant in his hut.

Before the time of the Danes, the History of Grimsby is involved in the same darkness which spreads its common shade over the general records of Britain; and we can only deduce its existence from the antiquities which remain within its precincts. These memorials of other times, being of a character that cannot suffer any material change by time, or the operation of the elements, where they exist on maiden earth, or soil untouched by the plough, they may safely be considered as carrying unequivocal indications of the times in which they were erected.

The bodies of the dead, in these primeval times, were usually burned; and the ashes being deposited in a rude, sepulchral urn, it was placed in the ground, with its mouth downwards, and the arms, and sometimes the horse of the deceased, as well as his jewels, and other honorary embellishments, being carefully arranged round it, the whole was covered up with earth or stones, and a high mound was erected over the spot, as a monument in honour of the dead. When the tumulus, or barrow, was raised to the proposed degree of elevation, the surface was usually covered with a stratum of chalk or flints, about six inches thick, that it might be distinguished from the . surrounding herbage, and be noted at the most distant point of observation, as a place of sacred sepulture.

Another species of mound was the hill altar, which cannot be distinguished from the tumulus, except by excavation. The patriarchal custom of sacrificing on earthen altars, whence proceeded the high places of idolatrous nations, was preserved in Britain; and the Druids practised all the abominations which are so frequently and explicitly condemned in holy Scripture. They worshipped in groves, and on high places; used earthen altars, bestowed the rites of adoration on rough stones, placed erect, to represent the Deity; and passed their young men through consecrated stones, and through the fire as a ceremony of purification.

с

ITS

CHAP. II.

THE FOREGOING PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO GRIMSBY.PRIMITIVE NAME. WHENCE DERIVED. THE HISTORY OF GRYME FULLY CONSIDERED.-GRIMSBY ESTABLISHED AS A MARITIME TOWN, BEFORE HIS TIME, PROVED FROM EXISTING RECORDS.

In the neighbourhood of Grimsby, these monuments are sufficiently numerous and characteristic, to bear us back to a remote period. They hold a character of great importance, as they conduce to invest this port with marks of a very high antiquity.

I should conjecture, from the nature of these remains, that Grimsby was very early peopled by the aborigines of this island; and was systematically erected into an important settlement in times far remote, and before the existence of accredited history. Its first population has been sought for in Saxon or Danish times; but history and tradition both concur in giving it an origin far antecedent to the first invasion of those spoilers; for the Abus, or Humber, was the anchoring place for their vessels, and it was at Grimsby Old Haven, already formed into a

commodious harbour for shipping, that their incursions into the dominions of the Coritani commenced. We are furnished with historical evidence, that the Danish invasions began at this port, which was, at that period, the chief inlet to the whole of the Midland counties; for Ingulphus informs us, that the Danes usually landed their marauding troops near Grymsby; and Peter Langtoft says, the Danes, under Swaine, their King, landed at Grymsby, and "stroied and wasted" both Lyndeseie and the City of Lincoln.* To repel the bold and ceaseless attempts of these marauders, fortifications were erected by the inhabitants, vestiges of which remain to the present day. Grimsby was the key into this large and populous district, and was consequently a place of considerable importance. And hence its name; for Grym is a pure British word, signifying Great or Powerful; and as the first invaders of Britain, invariably found their approaches at this avenue contested with great bravery and perseverance, they attached to it the usual appellative Bye, an undoubted corruption of the British word Bod, a habitation; and called the place Grymsby, or the residence of a powerful and valiant people.†

It is scarcely determinable, at this remote period, how far the legend of Gryme the fisherman may

* Chron. p.42.

+ Strype in his life of Whitgift, says, that the ancient name of Grymsby was Grimundsby, but I know of no authority to confirm this opinion.