A History of South Cave and of Other Parishes in the East Riding of the County of York - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt: ...across a portion of ground three more skeletons were found, all more or less contracted. Over the head of one was a very fine Saxon urn full of the fibres of the roots of a neighbouring tree. The urn was profusely marked, and in good preservation. With another were several beads of glass and amber, a fine leaf-shaped flint arrow head, fragments of urns, and charcoal. I may here remark that I never found a decayed tooth. Some had been much worn, but they fitted even and close all round." The Amphitheatre At Hessleskew. "The Amphitheatre at Hessleskew is about two hundred yards in circumference, and appears to have been about ten or twelve feet in uniform depth. The arena is now a plantation of trees of about sixty years growth, and when these trees were planted, numerous animal bones were found in the floor of the pit. Near the pit, in the middle of a field, is an ancient well, now partly filled up, which, fifty years ago, was sounded to a depth of three hundred feet. Near the well are some old foundations, which can be traced continuously for about fifty yards. Taking the pit as a centre, in a radius of about one mile, more antiquities have been found at different times, which mark a longer period of time than perhaps any other uninhabited part of the country--over two hundred tumuli, stone, bronze, and iron weapons and ornaments, remains of harness, chariot wheels, swords, spears, and coins, the earliest of the latter which I have seen being of the time of Constantine, the latest that of Elizabeth. From the above facts I draw the following inferences:--' That the pit was excavated by the Romans for the purpose of bull-baiting, and other similar sports; that an annual carnival has been held, when horse, chariot, and other races...