bria. Not only during the entire continuance of the heptarchy, but long after its dissolution, when the seven kingdoms were rendered one, under the rule of Egbert and his successors, A.D. 827, the country betwixt the Mersey and the Ribble alternately formed portions of the province of Deira, and of Northumbria; sometimes its possession was disputed by different parties of the Saxons, - occasionally the original Saxons overcame the more recent Angles, and at other periods the latter became the predominant power, - for a time the above tract of country belonged to the Mercians, and hence it was rendered a portion of the earldom of Coventry, whilst the country north of the Ribble was included in the principality of Cumbria, ruled by a Prince of Pictish or Scottish extraction. Although at times seriously ravaged by the incursions of the Danes, the principality of Cumbria seems to have survived almost to the Conquest, for the country north of the Ribble contended for by the Saxons, Danes, and Picts, appears never to have been reduced to a state of effectual permanent subjection to the Saxons. At a later date, however, a portion of Cumbria merged in the province of York, whilst the region extending from the Ribble to the Mersey, formed a portion of the province or county of Chester, in the earldom of Coventry, till some time after the conquest, when the establishment of the honor and earldom of Lancaster, A.D. 1070, led to the formation of the county of Lancaster, composed of portions of Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Cumberland. As the word Barrow from Beorg (Saxon) signifies hills or mounts raised in honour of those who died in the field of battle, it is probable that one of the numerous battles which occured during the Saxon era was fought at Barrowshaw. Gough observes that barrows are the most ancient of sepulchral monuments. Though the revolutions of a thousand years has buried in oblivion every trace of the affair, if a succession of still more recent, and perhaps more important events, have obliterated from the page of history all records

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