CATON, a chapelry in that part of the parish of
LANCASTER which is in the hundred of LONSDALE,
south of the sands, county palatine of LANCASTER, 5f
miles (N.E.byB.) from Lancaster, containing 1107 inhabitants.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the
archdeaconry of Richmond, and diocese of Chester, endowed
with £400 private benefaction, and £600 royal
bounty, and in the patronage of the Vicar of Lancaster.
This extensive chapelry and township lies on the southern
bank of the Lune, and presents so many features of
beautiful scenery as to have elicited an eulogium from
the poet Gray, in a letter to Dr. Wharton. Here are
several cotton-manufactories: coal and slate are ftnuid
in the chapelry. Some Roman relics have been discovered,
especially an ancient stone pillar with an inscription
to the Emperor Adrian, found in the bed of
the Fisherbeck, in 1803, besides a milliarium six feet in
height, on the course of a Roman way that passed near
the place. There are two trifling benefactions for teaching
poor children.