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the barrows, opened by Mr. Rooke, an urn of coarse clay was found, three feet three inches in circumference and ten inches in height, having within it a smaller urn, covered with a piece of clay; in both of them were burnt bones and ashes; two other urns, similar to the former, were discovered in the same barrow. Urns with burnt bones, &c. have likewise been met with in some of the other barrows. Under one of the cairns, human bones were found, together with a large blue glass bead.

On the east side of Stanton Moor, near the edge of a declivity overlooking Darley-Dale, are three remarkable stones, standing about a quarter of a mile from each other in a north and south direction. One of these called Cat's Stone, is on the verge of a precipice, and has a road leading to it, cut through a surface of loose stones and rock: the second is named Gorse* Stone: and the third, which is the largest, is called Heart Stone, and measures eighty-three feet in circumference. Several other stones of singular forms may be observed on different parts of the Moor; and particularly one called the Andle Stone, about a quarter of a mile eastward of Router rocks: this is nearly sixteen feet high, and appears to have been shaped by art.

On the eminence above Matlock church, called Riber hill, are the remains of what has been supposed a druidical altar, but which has more resemblance to a cromlech; though it may probably have only been intended as a point for the transmittal of signals. It is called the Hirst Stones, and consists of four rude masses of gritstone: one of which, apparently the smallest, is placed on the others and is computed to weigh about two tons. On the upper stone is a circular hole, six inches deep and nine in diameter, wherein, about fifty years ago, stood a stone pillar. On the declivity of a hill on Ashover common is a rocking stone, called by the country people Robin Hood's Mark, which measures about twenty-six feet in circumference, and, from "its ex

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traordinary position, evidently appears not only to have been the work of art, but to have been placed with great ingenuity."+ About two hundred yards to the north of this is a singular shaped rock, called the Turning Stone, in height nine feet; supposed by Mr. Rooke to have been a rock idol.

Archæologia, Vol. VI. page 113, 114. Mr. Rooke supposes this name to have been derived from the British Gorsed-dau. +Ibid.

+ Archæologia, Vol. XII. page 43.

On a waste piece of ground between Monyash and Arbor-low, about one mile and a half from the latter, is a huge block of limestone lying on the heath, and having a circular cavity on the top, which those who discover remnants of druidism in every singularly shaped or hollow stone, would probably denominate a rock basin. Its diameter is about nine or ten inches, and its depth eighteen or twenty. The interior is rugged and uneven; and has somewhat of the appearance of a corkscrew; though the hollows do not all run into each other. Scarcely a doubt can be entertained of this excavation being natural, though the particular cause of it cannot perhaps be assigned.

Two large stones, now lying on the ground in the township of Ludworth, called by the inhabitants Robin Hood's picking-rods, formerly stood upright and were fixed into socket-stones. Near to them is a place called the Coombs, consisting of singular shaped rocks.

In the eighth volume of the Archæologia, is an account, by Mr. Hayman Rooke, of some ancient remains on Hathersage moor, particularly of a rocking stone, twenty-nine feet in circumference; and near it, a large stone, with a rock basin and many tumuli, in which urns, beads, and rings have been found. At a little distance, he mentions observing another remarkable stone, thirteen feet six inches in length, which appeared to have been placed by art on the brow of a precipice, and supported by two small stones. On the top is a large rock basin, four feet three inches in diameter; and close to this, on the south side, a hollow, cut like a chair, with a step to rest the feet upon. This, in the traditions of the country, is called Cair's chair. Not far from this spot are also some rocking stones, "and of such a kind as seems plainly to indicate, that the first idea of forming rocking stones at all, was the appearance of certain stupendous masses, left by natural causes in such a singular situation, as to be even prepared, as it were, by the hand of nature, to exhibit such a curious kind of equipoise."

In a wood called Linda spring, near Crich, are two rows of round pits, called Pit-sleads, one of them containing twenty-five and the other twenty-eight; and extending about two hundred and fifty yards in length: most of them being about fifteen feet in diameter and six feet deep. A particular account of them is printed in the Archæologia, Vol. X. page 114. communicated by Hayman Rooke, esq. who conjectured that it might have been a British town; there being no ore, coal, stone or clay, to be found here.

It is difficult to assign any particular era with correctness for those relics discovered in various parts of the county, denominated Celts. The accompanying plate, No. 1. is a celt, found in 1807, in the environs of Hope Dale, and is now in the possession of William Bateman, esq. F. A. S. of Middleton. It measures four inches and three-eighths in length, and weighs 11 oz. The one represented in plate No. 2. was found near Haddon hall, and is in the possession of D'Ewes Coke, esq. of Brookhill. This is a very perfect one, with a groove on each side, and ground to a fine edge. These instruments vary in shape, resembling chisels; their real use is unknown, but the opinions of learned men are more in favour of weapons than the other appropriations. Some authors have stated them to be the heads of spears or walking-staves; others chisels, used by the Romans for cutting and polishing stones. Whitaker stated them to be battle-axes; Stukeley, druidical hooks for the misletoe; others, instruments for making the holes for tent poles, or for skinning animals. Fosbrooke says, they were manifestly tools for domestic use, and employed in chipping stone and other matters. Philip Gell, esq. of Hopton, has one in his possession made of a peculiar kind of stone, which he supposes to have been a sacrificing instrument. We have also seen them of flint. The earlier kinds were inserted in wooden handles, the socket being of a later date.

Many of these celts have been discovered in Derbyshire, and on an analysis of their composition, by the Rev. J. Cumming, professor of chemistry at Cambridge, they were found to contain ten per cent. of tin, being bronze, made of copper and tin. Some of these celts are, however, of other materials.

• Munimenta Antiqua, Vol. I.

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The Roman altar, found in the grounds belonging to Haddon hall, and now placed in the porch leading to the hall, is two feet eleven inches in height. The following inscription is now legible, only three letters being obliterated in the name of the person by whom it was dedicated, which may be supplied without difficulty. "Deo Marti Braciaca Os[i]tius Cæcilia[nus] Præf. Coh, I. Aquitano. V. S." Horsley supposes Braciaca to be the name of a place; Mr. Baxter and Dr. Pegge considered it as an epithet of Mars. The cohors prima Aquitanorum does not occur in Horsley's work, nor in the list of Roman auxiliary troops in the Tabula Honesta Missionis of the Emperor Trajan, discovered near Sydenham and Malpas;* but it appears in that of the Emperor Adrian,† found near Stainington, in the West-Riding of Yorkshire.

"The county of Derby appears to have been of considerable importance, and to have contained a body of numerous and active inhabitants, in an early stage of British civilization; and the Romans, who carried on a very profitable trade with the produce of its mines, fixed stations and formed roads in every part of it. The Britons had certainly one of their principal roads, the Rykneld, running through its whole extent, from south-west to north-east, from the borders of Staffordshire to those of Yorkshire. The name is British, the R, according to Whitaker, being prefixed to distinguish it as the road of the Upper Iceni, while the Ikeneld way itself led towards Norfolk, the country of the Iceni, properly so called.

"The Caers or Carls work, near Hathersage, bears marks of British origin; it lies in the wildest part of the High Peak, near the present road from Manchester to Sheffield, and includes the summit of a hill, which is very steep on all sides but one, and defended on that by a wall of rude and singular construction, consisting of three rows of very large stones, with other stones placed obliquely upon them, pointing towards the assailants. The whole wall is above nine feet high, and supported within by a slanting bank of earth, twenty-five feet in length. See the plan, Archæologia, Vol. VII. page 175. The tombs and other remains of this early people have been found in every part of the Peak, and are evidently British, by the rude urns, flint weapons, beads and small mill-stones discovered in them, as well as by the absence of all such remains as mark a more polished æra of civilization.

"That the Romans, as soon as they were established in the island, paid considerable attention to this part of it, might be proved (even if there did not exist so many traces of their roads and towns) by the pigs of lead ready worked up for sale, and stamped with the name of the reigning emperor; no less than three of which have been found in the neighbourhood of Matlock, and one

Reliquiæ Rom. Vol. I. part iv. plate 1, 2. + Gough's Camden, Vol. III. page 28.

of them inscribed, "Socio Roma," (to my partner at Rome) which clearly marks it to have been an article of trade. Two of them are now in the British Museum, and the very inspection of these is sufficient to prove, they were thus prepared for articles of commerce; and not, as Camden and others have supposed, as trophies of victory over the Ccangia or other tribes. Mr. Pegge has conjectured, that one of these pigs bears so early a date as the time of the Emperor Claudius; and if this was the fact, it would go far to prove, that the mines in the Peak were worked by the natives before the time of the Roman invasion; as it is highly improbable, that in a short time after the landing of the Romans, they should have so far subdued the Coritani, in the central part of the island, as to have established their own works and workmen in this remote district; or if, as other antiquaries have contended, this lead formed part of the tribute paid by the islanders themselves (though not yet finally subdued) to the Roman Emperor, it would carry up the British trade in these metals to a very remote period.

"From the existence, however, of the trade, and the consequent population of the country, we may expect to find Derbyshire traversed in every direction by Roman roads; and such seems to have been the case. Two of these have been examined by Mr. Pegge with so much attention, as to leave us very little to add to his observations. The first of these, the Rykneld street, or old British road, was repaired by the Romans for their own use. It is called by the name of the Rignal-street in an old Survey of Sir H. Hunloke's property in this county, as well as in those of other estates in Warwickshire and Staffordshire, where it is described as their boundary. It enters Derbyshire from this last county, over the Dove at Monk's bridge, and its crest is visible on Egginton heath, though much obliterated by the modern turnpike-road, which continues in its line as far as Little Over; where, a little before it reaches the two mile stone, the Roman road keeps its north-north-east direction, while the present one slants to the east towards Derby. The old road, though not easy to be distinguished in the cultivation so general near a populous town, crossed Nun's-green, and proceeded down Darley-slade to the banks of the Derwent, passing that river by a bridge (the piers of which may be felt in a dry summer) to the station of Little Chester, the Derventio of Richard, and placed by him at the distance of twelve miles from ad Trivonam (Berry farm at Branston-upon-Trent, to which it exactly answers.) It is by no means improbable, that the British Rykneld-street crossed the Derwent lower down at a ford, perhaps at the very place where Derby now stands; and then resuming its northerly course, would pass the east wall of the Roman town, as Stukeley has represented it in his map. The Roman road, however, on crossing the Derwent, seems to have passed the meadows near the north gate of the station, and after clearing the houses of the vicus, would fall into the Rykneld-street, near the north-east angle of the vallum, and proceed with it in its old line. The ground about the modern village of Little Chester being chiefly under the plough, the ridge of the road near it has been long destroyed; but on passing Breadsall priory on the left, and rising up towards the alms-houses on Morley moor, a large fragment of it is visible on the right hand: and again, though less plainly, on the moor itself, abutting on the fence about a hundred yards east of Brackley-gate. It next appears close to Horsley-park, a little west of the lodge, and is very high, covered with furze in the first enclosure; then passing through another field or two, crosses the road from Wirksworth to Nottingham, about a hundred yards west of Horsley-woodhouse; being quite plain in the enclosure south of the road called Castlecroft, and again in the field to the north of it. It now enters an old lane, which it soon quits, and may be seen in a field or two to the left, running down to a house called Cumbersome, which stands upon it; from hence, down another field, over Botolph (corruptly Bottle) brook, which it crosses straight for the Smithy houses, and enters a lane called, from it, the Street lane, where it is visible for more than a mile, as far as the water; here the lane bends to the east, while the Roman way keeps its old north-north-east bearing, up a field or two, to the lane from Heage to Ripley; this lane it crosses, and goes on to Hartey; from hence it points to the tail of Hartey dam, and is visible in the hedge of the field near the miller's house. It now runs to Coneygree house, crossing two lanes which lead from Pentrich town to the common, and so down to the water; leaving a camp, which is Roman by its form, and was probably a station, a very little to the left. It is again seen on the north side of the water, pointing up

the lane to Oakerthorp, but enters the enclosures on the left, before it reaches the village; and fragments of its ridge are quite plain in the croft opposite the manor-house.* On the other side of Oakerthorp the crest again appears in a line with this ridge, within the left-hand fence; it now runs to the four lane ends, over the ground on which Kendal's, or the Peacock Inn stands, and Limbury chapel formerly stood; and where its gravel was dug up in laying the foundation of the summer-house. Traces of buildings, too, have been dug up in Ufton-hall field, on the other side of the road, but nothing certain is known about them. It here crosses the present road and enters the fields on the right, but re-crosses it again on the declivity of the hill, and is visible for a mile in the demesne lands of Shirland hall, called the Day Cars, bearing for Higham. Hence, along the line of the present turnpike road to Clay-cross, through the village of Stretton; then to Egstow (where is a large barrow) and is quite plain for three hundred yards, through some small enclosures (particularly in the quakers' burying-ground) and over a part of Tupton moor, near the blacksmith's forge; and in an old survey of Egstow farm, belonging to the Hunloke family, it is, as I have said, expressly described under the name of the Rignal street. From this spot, which is about twenty miles from Derby, it is no longer visible, but it points, when last seen, directly for the middle of Sir Henry Hunloke's avenue, and probably went from hence to Tupton-hill, near Chesterfield, which is in the same line, only three miles further, and where several Roman coins have been found, so that there seems good ground for supposing this town, as the name imports, to have been a station on the road, very probably the Lutudarum of Ravennas.† The country people have a tradition of the road going on still further to the north, and that after crossing the Rother near Chesterfield, it proceeded on the east side of that brook, passing on the west of Killamarsh church, and through the parish of Beighton into Yorkshire; but I am more inclined to think the Roman road continued exactly in its old bearing on the west side of the river, leaving Whittington on the left, through West Handley, and Ridgway to the Roman camp on the banks of the Don, while the old Rykneld street proceeds on the east side into Yorkshire.

"It is to be remarked, that this whole road is one of those omitted by Antonine, and mentioned, with the stations upon it, by Richard only; and that such a road did exist, after it has been thus traced by so judicious an antiquary as Mr. Pegge, it is impossible for any one to doubt. The case is the same with the roads in Scotland, described in Richard's ninth and tenth iters, which have been examined by General Roy and Mr. Chalmers, and with that in Yorkshire laid down in his seventh, which Dr. Thomas Whitaker, though he denies the authority of Richard himself, confesses to run exactly as he describes it. As these roads are not alluded to by Antonine in the slightest degree, while evident marks of them are found where Richard has placed them, I confess myself to be one of those who do not think it possible to dispute the authenticity of the materials he has collected."

The communications which we have received, containing additional information relative to these important traces of the abode of the Romans in this part are numerous, but we think that their substance is fully comprised in the two following letters-one from a respected correspondent at Eckington, and the other from a highly intelligent friend at Wingerworth.-The former letter alludes to remains which would have become antiquities had they remained undiscovered another century: they are interesting and well deserve the attention of the curious.—

Dear Sir,

Eckington, March 4, 1829.

I am ashamed your request relating to the Antiquities of this interesting corner of the county should have been so long neglected, but such information as I can furnish you with on this or any other subject is heartily at your service, and I only regret it is of so little value.

In this part of its course it leaves Alfreton (which some writers supposed it passed through, and have even called a station on it) without notice, nearly two miles on its right.

+ The occurrence of the name of this station on the Roman pigs of lead found in Derbyshire, affords a strong confirmation of this conjecture.

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