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in Derbyshire and other counties, the castle was forfeited to the Crown by William Peverel the younger, grandson, not son, of the first Peverel, in the time of Henry II. Here that monarch received the homage of Malcolm, King of Scotland. A considerable portion of the outer wall of circumvallation remains, but the present late Norman keep stands at one corner instead of in the centre of the enclosure, which seems to point to the existence of an earlier Saxon fortress on the same spot. A very beautiful external nook-shaft, of slender proportions, with fine Norman caps and mouldings, remains on the south-east corner of the keep, and a corresponding shaft, the top of which is gone, on the south-west corner, and a corbelled-out garderobe overhanging the precipice. There is a circular staircase at the southeast angle. The interior of the keep is now open to the sky, but it does not appear to have had more than two floors. The entrance doorway, high up in the wall, with a double arch and the traces of the staircase by which it was approached from the exterior, are distinctly visible. The greater part of the ashlar facing has been removed, and is said to be embodied in Castleton Church. The keep itself is built upon the edge of a precipitous cliff over 250 ft. in depth, and is a quadrangle in plan. Almost the whole area of the summit of the hill is occupied by the castle yard or bailey, the entrance gateway being at the eastern end; very little remains of it. Mr. W. J. Andrew, of the Numismatic Society, and a keen local antiquary, asked by Mr. Blashill to make some remarks, said :—

"In supplementing Mr. Blashill's address, I think it worth while to call attention to a passage in Henry of Huntingdon's preface to his Chronicle, in which, speaking of the four wonders of early Britain, he says, 'one is that the winds issue with such great violence from certain caverns in a mountain called the Peak that they eject matters thrown into them, and, whirling them about in the air, carry them to a great distance.' This, though an exaggerated statement of fact, must clearly refer to the great cavern of the Peak, and to the pass in which it lies, viz., the Winnets. 'The Winnets' is a corruption of Wind Gates,' and in its name we see the corollary of the ancient legend. I agree with Mr. Blashill that there is no evidence of a castle having been here prior to the Conquest, and the 'herring-bone' masonry in the outer wall was probably the work of Saxon artificers employed by the first Peverel soon after that event. The true date of the foundation may be taken approximately as 1068, when, as Ordericus tells us, William 'surveyed the most unaccessible points in the country, and, selecting suitable spots, fortified them against the enemy's incursions.' This was on his journey into Yorkshire, when he built the Norman castle

at Nottingham, and entrusted it to William Peverel. The Castle of the Peak and the Burg of Nottingham are mentioned in Domesday as being held by William Peverel, and seem to have been a joint feu forming part of the Honour of Peverel' from 1068 to 1154. Without wearying you with many details, I would venture one or two arguments against the commonly-accepted propositions that Peverel was the natural son of the Conqueror, and that his son was the famous William Peverel of Stephen's time, who fought at Northallerton and Lincoln, and was ultimately outlawed on a charge of poisoning Ranulf, Earl of Chester, in 1154. In 1068, when the King entrusted the important stronghold of Nottingham to the first Peverel, he was himself but forty years old, and therefore any son of his would be absurdly young for such a responsibility. No chronicler speaks of Peverel and his three brothers as being William's sons, and the supposition seems to rest entirely upon the charter to Lenton Priory, which Peverel dedicated to King William and Queen Matilda, to William II, to Henry I and Maud his consort, and William and Maud their children, and to Adeline, his own wife, and William his son, and all his other children. If he had been William's illegitimate son, he would hardly have included Queen Matilda. It is, however, possible that his wife Adeline may have been one of the numerous children of William and Matilda, as to whom there is much uncertainty in our chronicles: for, as she was certainly living in 1130, seventeen years after the death of her husband, she was presumably considerably the younger. This would account for the dedication to the royal family in preference to Peverel's own ancestors; but it does not necessarily follow that he was a relative of theirs at all, for he may have merely wished to remember them as his benefactors. The date of the Lenton charter must have been between 1104, the date of the birth of Prince William, and 1108, that of the death of Gerard, Archbishop of York, one of the witnesses, and it is usually accepted as 1105. But the true date must be 1108, for Simon de St. Liz, another of the witnesses, was absent at the Crusades from 1101 to that year. The first Peverel, who was Dapifer to both Rufus and Henry I, died in February 1114, and as William and all his other children are mentioned in the 1108 charter, it is unlikely that William Peverel II was then an infant. This Peverel was, however, living in 1130, for the Pipe Roll refers to and describes Adeline as the mother of William Peverel, But in the year 1138, Ordericus speaks of the then Peverel as 'the young William surnamed Peverel', which rather implies that he had but then recently succeeded to his father's honour; and it is certainly impossible to accept the young William' as the one mentioned in the 1108 charter, and the son of the Peverel who received

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Nottingham Castle in 1068; for, as he was living in 1154, and prob ably for some years afterwards, it would assign nearly a century and a quarter to the lifetimes of the father and eldest son. Nor would the description, Young William, meet the case of one who had then been in possession of the Honour of Peverel for twenty-four years. Thus, he was probably son of William Peverel II, and I suggest had, in 1138, but recently succeeded to the family honours. The old tradition of the great tournament at the Castle of the Peak, in which Warine de Metz won the hand of Mellet Peveril and the Honour of Whittington, receives some corroboration in the fact that Whittington is mentioned by Orderic as one of the castles fortified against Stephen in Peverel's rising of 1139. The downfall of the family, in 1154, seems to have been complete, for, though six Peverels are mentioned in the 1130 Roll, not one appears in the 1156 accounts. In the latter year, Frogerus," Archdeacon, returns the accounts for Eyam of the land formerly William Peverel's at £140 per annum; and when we remember that Froggart Edge is still the name of the range of hills overlooking and bounding Eyam, I think we have at least discovered the origin of that very puzzling word, Froggart or Froggatt."

In one of the rooms of the hotel at Castleton, where the members lunched, Mr. Stirling, of Chapel-en-le-Frith, had laid out for the inspection of the members a considerable collection of curiosities recently unearthed in the neighbourhood, consisting of some examples of Roman pottery, Samian ware, cinerary urns, and a large number of bones, both human and animal. With a hurried peep into the church, which possesses but little of interest beyond some fine old carved pews of the seventeenth century, the party left Castleton for Hope, where the church was described by Mr. Charles Lynam, F.S.A., in the following Paper.

HOPE CHURCH.

Dr. Cox's "Churches of Derbyshire" make ecclesiology easy in this county. Few items are to be found not noted by him; indeed, in some cases he has more to tell of than now exists, owing to restorations carried out subsequent to the date of his book. This occurs in the case of the church of Hope, which has been restored during the incumbency of the present Vicar, under whose influence the chancel was also rebuilt. The careful preservation of a number of early and late graveslabs testifies to the desire to deal with these memorials in a conservative manner. It would be vain to repeat here what Dr. Cox has fully described; but there are one or two points of an architectural character which warrant notice. The prominent feature of the church is the tower and spire. At first sight this would be attributed to

Early English design, mainly on the ground of the broach spire, but excepting this feature the details are of the Decorated period. Here then is a local difference in respect of this important feature of the treatment of the junction of tower and spire. The only other church with tower and spire at the west end which the Congress will visit is at Taddington, and there again this local peculiarity of a broach spire of the Decorated period occurs. To a stranger in this district, another striking peculiarity is the great height of the nave arcades, and this exists both at Hope and Taddington. In the former church it came about in Early English times, as is indicated by the respond pier on the north side against the tower, and at Taddington in the Decorated period. The second story to the south porch, with its octagonal turret at the north-east corner and little niche over its south doorway, add effect to the west end of the church, particularly when seen grouped with the tower and spire. One of the charms of this little church is its perfect harmony with the surrounding landscape, which it not only graces, but to the beauty of which it greatly adds. This is one of the churches, too, which the squires were pleased to adorn, early in the seventeenth century, with framed oak pewing of excellent carpentry and quaint carving. Samples of it remain in the present wainscot to the chancel walls, and in the pulpit, on which an inscription styles the incumbent, Thomas Bocking, "Teacher," and gives the date 1652. One of the chairs in the chancel is dated 1664, and bears the lettering, "Ex torto ligno non fit Mercurius." On the north wall of the chancel is fixed a small brass of unusual workmanship, in that the enrichment upon it is not incised only, but has a figure in full length which is hammered so as to be in relief. It is to the memory of Henricus Balguy, and part of its inscription runs :

"Wained from the world, upon it yet I peepe,

Disdaine it, weepe for sinne, and sweetly sleepe."

Leaving Hope, the party proceeded to Hathersage, stopping on the way for a few moments while the Rev. W. Fyldes pointed out the site of the Roman Camp at Brough, from which the Roman road known as the Bathumgate (i.e., "Way to the baths," in good Anglo-Saxon) goes in a direct line to Buxton. Reaching Hathersage, the church. was described by Mr. Blashill. It is a finely-proportioned church, mainly of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The caps of the columns of the south arcade are of the eleventh century. The Vicar, Rev. G. F. Cutter, B.A., gave some interesting particulars of the Eyre family, mentioning the tradition that the name is derived from the circumstance that the founder of the family loosened the Conqueror's visor

at Hastings, so giving him "air," when nearly suffocated on the field. This founder came over with William, and the name was originally Lufto, but was changed by the Conqueror to Eyre in memory of this service. Lufto was shot by an arrow through the thigh, and lost his leg; hence the leg and thigh were adopted as the armorial bearings of the Eyre family. The church bells are interesting, the oldest being a sanctus bell of the fifteenth century. The church is also rich in heraldic brasses, of which Mr. A. Oliver described the magnificent Eyre brass in the chancel. The visit to the church being concluded, Mr. I. C. Gould conducted the party over the ancient earthwork. This is circular, and consists of a high rampart with a moat outside. Unfortunately, the fragmentary condition of the work renders it impossible to speculate with any degree of plausibility as to the date or origin. In Hathersage churchyard, close to the earthwork, is shown the grave of "Little John," 10 ft. 6 in. long.

At the evening meeting, the three concluding papers of the Congress were read. The first paper was by Mr. John Ward, on “The Discoveries of Mr. Micah Salt, of Buxton," and was read, in his absence, by Mr. G. Patrick, Hon. Secretary. This Paper is published in this part of the Journal, pp. 209-226.

Mr. Andrew Oliver followed with a paper on "The Monumental Brasses of Derbyshire," in which a full description was given, and a rubbing shown, of every brass now existing in the county. These are 71 in number: 5 ecclesiastics, 21 figures in armour, 7 civilians, 32 ladies, and 6 miscellaneous.

The Rev. H. J. Dukinfield Astley, Hon. Editorial Secretary, read a paper on "Jet and Cannel Coal Ornaments and Slate Implements.” This paper was abundantly illustrated by large drawings and plans of the Dumbuck Crannog, and by implements of stone and slate, and ornaments of cannel coal, etc., lent by Mr. Donnelly; and was published in the present volume, pp. 164-188.

SATURDAY, JULY 22ND.

The archa-ologists to-day divided into two parties, one party driving to Ashford and Taddington, the other visiting the ancient encampment at Black Edge and Coombs Moss. At Ashford Church, Dr. Brushfield, F.S.A., read the accompanying Paper descriptive of the building.

ASHFORD CHURCH.

The little village of Ashford, or, as it is now generally called, Ashford-in-the-Water-a comparatively recent term-nnst always

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