belong. The mounds were circular, of bold elevation, protected by a podium of dry walling, and containing one or several galleried chambers. These chambers were constructed of massive slabs of stone, but they did not attain the large proportions which prevail in some parts of the country. In most instances they appear to have been somewhat wedge-shaped in plan, with sides leaning inwards. The galleries were of similar construction. Each chamber appears to have had its own gallery, which led to the periphery of the mound, but whether it opened out through the podium, or was masked by it, is not certain. In every instance in Derbyshire in which the original interments remained the skulls were dolichocephalic, and the flint implements delicate leaf-shaped arrow-heads.

Pre-Roman British Interments.-The 300 barrows which can be assigned to the pre-Roman British period, or in other words, to the Bronze Age, present great diversity of construction and contents. Their builders practised both inhumation and cremation, sometimes together. The interment, whether unburnt or burnt, was frequently simply buried; but as often as not it was placed in a grave in the natural soil, which was sometimes converted into a vault by a roofing of slabs of stone; or in an enclosure constructed of dry-walling or of upright slabs of stone, which, when roofed with other slabs, formed a cist. The cist was probably derived from the Neolithic chamber, but-in Derbyshire, at least-it differed in having no entrance or gallery and in not being used for successive interments. The covering mound was usually constructed of stones only, which were often laid together with some order; and only rarely was it composed of fine materials, as gravels or earth. When not bowl-shaped, the mound was flattened, or rendered irregular by the addition of secondary mounds. base was sometimes defined by a ditch, or a circle of stones, or an annular mound. The central mound may be diminutive, or be omitted altogether, when the barrow will be resolved into a circular area enclosed by one or more of these fences.

The

In Derbyshire, the unburnt bodies were buried in a

flexed posture, nearly always on the side, the side, rarely sitting. When cremated, the burnt bones were sometimes allowed to remain as left by the pyre, but more frequently they were collected into a heap on the spot, or were transferred to a depression in the ground, to a cist, or to a flat stone; free, tied in a cloth, or deposited in a basket or an earthen urn. The Derbyshire examples of these rude, hand-made vessels have a constant form, and the heavy overhanging rim is almost invariably ornamented. They were buried upright, with a stone over the mouth, or mouth downwards and resting on a

stone.

Diverse, however, as these British interments were in the above respects, the various objects of human handiwork which accompanied them have a common likeness which mark them as belonging to one era. The most remarkable and characteristic of these objects are the earthen vessels. Besides the cinerary urns just referred to, vessels of other shapes, but similar in material and decoration, have been frequently found-"drinkingcups" and "food-vases," rightly named, as they certainly contained offerings of drink and food, and the changeful little vessels fancifully designated "incense-cups." The most frequent accompaniments, however, have been flakes and rude implements (mostly scrapers and arrowpoints) of flint. Borers, pins, and other objects of bone follow next; then bronze "three-rivet" dagger-blades, awls, rings, pins, etc.; jet and amber beads and necklaces; and, very rarely, iron objects. Some of the interments containing the latter were almost certainly postRoman, and possibly the rest were also, although in other respects they were like the British. Besides the above, polished basalt and granite hammers and axes, whetstones, quartz pebbles, red ochre, and iron ore have been occasionally met with. The animal remains associated with these interments were those of still-existing species in Europe, and they include the present domestic animals -ox, sheep, goat, pig, horse, and dog.

The following table gives the approximate percentages of Derbyshire-Staffordshire interments which have yielded the above accompaniments :

It is noteworthy that while the implements and ornaments were tolerably evenly distributed between burnt and unburnt interments, it was otherwise with the vessels. The following table shows their distribution:

36 drinking-cups, all associated with unburnt interments;

71 food-vases, of which 56 were associated with unburnt and 15 with unurned burnt interments; and

14 incense-cups, of which 2 were associated with unurned burnt and 12 with urned burnt interments.

Various explanations might be suggested for this distribution; but after giving it much consideration in all its bearings, I am inclined to think that the table expresses a progress in time: that is, that the drinking-cup was succeeded by the food-vase, and the food-vase by the cinerary urn and incense-cup. If this be so, we must conclude that in Derbyshire, at least, cremation was of later introduction than inhumation; but it must not be inferred from this that the former supplanted the latter. For anything we know, the two modes continued side by side until the Roman occupation. The relative positions of these different interments, when occurring in the same barrow, strongly tends to confirm my view. instance in our area has a drinking-cup interment been found under circumstances which point to its later introduction into the mound than a neighbouring food-vase or urned interment; nor is there an example of a food-vase inhumated interment succeeding an urned one; whereas in each case, the reverse has frequently been noted. Or, to look at the matter from another point of view the majority of drinking-cup interments found in these barrows are obviously their primary interments; while

In no

the urns as a rule are either high up or near the margin -positions which mark them as secondary interments.

The frequent instance in which the skeleton of an infant was associated with that of an adult, usually a woman and presumably the mother, points to infanticide. The occasional presence of a woman's skeleton with a man's seems to indicate Sutteeism. More frequently, burnt human bones have accompanied an unburnt skeleton; in which cases the skeleton undoubtedly represented the interment proper, the burnt deposit probably representing a human sacrifice. It is possible that in these subordinate interments we have the germ of the later mode of disposing of the dead. It is not always easy to determine whether such a deposit was the accompaniment of the unburnt interment near it, or was a separate interment; but we are well within the mark in saying that our area has supplied forty-four undoubted and twenty-eight presumed examples to the point, out of a total of nearly four hundred pre-Roman inhumated interments. As only one undoubted example has been found among the thirty-six drinking-cup interments, whereas ten have been obtained from the fifty-six vased inhumated interments, it looks as though the custom did not find favour at first.

A hundred or more examples of urned burnt interments have been reported from our area. These urns probably represent the cists and vaults of the earlier burials, and the incense-cups may really be diminutive food-vases. The different varieties of pre-Roman interments are not evenly intermixed; those after cremation, urned or otherwise, for instance, predominate on and around Stanton Moor,' and in the country between Eyam, Castleton, and Sheffield.

Circles. Of the dozen or so "Druidical Circles" in the county, that of Arborlow is conspicuous for its magnitude, and is one of the finest in the country. Its central area, which is 168 ft. in diameter, is bounded first by a ditch and then a rampart, both discontinued in two

1 Since the above was written, two more British cinerary urns have been discovered on this moor, one of which has passed into the hands of my friend, Mr. Joseph Heathcote, of Birchover.

places to form entrances. Upon the enclosed Upon the enclosed space stood

a circle of huge standing stones, now fallen, and in the centre are several large stones. About 1,000 ft. away is a large barrow, which in 1848 was found to contain a cremated interment, accompanied by a typical food-vase of the pre-Roman British era, in a large cist. As this barrow is connected with the circle by a winding bank, it is probable that both are of like antiquity. At Dove Holes is a little-known circle similar to Arborlow, but without the stones. At Wet-Withens, near Eyam, is another, 99 ft. in diameter, consisting of an annular bank with sixteen standing stones on its inner edge; and on Offerton Moor adjacent is another somewhat less. The rest of the Derbyshire circles are much smaller, and are doubtless sepulchral. The larger ones may also have had the same origin, but there is no reason why the popular theory that they were temples should be discarded. With the exception of Arborlow and Dove Holes, the Derbyshire circles are confined to localities in which urned interments abound.

Ancient Non-Roman Camps.-While it is certain that these camps are not Roman, it is not easy to fix their age. Some may have been thrown up by the natives during the English invasion, and possibly some by the English themselves to resist the Danes; but it seems more likely that, as a class, they are pre-Roman, and of great antiquity. The magnitude and careful construction of several of them indicate that they were not erected as temporary barriers against foreign invasion, but as refuges in a permanent state of insecurity, such as tribal warfare would give rise to. In neither the number nor the magnitude of the camps does this county vie with some of the western counties; but two-that which conspicuously crowns Mam Tor at Castleton, and the Carl-Wark, near Hathersage of its eight or ten examples are fine and noteworthy. The former is about sixteen acres in area, and is surrounded by a double trench. The Carl-Wark may be described as a natural fortress improved by art. Its raised platform, which crowns a gentle hill, presents on three sides a rocky face, the gaps in which are filled up with rude masonry. Across the