PEEPDALE CAVE. 79 



ultimate safety lay in getting out of the subjugated region as 

 quickly as possible. Meanwhile a few anight escape detection for 

 a considerable time, but it is difficult to see how a large party 

 could. Food would have to be sought, and it would be almost 

 impossible to search for it unseen. Under any circumstances the 

 refugees would endeavour to keep their hiding-place as secret as 

 possible. They would not light fires in front of the cave, nor 

 throw rubbish down the slope below. But the strongest argument 

 against the refugee theory as an explanation of all or most of the 

 Romano-British relics is the magnitude of the deposit in which 

 they are diffused. It is quite impossible to conceive that an 

 accumulation spread all over the cave floor, and down the slope in 

 front, and sometimes exceeding two feet in thickness, could have 

 resulted from so transient an event. It seems rather to point to 

 a period of habitation extending over centuries. 



It is well known that from the most remote times caves have 

 been used for human habitation ; so far, it is not strange that 

 this Deepdale cave should have been utilised for this purpose. 

 But it is curious, and at first sight puzzling, that this use should 

 have been confined wholly, or, at all events, chiefly, to the Roman 

 occupation — a period of orderly government, luxury, and great 

 personal security. Had the relics been as characteristically pre- 

 or post-Roman, it would not have been so surprising. We know 

 that lead mining was carried on in the Peak with great vigour 

 during this occupation, and nothing is more likely than that 

 miners lived in the cave from time to time, or used it as a shelter 

 or storehouse. There is likewise no reason to doubt that during 

 this period, nomads, corresponding to our gypsies, paid it brief but 

 frequent visits. I think, however, another suggestion is well 

 worth keeping in mind. I need hardly remind the reader of the 

 great fondness of the Romans for thermal waters, and that those 

 of Buxton (svhich we know was a very important station) would 

 make that place a great centre of fashionable resort. An almost 

 continuous stream of wealthy Romans and natives must have 

 traversed the five or six great roads converging on it, one of which 

 passed within a mile and a half of the cave. The Roman hold 



