8o DEEPDALE CAVE. 



upon Britain lasted four centuries, sometimes with a firm, and 

 sometimes with a feeble hand. It would be wonderfully strange 

 if during this long period the country at large, and especially a 

 wild and hilly district like the Peak, were never infested with 

 bands of marauders, who, like the highwaymen of a century ago, 

 plundered travellers. Such a gang of desperadoes preying on the 

 trafific of the Buxton roads would find the Deepdale cave of great 

 service when in the vicinity. We can imagine them returned 

 from one of their looting expeditions, and leisurely examining 

 their booty at the cave. Gold and silver are their prey ; all else 

 is discarded. This, perhaps, exp'ains the large number of bronze 

 fibulse, rings, pendants, etc., found during the excavations. 



Such are some of the ways in which the Deepdale cave could 

 have been utilised during the Roman occupation ; but I strongly 

 incline to the opinion that most or all of the objects of this period 

 were left by miners. This receives some confirmation from the 

 presence of coal found under conditions which pointed to its 

 introduction in Roman times. The nearest spots where this fuel 

 is found are the millstone grit shales west and south-west of 

 Buxton, and at least three miles away from the cave.* It is not 

 likely that coal would be brought so great a distance merely to 

 warm a cave and cook rude dinners — timber would have answered 

 those purposes far better. On the other hand, it is well known 

 that coal was extensively used in Roman times in the manufacture 

 of lead and other metals. To miners working in the vicinity such 

 a cave would be a boon in many ways — a shelter, a storehouse, 

 and even a dwelling. Its suitability for the storage of coal and 

 ore is obvious enough ; and even if coal was not stored there, 

 there is nothing unlikely that coal might be carried there for 



* Mr. Salt states that the coal found in the cave is identical with that found 

 in these shales near Buxton. At Thatch Marsh and Axe Edge it forms a 

 seam three or four feet thick, and in the latter hill it was extensively worked 

 until quite recent times, but I am not aware that millstone grit coal is worked 

 now in Derbyshire. In ihe vicinity r)f Buxton the seams crop out on the hill 

 and valley sides, and there are abundant evidences that they were extensively 

 quarried in bygone times, probably for smelting purposes. For a note on 

 millstone grit coal, see note in Notts, atui Derhyshire Notes and Queries, i., 

 p. 5. 



