42 ON RAINS. CAVK, LONGCLIFFE, DERBYSHIRE. 



distaff and spindle lingered in some parts of Scotland and Ireland 

 until the last century, they have so long gone out of use in England 

 that these whorls, which are frequently picked up, are popularly in- 

 vested with a certain amount of magic, and known as " Pixy's 

 Wheels," their original use having long been forgotten. But the fact 

 that this whorl was turned in a lathe implies a considerable civilization 

 such as obtained in Britain under the Romans, when we do, as a fact, 

 first meet with turned objects. These, when taken together, point to 

 the cave being used for some purpose at a time not far removed from 

 the period of the Roman occupation : and this is strikingly borne out 

 by the results of exploration of many of our English caves. These 

 all give the same testimony ; in the upper parts of their floors, or 

 even upon the surface itself, have been found Romano- British 

 objects, as fibulae, brooches, and pins of bronze, silver, and gold, 

 Roman coins and British imitations of them, Samian and other 

 Roman pottery, hand-made pottery, implements of iron and 

 bronze, &c. Notable examples of such caves are those of Settle, Bux- 

 ton (Poole's Hole), Kirkhead, Cresswell, and Ham, in Staffordshire. 

 It has been suggested that such caves were used as places of retreat 

 by the Romano-British during the Saxon invasion. It should also be 

 remembered, as the recent excavations of General Pitt Rivers at 

 Cranborne Chase and places in Wiltshire so forcibly prove, that while 

 the Keltic Britons were copying the civilization and manners of their 

 Roman masters, the ruder aboriginal " long-heads " were still living 

 in much their old style upon the hills and moors. And while the for- 

 mer were priding themselves on their Samian ware, the latter were 

 content with their rude, half-fired, hand-made pottery, with such cheap 

 and coarse wheel-made ware as they could afford to buy. A similar 

 state of things obtains at the present day wherever a higher civilization 

 comes into contact with a lower one ; and most conducive to it were 

 the social and political conditions of Western Europe at the dawn of 

 history. While in civilization at large there has been a constant for- 

 ward march in culture, yet its rate has not been uniform throughout ; 

 and at every stage there has been a falling out of ranks to remain 

 stationary or even to begin a retrograde movement. The time was 

 when metal was unknown, then came in bronze, then came iron. But 



