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<!^n Some l^iSQings near ISrassington, 



By John Ward. 



|N May 31st and June ist last, some excavations of great 

 interest and antiquarian value were made at Har- 

 borough Rocks, near Brassington, in this county. The 

 remains brought to light belonged to two widely 

 separated periods ; some relating to ancient dwellings — possibly 

 a village — in the vicinity, and which may with some degree 

 of certainty be set down as of Romano-British date ; and 

 the other set, to a ruined barrow of the " chambered " type, and, 

 of course, of much higher antiquity. An account was recently 

 published in the ReHqtiary (Vol. III., New Series), in which the 

 details of the work on the spot were the chief point — a treatment 

 of peculiar value to those who make Pre historic Archaeology their 

 province ; but in the present article many of the minutiae of the 

 former will be omitted, and the subject treated from a more 

 general standpoint. But, firstly, the place and its surroundings. 



" Harborough Rocks " is the name given to the steep rocky 

 front of a long and conspicuous hill, one mile north of Brass- 

 ington, and close to the High Peak Railway. This hill takes 

 a north-west and south-east direction ; it is composed of a 

 magnesian variety (dunstone) of the Carboniferous limestone 

 of the district, the dip of which is gentle, towards the north- 

 east, the hill-slope on this side approximating to the dip, and 

 continuing to sink until the Via Gellia valley is reached. The 

 southwest side, as above stated, is somewhat precipitous; 



