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By I. Chalkley Gould. 



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N 1899, I had the pleasure of saying somewhat about 

 early defensive earthworks, at the Buxton meeting of 

 the British Archaeological Association. 



On that occasion, though reference was made to 

 remains in various parts of Britain, special attention was 

 di'awn to examples to be seen in Derbyshire, a county rich in 

 pre-historic relics, though not containing so' many early forts 

 as one finds in some districts, a fact tO' be accounted for by the 

 poor character of the soil, and consequent sparse population 

 in those hilly parts* which provide such admirable sites for 

 defensive works. 



To fix a chronological order in the date of certain types of 

 earthwork forts which remain in this county is impossible in 

 the present state of our knowledge, and in the ever-to-be- 

 regretted absence of accurate record of the articles found by 

 excavators in past times. Bateman did much to bring together 

 such scattered information as he obtained, as well as to record 

 his own observations ; but, speaking broadly, it is to be said 



* Celia Fiennes, a quaint but inaccurate diarist, says : " Indeed all 

 Darl)yshire is but a world of peaked hills, which from some of ye highest 

 you discover ye Rest Like steeples or tops of hills as thick as Can be, 

 and tho' they appear so Close yet ye steepness down and up takes up 

 ve tyme." — Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William 

 and Mary. London, 1888. 



