A NOTE ON BROUGH AND BATHUMGATE. 49 



This tradition has been verified by the discovery of " frag- 

 ments of rude earthenware"' and "pieces of black oak, squared 

 and cut by some instrument " on the spot.^ Some years ago 

 one of my friends saw at a farmhouse near the place, which 

 is about two miles N.W. of Baslow, some remains of this kind 

 found in Leech-field. I believe that Leech-field is the pro- 

 p»erty of the Duke of Rutland, and there is no doubt that a 

 prehistoric village here awaits exploration. 



Again, about nine years ago, Mr. Bagshaw, a farmer living 

 at Garner House, near Shatton, told me that " if a man could 

 build a hut on the moors in that neighbourhood in a single 

 night, and make a fire so that the smoke would go up in the 

 morning, he would obtain a right of following a vein of lead 

 on those moors."^ This tradition in one point at least is right, 

 and Jacob Grimm, writing of old German law, says " the kind- 

 ling and maintaining of a fire upon a piece of land was proof 

 of its lawful occupation and possession."^ 



There is, therefore, no reason why the tradition about the 

 "convicts" at Bradwell, and also at Wirksworth, should not 

 be substantially right, and it is very unlikely that anybody 

 would invent it. If it is right, it can only refer to the Romans. 



In my article in Folk-lore I have described the short stature 

 and other personal characteristics of the old inhabitants of 

 Bradwell, but Ave need not discuss that subject here. 



» W. Wood, op. cit., p. 204, and my Household Tales, p. 58. 

 * Folk-lore, xii., p. 400. 

 ' Deutsche Rechtsalterthiimer, 1854, p. 194. 

 4 



