EARLY MAN 



also of built construction. The Harborough Rocks barrow was exca- 

 vated by the present writer in 1889,' but it was in too ruined a condi- 

 tion for its shape and the number of its chambers to be determined. 

 One, however, remained, and this also resembled those at Five- Wells ; 

 but it was doubtful whether it ever possessed ' pillars.' A portion of the 

 gallery was traced, and a mass of built material near it was apparently a 

 fragment of the original mound or of its podium. 



Of the structure of the other barrows of the class little can be said. 

 Several have been opened or destroyed by labourers searching for stone, 

 and the residue have been only slightly examined. They all appear to 

 have been constructed of stone, and all with one exception were circular. 

 Mr. Bateman examined barrows of the class at Ringham-low near 

 Monevash, Bolehill near Bakewell, Stony-low and Green-low near 

 Brassington, Smerrill near Youlgreave, and a second one at Mininglow. 

 The chambers of all these appear to have been on a megalithic scale. 

 He makes no reference to galleries, but as his efforts were confined to 

 clearing out the ruined chambers he might easily have overlooked their 

 traces. His sketched plan of the Ringham-low barrow has a curiously 

 irregular outline, but here again no attempt seems to have been made to 

 ascertain whether the irregularities related to the original mound or to 

 additions to it. The remaining three barrows the great one near 

 Chelmorton,' one near Wardlow 3 and one on Derwent Moor 4 have 

 only a doubtful claim to the chambered class. They were broken into 

 a century or more ago, and the accounts of the discoveries are very 

 meagre. 



All the Derbyshire chambers which have been searched from 

 scientific motives had already been rifled, but that at Harborough Rocks 

 had suffered least. There the capstone had been removed, and many of 

 the skeletons thrown out, but fortunately six remained in situ. These 

 were laid on their sides across the space, in the usual contracted or 

 doubled-up attitude. On the clayey floor of the gallery were several 

 broken leaf-shaped arrow-heads of flint, extremely thin and beautifully 

 wrought, one or more being calcined, and many fragments of charcoal. 

 Mr. Bateman found in the more perfect chamber at Five- Wells, when 

 he cleared it out in 1843, remains of about twelve skeletons, all in a 

 state of confusion. He also found indications of a similar number in 

 one of the Ringham-low chambers, and in that at Smerrill, and a still 

 larger number at Stony-low. The chambers of the Green-low and the 

 two Mininglow barrows had been so completely rifled that only a few 

 scattered fragments remained. In the Wardlow barrow seventeen skele- 

 tons were laid upon ' long flat stones,' ' inclosed by two side walls ' ; and 

 in that on Derwent Moor a quantity of human bones, said to be a cart- 

 load, occupied ' a large trench above a yard wide.' Several fine leaf- 

 shaped arrow-heads were found in two of the Ringham-low chambers ; 

 and Mr. Salt found the point of another, and in addition, a delicate 



1 Journ. Derb. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. xii. 118. " Pilkington, ii. 424. 



3 Phlhioph. Trans. 1759. * Diggings, p. 254. 



167 



