A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



implements or of waste bronze, has been recorded as discovered in Derby- 

 shire, nor any ancient British coins. 



Maenhirs, Rocking-Stones, Venerated Stones, Rock Basins, Altars, Idols, 

 etc. At various places along the lines of the outcrop of the millstone- 

 grit, particularly in the vicinity of Stanton, Eyam, Hathersage and Ash- 

 over, are fantastic blocks and masses of rock, which have been descanted 

 upon by the older antiquaries as * Druidical.' Some of these are rocking- 

 stones ; others have been designated, according to their fancied resem- 

 blances, as altars, idols, basins, etc. Most, if not all, of these are of 

 natural origin, the result of weathering ; but it is quite possible that 

 some few were altered by man in ancient times. The well known 

 rocking-stones and other blocks at Rowtor near Birchover were 'improved' 

 about two centuries ago by Thomas Eyre, who included these rocks in 

 the grounds of a house that he built below them. Standing-stones, 

 which appear to have been artificially placed, are to be met with in the 

 Peak, but as yet no antiquary has systematically investigated them. 

 The writer has observed several, one in particular on the left side of the 

 road from Wirksworth to Brassington. Others associated with circles 

 have already been noticed. In the Buxton Gardens may be seen two 

 stones (the one a * holed ' stone) which were removed from a place in 

 the vicinity of the town and set up in these gardens with much learned 

 ceremony some years ago, but they appear to have been simply gate- 

 posts, and the hole has been formed naturally. 



It is strange that in a county with such a wealth of moorland 

 and of suitable rocks and stones, there should apparently be no cup- 

 markings and kindred sculptures, or, if there are any, they have in a 

 most remarkable manner escaped notice. On the new 6 in. to i mile 

 ordnance survey (sheet 16, N.E.) and near the circle on Wetwithens 

 Moor is marked, ' Site of Cup-and-Ring Stone,' and this is the only 

 reference to a stone of the sort known to the writer. 1 



1 Since the above went to press, a paper by the Hon. J. Abercrombie, F.S.A., Scot., has appeared 

 in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute (vol. xxxii.), entitled ' The Oldest Bronze-Age Ceramic 

 Type in Britain.' This paper has an interesting and confirmatory bearing upon the views which have 

 been advanced in these pages regarding the succession of the Bronze-age burials. Mr. Abercrombie 

 arrives at the same conclusion, namely, that the drinking cup is ' the oldest form of fictilia in the 

 Bronze age of this country,' but by a different route. This conclusion is mainly based upon a com- 

 parison of the implements and ornaments which accompany these cups, not only in this country but 

 also on the continent, with those found in the Neolithic chambers on the one hand, and those associated 

 with the food vases and the cinerary urns on the other. He connects the drinking cup with ' the 

 advent of a people of a new stock, distinguished from the older Neolithic inhabitants by taller stature 

 and a moderately brachycephalous head,' and he refers its origin to Central Europe, tracing by its 

 means the course of the invaders from thence along the Rhine and through Holland to Britain. 

 Whether this pre-historic invasion of Britain was warlike or bloodless is quite uncertain ; but from the 

 association of dolichocephalic as well as brachycephalic skulls with the drinking cups in Derbyshire and 

 Staffordshire, we may reasonably infer that, so far from there being any displacement of population, the 

 two races were soon upon a friendly footing with one another, the natives intermingling with and 

 adopting the customs (funeral, at all events) of the new-comers. 



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