ROMANO-BRITISH DERBYSHIRE 



IMP could be read distinctly. It is said by Mr. Mawe to be preserved at Lichfield ' ; hence 

 Httbner, Corp. Insc. Lot. vii. 1213. But Mawe (Manual of Mineralogy, London, 1802, p. 6) 

 merely says that there had been found near Castleton ' a bar of lead, marked with the name of 

 one of the emperors, then [1802], as he believed, in the museum of Mr. Greene at Lichfield.' 

 No mention of the pig occurs elsewhere. The catalogue of Mr. Greene's collection by 

 John Jackson (Lichfield, 1782) does not refer to it. It is therefore possible that Phillips 

 misunderstood Mawe, or interpreted him too freely. It is possible also that Mawe, a geologist 

 and not an antiquary, himself blundered. Greene's museum contained only one lead pig, with 

 Vespasian's name, found on Hints Common in Staffordshire in 1772 (Corp. Insc. Lot. vii. 1205), 

 and Mawe may have transferred to Castleton an imperfect hearsay knowledge of this. 



NOTE. Several of these pigs have been analysed by Prof. Wm. Gowland (Archteologie, 

 Ivii. 359). It appears, as Mr. Gowland tells me, that all of them have been treated for the 

 extraction of silver. It appears also that in this process the natural impurities of the lead ore, 

 copper and antimony, have been reduced to such small proportions that it is not possible to 

 draw any distinction between the lead of one district and the lead of another, or to refer to 

 its original home any lead pig which is not identifiable by its inscription or place of finding. 



8. INHABITED CAVES 



The limestone hills of Derbyshire, by virtue of their geological 

 formation, contain numerous caves of very various forms and sizes. Many 

 of these have at different times provided habitations for animals or men, 

 and frequent remains of such inhabitants have been revealed by chance or 

 by excavation. The best known, and perhaps the most noteworthy of 

 these remains belong to prehistoric ages to animals which have since 

 vanished from England, and to neolithic man. These concern the 

 geologist rather than the historian. But a few of these caves have 

 been found to contain in the upper and later strata of their floors and 

 stalagmites the traces of habitation dating from the Roman period, and 

 in two cases these remains are striking and abundant. 



(a) THIRST OR THIRSE HOUSE (DEEPDALE) 



The most extensively explored of the Romano-British caves in 

 Derbyshire, and the most productive of Romano-British remains is that 

 sometimes called Thirst House, 1 in the narrow gorge of Deepdale between 

 Buxton and Chelmorton. Here a few prehistoric and many striking 

 Roman remains have been discovered by Messrs. Micah and William 

 Salt, Mr. Millett, and others, who have excavated the cave at various 

 times since 1884. The Roman objects have been found partly in the 

 first chamber of the cave near the entrance, but principally and pre- 

 dominantly outside it. A deep bed of rubbish, disturbed soil and refuse 

 slopes from the mouth of the cave down to the bottom of the gorge, and 

 this bed has yielded the most notable finds. They include many varieties 

 of remains. There are coins of Pius (TR. P. xvii), Pertinax, Gallienus, 



1 The name recurs in Staffordshire twice, in Alveton parish and near Wetton Mill (Plots, Stafford- 

 shire, p. 172). Thor's Cave, also near Wetton (p. 238), has plainly the same name, either misspelt or 

 misinterpreted by an antiquary. Mr. W. H. Stevenson tells me that it has nothing to do with Thor, 

 but is connected with a word meaning ' devil ' or ' giant ' : he refers to Thyrspytt in Worcestershire 

 (Cod. Diplom. iii. 396, 31). 



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