A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



the Benty Grange helmet and drinking-cup ; but a Christian source does 

 not prove that their owners were Christians. As Mr. Roach Smith 

 wrote, ' Christian emblems on early works of art cannot probably be 

 considered other than a fashion growing out of the spread of Christianity 

 in the south of Europe.' Paganism, it is reasonable to think, would sur- 

 vive longer in a wild highland region like the Peak of Derbyshire than 

 in the more fertile lowlands of our island. It is not unlikely, there- 

 fore, that when the latest of these Peakland barrows were raised, Chris- 

 tianity had already become the accepted religion of the people generally. 



It is probable that burial in a flexed or contracted posture was really 

 more common during the Roman and post-Roman periods than is gener- 

 ally supposed. Burial in this posture is popularly regarded as an ancient 

 British trait, hence in the absence of grave goods the skeleton's posture 

 is held to determine the age. This is a good working rule, and there is 

 no doubt that the great majority of these deficient interments in Derby- 

 shire have been rightly assigned to the pre-Roman period upon this 

 ground. But now and again some little feature of the mound, or other 

 indication, leads one to suspect whether the interment may not be of a 

 later age. For instance, in 1887 the writer examined an elongated cist 

 near Over Haddon, 1 which had been broken into by labourers. The cist 

 contained the flexed skeleton of a man laid on his right side with the 

 head to the west. Amongst the debris was a fragment of a quern, which 

 either had been used in the construction of the cist or had been near it 

 in the mound. If the former, the interment must have been of late 

 character ; if the latter, the fragment may have been a late introduction 

 in the mound, connected perhaps with a secondary interment which had 

 disappeared. In other cases the reference to hard potsherds or the 

 presence of fine soil or clay in the grave should, in a similar manner, 

 deter us from the hasty application of the above-mentioned rule. 



The remains other than of a sepulchral nature in Derbyshire, which 

 are sometimes regarded as of this era, are few and of very doubtful attri- 

 bution. Some of the defensive earthworks referred to in the ' Early 

 Man ' section are popularly attributed to the Danes, notably one near 

 Hathersage church. There are earthworks near Eckington, known as the 

 Danes Balk. Near the Trent at Repton is an oblong entrenchment con- 

 taining two mounds, which is known as the Buries, and is also ascribed 

 to the Danes. These mounds were examined by Mr. Bateman, who, 

 however, found nothing to throw light on their use or age." A sketch- 

 plan is given in the Rev. F. C. Hipkin's History of Repton. 



The Saxon castles of Derby and Bakewell are certainly later than 

 the pagan period, and of course the fine examples of pre-Norman crosses 

 and monuments carry us far into Christian times. It is therefore to the 

 sepulchral remains that we turn for evidence of the ' wondrous skill of 

 our forefathers in goldsmith's work, of their knowledge of the manufac- 

 ture of glass into beads and drinking vessels, of their high cultivation of 



1 Journ. Dtrb. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. x. 47. * Diggings, p. 93. 



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