A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



of stones they call Folds. The country people say it was cast up in 

 war-time long since. It consists of a square vallum, 100 feet each side: 

 the ditch whence it came is on the inside : eastward of this is a circle 

 of 1 60 feet diameter, of like manner : the whole stands on an open plain, 

 which declines northward : the square is upon a level, but the circular 

 part declines gently from thence: on that part of the circle furthest 

 from the square is a little semicircular cave of earth, like the place for a 

 tabernacle. It is hard to say whether it was for a private use, or for 

 judicature, or religious affairs ; but in the pasture behind it is a barrow, 

 and several more barrows in view on the hill-tops. At Staden I saw a 

 large square entrenchment, now divided into pastures ; and upon the 

 top of the hoe, where the hawthorn stands, seem to have been some 

 works. This circle of ours, by sinking the ditch within, seems well 

 contrived for shows, tiers of people may stand commodiously round it, 

 and look over one another's heads. Both vallum and ditch are but 

 small, much inferior to that of a camp.' ' 



The real object of this double earthwork is now difficult to ascer- 

 tain. It may be that it was defensive and that the larger circular part 

 was perchance for the men, and the smaller adjunct for their cattle, and 

 therefore it is here described; but the height of the circular enclosure 

 is' now so very slight that it seems improbable that it was ever con- 

 structed for military purposes, and it is easier to accept Dr. Stukeley's 

 opinion, though without adopting his theories, namely, that it is a 

 ' stone circle ' denuded of its stones. There are indications in his 

 account such as its corresponding dimensions with the plateau of Arbor 

 Low, the ' ditch within ' and the 'barrow ' without which, coupled with 

 the position of the entrances, cannot be overlooked in this relation. 



7. On TIDESWELL MOOR (ix. 16), to the north of The Holmes, is 

 an almost perfectly circular enclosure or camp within a now very low 

 rampart, the whole having a diameter of 300 feet. A small part of the 

 north-western arc of the circle has been cut off by the old roadway termed 

 Batham Gate ; this is a proof of the early or pre-Roman origin of this 

 circular camp. 



8. Adjoining the churchyard at TISSINGTON (xxxviii. i and 2), on 

 the north side of the church, is a very similar defensive earthwork to 

 that of Hathersage, much worn down, and with a rampart that was prob- 

 ably in its origin of much greater elevation. It has a diameter of about 

 130 feet. 



CASTLE MOUNTS 

 [CLASS D] 



I. At HOLMESFIELD (xvii. 4), just at the back of the village school, 

 is a small artificial mound or elevation known as CASTLE HILL. It seems 

 to have been a small example of a ditch-encircled mount, without any 

 bailey or court attached to it. 



1 Stukeley, Itinerarium curtosum, ' Iter boreale,' 27. Bray also briefly described this earthwork in 

 1779 (four, 236), and Glover and Bateman in the last century. 



374 



