DISCOVERY OF AN EARLY INTERMENT AT STANLEY GRANGE. 229 



community. Burial within towns was then utterly prohibited. 

 1'he Romans buried their dead by the side of the public roads 

 outside their cities, and in the gardens of their country villas, 

 or in any spot selected, it may have been, by the deceased in 

 his lifetime; 



Derby, as such, did not then exist and Stanley had no 

 name at all; but it is highly probable that a Romano-British 

 track passed through the place from Derventio, a fortified 

 Roman station (now called Little Chester), to some other place 

 westwards; and I am led to think so because, about the year 

 1250, there was a field in Stanley called " Portway" which 

 about that time was given to the monks of Dale.* This word 

 " Port " is usually connected with Roman roads in the vicinity 

 of their stations. Of this we have an example in the parish of 

 Pentridge in " Portway " House and farm, close to the old 

 Roman road from Little Chester to Chesterfield; and many 

 other examples may be found in England. There is an inter- 

 esting name of another field in Stanley, given to Dale Abbey 

 about the same time as the former, " Deadman Field."\ 



Stanley is a Saxon name, and could not have been assigned 

 until some time after the Saxon invasion in 447. It signifies 

 the Lea, or meadow of Stone, or perhaps of the stone — some 

 large stone set up in memory of some chieftain or event, for- 

 gotten ages ago, the stone having meanwhile been broken up, 

 like so many others in this country. There may have been, 

 and probably was, a Roman villa somewhere near the site of 

 the Grange, since it was customary in the latter period of 

 their occupation for wealthy Romans to erect such homes 

 outside their fortified towns, and this burial may be considered 

 as suggestive evidence. 



By direction of the coroner the human remains were re- 

 interred by the police in Stanley churchyard. 



* Vol. xxiv, p. 83 of this Journal. 



t Ditto, pp. 84, 85. This may be a mere coincidence, but it is 

 possible that as the interments would then be barely a foot below the surface 

 of the soil, it may have been discovered and left undisturbed in deference to 

 the ancient superstition, which still survives in many districts, that misfortune 

 attends those who disturb the dead. — Ed. 



