30 THE CHURCH OF ST. HELEN S, DARLEY DALE. 



" This Darley stone is specially interesting, because it has a 

 system of circular rings with interlacing bands, of which there 

 are very few and partial examples out of Wigton and Galloway, 

 except on a remarkable stone at Stapleford, just across the 

 boundary of Derbyshire." 



It is always an unhappy thing when an ancient relic of this 

 kind gets divorced from its surroundings; but Mr. Bateman 

 had no scruples in offering bribes and adopting almost any 

 means to secure church relics of either stone or wood for his 

 Lomberdale collection. When that collection was scattered, 

 this stone, among a great store of Derbyshire relics of various 

 ages, left this county for Yorkshire. It is passing strange that 

 Derbyshire, a county that possesses a greater field of diversified 

 archaeological interest than any other shire of its size, seems 

 quite content to let its antiquarian treasures pass right away, 

 and to continue one of the very few shires that are destitute of 

 anything worthy of the name of a county museum. 



In the external wall of the church, near its south-west angle, 

 between the porch and the tower, an unmistakeable Saxon stone 

 is used in . one of the courses. It is part of the shaft of an 

 early cross, with some traces of knot-work. It is not a little 

 remarkable that in all my previous visits to this church I had 

 never noticed it until in June, 1904, it was pointed out to 

 me by Canon Atkinson, who was rector here for some years 

 before it attracted his attention. 



Against the projecting buttress to the left of the chancel door- 

 way is fastened a circular stone, four feet in diameter, but only 

 three inches thick. This stone was found about thirty inches 

 below the surface on the south side of the churchyard in 1864. 

 There was another stone of similar size at a like depth about 

 six feet distant, but it broke up on removal. On each was 

 a considerable deposit of charcoal ashes, and the ground around 

 was much burnt. It has been conjectured that these stones 

 had been used in connection with early cremation before this 

 site was God's acre for Christian burial ; but in the light of 

 further knowledge, such a supposition now appears to me highly 

 improbable. 



