66 TIDESWELL AND TIDESLOW. 



do I think that an old antiquary (who makes no pretence to an 

 intimate knowledge of philology) was in any way unreasonable, 

 or that he displayed " a shameless and unpardonable meddle- 

 someness " in making such a suggestion. It seemed scarcely 

 right that a tradition which had remained unquestioned for 

 so long a period should be ruthlessly sacrificed by the hasty 

 adoption of a new philological explanation, however plausible 

 it might at first sight appear, and especially as the Anglo- 

 Saxon name has descended to us through the acknowledged 

 untrustworthy channel of a Norman scribe. 



We pass on to consider the origin of the place-name Tidslow or 

 Tideslow, the latter being the form in general use. The low or 

 funeral tumulus (entered in the Ordnance map as " Tides Low. 

 Human Remains found.") is situated on the top of a high 

 eminence about a mile from the village, whence a very exten- 

 sive view of the surrounding country is obtained. It is situated 

 on the south-east side of a series of mounds due to mining opera- 

 tions, from which a wide mine-rake (" Tideslow rake ") descends 

 to the road leading to the village. 



Many of the Derbyshire lows are named from the villages in 

 their vicinity, such as Fairfield, Chelmorton, Calver, etc. ; and 

 there is fair reason to believe that the original and proper 

 name of the one under notice was Tideswell-low or top, and as 

 " Tideswell Top " it appears in Peak Scenery, by E. Rhodes 

 (1824), p. 72. Now, from time immemorial the village has 

 always been known to the inhabitants of that part of Derby- 

 shire as " Tidsa " or " Tidsor." In a letter of W. Darbyshire, 

 of the year 1660, preserved in the Bodleian Library, it is written 

 "Tidsald" (Ashmol. MS., dcccxxvl, fol. 239); and C. P. 

 Moritz, a Prussian clergyman, who visited the place in 1782, 

 records that its " name is, by a singular abbreviation, pronounced 

 ' Tidsel '" (Travels in England, ed. r887, 149). My friend, 

 Mr. A. Wallis, a native of the county, and for many years editor 

 of the Derby Mercury, who was well acquainted with the locality 

 fifty years since, informs me the low was then locally known as 

 " Tidsor Topping." 



