68 TIDESWELL AND TIDESLOW. 



" One can hardly doubt that Tideslow is the sepulchre of Tid," 

 and " contains an Englishman's name " (9th xij., 341) — the 

 personal, tribal, or family one, Tid, Tida, or Tidi. To this 

 further allusion will be made. With the knowledge that 

 "human remains," according to the Ordnance map, were dis- 

 covered in the low, one fails to understand why he or some 

 other person interested in the subject did not make some 

 local enquiries, or examine some of the leading works on the 

 topography of Derbyshire, to ascertain whether any definite 

 information as to its contents was obtainable, more especially 

 considering Mr. Addy's remark, " It would be of great interest 

 to know what were the contents of the tomb " (9th j., 341). 

 He - suggested the low might have been opened by lead-miners, 

 probably on the same principle that actuated the tinners to 

 explore many of the barrows on Dartmoor — viz., in the hope of 

 finding buried treasure. Had he gone a step further, and made 

 such diligent enquiry as would have tended to throw some light 

 on the age of the tumulus, as shown by its contents, his opinion, 

 or rather assertion, as well as that of Professor Skeat, would 

 in all probability have been considerably modified. Rhodes, 

 the author of Peak Scenery, who visited the place in 1813, and 

 again a few years later, but prior to the publication of his work 

 in 1824, records the following : " From Wheston, a short walk of 

 about a mile brought us to an eminence called Tideswell Top, 

 a place that curiosity had very recently opened for the purpose 

 of ascertaining its contents. It was a tumulus composed of a 

 series of narrow caverns, formed with stones and earth, in which 

 several skulls and many human bones were found. There is 

 something unseemly, if not unfeeling, in thus disturbing the 

 relics of the dead, and leaving them to bleach in the sun, or 

 be preyed on and gnawed by animals. Some of the bones 

 had been carried away, but many remained unburied, and 

 lay scattered about that earth-built sepulchre, which those who 

 consigned them to it vainly hoped might have ' canopied them 

 until doomsday'" (72). 



