618 



DERBYSHIRE. 



Perby- 

 s !»i re. 



Roman an- 

 tiquities. 



Saxon anti 

 quilies. 



British, Roman, and Saxon. Under the first head we 

 may place the barrows, which are numerous in the 

 northern part of the county; and a druidical temple, a 

 circle of large stones, called Arboc-lous, situated on a 

 barren eminence near the road from Wirksworth to 

 Buxton. There is another smaller circle on Stanton 

 Moor, together with others in different parts. There 

 are also several large rocking-stones, and other remains 

 of druidical superstitions, to be found in many of the 

 northern districts. 



Among the Roman remains discovered in Derby- 

 shire, the roads that cross it in two directions, and 

 which may still be traced through a great part of their 

 course, are the most prominent. The one, called the 

 Ilkenild-street, comes out of Staffordshire, and runs in 

 a north-eastern direction, on the western side of the 

 county, as far as Chesterfield, and perhaps from there 

 to York. The other road that has been investigated is 

 called the Bathway, or Baihing-gate, and extends from 

 Brough to Buxton, a distance of nearly twenty miles. 

 The remains of Roman encampments are discoverable 

 on Pentridge common, and on the top of Mam Tor, 

 near Castleton. The ruins of the latter, still discernible, 

 are considerable. It extended from north-east to south- 

 west, along the ridge of an eminence, and occupied 

 more than fourteen acres of ground. Chesterfield, we 

 have no doubt, from its name, was a Roman station ; 

 but there are no remains of that people discoverable in 

 the town, or its immediate vicinity. At Little Chester, 

 near Derby, some walls remain. 



Under the head of Saxon antiquities, Ave shall, for 

 the sake of brevity, include the remains of ancient edi- 

 fices, to whatever people they may owe their origin. 

 At Castleton, there are considerable remains of the 

 castle which gave it the name it bears. Its situation is 

 very elevated, and the almost perpendicular chasms 

 that nearly insulate the eminence it occupies, must, 

 prior to the invention of gun-powder, have rendered it 

 impregnable. This castle is of considerable antiquity, 

 and is supposed to have been a fortress, (the town be- 

 low is walled,) and a place of royal residence, in the 

 Saxon times. Some antiquarians are of opinion that it 

 is of Norman origin, and erected by William Peverel, 

 natural son of the Conqueror. To him it is ascribed 

 by the tradition of the neighbourhood ; and its ancient 

 appellation of Peverel' s Place in the Pei.e, countenances 

 this opinion. At the compilation of Domesday, the Pe- 

 verels were its possessors ; for about that time a tour- 

 nament was held there, when Gevarine de Mez, a 

 branch of the house of Lorraine, and an ancestor of the 

 Lords Fitz Warren, vanquished a son of the king of 

 Scotland, and a Baron of Burgoyne, and obtained the 

 prize, which was a daughter of William, a sister's son 

 to Pain Peverel, lord of Whittington, in the county of 

 Salop, for his wife. Since that time, this castle and its 

 demesne have passed through many possessors, and 

 forms a part of the duchy of Lancaster. The present 

 constable of the castle is the Duke of Devonshire. 



There is also a considerable remain of Codnor Castle. 

 In the early part of the thirteenth century, there are 

 accounts of this castle; and in the reign -of Henry III. 

 it was the chief seat of the Barons Grey of Codnor. 

 During the time of Henry VII. it passed from that fa- 

 mily ; and the estate is now in the possession of a pri- 

 vate gentleman. Codnor Castle was situated on eleva- 

 ted ground, commanding an extensive prospect to the 

 east. The Avail on the eastern side is yet standing to 

 a considerable height, and the wall on the west side of 

 the court is entire. On the eastern side was a broad 



deep ditch, or moat ; its remains indicate great strength. Derby. 

 The park belonging to the castle comprehended more *'» r e. 

 than 2000 acres of land. '"""" ~*~~* 



At Horsley, in the neighbourhood of Derby, former- 

 ly stood a castle. It was built early in the thirteenth 

 century, when one of the Ferrers, Earls of Derby, was 

 governor of it. It was given by Henry VIII. to the 

 Duke of Norfolk ; but, upon the attainder of his son, 

 it escheated to the crown, and was given to one of the 

 Stanhope family. At present, a very small portion of 

 its ruins is visible. The site of it belongs to the Earl 

 of Chesterfield. 



The vestiges of an ancient castle may be traced at 

 Melbourne; but by whom, or at what period it was 

 built, it is now impossible to ascertain. That it existed 

 in the time of Edward III. is certain. Camden says, 

 " not far from the Trent stands Melbom, a castle of the 

 king's, now decaying, where John, Duke of Bourbon, 

 taken prisoner in the battle of Agincourt, was kept 

 nineteen years in custody." Leland says, that in his 

 time " it was in tolerable and in metely good repaire." 



In former times, Duffield was a place of great conse- 

 quence, as it was the residence of the Ferrers, Earls of 

 Derby. On elevated ground, at the north-west end of 

 the village, stood their castle. At the conclusion of the 

 thirteenth century, or the beginning of the following, 

 this fortress was destroyed. For Robert de Ferrers, the 

 last earl, joining the barons in a rebellion against Hen- 

 ry III. that monarch sent his son, Edward I. in 1264, 

 into the county of Derby, in order to ravage, with fire 

 and sword, the lands of the earl of that name. At that 

 time, it is most likely this castle was destroyed ; and 

 so complete was the ruin, that not a vestige can now 

 be traced of its ancient grandeur ; not a stone remains 

 to tell the inquisitive antiquarian where once it stood. 

 But the site is known. 



The most considerable ruin, in extent, to be found Ruins, 

 in the county of Derby, is that of the manour-house of 

 South Wingjleld. Its remains, which are extensive, 

 exhibit many specimens of original magnificence. It 

 was built, according to Camden, by Ralph, Lord Crom- 

 well, in the reign of Henry VI. It consisted cf two 

 square courts ; the northern of which was built on all 

 sides, and the southern on three. Beneath the hall is 

 an extensive vault, curiously and beautifully arched 

 with carved stone, having a double row of pillars run- 

 ning up the middle, all in perfect preservation. This 

 mansion was castellated and embattled ; at each corner 

 stands a tower ; but that at the south-west rises higher 

 than the rest. Mary Queen of Scots was confined for 

 many years at South Wingfield. This edifice is sup- 

 posed to have first suffered from an attack of the 

 Royalists, in the time of Charles I. a party of whom, 

 under the command of the Duke of Newcastle, in No- 

 vember 164-3, took it by storm. But shortly after, Sir 

 John Gill of Hopton assaulted it with cannon, and af- 

 ter making a considerable breach, obliged the garrison 

 to surrender. In the year 1646", an order was issued 

 for dismantling it. From that time it has been neglect- 

 ed, and falling into ruin. 



At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries and 

 abbeys, in the reign of Henry VIII. there were several 

 richly endowed in Derbyshire. The Abbey of Dale, 

 was a religious house of the Premonstratentian order, 

 and inhabited by eighteen abbots. The whole revenue 

 of this house was considerable, amounting to L. 144, 

 12s. besides some hundreds of acres of land, and many 

 valuable and highly profitable grants. The arch of the 

 east window of the church, is the only part that now 



