180 The Grave-mounds of Derbyshire, and their Contents. 



THE GRAVE-MOUNDS OF DERBYSHIRE, AND 

 THEIR CONTENTS. 



BY LLEWELLYNN JEWITT, E.S.A., ETC., ETC. 



The ancient grave-mounds of Derbyshire lie, for the most part, 

 scattered over the wild, mountainous, and beautiful district 

 known as the High Peak — a district occupying nearly one-half 

 of the county, and containing within its limits many towns, 

 villages^ and other places of extreme interest. It it true that 

 here and there a grave-mound exists in the southern or low- 

 land portion of the county, but, as a rule, they may be almost 

 said to be peculiar, and confined, to the northern, or hilly, dis- 

 trict, where in some parts they are very abundant. Indeed, 

 there are districts where there is scarcely a hill, even in that 

 land where, 



" Kills upon hills, 

 -Mountains on mountains rise," 



where a barrow does not exist or is not known to have existed. 

 In passing along the old high road, for instance, over 

 Middleton Moor by way of Arbor-Low,* Parcelly Hay, High 

 Needham, Earl Sterndale, and Brier-Low, to Buxton, or along- 

 the high roads by way of Winster, Hartington or Newhaven, 

 the practised eye has no difficulty in resting on the forms of 

 grave-mounds on the summits of the different hills or moun- 

 tains whose outlines stand out clear and distinct against the 

 sky. 



The situations chosen for the burial of the dead by the 

 early inhabitants of Derbyshire were, in many instances, grand 

 in the extreme. Formed on the tops of the highest hills, or 

 on lower but equally imposing positions, the grave-mounds 

 commanded a glorious prospect of hill and dale, wood and 

 water, rock and meadow, of many miles in extent, on every side, 

 stretching out as far as the eye could reach, while they them- 

 selves could be seen from afar off in every direction by the 

 tribes who had raised them, while engaged either in hunting 

 or in their other pursuits. 



In Derbyshire the grave-mounds arc called " Lows " or 

 " Barrows ;" Low being so very usual a term in the district that 

 wherever met with, it may be taken as a sure indication of a 

 barrow now existing or having once existed at the spot. As a 

 proof of this, it will only be necessary to say that at about two 

 hundred places in Derbyshire alone, and at about half that 



* Of this stone circle, the next in importance to Stonehcrge, an account will 

 be given in a future number. 



