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



Another excellent example of this very nnusual mode of 

 interment was discovered by some tufa-getters, and examined 

 by Mr. Bateruan, in Monsal Dale, and is shown on the pre- 

 ceding engraving, which exhibits a section of the rock, etc. ; 

 and shows the position of the skeleton, and the manner in which 

 the cavity containing the body had been filled up with the river 

 sand. The body in this case as in the last, had been placed in 

 the cavity in a sitting position, and must have been so placed 

 from an opening in front. The cavity was ten or twelve feet 

 above the bed of the river Wye, and above it were some five 

 feet in thickness of solid tufa rock, while, from the face of 

 the rock, the cavity was about twelve feet. The body may 

 therefore be said to have been entombed in the middle 

 of the solid rock. The roof of the cavity when found was 

 beautifully covered with stalactites. The skeleton was that of 

 a young person, and near it was found a flint and some other 

 matters. The cavity was filled to part way up the skull with 

 sand. 



When the interment has been by cremation, the remains of 

 the burnt bones, etc., have been collected together and placed 

 either in a small heap, or in a cinerary urn, which is sometimes 

 found in an upright position, its mouth covered with a flat 

 stone, and at others inverted over a flat stone or on the natural 

 surface of the rock. This position, with the mouth downwards, 

 is, perhaps, the most usual of the two. The place where the 

 burning of the body has taken place is generally tolerably close 

 to the spot on which the urn rests, or on which the heap of 

 burut bones has been piled up. Wherever the burning has ' 

 taken place there is evidence of an immense amount of heat 

 being used ; the soil, for some distance below the surface being 

 in many places burned to a redness almost like brick. Remains 

 of charcoal, the refuse of the funeral pyre, are very abundant, 

 and in some instances I have found the lead ore, which occurs 

 in veins in the limestone formation so completely smelted with 

 the heat that it has run into the crevices among the soil and 

 loose stones, and looks, when dug out, precisely like strag- 

 gling roots of trees. 



Is it too much to suppose that the discovery of lead may 

 be traced to the funeral pyre of our early forefathers ? I think 

 it not improbable that, finding the liquid metal ran from the 

 fire as the ore which lay about became accidentally smelted, 

 would give the people their first insight into the art of making 



i — an art which we know was practised early in Derbyshire 

 and other districts of this kingdom.* 



* Lend mines there are in Derbyshire worked at the present day which were 

 worked, at all events, in the Romano- British period. Eoman coins, fibula, and. 

 other remains are occasionally found in them. 



