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



have been found. In some of these the body has simply been 

 burned, the calcined bones gathered into a small heap and then 

 the mound raised over them. In others, and more usually, the 

 calcined bones have been carefully collected together, placed in 

 cinerary urns, and buried. 



Two of the most extensive and remarkable cemeteries of 

 this kind are those at Kingston and at King's Newton, both 

 near Derby.* At the first of these places an extensive ceme- 

 tery was discovered in 1844, and resulted in the exhumation of 

 a large number of urns ; indeed, so large a number, that, 

 unfortunately, at least two hundred were totally destroyed by 

 the workmen before the fact of the discovery became known. 

 On the surface no indication of burials existed, but as the 

 ground had some sixty years before been under plough culti- 

 vation, and as the mounds would originally have been very 

 low, this is not remarkable. The urns had been placed on the 

 ground in shallow pits or trenches. They were filled with 

 burnt bones, and the mouth of each had been covered with a 

 flat stone. They were, when found, close to' the surface, so 

 that the mounds could only have been slightly elevated when 

 first formed. Of the form of the urns I shall have to speak 

 later on. 



The cemetery at King's Newton, though not so large as 

 the one just named, was an extensive one. It was discovered 

 during the present autumn (1867), and a large number of 

 fragmentary urns were exhumed. The mode of interment 

 was precisely similar to that at Kingston, and the urns were of 

 the same character as those there discovered. There were no 

 traces of mounds having been raised, although most probably, 

 they had originally existed. 



Cremation was the predominating practice among the 

 Angles, including Mercia, and the modes of burning the body, 

 and of interment of the calcined bones in ornamental urns, 

 which I have described, in the two cemeteries just spoken of, 

 are characteristic of that kingdom. This mode is curiously 

 illustrated in the Anglo-Saxon poem of " Beowulf/' which evi- 

 dently describes the custom of the Angles. The following 

 extract forcibly illustrates the mode of interment. The 

 funeral pile having been raised, and hung round with shields, 

 helmets, and coats of mail, 



" . . . the herpes, weeping, 

 laid down in the midst 

 the famous chieftain, 

 their dear lord. 



* It is a singular fact, and worthy of note, that the two most extensive Saxon 

 cemeteries — indeed, the only two worthy the name of cemeteries — discovered in 

 Derbyshire, are at Kingston (King's Town) and at King's Newton (King's New 

 Town), and that at each the urns are of remarkably fine character. 



