The skeleton was doubled up in the usual form, with the head to the south, and the vase lying obliquely in contact with the pelvis of the child. The Drinking Cups are from 6 to 9 inches high, of a tall shape, contracted in the middle, globular below, and contracting at the mouth, carefully formed by hand of fine clay, tempered with sharp sand and well baked. The sides are thin, about three-eighths of an inch, light brown outside and grey within. The exterior is almost always covered with an elaborate pattern, produced by a toothed instrument. Fine examples of these drinking cups have been found at Green Low, Allsop Moor, and Bee Low, near Youlgrave, Derbyshire. 66 Dr. Davis, above quoted, says, respecting the large quantities of rats' bones in the barrows,-"The barrows of ‘Derbyshire, a hilly, almost mountainous, country, abounding "with beautiful brooks and rills inhabited by the water rat or water vole, were made use of for its winter retreats, into "which it stored its provisions, and where it passed the time "during the cold and frosty season. It is a vegetable eater, "but amuses itself like the rabbit by gnawing any hard "substance that comes in its way, to sharpen and clean its "teeth." The author of the ballad of Bishop Hatto attributes this propensity to the rats on the Rhine. 66 They have whetted their teeth against the stones, The squirrel, also a vegetable eater, is a terrible gnawer of hard substances, especially of the cage in which it may be confined. In one of these interesting tumuli, the bones and head of a rat were found within the skull of a skeleton, and it is curious to see to what distances these little creatures have dragged some of the larger bones in the grave-hills. The editor of the Reliquary, to which most valuable publication we are indebted for much of the information respecting these barrows and their curious contents, sums up his account in the following words : 66 "Our Keltic forefathers were men of sublime taste, they "raised their grave-mounds on the tops of the highest moun"tains where the view was the grandest, the air the purest, " and the elevation the most conspicuous from the surrounding country. They could look up to their dead and see the "cairns they had so religiously piled over them, whenever they went within the range of vision. They could see them 'against the distant horizon in the early morning greyness, "in the full light of the noonday, and in the lowering of the "evening, and at night when the watch-fires were lit, they "were still more clearly discernible." 66 Besides these remains of archaic ages, the archeologist will find many interesting memorials of the dead in his wanderings through the Peak of Derbyshire. In the churchyard at Bakewell, or Darley Dale, are many beautiful examples, from the early Anglo-Hibernian knotwork crosses to the medieval tomb slabs adorned with the conventional cross, in almost every variety of form. HATHERSAGE REMAINS. In the neighbourhood of Hathersage are some curious and interesting remains of ancient British castrametation. The fort called the "Carl's work" occupies one end of an isolated hill, the other portions of the hill have steep escarpments that serve for protection. The object of forts so constructed was for shelter of the garrison and cattle of the adjacent land during the inroads of the enemy. The vallum is about 18 feet wide, the outer face or scarp is lined with masonry and extends 150 feet in a straight line across the gorge of the hill. There is a gateway 7 feet 2 inches wide on the south side. Some of the stones of this fort are 14 feet long and 4 feet high. The position of the entrance and the arrangements of the approaches display considerable foresight and strategical skill on the part of those who constructed this ancient military work. On Eyam Moor are the remains of a stone circle and of a so-called rock basin, similar to those of Cornwall and Devonshire, to which so much mystery is attached. THE ASHES. There are several places in Derbyshire extending from Ashton to Ashbourne, in which the syllable "ash" occurs, such as Oneash, Monyash, Ashford, Ashover and others. The fire worshippers held the ash tree as sacred and used its wood for their religious ceremonies, and its charcoal was called ashes. In the east we find such names as Ash-kelon, Ash-dod, Ash-ret; and in Derbyshire, Ash-bourne, Ash-ford, Ash-ton &c., all associated most probably with the rites of the ancient fire worshippers. The city On in Egypt was one of their great seats. On or One-ash, is the fire of divination; M-on-y-ash, is the answer to divination; Ash-over, the fire of expiation; Youlgrave, the mount of burnt offering; Bolsover, the rock of Baal, written formerly Bel-saure. A writer in the Derbyshire Courier adds, "without going out of North Derbyshire we obtain wonderful evidence, not only of the "universality of fire worship in the early world, but of the universality of the language in which its rites were com"memorated." 66 66 The name of fire in most ancient languages is ash. The ash was a sacred tree with the Druids and the peoples of the north of Europe, and the Yg Drasil or the sacred ash tree figures conspicuously in the old Scandinavian literature. The ash is most sensitive to the action of smoke, or an impure atmosphere, and in the neighbourhood of manu facturing places, is the first tree to shew signs of drooping and decay. SERMON ON DERBYSHIRE. The following is from a Sermon on Derbyshire, taken from the Gentleman's Magazine, for 1777 : "And now I have mentioned Derbyshire, it may possibly "be expected by some that I should make a long description "and commendation of it. But that is the business rather "of a topographer than of a preacher; of the mappe than of "the pulpit. Yet if any one be desirous to have a sight of "Derbyshire, they may see it as in a landskip described by "Moses, Deut. viii, 7, 8, 9. "It is a good land-a land of brooks of water, of fountains "and depths that spring out of the hills. A land of wheat "and barley, wherein ye may eat bread without scarceness. "It is a land whose stones are iron—a land wherein thou "shalt not lack anything. It is a land whose stones by "indefatigable industry are turned into iron, and by labouring "men, for their own work and sustenance, into bread-out of "whose hills more lead is digged in a year than Canaan "afforded brass in ten. "What shall I say more? for time would fail me sooner "than matter. A land of wheat and barley-oats and peas"that affords seed to the sewer and bread to the eater, who "takes pains to get a good stomache. I might go on even to "the tiring both of you and myself, yet after all I must still "leave Derbyshire ever as it is-most of her worth and riches are hid under ground in the place of silence. I shall only "add, Derbyshire is a county that lies in all counties, yea, in "all parts of Christendom and beyond; the sun's country " where it never sets, but upon which it shines perpetually. "She parts with her entrails, and without complaint suffers "her bowels to be continually torn out, to serve the necessi"ties of all nations under heaven." ON AUTOGRAPHS. By Nicholas Waterhouse Esq., Honorary Secretary. (READ 14TH FEBRUARY, 1867.) I SUPPOSE there is no pursuit to which educated men have devoted their attention, which has developed itself in so many ways as that of forming collections. The vast buildings and the public grants which have been made for providing accommodation for our national collections and for increasing their often unwieldy size, are proofs that a large portion of the community regard them as useful and instructive. If we merely enumerate the classes into which collections are divided and subdivided, we find their name is Legion. Look at Natural History: every department of it affords employment for numerous bands of collectors, some devoting themselves to stuffed birds, others to nests and eggs, others to moths and butterflies, others to dried flowers and ferns, others to fir-cones and wood, others to corals, sponges and shells, and others to relics of primeval times, to trilobites, to ammonites, and to ichthyolites. Antiquities may lay claim to as zealous a band of followers, according to their taste or their means, devoting their attention to bronzes, to coins, to antique gems, or to Etruscan vases. Again the collectors of ancient pottery and of glass find a rich harvest in the beautiful creations of former ages. The collectors of prints and old books have a field of their own with many sub-divisions, and find happiness in gathering together old divinity, or old Bibles, or Elzevirs, |