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diff --git a/old/69017-0.txt b/old/69017-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 27446bd..0000000 --- a/old/69017-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,15621 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Memorials of old Derbyshire, by J. -Charles Cox - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Memorials of old Derbyshire - -Author: J. Charles Cox - -Release Date: September 20, 2022 [eBook #69017] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Tim Lindell, Chris Jordan, George Peabody Library (Johns - Hopkins University) and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from - images generously made available by The Internet - Archive/Canadian Libraries) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIALS OF OLD -DERBYSHIRE *** - - - - - - Memorials of the Counties of England - General Editor: Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A. - - - Memorials - OF - Old Derbyshire - -[Illustration: Haddon Hall: “Dorothy Vernon’s Bridge.” - -_From a water-colour sketch by Mr. Frank E. Beresford._] - - - - - MEMORIALS - OF - OLD DERBYSHIRE - - - EDITED BY - Rev. J. CHARLES COX, LL.D., F.S.A. - - Author of - “_Churches of Derbyshire_” (4 vols.), - “_Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_” (2 vols.), - “_How to write the History of a Parish_,” - “_Royal Forests of England_,” - “_English Church Furniture_,” _etc., etc._ - Editor of “_The Reliquary_” - - With many Illustrations - - -[Illustration] - - - LONDON - Bemrose and Sons Limited, 4 Snow Hill, E.C. - AND DERBY - 1907 - - [_All Rights Reserved_] - - - - - TO - THE RIGHT HONOURABLE - SPENCER COMPTON CAVENDISH, - K.G., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., - EIGHTH DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, - CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, - AND LORD-LIEUTENANT OF DERBYSHIRE, - THESE MEMORIALS ARE, - BY KIND PERMISSION, - INSCRIBED - - - - -PREFACE - - -It has been a great pleasure to accept the request of the General -Editor of this Memorial Series to edit a volume on my native county of -Derby. In proportion to its size and population, more has been written -and printed on Derbyshire than on any other English county. But in -these days, when, year by year, the national stores of information in -Chancery Lane are becoming better arranged and more fully calendared, -when there is more generous access to muniments in private possession, -and when the spirit of critical archæology is becoming more and more -systematised, there is no sign whatever that the history of the county -is in any way near exhaustion. Nor will that be the case even when the -four great volumes of the _Victoria County History_ are completed. -So abundant are the historical records of Derbyshire, and so rich -are the archæological remains, that there would be no difficulty, -I think, in the speedy production of a companion volume to this of -equal interest and of as much originality, should the General Editor -and the publishers desire such a sequel. I say this as an apology for -omissions of which I am fully conscious; and, as it is, the publishers -have kindly allowed the present pages to exceed in number those of any -other volume of the series. - -There is one sad subject in connection with the production of this -work—I allude to the death of that distinguished antiquary, the late -Earl of Liverpool. Many years ago, in the “seventies” of last century, -it was owing to his suggestion and friendly encouragement that I -first undertook and persevered in the attempt to write on all the old -churches of Derbyshire; and when he was known as Mr. Cecil Foljambe, -we often visited together such churches as Tideswell, Bakewell, and -Chesterfield. Immediately the idea of this volume had been formed, I -wrote to Lord Liverpool, and at once received his cordial assent to -prepare an article on the Foljambe monuments of the county. In the -course of his letter he wrote:—“I accept your proposal all the more -willingly as I have recently unearthed certain strong confirmatory -evidence as to the two Tideswell effigies, claimed of late years to -belong to the De Bower family, and rashly lettered, being in reality -Foljambes” (see p. 103). We exchanged several letters on the subject, -then his health began to fail, and he begged me to undertake the work, -promising to revise it carefully and to give additional matter; but, -alas! death intervened before even this could be accomplished. - -All the articles between these covers have been specially written, -and for the most part specially illustrated for the book, with one -exception, namely, the delightfully vivid chapter by Sir George R. -Sitwell, on the country life of a Derbyshire squire of the seventeenth -century. To almost all the readers of the book, this essay will also be -entirely novel. It is reproduced, in a somewhat abbreviated form, by -the writer’s kind and ready permission, from the introductory chapter -to Sir George Sitwell’s privately issued _Letters of the Sitwells and -Sacheverells_, of which only twenty-five copies were printed. - -My most grateful thanks are due to each of the contributors for their -valuable papers, as well as to those who have supplied photographs, -or who have loaned prints or drawings. It would be invidious for -me to particularize where there has been so much ready kindness in -contributing the elements of this _Olla Podrida_. - -In arranging this book, it may be well to state that no effort whatever -has been made to produce a kind of history of the shire _inpetto_, -which would, in my opinion, be a great mistake in a work of this -character and intention. Each essay stands by itself; all that I have -done, in addition to my own contributions, is to arrange them in a kind -of rough chronological order. - - J. Charles Cox. - - _Longton Avenue, - Sydenham, - November, 1907._ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - Page - - Historic Derbyshire By Rev. J. Charles - Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 1 - - Prehistoric Burials By John Ward, F.S.A. 39 - - Prehistoric Stone Circles By W. F. Andrew, F.S.A. 70 - - Swarkeston Bridge By W. Smithard 89 - - Derbyshire Monuments to the By Rev. J. Charles - Family of Foljambe Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 97 - - Repton: Its Abbey, Church, By Rev. F. C. Hipkins, - Priory and School M.A., F.S.A. 114 - - The Old Homes of the County By J. A. Gotch, F.S.A. 133 - - Wingfield Manor House in Peace - and War By G. Le Blanc-Smith 146 - - Bradshaw and the Bradshawes By C. E. B. Bowles, M.A. 164 - - Offerton Hall By S. O. Addy, M.A. 192 - - Roods, Screens and Lofts in - Derbyshire Churches By Aymer Vallance, F.S.A. 200 - - Plans of the Peak Forest By Rev. J. Charles - Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 281 - - Old Country Life in the By Sir George R. Sitwell, - Seventeenth Century Bart., F.S.A. 307 - - Derbyshire Folk-Lore By S. O. Addy, M.A. 346 - - Jedediah Strutt By the Hon. F. Strutt 371 - - Index 385 - - - - -PLATE ILLUSTRATIONS - - - Haddon Hall: “Dorothy Vernon’s Bridge” _Frontispiece_ - (_From a water-colour Sketch by Mr. Frank E. Beresford_) - Facing Page - Melbourne Castle 14 - (_Survey, temp. Elizabeth_) - - Wingfield Manor 20 - (_From a Drawing by Colonel Machell_, 1785) - - Revolution House at Whittington 32 - (_From “Gentleman’s Magazine,”_ 1810) - - Plan and Section of Chambered Tumulus, Five Wells, Derbyshire 42 - (_From Drawings by John Ward_) - - East Chamber at Five Wells. View from the North-East 44 - (_From a Sketch by John Ward_) - - Plans of “Chambers” at Harborough Rocks and Mininglow, Derbyshire 46 - (_From Drawings by John Ward_) - - Section of Barrow at Flaxdale, near Youlgreave 50 - (_From wood-cut by Llewellynn Jewitt_) - - Section of Barrow at Grinlow, near Buxton 50 - - Plan of Burial at Thirkelow, near Buxton 50 - (_From Drawings by John Ward_) - - Dolichocephalic Skull from “Chamber” at Harborough Rocks. - Side and Top Views 52 - (_From Drawings by John Ward_) - - Brachycephalic Skull from Grinlow. Side and Top Views 54 - (_From Drawings by John Ward_) - - Typical Examples of Bronze Age Burial Vessels, Derbyshire 56 - (_From Drawings by John Ward_) - - Typical Examples of Bronze Age Burial Vessels, Derbyshire 58 - (_From Drawings by John Ward_) - - Arbor Low: General View of the Southern Half 70 - (_From a Photograph in possession of the Derbyshire - Archæological Society_) - - Arbor Low: General View of the Southern and Western Part 80 - (_From an Original lent by the Derbyshire Archæological Society_) - - Swarkeston Bridge 90 - (_From a Photograph by Frank W. Smithard_) - - Tideswell Church: The Chancel 102 - (_From a Photograph by F. Chapman, Tideswell_) - - Bakewell Church: Foljambe Monument 106 - (_From a Photograph by Guy Le Blanc-Smith_) - - Tomb of Henry Foljambe, 1510, and Kneeling Figure of Sir - Thomas Foljambe, 1604; Tomb of Godfrey Foljambe, 1594 108 - (_From Originals_ (1839) _lent by Mr. Jaques_) - - Chesterfield Church: Foljambe Chapel 110 - (_From a Photograph by J. H. Gaunt, Chesterfield_) - - Repton: Parish Church and Priory Gateway 114 - (_From a Photograph by Rev. F. C. Hipkins_) - - Repton Church: Saxon Crypt 118 - (_From a Photograph by Rev. F. C. Hipkins_) - - Repton: The Priory Gateway and School 124 - (_From a Photograph lent by Rev. F. C. Hipkins_) - - The Castle of the Peak 134 - (_From a Photograph by R. Keene & Co._) - - Bolsover Castle: “La Gallerie” 136 - (_From Sir W. Cavendish’s “Treatise on Horsemanship”_) - - Haddon Hall (North View, 1812) 138 - - Haddon Hall (North View, _circa_ 1825) 140 - - Snitterton Hall 142 - (_From a Photograph by R. Keene & Co._) - - North Lees Hall; Foremark Hall (Garden Front) 144 - (_From Photographs by J. A. Gotch, F.S.A._) - - The Tower, and Rooms occupied by Mary Stuart, Wingfield 146 - (_From a Photograph by Guy Le Blanc-Smith_) - - The Porch of Banqueting Hall, Wingfield 152 - (_From a Photograph by Guy Le Blanc-Smith_) - - The Window in the Banqueting Hall, Wingfield 156 - (_From a Photograph by Guy Le Blanc-Smith_) - - The Undercroft, Wingfield 162 - (_From a Photograph by Guy Le Blanc-Smith_) - - Bradshawe Hall 164 - (_From a Photograph by C. E. B. Bowles_) - - John Bradshawe, Serjeant-at-Law 174 - (_From an Original lent by C. E. B. Bowles_) - - Duffield Church: Monument of Anthony Bradshawe 178 - (_From a Photograph by R. Keene & Co._) - - Bradshawe Hall: Detail of Gateway 188 - (_From a Photograph by C. E. B. Bowles_) - - Offerton Hall (Front and Back Views) 192 - (_From Photographs by S. O. Addy, M.A._) - - Fenny Bentley Church: Rood-Screen 200 - (_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_) - - Chaddesden Church: Detail of Rood-Screen from the Chancel 206 - (_From a Sketch by Aymer Vallance_) - - Elvaston Church: Parclose Screen in the South Aisle 210 - (_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_) - - Ilkeston Church: Stone Rood-Screen, from the Chancel 212 - (_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_) - - Chelmorton Church: Southern Half of Stone Rood-Screen 214 - - Darley Dale Church: Detail of Stone Parclose 214 - (_From Sketches by J. Charles Wall_) - - Elvaston Church: Detail of Rood-Screen 220 - (_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_) - - Chesterfield Church: Detail of Screen in the North Transept, - formerly the Rood-Screen 222 - (_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_) - - Wingerworth Church: Base of the Rood-Loft 228 - (_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_) - - Ashbourne Church: Door leading to the Rood-Stair 234 - (_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_) - - Ashover Church: Rood-Screen 252 - (_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_) - - Breadsall Church: Detail of Rood-Screen in process of - Restoration 256 - - Breadsall Church: Showing the Remains of the Rood-Screen - in 1856 256 - (_From Photographs by Aymer Vallance_) - - Chesterfield Church: Part of Parclose Screen in South Transept 260 - (_From a Sketch by J. Charles Wall_) - - Elvaston Church: Rood-Screen (restored) 264 - (_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_) - - Kirk Langley Church: Detail from Parcloses of North and - South Aisles 270 - (_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_) - - The Keep: Peverel Castle 362 - - Little Hucklow: Folk Collector’s Summer House 362 - (_From Photographs by S. O. Addy, M.A._) - - Apprenticeship Indenture of Jedediah Strutt, 1740 372 - (_From the Original lent by Hon. F. Strutt_) - - Jedediah Strutt 382 - (_From Original Painting by Joseph Wright, c._ 1785) - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT - - - Page - - Norbury Church: Stall End attached to Jamb of Rood-Screen 206 - (_From a Sketch by Aymer Vallance_) - - Kirk Langley Church: Detail of former Rood-Screen in Oak 217 - (_From a Sketch by Aymer Vallance_) - - Brackenfield: Detail of Oak Rood-Screen 255 - (_From a Sketch by Aymer Vallance_) - - Plans of the Peak Forest:— - Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 283–291 - ” 10, 11, 12 293–295 - ” 13, 14 298 - No. 15 300 - ” 16 302 - ” 17 305 - (_Nos. 15 and 16 Drawings by M. E. Purser; remainder by - V. M. Machell Cox._) - - Country Gentlemen on the London Road 311 - (_From Loggan’s “Oxford,” 1675_) - - Arrival of a Guest at a Country House 318 - (_From “Le Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne,” 1724_) - - A Ball at an Assembly Room 320 - (_From a Broadsheet, c. 1700_) - - Stag-Hunting 329 - (_From Chauncy’s “Hertfordshire,” 1700_) - - Acquaintances meeting in London 336 - (_From “Le Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne,” 1724_) - - Guest arriving on Horseback 341 - (_From “Le Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne,” 1724_) - - A Gentleman and his Servant on the Road 345 - (_From Loggan’s “Oxford,” 1675_) - - - - -HISTORIC DERBYSHIRE - -By Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. - - -After making due allowance for a natural prejudice in favour of the -county of one’s birth and early associations, it may, I think, be -reasonably maintained that the comparatively small shire of Derby not -only contains within its limits most exceptionally wild, beautiful -and varied scenery, but that its social and political history is -exceedingly diversified and full of interest. In all, too, that -pertains to almost every branch of archæology, Derbyshire is well able -to hold its own with any other county that could be named. - -The proofs of the residence of early man in the district are afforded -by the considerable variety of remains that have been discovered in the -bone caves of the High Peak near Buxton, in those of the high lands -above Wirksworth, and more especially in the Creswell caves on the -verge of Nottinghamshire. In Grant Allen’s remarkable and generally -accurate book on the beginnings of county history throughout England, -a singular blunder is made with regard to Derbyshire; it is there -stated that this county “was almost uninhabited until long after the -English settlement of Britain, with the solitary exception of a few -isolated Roman stations.” Archæology, however, puts such a statement -as this to complete rout. Difficult as it is to understand how such -large bands of savage men were able to maintain themselves in so wild -a district, it is the fact that the Peak of Derbyshire was, so to -speak, thickly populated by prehistoric tribes. A glance at the map -of prehistoric remains, given in the first volume of the _Victoria -History of the County of Derby_, to illustrate Mr. Ward’s article, will -at once show that the whole of that part of North Derbyshire which -extends from Ashbourne to Chapel-en-le-Frith on the west, from thence -to Derwent Chapel on the north, and then southward through Hathersage -and Winster back again to Ashbourne, is peppered all over with the red -symbols that betoken the barrows or lows which were the burial places -of our forefathers during the neolithic and subsequent ages. Round -Stanton-in-the-Peak and Hathersage the barrows, circles and other early -remains occur with such frequency that it is difficult to mark even -small dots on the map without them running into each other. - -When the Romans held Derbyshire they had five chief stations in the -county, namely, at Little Chester, near Derby; at Brough, near Hope; -at Buxton; at Melandra Castle, on the verge of Cheshire; and near -Wirksworth. The chief Roman road, termed Ryknield Street, entered -the county at Monksbridge, between Repton and Egginton; crossing the -Derwent by Derby to Little Chester, the road proceeded to Chesterfield, -and thence into Yorkshire. Another road crossed the south of the -county, entering Derbyshire on the east near Sawley, and passing -through Little Chester to Rocester, in Staffordshire. A whole group of -other roads radiated throughout the Peak from Buxton as a centre. - -Doubtless one of the chief reasons why the Romans were so determined -to occupy, after a military fashion, the north of the county was -because of the lead mining which they so actively pursued. The chief -district of this lead mining extended between Wirksworth on the south -and Castleton on the north. Between these two places groups of disused -mines appear with frequency. Most of those that have been closely -examined yield obvious traces of having been worked by our conquerors. -Six pigs of inscribed Roman lead have been found in the county. One -of them bears the name of Hadrian (A.D. 117–138). The probabilities, -however, are strong that the Roman miners were at work in this county -half a century earlier, for there is evidence of lead working in -western Yorkshire in A.D. 81, and it is most unlikely that mining began -in that part of Yorkshire before Derbyshire had been touched. - -It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the interest and importance -pertaining to Dr. Haverfield’s article on Romano-British Derbyshire, as -set forth in the first volume of the _Victoria History_ of the county. - -When the Romans left this county at the dawn of the fifth century, -the first English or Saxon settlement speedily followed. The north -of Derbyshire formed the southern extremity of that long range of -broken primary hills—termed the Pennine Chain—which extended from the -Cheviots down to the district long known as Peakland or the Peak. As -the Romans withdrew, Peakland seems to have been overrun by hordes of -the Picts; but when the pagan English settled in Northumbria a new -element of strife was introduced which affected the line of Pennine -Hills from end to end. This range became a boundary between two hostile -races dissimilar in habits, tongue and creed. The older British race, -Christianized to a considerable extent, took up their position on the -western side, and also held their own in certain parts of the actual -dividing ridge. - -It seems likely that the Peakland, for about 150 years after the first -coming of the English—and possibly other parts to the east and south -afterwards known under the common name of Derbyshire—was retained by -the Celts, or Welsh, after the same fashion as they undoubtedly held -the districts round the modern town of Leeds. - -With the opening of the seventh century substantial historic data -begin. Ethelfrith, the last pagan king of Northumbria, crossed the -southern end of the Pennine Chain in 603, and by a notable victory at -Chester extended, as Bede tells us, the dominions of the English to -the Mersey and the Dee. The actual conquest of Peakland probably soon -followed. Mr. Grant Allen’s supposition that it was never actually -overrun by a military force, but that the scanty numbers of the Welsh -were by degrees absorbed into the surrounding English population, -may, however, be the true explanation. The general story of English -place-names shows that the majority of our hill and river names are -earlier than the English occupation; but in North Derbyshire there is -not a single river or hill that does not bear a Welsh name, whilst not -a few of the homestead names have a like origin, and even words of -Cymric etymology still linger in the fast disappearing dialect. - -It is of interest to remember that those Mercians who settled from time -to time in small groups throughout the wilder parts of Derbyshire bore -the local name of Pecsaete, that is to say, settlers in the Peak; so -that the future county, as Mr. Allen remarks, narrowly escaped being -styled Pecsetshire, after the fashion of Dorsetshire or Somersetshire. - -In the development and Christianising of the widespread Mercian -kingdom, South Derbyshire played a very considerable part. Repton, on -the banks of the Trent, is mentioned in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ in -the year 755 in the account of the slaying of Ethelbald, the Mercian -king. The same Chronicle also records the visit of the devastating -Danes to Repton in 874, when they made that town their winter quarters. -The founding of an abbey at Repton early in the seventh century, and -the same place becoming the first seat of the Mercian bishopric from -654 to 667, is dealt with in another part of this volume and need not -be named further in this sketch. - -The Peak seems to have known of no widespread Saxon or English -settlement until after the eruption of the Danes. It is also to the -Danes that the town of Derby owes its present name, and the importance -which gave its title to the surrounding shire. When the marauding -Scandinavian bands overran the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia, the -value of the Derbyshire lead soon attracted their attention. Hence they -established themselves strongly and built a fort at Northworthy (the -earlier name for Derby), whence the valley of the Derwent branched -off in different directions to the lead-mining districts. It was the -common practice of the Danes to change the names of the places where -they settled; Northworthy was to them an unmeaning term now that -settlements of importance had been pushed on much further northward. -Deoraby, or the settlement near the deer, was clearly suggested by the -close propinquity of the great forests. There is no part of the county -where the place and field names are of greater interest than in the -Ecclesbourne valley, which leads up from Duffield to Wirksworth. The -intermingling of Norse names shows that at least two distinct streams -of colonists pushed their way to this valuable mining centre. - -In the north-eastern portion of Mercia, five of these Scandinavian -hosts, each under its own earl, made a definite settlement; they became -known as the Five Burghs, and formed a kind of rude confederacy. In -this way Derby became linked in government with Nottingham, Stamford, -Lincoln and Leicester. This combination, however, had not long been -made before Ethelfleda, the Lady of the Mercians, the sister of Alfred -the Great, began to win back her dominions from these pagan Norsemen, -building border forts at Tamworth and Stafford. Derby was stormed by -Ethelfleda in 918, after fierce fighting, and this victory secured for -her for a time the shire as well as the town itself. Six years later -Edward the Elder, Ethelfleda’s brother, advanced against the Danes -through Nottingham, penetrating into Peakland as far as Bakewell, where -he built a fort. In 941–2 King Edmund finally freed the Five Burghs and -all Mercia from Danish rule. - -The establishment of a mint at Derby during the reign of Athelstan -(924–940) is a clear evidence of the advance of civilisation. Coins -minted at Derby are also extant of the reigns of Edgar, Edward II., -Ethelred II., Canute, Harold I., Edward the Confessor, and Harold II. - -The division of Derbyshire among the conquering Normans, together with -the social conditions of the times, so far as they can be gathered from -the entries in the Domesday Survey, have been admirably treated of at -length in the recently issued opening volume of the _Victoria History_, -to which reference has already been made. The number of manors held -by the Conqueror in this county was very considerable. He derived his -Derbyshire possessions from three sources. In the first instance he -succeeded his predecessor, the Confessor, in a great group of manors -that stretched without a break across the county in a north-easterly -direction from Ashbourne to the Yorkshire borders near Sheffield. The -second division of the Kings’ land consisted of the forfeited estates -of Edwin, the late earl of the shire, and grandson of Earl Leofric of -Mercia. These lay in a widespread group along the Trent south of Derby, -and included Repton, so famous in earlier Mercian history. In the -north of the county the King also secured a very considerable number -of manors which had belonged to various holders, such as Eyam and -Stony Middleton, Chatsworth and Walton, and a considerable group round -Glossop. - -There were two ecclesiastical tenants-in-chief in the county, namely, -the Bishop of the diocese, who held Sawley with Long Eaton, and the -manor of Bupton in Longford parish, and the Abbot of Burton-on-Trent, -who held the great manor of Mickleover and several others which nearly -adjoined the Abbey on the Derbyshire side. - -By far the largest Derbyshire landholder was Henry de Ferrers, lord -of Longueville in Normandy, whose son in 1136 became the first Earl -of Derby. He held over ninety manors in this county, but the head of -his barony, where his chief castle was, lay just outside the border of -Derbyshire, at Tutbury. Just a few of the smaller landholders seem to -have been Englishmen, confirmed in their rights by the Conqueror. In -one case it can be definitely said that an Englishman not only held -land at the time of the survey, under Henry de Ferrers, but became -the ancestor of a family which continued for centuries to hold of -Ferrers’ successors. This was “Elfin,” who held Brailsford, Osmaston, -Lower Thurvaston, and part of Bupton. During the reigns of William -the Conqueror and his two sons, Rufus and Henry, genuine historical -particulars relative to the county are almost entirely absent. When -persistent civil war raged for so long a time over the greater part of -England during Stephen’s reign, Derbyshire was but little disturbed, -for the leading men of the county adhered loyally to the King and -held its several fortresses on his behalf. In the great Battle of the -Standard, fought against the Scots at Northallerton in 1138, Derbyshire -played the leading part in winning the victory; its chief credit being -due to the valour of the Peakites under Robert Ferrers. Ralph Alselin -and William Peveril, two other Derbyshire chieftains, were also among -the successful leaders of the battle. - -Peak Castle, built by William Peveril in the days of the Conqueror, -passed to the Crown in 1115 on the forfeiture of his son’s estates. The -_Pipe Roll_ of 1157 shows an entry, repeated annually for a long term -of years, of a payment of four pound, ten shillings, and two watchmen, -and the porter of the Peak Castle. In that year Henry II. received -the submission of Malcolm, King of Scotland, within the walls of this -castle. There are records of other visits made to this castle by Henry -II. in 1158 and 1164. - -In this reign a variety of interesting particulars relative to the -castles of Bolsover and the Peak can be gleaned from the _Pipe Rolls_, -particularly with regard to their provisioning, garrisoning and -repairing between 1172 and 1176, during the time of the rising of the -Barons. Richard I., at the beginning of his reign, gave the castles of -the Peak and Bolsover to his brother John, who succeeded to the throne -in 1199. In 1200, King John was at Derby and Bolsover in March, and at -Melbourne in November. This restless King’s visits to the county were -frequent throughout his reign, and included a sojourn at Horsley Castle -in 1209. During this turbulent reign Derbyshire was again fortunate -in escaping any material share of civil warfare. The party of the -Barons gained but little support, for the three notable fortresses of -Castleton, Bolsover and Horsley were held for the King with but slight -intermission. - -In any historic survey of Derbyshire, however brief, it must -not be forgotten that the Normans, for the convenience of civil -administration, linked together this county and Nottinghamshire, giving -precedence in some respects to the latter. The Assizes, for instance, -up to the reign of Henry III., were held only at Nottingham, and the -one county gaol for the two shires was in the same town. From the -beginning of the reign of Henry III. up to the time of Elizabeth, the -Assizes were held alternately at the two county towns. During the whole -of this period there was but one sheriff for the two shires; it was not -until 1566 that they each possessed a sheriff of their own. - -Derbyshire possessed a fourth great fortress, which has generally been -overlooked; it does not appear on the _Pipe Rolls_, as it was never -held by the Crown. Duffield was a convenient centre for the great -Derbyshire possessions of Henry de Ferrers. The castle at this place -stood on an eminence commanding an important ford of the Derwent, at -the entrance of the valley that led to Wirksworth with its lead mines, -and hence forwards to the High Peak. Here was erected in early Norman -days (as we know from the long-buried remains) a prodigiously strong -and massive keep. William, Earl Ferrers, was a stalwart supporter of -Henry III. until his death, but his grandson, Robert de Ferrers, soon -after he came of age, in 1260, threw himself with ardour into the -baronial war against the King. Eventually he was overcome when fighting -with his allies at Chesterfield in 1266. Ferrers was taken prisoner, -and his life spared; but all his lands, castles, and tenements were -confiscated to the crown, and conveyed by Henry to his son Edmund, who -was afterwards created Earl of Lancaster. It would be at this period -that Duffield Castle was demolished. - -The foundations of this castle were accidentally discovered in 1886. -The lower part of the walls of a great rectangular keep, 95 feet by 93 -feet, were brought to light, the walls averaging 16 feet in thickness. -These measurements show that Duffield Castle far exceeded in magnitude -any other Norman keep, with the single exception of the Tower of London. - -Before taking the next step in this sketch of the political history of -the county, it will be well to go back a little in the account of the -great Derbyshire family of Ferrers, with special reference to their -connection with the Peak Forest. William de Ferrers, the fourth Earl -of Derby, was bailiff of the Honour of the Peak from 1216 to 1222. It -was charged against him that during that time he had in conjunction -with others taken upwards of 2,000 head of deer without warrant. At -the Forest Pleas held in 1251, five years after the Earl’s death, -formal presentments as to these offences were made, when Richard -Curzon was fined the then great sum of £40 as one of the late Earl’s -accomplices, and other county gentlemen in smaller amounts. But much -more serious matters occurred in the wild region of the Peak later -on in the reign of Henry III., when the transgressor was Robert de -Ferrers, the grandson of the Earl just mentioned. The Pleas of the -Forest were generally held at long and somewhat fitful intervals. It -was not until September, 1285, that these pleas were again held at -Derby, when all the offences committed during the thirty-four years -that had passed since the last eyre were presented by the forest -officials. By far the gravest charge at this eyre was that made -against the last Earl of Derby (of the first creation), who died in -1278. It was charged against Robert de Ferrers that on three separate -occasions, in July, August and September, 1264, he had hunted in the -forest, with a great company of knights and others, and had on these -occasions taken 130 head of red deer, and had driven a still greater -number far away. These illicit hunting affrays were evidently made on -a great scale, for thirty-eight persons are named in the presentment, -and there were many others, besides the Earl himself, who were dead -before the eyre was held. Others, too, were not summoned because they -were mere servants of the Earl. Eight out of the thirty-eight were -knights, and it is not a little remarkable that hardly any of those who -joined in the forest affrays were of Derbyshire families; they came -from such counties as Warwick, Leicestershire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, -Cambridgeshire, etc. Reading between the lines, though it is not -mentioned in the presentments—the originals of which can be studied at -the Public Record Office—it becomes clear that these incursions into a -royal forest must have been animated by something deeper than a love -for wholesale poaching. In May, 1264, the battle of Lewes was fought, -when the King’s forces were defeated by those of the barons. For two -or three years from that date, as an old chronicler has it, “there was -grievous perturbation in the centre of the realm,” in which Derbyshire -must have pre-eminently shared, for the youthful Earl Robert was one of -the hottest partisans of the barons. There can be no reasonable doubt -that these three raids on the Peak Forest in the months immediately -following the battle of Lewes, were undertaken by Robert de Ferrers and -his allies, issuing probably from his great manor house at Hartington, -much more to show contempt for the King’s forest and preserves, and to -get booty and food for his men-at-arms, than for any purposes of sport. - -It is interesting to note that in April, 1264, Henry III. came into -Derbyshire, and lodged for a time at the castle of the Peak after the -subjection of Nottingham. - -Definite Parliamentary rule began in England under Edward I. No -Derbyshire writs are extant for the Parliaments of 1283, 1290 or 1294. -The first Parliamentary return extant for Derbyshire names Henry de -Kniveton and Giles de Meynell as summoned to attend the Parliament -at Westminster in November, 1295. The county representatives in 1297 -were Robert Dethick and Thomas Foljambe; in 1298, Henry de Brailsford -and Henry Fitzherbert, and in 1299 Jeffrey de Gresley and Robert de -Frecheville. John de la Cornere and Ralph de Makeney represented the -borough of Derby in 1295. The maintenance of the knights of the shire -when attending Parliament, as well as their travelling expenses, were -paid by the county. The scale of payment per day in the fourteenth -century varied from 3s. 4d. to 5s., whilst the payment of the borough -members varied from 20d. to 2s. a day. - -Soon after the accession of Edward I., inquiries were made into -the various abuses that had arisen during the latter part of the -turbulent reign of his predecessor. A considerable number of official -irregularities and illegalities were brought to light in this county, -including both the imprisoning and undue releasing from prison at the -Castle of the Peak. - -Edward I. visited Derbyshire in 1275, tarrying both at Ashbourne and -Tideswell, when on his way to North Wales. In the subjugation of Wales, -various of the great landholders of Derbyshire, with their tenants, -took a prominent part; among them were William de Ferrers, William de -Bardolf, Henry de Grey, Edward Deincourt, John de Musard, and Nicholas -de Segrave. - -Between 1290 and 1293 the King was frequently in the county, coming on -more than one occasion for sport amongst the fallow deer of Duffield -Frith, at the forest lodge of Ravensdale. Derbyshire was closely -concerned in the long dispute as to the succession to the Crown of -Scotland, of which Edward I. was made arbitrator in 1291. His decision -was in favour of John Balliol, who was most intimately connected with -this county. Balliol held for a time the custody of the Peak, with -the Honour of Peveril; he was lord of the manors of Hollington and -Creswell; and he had served as joint sheriff of the counties of Derby -and Nottingham from 1261 to 1264. All the leading men of Derbyshire -were engaged from time to time in the prolonged wars with Scotland -which resulted in the deposition of Balliol in 1296. This county had -its share in the discreditable honours that Edward II. showered on his -favourite, Piers Gaveston, for early in the reign he held the custody -of the High Peak. In 1322 the Scotch forces entered into alliance -with those of the rebel Earls of Lancaster and Hereford. After fierce -fighting at the bridge of Burton-on-Trent, the royalists crossed -the river by a ford and drove Lancaster’s forces before them into -Yorkshire. During the retreat Derbyshire suffered severely. The King, -with several of his ministers, tarried for a few days at Derby; from -thence he visited Codnor Castle, which was held by one of his ardent -supporters, Richard, Lord Grey. Edward II. also, on several different -occasions, sojourned at the lodge of Ravensdale, amid the beautiful -parks of Duffield Forest. - -In the various wars of the reign of Edward III. Derbyshire was often -called upon to supply forces for the hastily raised armies of the -King. The number of men levied on several occasions in this county -were considerably in excess of its due proportion when compared with -neighbouring shires, either in acreage or population. This may, we -suppose, be taken as a compliment to the valour of the county, and it -is by no means improbable that the hardy lead miners of the north of -the county would furnish better men, and perhaps more capable archers, -than were to be found in purely agricultural districts. Early in 1333, -when the Scots were making great preparations for invasion, John de -Twyford and Nicholas de Longford were appointed Commissioners of Array -for Derbyshire, to call out and have in readiness for the field all men -between sixteen and sixty years of age. Soon afterwards they received -a definite warrant to send to the front five hundred archers and two -hundred light horsemen from within the county. Derbyshire archers to -the number of six hundred set forth for Scotland in 1344, and there -were frequent levies of them during this reign to proceed to France. -Derbyshire, however, considering the fame of its archers and the -fighting-men of the Peak, took but a small part in the French campaign -of 1346–7, which resulted in the crowning triumph of Crecy and the fall -of Calais. The reason for this was that only those counties that were -_citra Trent_ received summonses to take part in the French expedition; -the forces of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and other northern counties -were kept at home for fear of aggression from Scotland. There were, -however, a sprinkling of Derbyshire men in the ranks of the English at -Crecy, including Sir John Curzon, Nicholas de Longford, and Anker de -Frecheville. - -The wide-spread revolt of the peasantry was the great feature of the -reign of Richard II.; but Derbyshire, together with most of the west -midlands, remained unaffected by these serious disturbances, in which -the miners, at all events, had no inclination to take part. - -Henry IV. was not unfrequently in Derbyshire in connection with the -rebellious movements of that much-troubled reign. In the summer -of 1402 the King tarried for some little time at the small town of -Tideswell in a secluded district of the Peak, issuing from thence a -variety of orders to sheriffs and other officials as to the military -preparations against the Welsh. When sojourning about the same time at -the royal hunting lodge at Ravensdale, he dispatched thence orders for -hastening resistance against serious Scotch invasion. - -In the following year, when the Percys and their followers suddenly -raised the standard of revolt, the King hastened to Derby with all the -forces he could gather. After waiting there a few days to rally the -musters, he proceeded through Burton-on-Trent to Shrewsbury, where a -terrible battle was fought on July 20th. Early that morning, before -the fray began, Henry knighted several of the gallant esquires of -Derbyshire. Of these Sir Walter Blount, who bore the King’s standard, -Sir John Cokayne, and Sir Nicholas Longford were slain in the fight, -whilst Sir Thomas Wendesley died soon afterwards of the wounds he had -received. It is not a little interesting to note that the last three -of these Derbyshire knights, who held their honour for so brief a -period, have their effigies still extant in fair preservation in the -respective churches of Ashbourne, Longford, and Bakewell; the fourth, -Sir Walter Blount, was buried, in acordance with his will, at Newark. -Of the 4,500 men slain or grievously wounded on the King’s side in the -Battle of Shrewsbury, a large proportion must have been Derbyshire men. -It was, perhaps, out of compliment to this county that Henry, when the -fray was over, proceeded yet again to Derby before going north to York -to receive the Earl of Northumberland’s submission. - -It was under Henry V. that the memorable Battle of Agincourt was fought -on October 25th, 1415. In this battle the county played a prominent -part. Richard, Lord Grey of Codnor, was at the head of a large -contingent of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire retainers and tenants. -The list of horsemen under him begins with two Derbyshire knights—Sir -John Grey and Sir Edward Foljambe, and it also includes such well-known -county names as Cokayne, Strelley, FitzHerbert, and Curzon. Another -contingent of Derbyshire men was in the retinue of Philip Leach, of -Chatsworth, whilst an important command was held by Thomas Beresford, -of Fenny Bentley, as recorded on his monument in that church. - -[Illustration: =MELBORN CASTLE= _in the County of DERBY_. - - _Formerly a Royal Mansion, now in Ruins; where John Duke of Bourbon - taken Prisoner by K: Henry V^{th}. in the Battle of Agincourt (An^o. - 1414.) was kept Nineteen Years in Custody of Nicholas Montgomery the - Younger; he was released by K: Henry VI^{th}._ - - _This Draught is made from a Survey now in the Dutchy office of - Lancaster, taken in the Reign of Q: Elizabeth. Sumptibus, Soc: Ant: - Lond: 1733._ -] - -The notable triumph of Agincourt must have been long held in -remembrance in Derbyshire, for the midland fortress of Melbourne Castle -was selected as the place of imprisonment for the most notable prisoner -taken on that field of French disaster. John, Duke of Bourbon, was -confined at Melbourne for nineteen years; at first under the custody of -Sir Ralph Shirley, one of the leaders in the fight, and afterwards in -the charge of Nicholas Montgomery the younger. - -In the deplorable Wars of the Roses, between the Lancastrians and -the Yorkists, which extended over thirty years from 1455 to 1485, -Derbyshire men took no small part, now on one side, now on the other, -whilst occasionally they were found in the ranks of both parties. A -commission issued in December, 1461, to Sir William Chaworth, Richard -Willoughby, and the Sheriff of Derbyshire, illustrates the disturbed -condition of the county in the beginning of the reign of Edward IV. -These commissioners were ordered to arrest John Cokayne, of Ashbourne, -who is represented as wandering about in various parts of the county -with others, killing and spoiling the King’s subjects, and to bring him -before the King in council. - -A manuscript list of the “names of the captayns and pety captayns wyth -the bagges, in the standerds of the army and vantgard of the king’s -lefftenant enterying into Fraunce the xvj day of June,” 1513, begins -with George, Earl of Shrewsbury, the King’s lieutenant of the vanguard, -who bore on his standard “goulles and sabull a talbot sylver passant -and shaffrons gold”; the Derbyshire banneret, Sir Henry Sacheverell, -with John Bradburne for his petty captain, bearing “goulles a gett buk -sylver.” Other Derbyshire gentlemen who were captains in this array, -each having his petty captain and his “bagges” (badges) or arms as -borne on his standard, were:—Robert Barley with John Parker, Nicholas -Fitzherbert with John Ireton, Sir John Leek with Thomas Leek his -brother, Sir Thomas Cokayne with Robert Cokayne, Sir William Gresley -with John Gresley, Sir Gylbert Talbot the younger with Humphrey Butler, -Robert Lynaker with George Palmer, Thomas Twyford with Roger Rolleston, -Sir John Zouch (of Codnor) with Dave Zouch (his brother), Arthur -Eyre with Thomas Eyre (his brother), Ralph Leach and John Curzon (of -Croxall) with Edward Cumberford. - -In addition to all these Derbyshire gentlemen, William Vernon bore -the banner of St. George, John Leach the banner of the lieutenant’s -arms, and Thomas Rolleston the standard of the talbot and chevrons. -Derbyshire considerably preponderated in this army of the vanguard, -there being twelve companies from that county. Shropshire had nine -companies, Staffordshire eight, Nottinghamshire six, and Leicestershire -and Cheshire two each; five other counties only furnished a single -company. - -Into the grievous question of the cruel way in which the monasteries -were suppressed by Henry VIII. it is not proposed here to enter, even -after the briefest fashion. It may, however, be remarked that although -the county had no religious houses of first importance within its -limits—the most noteworthy being the Premonstratensian Abbeys of white -canons at Dale and Beauchief, and the houses of black or Austin canons -at Darley Abbey and Repton Priory—the amount of landed estates, both -large and small, held throughout Derbyshire under abbeys or priories -situated in other shires, was very considerable. If there is one -social or economic fact that is thoroughly established in connection -with this great upheaval, whose main object was to secure pelf for the -Crown, it is that the condition of the monastic tenantry was far better -than that of those under often changing secular rule. - -The sternest possible measures were taken to suppress the least -disaffection shown against the policy of dissolution. Lives were lost, -even of those in high position up and down the country, on the merest -hearsay evidence of having indulged in private talk against the King’s -policy. At the time when Henry and his Court were seriously alarmed by -the Lincolnshire rising on behalf of the smaller monasteries, lists -were drawn up on October 7th, 1536, of the names of noblemen and -gentlemen to whom it was proposed to write, under privy seal, requiring -their aid with men and horses fit for war. The Derbyshire names on -this list were: the Lord Steward, Lord Talbot, Sir Henry Sacheverell, -Matthew Kniveton, Sir Godfrey Foljambe (Sheriff), Roland Babington, and -Francis Cokayne. The rising was, however, so summarily suppressed that -there was no necessity for the calling out of any general array. - -There are full particulars extant of the Derbyshire musters for April, -1539, giving the exact number under each parish of archers with -horses and harness, of billmen with horses and harness, and also of -unharnessed archers and billmen. The total for the various hundreds of -the county, including the town of Derby, reached the total of 4,510. - -As to the various religious changes in the reigns of Henry VIII., -Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, which affected Derbyshire as much -as any other part of the kingdom, it is not proposed here to enter. -Suffice it to say that their distinguishing feature under Elizabeth, -which was also continued throughout the greater part of the seventeenth -century, was the fierce persecution and ruinous fining directed -against the recusants of the Roman obedience. The reason for the -pre-eminence of Derbyshire in this respect arose from two facts: -firstly, that some of the most influential of the old Derbyshire -families, such as the Fitzherberts and the Eyres, remained steadfast -to the unreformed faith; and, secondly, that the wild districts of the -Peak afforded so many places of shelter to those recusants of this and -the neighbouring counties who desired to escape the rigorous search of -Elizabeth’s pursuivants. - -Throughout the long reign of Elizabeth, the county musters were -under frequent survey. A few months before the reign began, the old -local militia, with its scale of arms (including bows and arrows) as -revised in 1285, which had continued for more than four centuries in -accordance with the scheme laid down by Henry II., came to an end. -The old Assize of Arms had long been found unsuitable to the advance -in the art of war. Eventually an Act of Parliament of Philip and Mary -“for the having of horse armour and weapon,” which provided that -after May 1st, 1558, everyone who had an estate of inheritance of -the value of £1,000 or above was to keep at his own cost six horses -meet for demi-lances (heavy cavalry), and ten horses meet for light -horsemen, with the requisite harness and weapons; also 40 corselets -for pikemen, 40 Almayne rivettes (flexible German armour), 40 pikes, -30 longbows, 30 sheaves of arrows, 30 steel caps, 20 black bills or -halberds, 20 hand-guns, and 20 morions or light open helms. A sliding -scale followed, making due provision for what was required from those -having lands of various values down to £10, and these last had to find -a longbow, a sheaf of arrows, a steel cap, and a black bill. Another -section of the Act provided that the inhabitants of every town, parish, -or hamlet, other than those who were already charged in proportion to -their landed property, were to find and maintain at their own charges -such harness and weapons as might be appointed by the commissioners of -the musters. - -Within a few months of Elizabeth’s accession, this new legislation -was tested by calling out the general muster throughout the kingdom, -and by obtaining returns of the number in equipment from each county. -The long, interesting return for Derbyshire, dated March 9th, 1558–9, -is extant; it is signed by seven justices—George Vernon, Humphrey -Bradbourne, Henry Vernon, Francis Curzon, John Frances, Gilbert -Thacker, and Richard Pole. Every hundred and township is set forth in -detail, both as to the arms and the men. There was only one landowner -of sufficient wealth in the county to be called upon to provide all -that was requisite for a heavy horseman; but there were ten light -horsemen. The total of “the able Footemen harnissed and unharnissed” -amounted to 1,211, namely, 56 harnessed archers, 135 harnessed billmen, -236 unharnessed archers, and 784 unharnessed billmen. - -A second full certificate of the able men, arms, and weapons throughout -the county was forwarded ten years later to the council. With this -return a letter was forwarded signed by the Earl of Shrewsbury as -lord-lieutenant, as well as by his deputies. A noteworthy paragraph in -this letter shows that Derbyshire was not taking kindly to the general -substitution of explosive weapons in the place of archery which was -then in progress. - - “Touching thorders prescribed for thexercise of harquebuziers, the - truthe is this shire doth not aptlie serve theretoe for we have very - few harquebuziers & they placed so farre from market townes as they - shuld nott come to a day of exercise above the nombre of six, & yet - their travell further than in the time for the same is prescribed. - Indeed we have good plenty of archers & therefore in our generall - musters wee thought it best to appoint many of them to be furnished - accordingly & nowe if we shuld make a new charge the countrey - undoubledy wuld think themselves oversore burdened.” - -The Earl of Shrewsbury received orders in November, 1569, to raise the -whole force of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and to proceed against -the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, “now in rebellion.” It -would be wearisome in a sketch of this character to note the various -incidents, which can be gleaned from both the public records and the -county muniments, as to the several occasions on which the Derbyshire -musters were called out when there was no immediate necessity for their -use. - -The considerable part that this county played in the safeguarding -of Elizabeth’s unhappy prisoner, Mary, Queen of Scots, during her -repeated sojourns at Wingfield Manor House, together with her visits -to Chatsworth and Buxton, are fully dealt with in another paper in -this volume. It may, however, be here remarked that the deplorable -execution of Mary, in 1587, and the way in which the youthful Babington -had so rashly conspired in her favour, made a great impression upon -this county, and caused the Council as well as the local authorities to -redouble their precautions. Not only was a certain local undercurrent -stirred up in Derbyshire through the Fotheringay execution, but it also -had the result of hastening the hostilities of Philip of Spain and -other of Elizabeth’s external enemies. There was in consequence at this -period frequent exercise of the county forces. The Earl of Shrewsbury’s -gout prevented his taking any active part, and the work was chiefly -supervised by his brother-in-law, John Manners, the senior of the -deputy-lieutenants. A certificate of the musters, as viewed by Manners -in November, 1587, shows that there were 400 “selected bands armed and -prest for present service”; these bands were divided into 160 “shot,” -80 pikemen, 80 billmen, and 80 archers. It is interesting here to note -the remarkable way in which the musket had gained ascendancy over -the bow in fourteen years. In addition to the selected 400, Manners -returned 1,300 men who were available in times of need, namely, 300 for -shot, 300 for pikes, 360 for bills, 200 for bows, 80 as carpenters -and wheelwrights, and 60 as smiths. The mounted forces consisted of 9 -demi-lances and 178 light-horse. - -[Illustration: Wingfield Manor. - -(_From an Indian Ink Drawing by Colonel Machell, 7th August, 1785._)] - -This return, large as it was, was not, however, a complete one for the -whole county, for none of the musters from the hundred of Scarsdale -were allowed to be present for fear of infection. A grievous attack of -the plague was then raging at Chesterfield and several of the adjacent -parishes. The severity of what is termed in the parish register “the -great plague of Chesterfield” may be gathered from the fact that the -deaths of that town in June, 1587, were fifty-four, in July fifty-two, -and yet the average deaths in Chesterfield for several years about that -period were only three a month. - -Although Derbyshire was perhaps further removed from the sea-coast than -any other county, the threatened approach of the great Spanish Armada -appears to have made almost as much stir as in the sea-board counties. -The gentlemen of the county consented to greatly increase the number of -lances and light-horse, provided that such action should not be taken -as a precedent; and they further promised to provide an addition of 400 -to the number of unmounted troops. The old earl wrote a brave letter -to his sovereign, assuring her that the gentlemen of Derbyshire were -both ready and well affected, and that, as for himself, the threatened -invasion was making him young again, “though lame in body, yet was he -lusty in heart to lead her greatest enemy one blow, and to live and die -in her service.” - -The signal defeat of Spain brought for some years general peace and -quiet throughout the kingdom. The musters in Derbyshire and elsewhere -were but rarely called out, save in the winter of 1598–9, when renewed -threats from Spain caused Sir Humphrey Ferrers, the most active of -the Derbyshire deputy-lieutenants, to view the musters of the various -hundreds. - -Quite irrespective of the part played by the general musters during -this reign in preparation for possible emergencies, there was much -stir and excitement in the county, accompanied, no doubt, by a great -deal of misery, consequent upon the repeated call for troops to take -part in the subjection of Ireland. The levies of troops for Ireland -were almost ceaseless during the last quarter of the sixteenth century. -It has usually been understood by historians that these raw troops -came mainly from Lancashire and Cheshire; but the Belvoir manuscripts, -supported by the Acts of the Privy Council and local muniments, show -that Derbyshire—possibly as a compliment to her bravery—was being -constantly called upon to supply men for these expeditions entirely -out of proportion to the limited area and population of the county. -It is not surprising to find that these forcibly impressed levies, -utterly untrained in military matters, and suffering severely from poor -clothing, insufficient food, the dampness of the climate, and frequent -infectious disease, perished in large numbers before they could attain -to any proficiency. When the Earl of Essex was granted special powers -in 1573 to suppress the Irish rebellion, Derbyshire had to submit to -the impressment of a hundred men, and a complaint was lodged at the -sessions that some of the best lead-miners had been taken for that -purpose. The whole story of these forced levies, of the difficulty -of conveying them to the ports of Lancashire and Cheshire, of their -frequent desertions both en route and even when they had crossed the -seas, of the poorness of the weapons and equipments with which they -were supplied by the swindling contractors of the day, is a most sorry -and sordid tale. Nor could these Derbyshire troops have presented, even -when first called out, a particularly attractive or uniform appearance, -for the Belvoir manuscripts tell us that they were to be provided, in -addition to convenient hose and doublet, “with a cassock of motley and -other sea-green colour or russet.” - -There was much nervousness with regard to Derbyshire when Elizabeth -was on her deathbed, in March, 1682–3. The council were alarmed lest -attempts should be made to remove Lady Arabella Stuart (who had a -certain kind of claim to the throne) by violence from the custody of -her grandmother, the old Countess of Shrewsbury, better known as Bess -of Hardwick. They dispatched Sir Henry Brounker in haste with a warrant -to all the Derbyshire lieutenants, justices, and constables, to give -him all assistance in guarding Arabella, and in the suppression of -every form of disorder and riot. On March 25th, Sir Henry met a large -body of the deputy-lieutenants and justices at North Wingfield, a short -distance from Hardwick Hall, when it was arranged that there should at -present be no general view of the musters, but that the constables were -to see that the armour was in readiness, and to take other precautions. -But whilst they were thus debating, death removed Elizabeth, and on the -following day James I. was quietly proclaimed King at Derby without any -trace of remonstrance. - -Early in the reign of James I. the nature of the general musters or -local militia was considerably changed, but their special services were -never really needed during the time he was on the throne. In 1624, -when James was unhappily persuaded to give authority to the Duke of -Buckingham to raise 10,000 men in England to proceed to the Palatinate, -this county had some share in the general misfortune. Out of the great -disorderly rabble collected by impressment at Dover, half of whom died -in the overcrowded vessels from the plague ere they could even be -landed, Derbyshire contributed 150 men. These troops from the centre of -England were allowed 8d. a day whilst marching to Dover, and they were -expected to make at least twelve miles daily. It is probable that James -was at Derby in August, 1609, when making a progress from Nottingham -to Tutbury Castle. He was certainly in the county towards the close of -his life, during the summer progress of 1624. On August 10th the King -was at Welbeck, when he knighted two Derbyshire gentlemen, Sir John -Fitzherbert of Norbury, and Sir John Fitzherbert of Tissington. In the -following week he stopped two nights at Derby with Prince Charles, -proceeding thence in the following week to Tutbury. In the latter place -he knighted Sir Edward Vernon, of Sudbury. - -In no other county in the whole of England is the evidence more clear -or detailed than in Derbyshire as to the ill-advised proceedings in -the opening part of the reign of Charles I., which eventually brought -about the misfortunes of the great Civil War. The methods of raising -funds for the Crown after an irregular fashion by way of benevolences -and loans, was no new invention of this ill-fated Stuart King. Such -exactions, though contrary to statute, were resorted to by Henry VII. -in 1491, when he took a “benevolence” from the more wealthy folk for -his popular incursion into France. Henry VIII. made like cause for an -“aimable graunte” in 1528 and in 1548. Elizabeth appears to have always -expected and received valuable “gifts” of money or plate during her -progresses, and numerous “loans” demanded and obtained from Derbyshire -gentlemen by that Queen were considerable, and a frequent cause of -friction when it was found that they were scarcely ever repaid. Charles -I., however, was so foolishly advised as to begin his reign by pressing -for definite sums, which were ridiculously termed “free gifts.” -Derbyshire was practically unanimous in its refusal to the demand. The -courts of four of the hundreds duly met in 1626, and declined to pay a -single farthing “otherwise than by way of Parliament.” The Derbyshire -justices met in session on July 18th, and forwarded to the council the -answers from all the hundreds. The first signature to this reply was -that of the Earl of Devonshire, and in the whole county only £20 4s. -was subscribed. - -Two years later the King’s consent was obtained to the Petition of -Rights, and thus benevolences or forced loans were put an end to in -most explicit terms. The next expedient, however, for raising money -without Parliament was still more foolish. A well recognised method -for getting together a navy in actual time of war, namely, by issuing -ship-writs, had become established in Plantagenet days, and proved of -great service to Elizabeth in resisting the Armada. There were also -later precedents of 1618 and 1626, but in every one of these cases -ship-writs were only served on seaports, and were never issued save for -immediate warlike enterprise. The ship-writs, however, of 1634 were -served when there was no war or fear of attack; and in the following -year the grievance was intensified by serving writs on inland as well -as maritime counties and towns. Under the writs of 1635, the small -county of Derbyshire was called upon to pay the great sum of £3,500—£90 -of which was to be contributed by the clergy. Many in the county -actively resisted. Sir John Stanhope, of Elvaston, flatly declined -to pay a farthing, was put under arrest, taken before the council in -London, and his goods distrained. A third ship-writ reached Derbyshire -in 1636, but the sheriff could only raise £700, and that with much -difficulty. A fourth writ in October of the same year, again demanding -£3,500, was served on the new sheriff, Sir John Harper. Resistance -was general. The King was compelled in 1640 to summon the “Long -Parliament,” which speedily declared all the late proceedings touching -ship money to be illegal and void. To this the King consented; but it -was too late, the mischief was done. - -Charles I., in the earlier part of his reign, was on three occasions -the guest of the Earl of Newcastle at Bolsover Castle. The record visit -of the three was in 1633, when he was accompanied by his Queen. The -entertainment, as Lord Clarendon has it, was “very prodigious and most -stupendous.” The expenses for hospitality on this occasion reached the -huge total of £15,000; it was during the visit that Ben Jonson’s masque -of _Love’s Welcome_ was performed. - -In 1635 Charles I. visited Derby, and slept at the Great House in the -market-place. The corporation and townsmen had very good reason to -remember this visit, for they gave the Duke of Newcastle for the King -a fat ox, a calf, six fat sheep, and a purse of gold to enable him -to keep hospitality, with a further present to the Elector Palatine -of twenty broad pieces. The King further improved the occasion by -“borrowing” £300 off the corporation in addition to his gifts, as well -as all the small arms in possession of the town. At the end of the -Scottish War in August, 1641, Charles I. passed through Derbyshire, and -was again at the county town on the eleventh of August, when he made -Sir John Curzon, of Kedleston, and Sir Francis Rodes, of Barlborough, -baronets. - -The great Civil War began in the summer of 1642 with the raising of the -Royal Standard at Nottingham. The registers of All Saints, the great -church of the county town, have the following brief chronicle of this -dramatic incident: “the 22 of this August errectum fuit Notinghamiæ -Vexillum Regale.—Matt. xii. 25.” The vicar, Dr. Edward Wilmot, who -made the entry, was a staunch Royalist, and probably employed the -Latin tongue knowing full well the general tendency of the opinions of -the townsmen. When the news reached Derby, the response was meagre. -Hutton, the historian, tells us that about twenty Derby men marched -to Nottingham and entered the King’s service. On September 13th the -King marched with his army from Nottingham to Derby, but only made one -day’s stay in the town, pushing on from thence to Shrewsbury. Within a -few months practically the whole of the counties of Derby, Leicester, -Stafford, Northampton, and Warwick were united in an association -against the King. - -Sir John Gell, of Hopton, at once came to the fore as the local -energetic supporter of Parliamentary Government, obtaining a commission -as colonel from the Earl of Essex. After rousing the county both at -Chesterfield and Wirksworth, he marched with a small force to Derby, -which he entered on the thirty-first of October, 1642, where he was -joined by one of the leading gentlemen of the south of the shire—Sir -George Gresley. It would take far more space than can here be afforded -to give even the barest outline of the ups and downs of the sad civil -strife that raged throughout Derbyshire, for the most part in favour of -the Commonwealth, for the next few years. It must suffice to state that -the county, apparently owing to its central position, suffered more in -various ways, both in loss of men and property of all descriptions, -than any other part of the whole of England. Wingfield Manor House, -Bolsover Castle, and such great houses as Chatsworth, Tissington, -Sutton, and Staveley, were held first by one side and then by the -other; whilst important garrisons at places so near to the county -boundaries as Welbeck, Tutbury, and Nottingham, contributed to constant -raids over the parts of Derbyshire within easy reach. - -In 1645 the plight of Derbyshire was most deplorable, through the -frequent marches and counter-marches of the hostile forces through its -limits; for, although the Parliament held its own throughout the county -during the prolonged struggle, the Royalists now and again gained the -victory in a skirmish, and succeeded in maintaining their hold in -well-garrisoned places for a few months at a time. Both sides, also, -found it essential in their campaigns to cross the county in various -directions. In August of this year Sir George Gresley and others wrote -to the Speaker as to the miserable condition of the county, which had -been successively afflicted by the armies of Newcastle, the Queen, -Prince Rupert, Goring, and others, who had freely raided from even the -poorest of the people during their transits. The enemy, he stated, had -lost all their Derbyshire garrisons, but they had been taken by force -and at a great charge to the county. Several garrisons on the confines -of the county, such as Newark, Tutbury, and Welbeck, still had power -and means to levy contributions on the adjacent parts of Derbyshire, -and to ruin those who denied them. Moreover, the Scotch army had been -for a time very chargeable to the county, for they not only claimed -free quarters, but supplied themselves with what horses they required. -And now, to crown all, the King’s army had passed through, and made -spoil of a great part of the county. Some of the Parliament forces had -come to their help, and more were daily expected; but all of them would -at least have free quarters, and the owners of the very few horses -left in Derbyshire had now small hope of retaining them. The House of -Commons was asked to grant them the excise of the town and county for -the present maintenance of their own soldiers. - -It must also be remembered in estimating the share that Derbyshire had -in this momentous conflict, that it has not only to be gauged from -what went on within her borders, but from the prominent share which -Derbyshire forces took in the battles and skirmishes that took place -in other parts of the kingdom. At the very outset of the struggle, -Derbyshire troops played an important part round Lichfield and in other -parts of Staffordshire. During the winter of 1644–5, Gell’s forces -from this county were busy about Newark, and also in Cheshire. In the -spring of the latter year they were engaged before Tutbury Castle; -and in July, 1648, Derbyshire horse played an important part in the -Parliamentary victory at Willoughby, Nottinghamshire. - -In this same month the Derbyshire committee were ordered to send sixty -of their horse to Pontefract to help in the siege, and to join in the -resistance to the invasion from Scotland. On August 18th came the rout -of the great army of the Scots, under the Duke of Hamilton, at Preston. -The defeated cavaliers disbanded themselves in Derbyshire, dispersing -in all directions. Considerable numbers of the Scotch infantry were -gradually arrested, having vainly endeavoured to conceal themselves -amid the hills and dales of the wild Peak district. One of the most -terrible episodes of the strife in the Midlands occurred in the then -large church of Chapel-en-le-Frith. A vast number of the Scotch -prisoners were crowded into the church, with the shocking result thus -curtly entered in the registers:— - - “1648 Sept: 11. There came to this town of Scots army, led by the - Duke of Hambleton & squandered by Colonell Lord Cromwell sent hither - prisoners from Stopford under the conduct of Marshall Edward Matthews, - said to be 1500 in number put into ye church Sept: 14. They went away - Sept: 30 following. There were buried of them before the rest went - away 44 persons, & more buried Oct. 2 who were not able to march, & - the same thyt died by the way before they came to Cheshire 10 & more.” - -Space must be found for a far less tragic incident that occurred in -connection with another Derbyshire church in the south of the county -earlier in this strife. When the Royalists were making a special -effort to regain their hold on Wingfield Manor, Colonel Eyre, with his -regiment of 200 men, marching from Staffordshire, passed the night in -the church of Boyleston. Major Saunders, a local Derbyshire leader on -the Parliament side, heard of this night encampment, and with a small -troop of horse surrounded the church, and raising a simultaneous shout -at all the windows and doors demanded the instant surrender of all the -Royalists under pain of immediate fire. Colonel Eyre’s men, startled -from their sleep, were compelled to surrender; they were ordered to -come out one by one through the small priest’s door on the south side -of the chancel, and as each stepped forth he was seized and stripped of -his arms—“and soe,” wrote Major Saunders, “we took men, collours, and -all without loss of one man on either side.” - -As to the general sympathy of this shire with the Commonwealth -proceedings, even after the execution of the King, the Commission -of the Peace in 1650 shows how large a proportion of the old county -gentlemen were content to accept commissions at the hands of the new -rulers. It includes such names as Sir Francis Burdett, Sir Edward -Coke, Sir Edward Leach, Sir Samuel Sleigh, Sir John Gell, Nicholas -Leeke, John Mundy, Robert Wilmot, Christopher Horton, James Abney, -Anthony Morewood, and Robert Eyre. Among the High Sheriffs under the -Commonwealth after this date were John Stanhope, of Elvaston, George -Sitwell, of Renishaw, and John Ferrers, of Walton. - -On the other hand there were many staunch loyalists in the county, who -compounded heavily for their estates. Such were Sir Aston Cokayne, -Lord Chesterfield, Lord Francis Deincourt, Sir Henry Every, Sir John -Harpur, of Swarkeston, Sir John Harpur, of Calke, Sir Henry Hunloke, -Sir Francis Rodes, Thomas Leeke, Roland and George Eyre, William -Fitzherbert, Henry Gilbert, and Jervase Pole, of Wakebridge. - -Among the great store of county muniments at Derby, there are few -papers that bring before the mind the incidents of the great civil -strife more vividly than the petitions from maimed soldiers addressed -to the Quarter Sessions for relief. Thus, in 1649, John Matthew, of -Loscoe, stated:— - - “that yor petitioner was a soldier under the Comand of Captaine - Bagshaw at Wingfield Mannour, & was there plundered by the Cavileirs - of all the goods he had, since which it pleased God to strike yr - petitioner with lamenesse, that he is not able to help himselfe - further than hee is carried. That hee hath two small children & his - wife, & have sould theire Cow & all theire household goods & apparell - to buy them bread & other sustenance etc.” - -The petitioner obtained a pension of 12d. a week, which seems to have -been the usual rate. After the Restoration the old Parliamentary -pensioners were discarded, and their place taken by those who had -fought on the other side. - -Notwithstanding the Parliamentary convictions of the majority of the -inhabitants of Derbyshire, it is scarcely to be wondered that the -county returned with some eagerness to the monarchical faith at the -time of the Restoration, for its experiences of the evils of civil -warfare had been so peculiarly bitter. The Bill of Indemnity dealt -fairly generously with the large majority of those who had been in -arms against the late King, or active in the administration of the -Commonwealth. No one can be surprised that the extreme penalty of -the law was exacted on all those who had sat in judgment on Charles -I., and who had not fled the country. It is, however, specially -revolting to remember that the bodies of the three leading men among -the “regicides”—Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton—were dragged from their -graves, hung at the three corners of the gallows erected to grace the -anniversary of Charles’ death, cut down and beheaded in the evening, -and the heads spiked in front of Westminster Hall. The last two of -these distinguished men were of good Derbyshire families. - -It is difficult to know at what point to bring this historic sketch -to a close when dealing with the memorials of _old_ Derbyshire; nor -can more than a few more pages be spared for such a purpose. It may, -perhaps, be of some interest and permissible to chronicle with brevity -three more incidents of importance in connection with the history -of the shire, namely, (1) the Revolution of 1688, (2) the invasion -of Derbyshire by Prince Charles in 1745, and (3) the “Pentrich -insurrection,” as it has been absurdly termed, of 1817. - -Derbyshire, in the person of William Cavendish, fourth Earl and -first Duke of Devonshire, may be said to have probably taken the -most prominent part in the driving of James II. from his throne, and -in the bringing to this country as his successor William of Orange. -There can be no doubt that Cavendish eventually became thoroughly and -conscientiously convinced as to the true patriotism of the course -that he took; but it would be idle to pretend that this distinguished -nobleman indulged in his first dislike of James for other than personal -motives. William Cavendish was one of the four young noblemen who -carried the train of Charles II. at his coronation in 1661. In that -year he was returned to Parliament for Derby, and remained a member of -the Commons until his father’s death in 1684. He was a man of hasty and -most vehement temper; becoming embroiled in a threatened duel in 1675, -he was committed to the Tower by the majority of the House for a short -period for having broken privilege. From that moment Cavendish took an -active part against the court party, and advocated the exclusion from -the succession of the Duke of York. After James II.’s accession, the -Earl had the bad grace to give way to his fiery temper just outside -the King’s Presence Chamber, when he felled to the ground one Colonel -Colepepper, who was said to have previously insulted him. For this -offence Cavendish was brought before the King’s Bench, when he was -fined in the gigantic sum of £30,000, being committed to prison until -payment was made. It is said that his mother, the Countess, brought to -James II. bonds of Charles I. for double that amount, lent to him by -the Derbyshire Cavendishes during the Civil War. The King, however, -refused to interfere, but the Earl managed to escape, and fled to his -house at Chatsworth. So powerful was Cavendish’s influence over his -tenantry, that when the High Sheriff and his posse arrived to arrest -him, the Earl coolly turned the tables upon them, imprisoned the whole -force at Chatsworth, and held them there until he had arranged for his -liberty by giving a bond for the gradual payment of this fine. - -The earl used his retirement in Derbyshire in furthering the plots -for placing William of Orange on the throne, dispatching an agent in -May, 1687, to make a direct offer to William on behalf of himself -and other malcontent noblemen. The conspiracy came to a head in this -county, the leaders choosing for their place of meeting a room in -a small hostelry on the edge of Whittington Moor, near Chesterfield, -still known as the Plotting Parlour. The name of this humble inn was -changed, after William and Mary came to the throne, from the “Cock -and Pynot” to “Revolution” Inn; its restored remnants are now named -Revolution House. The original scheme was that William was to land in -the north, when Cavendish was at once to seize Nottingham. But these -plans were changed, and when the news reached the Midlands that William -had landed at Torbay on 5th November, 1688, the Earl of Devonshire put -himself at the head of 800 armed friends and retainers, and entered -Derby on the 21st of November, when he declared for the Prince of -Orange. He obtained some support, but the mayor (John Cheshire) refused -to sanction the billeting of the earl’s troops. Thereupon Cavendish -proceeded to Nottingham, where he met with more general support, -and issued a proclamation justifying the raising and drilling of -troops. The new sovereign naturally lavished his favours on his chief -supporter. The earl was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire in May, -1689, in place of the deposed Earl of Huntingdon, and in 1694 he was -created Duke of Devonshire and Marquis of Hartington. - -[Illustration: Revolution House at Whittington. - -_(From “Gentleman’s Magazine,” vol. lxxx, part 2, page 609.)_] - -There was a considerable remnant of Jacobite feeling in the county, -particularly amongst the clergy, in the earlier part of the eighteenth -century. The Stuart rising of 1715, which came to an end at Preston, -caused much stir in Derbyshire, and there were several small tumults in -the county town. The town of Derby became much distinguished in 1745 as -the furthest place in England to which the brave Prince Charles Edward -with his little army penetrated, in what has been rightly termed a -gallant effort to achieve the impossible. There is no doubt that a very -considerable majority of the upper and middle classes of Derbyshire -were on the side of the constituted powers as then established; but -the local authorities were fully aware that there was a certain -amount of faith in a direct monarchical descent still current, and -they were in some doubts as to the views of others in a district such -as North Derbyshire, where there was still a considerable minority of -adherents to Roman Catholicism. They did not dare, therefore, to call -out the militia or any general forces of the county; but at a meeting -summoned by the Duke of Devonshire on the 28th of September, at the -“George Inn,” Derby, it was resolved to raise 600 volunteers in two -companies to resist the pretensions of a “Popish Pretender,” of which -the Marquis of Hartington and Sir Nathaniel Curzon, the two knights of -the shire, were to be colonels. A subscription list for the necessary -funds soon reached a sum of upwards of £6,000, and in the course of the -next month the number of troops raised was increased to a thousand. On -December 12th these troops were reviewed in the forenoon at Derby by -the Duke as Lord-Lieutenant. An hour later an express reached Derby -that the vanguard of the Scots had entered Ashbourne, whereupon in the -afternoon, to the astonishment of many, the local troops were again -drawn up in the market-place, and at ten in the evening “marched off by -torchlight to Nottingham, headed by His Grace the Duke of Devonshire.” -On the following morning the Scots entered Derby, and though they -tarried there for two days, the Derbyshire volunteers had no share in -their subsequent retreat and dispersion, for they were well out of the -way in the adjoining shire of Nottingham. An amusing and bitter skit -was written on the behaviour of this Derbyshire regiment, known as the -“Blues” from the colour of their uniform, wherein they were upbraided -for vanishing at the very moment when they were urgently needed. The -following is one of the concluding paragraphs:— - -“And when they came to Retford, they abode until word was brought -that the young man was returned from Derby by the way which he came. -And they returned back, and when they came nigh Derby they gave great -shouts, saying, ‘Hail, Derby! happy are we to behold thee, for we -greatly feared never to have seen thee.’” - -The Prince was proclaimed in the market-place, and a sum of £3,000 -was seized from the excise offices. On the following morning a French -priest celebrated Mass in All Saints’ Church after the Roman use, which -is said to have annoyed the English Catholics, who used the Marian -missal in their private chapels. The Stuart forces quartered in Derby -on the first night numbered 7,098, and on the second night 7,148. -A small vanguard pushed on as far as Swarkeston bridge, but on the -third day, the 6th December, the prince, disappointed of the expected -additions to his forces and war chest, ordered a retreat, and the -little army again passed through Ashbourne to the north. - -To this county belongs the discredit of being the last place in the -provinces where that horrible medley of butchery and torture—“hung, -drawn, and quartered”—which our forefathers invented as a penalty for -high treason, was carried out, although happily in a somewhat modified -form. The actually last instance occurred in 1820, when the five Cato -Street conspirators were beheaded after being hung. This shocking -form of death fell to the lot of a Derbyshire framework knitter and -two stonemasons in 1817. This was the time when the distress amongst -the working classes in the Midlands had come to a climax, when -every project of constitutional reform was stifled, and when a few -half-starved men, deliberately incited by the spies and informers -of those in authority, planned an abjectly foolish but riotous and -murderous scheme to obtain relief, which was hatched at the “White -Horse” Inn, Pentrich. The two or three score of labourers who took part -in this rising were almost instantly scattered by the yeomanry; but the -policy of the Government seems to have been to use this instrument -to terrify the populace at large, and thereby to crush all attempts -at reform. Hence everything was done that could be to exaggerate the -so-called rebellion, and although the misguided ringleaders richly -deserved punishment at the hands of the ordinary authority, it seems -monstrous to have charged the offenders with high treason, and with the -crime of levying war against the King. However, a special commission of -four judges was appointed, and the trials at Derby, which extended over -ten days, began on 15th of October. Most of the forty-six prisoners -were condemned to transportation, but three of the ringleaders, James -Brandreth, William Turner, and Isaac Ludlam, received the capital -sentence for high treason. The Prince Regent signed the warrant for -the execution of these three “traitors,” drawn from the humblest -station in life, remitting that part of the sentence which related to -“quartering,” with other absolutely unspeakable details, but ordering -the hanging, drawing, and beheading. Two axes were ordered of Bamford, -a smith of Derby, the pattern being taken from one in the Tower, which -was supposed to have served in like cases. - -On the morning of Friday, the seventh of November, the three miserable -men, heavily ironed, were jolted round the prison yard on a horse-drawn -hurdle or sledge, prepared, like the block, by Finney, the town joiner. -On mounting the scaffold in front of the county jail, Brandreth and his -fellows briefly testified that they had been brought to this plight by -the tempting of Oliver, the degraded Government spy. They hung from the -gallows for half an hour. Brandreth’s body was the first taken down and -placed on the block. The greatest difficulty had been experienced in -finding an executioner, but at last the high fee of twenty-five guineas -secured several applicants. The chosen headsman was a Derbyshire -collier; he was masked, and his identity was never disclosed. The -mutilation was bungled; but when accomplished, the executioner seized -the head by the hair, and holding it at arm’s length in three -different directions over the crowd, thrice proclaimed, “Behold the -head of the traitor Jeremiah Brandreth.” The other two were served in -like manner. The scaffold was surrounded by a strong force of cavalry -with drawn swords, and several companies of infantry were also present. -The dense crowd was quite over-awed, and could utter no other protest -than “terrifying shrieks.” - -In that crowd was the poet Shelley. The day before the execution, -the Princess Charlotte died in childbirth, and Shelley seized the -opportunity to write a vigorous and now most rare pamphlet drawing a -contrast between the two deaths. - -The block on which these three men were beheaded is still preserved in -the new county gaol at Derby. It consists of two 2½ in. planks fastened -together, and measures 6 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. Six inches from one end a -piece of wood 3 in. high is nailed across. The whole is tarred over, -but the wood, strangely enough, remains damp in places. A tradition -used to be current that the block sweated every seventh of November, on -the anniversary of the execution; the writer visited it on that day in -1888, and found no difference in the sweating to what he had noticed in -the previous week. - -With Derbyshire during the century that has elapsed since the time of -this absurdly misnamed Pentrich “insurrection,” we have now no concern. -Its history during that period has been on the whole peaceful, and, -in the best sense of the word, progressive. When in times to come the -story of Derbyshire in the nineteenth century comes to be written, -there can be no doubt that one name will stand out in letters of gold -above its fellows. Florence Nightingale, now in her eighty-eighth -year, was the younger daughter of Mr. William E. Nightingale, of Lea -Hurst, near Matlock. It would be impossible to exaggerate the talent, -energy, and devotion which that lady displayed in her almost impossible -task of mitigating the horrors that overtook our sick and wounded -soldiers in the great Russian war. It is not too much to say that this -one gentle-born lady has entirely changed the conditions of military -and general hospital nursing, not only in England, but throughout the -civilised world. The Geneva Convention and the wearing of the Red Cross -are but some of the fruits of this Derbyshire lady’s noble example. - -May it also be permitted in a single brief sentence to record the -fact that Derbyshire of the twentieth century has had the honour of -giving Chancellors to each of our two great universities—for the Duke -of Devonshire has for some time held the office of Chancellor of -Cambridge, whilst Lord Curzon of Kedleston, the late Viceroy of India, -was elected Chancellor of Oxford in March, 1907. - - - - -PREHISTORIC BURIALS IN DERBYSHIRE - -By John Ward, F.S.A. - - -In prehistoric remains, Derbyshire is singularly favoured, and for -two reasons. In the first place, nearly every class of these remains -is represented, notably the following: cave-remains, burial-mounds, -circles, camps, villages and other habitation sites, and the doubtful -rocking-stones and other curious blocks and masses of rock which have -been regarded as rock-idols or as otherwise associated with prehistoric -man. In the second place, three of these classes—the first three of the -above enumeration—are both numerous and important, scarcely surpassed -by the corresponding remains of any other county in Great Britain. -Moreover, these various remains have received the careful attention of -a succession of antiquaries during the last century-and-a-half, and a -large number of them have been more or less systematically explored, -with the result that their literature is extensive and important. -Derbyshire, indeed, has played a prominent part in the elucidation of -the prehistoric archæology of our country. - -Before entering upon the subject of this article, the distribution -of these remains in the county demands a few words. They are most -numerous in the mountainous region which lies north of Ashbourne and -Wirksworth, and west of Tansley, Darley, and East Moors. They are -rarely met with in the more gently undulating country to the east -and south. Why this should be is not altogether clear. It is probable -that the valleys and the low-lying lands generally, which are now the -most populated, were in prehistoric times too swampy for habitation; -but this does not explain the general absence of prehistoric remains -from the higher tracts of the lowlands of Derbyshire. It has been -suggested that the primitive inhabitants clung to the more mountainous -regions because of the ease with which they could be defended against -the marauding incursions of other tribes. It is more likely, however, -that agriculture is mainly responsible for the uneven distribution. The -fertile higher tracts of the lowlands have long been under cultivation, -whereas many of the Peak uplands still remain in the primal state of -nature, and many more of them have only been wrested from that state -within the last two centuries. One of the earlier effects of the -enclosing of the wastes in the eighteenth century and earlier decades -of the following century, was the removal of the large stones of -ancient monuments for gate-posts, and the despoiling of stone tumuli -for the construction of field-walls and roads. Even on the moors it -is rare that these remains have escaped partial demolition for the -sake of their materials. If the havoc wrought during two centuries -in the sparsely inhabited Peak country has been so great, it is not -surprising that few prehistoric remains are to be seen where the -land has been for a much longer time under cultivation. Probably -the relative abundance or scarcity of stone is also to some extent -accountable for the distribution. In the Peak, where stone is plentiful -and rock-fragments strew the ground, cairns or stone tumuli abound; -but in the south, where clays, marls, and glacial deposits abound, and -stone is only obtained by quarrying, the few remaining tumuli are of -earth. Earthwork, if left alone, is wonderfully enduring, but is highly -susceptible of being levelled, and so obliterated, by the plough. The -plough cuts through it as easily as through the natural soil; whereas -in the Peak may often be seen the stony bases of cairns, covered with -brambles, and avoided by the ploughman. - -It is scarcely necessary to say that cairns, barrows, or tumuli, -are, archæologically, the names applied to ancient burial-mounds. -How the earliest races of men disposed of their dead we do not know; -but we know that the earliest stages of civilization were everywhere -characterized by a marked consideration for the dead, and this -represents the strongest and perhaps ultimate difference between man -and beast. When Neolithic man first appeared in our island, he already -had an elaborate system of sepulture, and the megalithic chambers he -raised are the greatest monuments of his age, and are among the most -notable remains of prehistoric times. The Pyramids of Egypt are but -barrows on a colossal scale, and constructed with all the engineering -skill and refinement of a higher stage of culture than obtained in the -west of Europe, and they will probably outlast all the other works of -the ancient Egyptians. - -It is not difficult to understand why burial under mounds should have -preceded burial in the ground. In primitive times, before man possessed -metal tools, it was easier to collect stones from the waste or to -scrape sand or soil from the surface, wherewith to make a heap, than -to dig a hole. Hence it is that in the tumuli of the Neolithic Age, -and many of those of the following Bronze Age, interments are found -upon or above the old ground level; while in others of the latter -age, and many subsequent tumuli, they are found in shallow or deep -excavations, over which the mounds were raised. To the early Christians -the tumuli savoured of paganism, and soon ceased to be raised, but we -have a reminiscence of the ancient mode of burial in our word “tomb.” -In our country, as in the west of Europe generally, they range from -Neolithic times to the establishment of Christianity, and the study -of their contents better enables us to bridge the long interval with -the successive advances made by man than does that of any other class -of contemporary remains. In Derbyshire this is eminently the case, and -perhaps no other English county can furnish so continuous a series of -ancient interments. - -In this county, as also in the contiguous parts of Staffordshire, a -barrow is popularly known as a “low,” from the Anglo-Saxon _hlaew_, a -small hill, heap, or mound, a word which is a frequent component in the -place-names, as in Ward_low_, Blake_low_, etc. The conspicuous barrows -at these and many other places so named, leave little room for doubt -that they are accountable for the names, and that when absent the names -may be regarded as evidence for their former existence. Whether the -evidence in the case of hills, so many of the names of which in the -Peak end in _low_, is of the same value is not so clear, as the hill -itself may have been regarded as a “low” on a large scale. But it is -well known that Neolithic and Bronze man had a decided penchant for -burying his dead on the tops and brows of hills, as the pimple-like -profile of many a barrow in such situations in the Peak amply proves. -It may well have been, then, that the name by which a “low” on a hill -was known has become transferred to the hill itself. It is impossible -to estimate the number of these ancient burial-mounds in Derbyshire. -The experienced eye will often detect on the moors the slight rise on -the surface which may represent one, unmarked on the Ordnance Survey, -and unrecognised as of possible archæological interest. The large -number of _low_ names, where no traces of these mounds are now to be -seen, indicates that many have disappeared, as also does the occasional -chance discovery of a cist or a cinerary urn where nothing on the -surface indicated an interment. The number of prehistoric burial places -(the Roman and post-Roman do not come within the scope of this article) -which have been discovered in the county and _described_ is little -short of 300. - -[Illustration: Fig. 1.—Plan and Section of Chambered Tumulus, Five -Wells, Derbyshire.] - -The first impression that the literature of these remains gives rise -to is their great diversity, a diversity which the reader will not -unnaturally associate with differences of age or of race, or of both -combined; but he will soon find their classification a difficult -task. Very few of those which have been explored were in a reasonably -perfect condition to begin with, and then the explorations have often -been insufficient, and the descriptions vague and inexact. In spite -of these drawbacks, however, the Derbyshire barrows are susceptible -of satisfactory classification into three main divisions: (1) a small -number containing megalithic chambers, and with general consent -assigned to the Neolithic Age; (2) a large and varied number which -belong to the Bronze Age; and (3) a few which are of later age, some of -which certainly synchronize with the Roman occupation. These groups, it -should be mentioned, merge into one another by transitional characters, -and there is a residue which, from insufficient data, cannot be -assigned to any particular class. - - -Neolithic Barrows - -Including several more or less doubtful examples, there are or have -been within the last century, remains of about a dozen barrows -containing “chambers” in the county. Three of these—at Five Wells, -near Taddington, and at Mininglow and Harborough Rocks, near -Brassington—have yielded good results to exploration. All three were -unfortunately in an extremely ruined condition, but by piecing together -their evidence a fair idea can be obtained of their original state. - -The Five Wells example (figs. 1 and 2) was excavated by Mr. Salt, -of Buxton, and the writer, in 1899.[1] The remaining lower portion -of the mound was found to be circular, about 56 feet in diameter, -and constructed of quarried stones roughly laid in courses, and so -disposed at the margin as to form a wall-like podium, which remained -in places to the height of three feet. Near the middle are still to -be seen the remains of two chambers, each about six feet long, and -constructed of great slabs of stone resting on the old natural surface. -Each had a paved floor, and was reached by a tunnel-like passage or -gallery, of similar construction to the chambers, from a porthole-like -entrance in the podium. Each chamber is somewhat wedge-shaped, the -wider end being that into which the gallery opened, and immediately -within this end are two pillar-like stones, one on each side, which -structurally formed the last pair of side stones of the gallery; but -they differed in their greater height. The use of these “pillars” is -uncertain, but the writer has suggested that between each pair was a -dropstone, which when raised, portcullis-fashion, to allow of access to -the chamber, was received into an upper space. - -[1] _Reliquary and Illustrated Archæologist_, vii., 229. - -The Mininglow example is larger, is also circular, and appears to -have had five chambers, of which two (figs. 4 and 5) closely resemble -the above, except that they seem to have lacked the “pillars.” Mr. -Thomas Bateman, who examined this tumulus in 1843, found that it had a -wall-like podium as at Five Wells, and he traced one of the galleries -to its orifice in this podium. Had he pushed his investigations -further, it is probable he would have found the mound to be of similar -built construction.[2] The Harborough Rocks barrow was excavated by the -writer in 1889, but it was too ruined to allow of its shape and the -number of its chambers to be determined. One chamber (fig. 3), however, -remained, and this also resembled those at Five Wells, but it is -doubtful whether it ever possessed “pillars.” A portion of the gallery -was traced, as also what was almost certainly a fragment of a podium.[3] - -[2] _Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire_, 39; _Ten Years’ -Diggings_, 54, 82. - -[3] _Journal_ of Derbyshire Archæo. and Nat. Hist. Soc., xii., 118. - -[Illustration: Fig. 2. East Chamber at Five Wells. View From the -North-East.] - -Of the other barrows of the type, little can be said of their -structure. Several have been opened or destroyed by labourers, and the -rest have only been slightly examined. Mr. Bateman examined examples -at Ringham-low, near Monyash; Bolehill, near Bakewell; Stoneylow and -Greenlow, near Brassington; Smerrill, near Youlgreave; and a second -one at Mininglow. They all appear to have been constructed with stone, -and their chambers to have been on a megalithic scale. He makes no -mention of galleries, but as his efforts were confined to clearing out -the ruined chambers, he might easily have overlooked their remains. -With the exception of the first-mentioned, they were all circular, but -his plan and description of that barrow leave it uncertain whether its -curious outline was original or due to additions. The remaining three -barrows—the great one near Chelmerton,[4] one near Wardlow,[5] and one -on Derwent Moor,[6] have only a doubtful claim to be included in the -chambered class. They were broken into a century or more ago, and the -accounts of them are very meagre. - -[4] _Pilkington_, _View of Derbyshire_, ii., 424. - -[5] _Philosoph. Trans._, 1759. - -[6] _Ten Years’ Diggings_, 254. - -Unfortunately, all the chambers in this county which have been -searched from scientific motives had already been rifled, but that at -Harborough Rocks had suffered least. Here the mound had been almost -entirely removed for the sake of its materials, the capstone of the -chamber had been thrown over, and many of the skeletons it contained -scattered; but, fortunately, six of these remained untouched. These -were laid on their sides across the space, in the usual contracted or -doubled-up attitude. Mr. Bateman, in 1843, found in the more perfect -of the two Five Wells chambers the remains of about twelve skeletons, -all in a state of confusion. He also found a similar number in one -of the Ringham-low[7] chambers, and in that at Smerrill, and a still -greater number at Stoney-low.[8] The chambers at Mininglow and -Greenlow had been too much rifled to yield more than a few scattered -bones to his spade. In the Wardlow barrow seventeen skeletons were -found, “inclosed by two side walls”; and from that on Derwent Moor a -“cartload of human bones occupied a large trench above a yard wide.” -The skulls in every case, when sufficiently perfect for their form to -be made out, have been of the long or dolichocephalic shape; and all -the shin bones that have come under the writer’s notice have exhibited -the peculiar flattening known as platycnemism. These Neolithic people -had a remarkable immunity from dental caries, although the teeth are -frequently so worn down by mastication that they must have been almost -level with the gums in life. Out of 148 teeth at Harborough Rocks, many -of which were excessively ground down, there were only five or six -which showed any signs of caries. - -[7] _Ten Years’ Diggings_, 93. - -[8] _Vestiges_, 46. - -In no case has a bronze or other metallic object been found associated -with these interments. The few stone implements which have been found -are all of flint, and it is significant that these have consisted -mostly of thin and delicately-worked arrow-heads of leaf-shaped form. -The clayey floor of the gallery at Harborough Rocks yielded several of -these, all excessively thin and beautifully wrought, all either broken -or calcined, and associated with fragments of charcoal. Several fine -examples were found in two of the Ringham-low chambers, and the point -of one at Five Wells; and, in addition, a knife of delicate workmanship -was also found with the last, as also fragments of coarse pottery, but -these may have been derived from destroyed later burials at a higher -level. - -[Illustration: Fig. 3. - -Fig. 4. - -Fig. 5. - -Figs. 3, 4, and 5.—Plans of “Chambers.” Fig. 3, at Harborough Rocks; -Figs. 4 and 5, at Mininglow, Derbyshire.] - -This association of numerous skeletons, dolichocephalic skulls, and -leaf-shaped arrow-heads in Neolithic chambers has been observed -elsewhere in Britain. We need only cross the Derbyshire border a few -miles for an excellent example of this. In 1849 a large and little -disturbed chamber was opened at Wetton, in Staffordshire, which -yielded about thirteen dolichocephalic skeletons and several of these -arrow-heads. Further afield, at Rodmarton, in Gloucestershire, the -arrow-heads were all broken, apparently intentionally, as seems to have -been the case at Harborough Rocks. The placing of things which are -useful in life with the dead is both ancient and widespread, and has -its roots in the belief in man’s continued existence after death, and -that somehow they will still be of use to him. The breaking or burning -of them may have been partly to render them useless to the living, and -partly by thus “killing” them to set their spirits free to join the -departed in the world of spirits. Perhaps, too, there was a sacrificial -intention of propitiating the ancestral spirits. The presence of the -arrow-heads in the gallery at Harborough Rocks is more suggestive of -offerings to the dead than the depositing of objects with them at the -burial. Some prehistoric man would, perhaps, for reasons best known to -himself, crawl into the entrance to the vault of the family or the clan -and there make his offering, and with some appropriate formula dedicate -it to the dead by breaking or burning the objects, the enduring -arrow-heads and charcoal alone remaining to us as witnesses of the act. -The thinness and delicacy of these arrow-heads suggest that they were -made, not for use, but for this special purpose, like the amber and jet -models of implements which have been found in Continental chambers. -A further stage, in which the act has become degraded into a purely -representative one, is seen in the imitation cardboard money which the -Chinaman burns to enrich the soul of his ancestor. - -Assuming that the less known examples correspond with the better -known, which seems probable, these Derbyshire Neolithic burial-places -constitute, in their circular outlines and their abrupt entrances, -a strongly marked local type, contrasting in these respects with -the more usual elongated forms and incurved entrances elsewhere. -The wedge-shaped plans and inward leaning sides of the chambers -at Mininglow, Five Wells, and Harborough Rocks, present another -peculiarity. The apparent absence of galleries in some of these remains -may not be due to oversight or want of investigation, as this means of -access has been proved to be absent from some of the barrows of this -period; but it seems to be an essential that the chamber should have -some means of access, even if it involved digging, for the whole trend -of enquiry goes to show that it was designed for successive burials, -and herein it differs from the cists of the barrows we next consider. - - -Bronze Age Barrows - -The barrows of this era in Derbyshire, as elsewhere, differ so much -among themselves in form, size, construction, and contents, that it -is impossible to establish a Bronze Age “type.” They have little in -common, except in the relics associated with their interments, which -have the impress of a common age. Compared with the chambered class, -they are, as a rule, smaller and of less elaborate construction; but -more marked is the difference in their internal arrangements. The -former barrows suggest the idea that they were erected _to receive_ -the dead; these, that they were _piled up_ over the dead. The chamber, -being designed to receive successive interments, was provided with -a tunnel-like gallery, or other means of more or less easy access; -whereas the Bronze Age cist or grave, having received its charge, -was permanently closed, and if the mound which was raised over it -was used for future burials, new receptacles were made for the dead, -which rarely interfered with the primary or original one. Sometimes, -however, in digging a new grave the primary was reached, and more -often than not the bones were thrown on one side to make way for the -new interment, thus indicating how completely the Neolithic procedure -had disappeared. - -The results of the examination of about 250 of the Derbyshire Bronze -Age barrows have been placed upon record, and these represent about -three times as many interments which have been described—by “interment” -must be understood, not the remains of each separate body buried, but -_each burial_, whether it consisted of one body or more. - -So far as can be judged from the usually worn down and mutilated -condition of these Derbyshire barrows, the prevailing original form -was that of a shallow dome or inverted bowl, but various transitions -ending with the disc-shaped types of Dr. Thurnam occur. Their outlines -are circular, unless rendered irregular by the addition of secondary -mounds or the depredations of a still later age. Their usual diameters -range between 30 and 60 feet, and the heights rarely exceed 6 feet; but -these dimensions are occasionally less or greater. With few exceptions, -the mounds are of stone, or of stone with an admixture of earth; but -whether the latter is an original ingredient is often uncertain—it may -be merely blown earth and vegetable mould. Broadly speaking, therefore, -these Bronze Age barrows are cairns. In most instances they consist -of such stones as may be gathered from the surface, simply thrown -together. A slight advance upon this is the introduction of a kerb of -larger stones to define the margin of the mound (fig. 6). In a further -advance, the kerb is formed of one or more rings of large, flat stones -set on edge in the ground and inclining inwards. In a still further -advance, the whole mound may be built up of concentric rings of such -inclined stones. The barrow on Grinlow[9] (on which the tower known -as “Solomon’s Temple” stands), near Buxton, showed this construction -(fig. 7). In the kerbed barrows, the partial removal of the looser -materials of the central portion may result in a table-like mound, the -kerb forming a well-marked shoulder; and if the destructive process has -gone further, this may stand out verge-like—results which have been -mistaken for original designs. Examples of all these are to be met with -in Derbyshire. - -[9] _Proceedings_, Society of Antiquaries, 1895. - -These barrows, again, are sometimes surrounded with a bank or a ring of -stones, or a combination of the two. That known as Hob Hurst’s House, -on Baslow Moor,[10] is closely invested with an annular bank, and the -writer has seen a similar example on Eyam Moor. In others, the bank is -further away, and is usually capped or lined with a row of standing -stones, a few feet or yards apart. There was formerly a good example -of this variety on Abney Moor, and others on Eyam Moor with rings -apparently of stones only. As the ring expanded, the enclosed mound -seems to have been smaller, and consequently more easily removed by the -accidents of time; and this probably explains the origin of the smaller -so-called “Druidical” circles.[11] - -[10] _Ten Years’ Diggings_, 87. - -[11] See article, “Early Man,” _Victoria History_, Derbyshire. - -[Illustration: Fig. 6.—Section of Barrow at Flaxdale, near Youlgreave. - -(_From wood-cut by Llewellynn Jewitt_.)] - -[Illustration: Fig. 7.—Section of Barrow at Grinlow, near Buxton.] - -[Illustration: Fig. 8.—Plan of Burial at Thirkelow, near Buxton.] -During the period we are considering, both inhumation and cremation -were practised, sometimes together. The placing of the interments was -as diverse as the forms and construction of the barrows. For the moment -we will confine ourselves to the inhumated class. In the simplest mode -of burial, the body was laid on the ground and the mound heaped over -it. But often, perhaps usually, something was done to fence it in, -or to protect it from the material of the mound. The simplest fence -consisted of a row of stones placed round the body (as in the plan of -the interment of a barrow at Thirkelow, near Buxton, fig. 8[12]), and -between this and the symmetrical enclosure, formed of flag-stones -set on edge, has been found every transition. When it was desired to -protect the body from the weight of the mound above, a simple device -was to place it at the foot of a large stone or a ledge of rock, -against which flat stones were reared pent-wise over it; or large -stones were made to incline against one another from opposite sides, -like a gable roof. From these simple devices we pass through another -series of transitions to the box-like cist, formed of slabs on end and -roofed with others. Then there was burial in a grave, shallow or deep, -large or small, simply filled up with earth or stones, or roofed with -one or more flag-stones to form a vault; and the vault, when lined -with other flag-stones, became an underground cist. Examples of all -these modes of burial have been found in Derbyshire, where, from the -abundance of stone, cists are numerous. We know that timber was used -for like purposes where stone is scarce, and there is indirect evidence -for its occasional use in this county. - -[12] _Proc._ Soc. Ant., 1896. - -What has been said above, will apply in some measure to the cremated -interments. Occasionally these are found in cists, graves, and other -receptacles, as large as those containing unburnt skeletons; but more -frequently they are smaller and better proportioned to the small -compass of the remains. Probably the larger receptacles relate to the -early days of cremation, when it was a new fashion; to-day, by force -of habit, we occasionally transfer the few handfuls of ashes from -the crematorium to an ordinary coffin instead of an urn for burial. -Generally speaking, however, the disposal of the cremated remains -differed considerably from that of unburnt bodies. When the funeral -pile was raised on the spot where the burial was to take place, it was -the common custom to collect the calcined bones into a little heap on -the surface, or to place them in a shallow depression made before or -after the burning. In either case, they were sometimes deposited on a -flat stone, and there is reason to think that they were often first -tied up in a cloth or placed in a basket. This would be especially -convenient when they had to be transferred to a different site for -burial from that where the body was burned, as seems to have been more -often the case in Derbyshire. A more notable receptacle for the burnt -remains was the cinerary urn, which may be regarded as the equivalent -of both the cloth or basket and of the cist. The urn was usually -deposited in a simple hole, and most often, in this county, upright, -the mouth being nearly always covered with a thin stone. When reversed, -the mouth usually rested upon such a stone. - -The regard of the Derbyshire Bronze people for their dead sometimes—and -perhaps more often than we suspect—went beyond the mere provision of -a protection from the surrounding soil or stones. Occasionally the -receptacle was paved, or it contained gravel, clay, or fine earth or -sand, on which the body was laid, or in which it was embedded. On -Stanton and Hartle moors several cists containing cremated remains were -filled with sand, which in one rested on a bed of heather.[13] In a -grave at Shuttlestone,[14] near Parwich, the body had been wrapped in -a skin, and laid upon a couch of fern leaves. In another, near King’s -Sterndale,[15] there was tenacious clay mixed with grass and leaves, -which still retained their greenness. The presence of these perishable -substances, which under ordinary conditions must have soon disappeared, -may represent a general custom. - -[13] See _Vestiges_ and _Ten Years’ Diggings_. - -[14] _Ten Years’ Diggings_, 34. - -[15] _Proc._ Soc. Ant., 1899. - -The dead were evidently buried or cremated, as the case may have been, -in their wearing apparel, for the pins, buttons, studs, weapons, and -the like, which are frequently found with the unburnt remains, are -often in the relative positions they would occupy on the attire; and -in case of the burnt, they have almost invariably passed through the -fiery ordeal. - -[Illustration: Fig. 9.—Dolichocephalic Skull from “Chamber” at -Harborough Rocks. Side and Top Views. (Scale = ⅓.)] - -Barrow burial in Derbyshire, as elsewhere, was not confined to one -sex or to any particular age. The remains of women and children are -found in graves and cists as carefully constructed and associated -with implements and ornaments as varied and elaborate as those which -appertain to the men, indicating, surely, that the family tie was -strong, and that the lot of the women was not servile. The frequency -with which an infant is associated with an adult, usually a woman, and -presumably the mother, probably points to infanticide upon the demise -of the parent. Similarly, the occasional presence of a woman’s remains -with those of a man points to suttee. More frequently a deposit of -cremated bones is associated with a skeleton, and this may possibly -represent the sacrifice of a slave. These in themselves, however, do -not necessarily indicate a state of savagery, as the recent prevalence -of suttee in India and of infanticide in China sufficiently prove. - -In the unburnt interments, the body was laid in a more or less -contracted posture, varying from a slight flexure of the knees to such -a doubling up as to bring them close to the chest, and nearly always on -the side, very rarely sitting. The contracted posture may be said to be -the invariable Bronze Age rule in Derbyshire, for the only exception—a -skeleton laid at full length at Crosslow[16]—may possibly have belonged -to a later period. The side on which the body was laid, and its -orientation, have in themselves no apparent signification, and are -irrespective of sex or age. To judge from the recorded instances, about -as many were laid on the left side as the right. Their orientation -shows a slight predilection for the south, and a more marked aversion -to the north-west. The Rev. Dr. Greenwell pointed out many years -ago[17] that in the majority of instances in the north of England -which came under his notice, the bodies had been so placed as to face -the sun during some part of the day, nearly 60 per cent. having their -gaze confined to southerly directions between the south-west and the -south-east. If we analyse the forty-four Derbyshire cases in which both -the orientation and the side are given, we obtain a similar result—the -faces of over 60 per cent. looking in directions ranging from west -to south-east. It seems clear that no importance was attached to the -direction of the body or the side upon which it was laid, except so far -as these enabled it to face the source of light and life; but it was -not a rule invariably insisted upon. - -[16] _Vestiges_, 57. - -[17] _British Barrows._ - -These skeletal remains throw an interesting light upon the contemporary -inhabitants of Derbyshire. Unfortunately, when Bateman was so actively -engaged in opening barrows, anthropology was in its infancy. He and his -colleagues rarely gave more than the cephalic index and femoral length, -and even these not always. The terms used in describing the skulls, -as “boat-shaped,” “oval and elevated,” “medium,” “rather short,” -“platycephalic,” “evenly rounded,” etc., do not admit of precise -interpretation, and probably no exact value was attached to them. From -all sources sufficient particulars of about 85 Bronze Age skulls found -in Derbyshire are available to allow of the following classification: - - Dolichocephalic skulls, approximately 16 - Mesaticephalic ” ” 25 - Brachycephalic ” ” 44 - -- - 85 - -This intermixture of skull-forms has long been observed in the barrows -of this age elsewhere in the country, and is generally recognized -as indicating the intrusion of a round-head people upon the Neolithic -long-heads, the intermediate form being the result of intermarriage -between the two stocks. The proportion of these different forms in -Derbyshire is of peculiar interest, because, as the Rev. Dr. Greenwell -pointed out in his _British Barrows_, the dolichocephalic and -brachycephalic skulls are found in about equal numbers in the barrows -of the wolds, whereas in those of the south-west of the island the -latter very greatly preponderate. Hence, in Derbyshire, the ratio, like -its geographical position, is roughly intermediate, and thus naturally -confirms his conclusion, “that the earlier long-headed people were more -completely eradicated by the intrusive round-heads in Wiltshire than -they were in East Yorkshire.” The general experience has been that the -brachycephalic skeletons indicate a race of more powerful physique than -the people with whom they intermingled. Assuming that the length of -the femur or thigh-bone is 27.5 per cent. of the stature in life, the -average stature of twenty-one men was 5 ft. 7⅓ ins., and of seven women -5 ft. 0½ ins. The difference between these statures, nearly 7 ins., -considerably exceeds that which obtains in England to-day, and must -probably be set down to the effects of early child-bearing and hard -work on a poor and irregular diet upon the Bronze women. - -[Illustration: Fig. 10.—Brachycephalic Skull from Grinlow. Side and Top -Views. (Scale = ⅓.)] - -The various objects associated with the interments have, as already -stated, the impress of a common age. The most remarkable are the -earthen vessels. Besides the cinerary urns referred to above, there -were vessels of other forms, which have received the names of -“drinking-cups,” “food-vases,” and “incense-cups.” The first two are -with little doubt rightly named, as both in Derbyshire and elsewhere -traces indicating the former presence of liquids and of solid foods -have been detected in them respectively. The use of the diminutive -“incense-cups” is unknown, and the name is a fanciful one. All these -vessels are of clay, with an admixture of sand or crushed stone to -prevent them cracking in the process of firing, and are shaped by hand -and imperfectly burnt. The ornamentation is essentially of the same -character in all, but it varies greatly in elaboration, consisting -of various combinations of straight lines, produced for the most -part by the impression of twisted thongs or rushes or of notched -stamps, or, less frequently, of grooves made with a pointed tool. -These combinations are extremely varied, consisting of simple bands -of parallel lines, parallel lines in alternate series, horizontal and -vertical, saltires, zig-zags, “herring-bone” and latticed diapers, etc. -Punched dots and impressions of the finger-nail or tip also occur, but -sparingly. The forms of the drinking-cups, food-vases, and cinerary -urns are tolerably constant in Derbyshire, but the little incense-cups -vary very much; these, too, are usually the most carefully made, while -the urns are, as a rule, the coarsest and the least decorated. In figs. -11 and 12 are shown Derbyshire examples of each kind, which will convey -a better idea of them than any description. - -[Illustration: Fig. 11.—Typical Examples of Bronze Age Burial Vessels, -Derbyshire. - - A—Drinking-Cups. B—Food-Vases. (Scale = 1/5 size of originals.) -] - -Flint implements, flakes, and fragments are the most frequent -accompaniments. The implements include all the ordinary forms of the -period: arrow, javelin and spear-heads, daggers, knives, scrapers, -fabricators, and chisels, of every grade of workmanship down to -nondescript-worked fragments of uncertain use. The majority of the -flint objects are, however, mere shapeless fragments and chippings, and -the frequent presence of these seems to indicate that the placing with -the dead of things useful in life had already begun to degenerate into -a merely symbolic ceremony. - -Bronze objects follow next, but a long way behind. Of these the most -numerous by far are knife-daggers, the rest consisting of awls, pins, -axes, or celts, etc., and mere fragments. The first are of the early -form, in which the blade was attached to the handle by two or three -rivets, and the axes are of the early flat or slightly flanged form. -Next come objects of bone and deer-horn; the former consisting mostly -of pins and borers, and the latter of hammers. Then follow jet and -Kimmeridge—coal beads, studs, and necklaces, several of these being of -elaborate character. Besides the above, drilled and polished basalt and -granite axe-hammers, whet-stones, rubbers, quartz pebbles, red ochre, -and iron ore are occasionally met with. The animal remains associated -with the interments are those of species still existing in Europe, and -they include the present domesticated animals—the ox, sheep, goat, pig, -horse, and dog. So frequently has a tooth, described as that of an ox -or a horse, been reported that there is little doubt its introduction -had some ceremonial import; perhaps, here again, it was a food offering -reduced to a representative symbol. - -Besides the various objects actually found with the interments, others -often occur amongst the materials of the mounds. Some of these may have -been unwittingly gathered up with the materials, and thus be of much -greater age than the barrows in which they are found; others may have -been casually dropped in after times, and have gravitated into the -interior. But a more fertile source of the scattered objects is the -disturbance of the earlier interments by the introduction of the later -ones. - -The objects described above fall into two, but not easily separated, -classes—those which were introduced with the wearing apparel of the -deceased, and those with ceremonial import. The vessels are a good -example of the latter, as they differed in a marked degree from those -used for domestic purposes. So also the animals’ bones, especially the -teeth just referred to, as they evidently (as also the drinking-cups -and food-vessels) imply offerings of food to the dead. The absence -of Roman influence is noteworthy, as also is the absence of articles -characteristic of the later Bronze Age, as swords, palstaves, and -socketed axes. The objects indicate in the aggregate a time when stone -implements were going out of use, and bronze was confined to a few -light implements. But it must not be assumed in consequence that the -barrows we are considering were confined to the earlier Bronze Age. - -The remarkable differences in the mode of interment, which have been -only sketchily described on the foregoing pages, present a highly -interesting problem to be solved. The prevailing view is that these -different modes were practised simultaneously by different tribes, -and even by the same people. The double interments, in which an -unburnt skeleton is associated with a deposit of cremated remains, -may seem to countenance the latter view, while the distribution of -the interments favours the former. For instance, in certain districts -certain modes prevailed. On and around Stanton Moor, and throughout the -country between Eyam, Castleton, and Sheffield, cremated interments -predominate, while in many parts of the west of the county the -interments are exclusively unburnt. Then, again, in barrows containing -many burials there is a decided partiality for like rather than unlike -interments. But if the phenomena are subjected to a careful and -systematic study, it will be found that these differences are neither -local nor tribal, but in the main consecutive. - -The problem is solved by the superposition and other evidences of -sequence of the different interments in those barrows which contain -several, with the comparison of the associated objects, and then by a -general correlation of the results derived from the individual barrows. -It is by a similar process that the geologist establishes the sequence -of his formations; the fossils playing the part of the associated -objects. The pottery is a peculiarly valuable factor in the enquiry, -as in spite of the conservatism of half-civilised people, the ease -with which the plastic clay can be modelled into any desired shape -resulted in comparatively rapid changes in form and decoration. In this -respect the pottery contrasted with the flint and stone implements, -the intractability of the materials of which limited the workman to a -narrow range of forms; hence these forms continued unchanged through -long periods. We will now give a few illustrations. - -[Illustration: Fig. 12.—Typical Examples of Bronze Age Burial Vessels, -Derbyshire. - - A—Incense-Cups. B—Cinerary Urns. (Scale = 1/5 size of originals.) -] - -In a barrow at Parcelly Hay[18] Mr. Bateman found a skeleton in a -vault, and immediately above its cover-stones was another, accompanied -with a bronze knife-dagger and a polished granite axe-hammer. Here -is a case of simple superposition, in which the older interment was -not disturbed by the later one. But frequently the later introduction -disturbed or quite displaced the earlier. At Gray Cop,[19] near -Monsal Dale, for instance, the original interment consisted of the -skeletons of a woman and a child; but at a later date the cremated -remains of another body had been buried so deeply that the woman’s -pelvic bones had been dispersed in the process. The havoc wrought by -the introduction of secondary interments is sometimes very confusing, -and has given rise to erroneous conclusions on the part of the -barrow-digger. In the two examples just cited, the earlier interment -was the primary one—the one over which the mound was raised in the -first instance—and it occupied the normal position, the centre of the -site. The secondary interments may or may not be in the centre. In a -small barrow at Lidlow,[20] near Youlgreave, for instance, the primary -interment was a skeleton in a cist, while near the margin of the mound -was a later deposit of burnt bones under a cinerary urn. In another at -Blakelow[21] a central grave contained the skeletons of a woman and -infant with a drinking-cup, while in a cist at a higher level near the -edge were six more skeletons with a food-vase. In another on Hartle -Moor[22] was a deposit of burnt bones with a food-vessel in the central -cist, and near the margin a cinerary urn with its contents. - -[18] _Ten Years’ Diggings_, 23. - -[19] _Reliquary_, 1867. - -[20] _Vestiges_, 33. - -[21] _Ten Years’ Diggings_, 41. - -[22] _Vestiges_, 72. - -It has occasionally happened, however, that no central interment has -been recorded. In some cases we may suspect that the explorers had -forgotten that the primary interment is sometimes in a deep grave below -the natural level. On the other hand, carelessness on the part of those -who originally raised the mound may account for the interment being out -of the centre. The same result has been brought about by additions to -the original mound upon the occasions of new interments, for the Bronze -folk were not always content with merely inserting these into an old -mound. Sometimes the additional matter formed a capping. A barrow on -Ballidon Moor[23] furnishes a good example of this; it had an inner -cairn containing several interments, and was surmounted with a thick -layer of earth, at the foot of which was an ashy stratum representing -the site of a funeral pile, while in the earth above were the cremated -remains derived from it. It was evident, therefore, that this capping -was added on this occasion. More often the later mound was thrown -up against the side of the old one. The smaller chambered cairn at -Mininglow[24] was found to have had a mound of earth cast up against -its side, and this had been raised over the spot where a man had been -cremated, with whose remains were a bronze dagger, part of a bone -implement, and some “good flints,” all of which had passed through the -fire with their owner; and at Five Wells, Mr. Salt found a secondary -interment of Bronze Age type, consisting of a contracted skeleton in -a small cist, which had been constructed against the podium of the -chambered cairn, and covered with stones and earth—two interesting -proofs of the greater age of the chambered tumuli. These additions are -not easily detected if their materials are similar to those of the -parent mounds, but their effect may be apparent in the superficial -irregularities they give rise to. Not a few Derbyshire examples could -be given which probably owe their irregularities to this cause. - -[23] _Ten Years’ Diggings_, 57. - -[24] _Ibid._ - -These illustrations will have given the reader an idea how the -sequence of interments is determined. Many years ago the writer -tabulated the sequences in all the Derbyshire (including the -Staffordshire) barrows containing more than one interment each, of -which reliable information was obtainable. When those associated with -vessels, other than cinerary urns, were classified, some significant -results were obtained. The distribution of the vessels was as follows: - - Twenty-nine drinking-cups, all associated with unburnt interments; - - Sixty-five food-vases, of which forty-eight were associated with - unburnt and seventeen with burnt interments, but none of these in - cinerary urns; and - - Eleven incense-cups, all with burnt interments, and nearly all in - cinerary urns. - -It is a question whether the smaller food-vases associated with the -burnt interments should not be classed as incense-cups, as the two -forms often approximate; but this does not vitiate the general results. - -That this table represents a sequence is proved by the fact that in -no barrow containing a number of interments has one associated with a -drinking-cup been found under conditions to suggest that it may have -been of _later_ introduction than a neighbouring food-vase or cinerary -urn, nor is there an example of a food-vase interment _succeeding_ an -inurned one; whereas the contrary has frequently been noted. - -If we apply the test of horizontal position, we find that, compared -with the other interments, a much larger proportion of those with -drinking-cups were central, while those in urns were as markedly -lateral, indicating that the first were predominantly primary -interments, and the last secondary. But the vertical position gives -even more definite results. The normal position of a primary interment -is on or _below_ the old natural surface; that of a secondary, on or -_above_ that level. - -The following table gives the percentages of these positions when -ascertainable:— - - Interments with Below. On. Above natural level. - - Drinking-cups 83 17 0 - Food-vessels 43 31 26 - Cinerary urns 36.5 36.5 27 - -It will be observed that in descending order the proportion of those -_below_ the natural level decreases, and of those _above_ increases, -the inference being that the ratio of primary to secondary interments -decreases. - -These groups are further differentiated by the implements and other -objects associated with them. These are, as a rule, more numerous in -the drinking-cup interments and least so in the inurned. The flint -implements of the former are usually the more carefully wrought. Two -other peculiarities of the drinking-cup interments may be noted. With -five of them was an instrument described as a mesh-rule or a modelling -tool, made from the rib of some animal; but these instruments have not -been found with other Bronze Age interments in the county. The other -peculiarity is that in all these interments, the body, when it has -been recorded, lay on its left side. Both these peculiarities are also -characteristic of the drinking-cup interments of Staffordshire. - -From these various data it is evident that very early in the Bronze Age -inhumation was the normal mode of sepulture. The body, probably clad -in the clothing of life, was laid on its side in a contracted attitude -on the natural surface or in a grave, with or without a fencing or -protection of some sort, which in its highest development took the -form of a cist. Food was certainly often, if not invariably, placed -with it; but all we know of this, as also any other articles which -were present, are the less perishable portions that have survived the -withering hand of Time—the bronze blade of a dagger-knife, the head -of an axe, or the flint point of an arrow. Now and again a vessel of -clay was also placed with the deceased—the vessel familiar to us as the -“drinking-cup.” Later, but still early in the age, and while as yet the -mode of burial was unchanged, this gave place to the food-vase. Whether -this vessel was derived from the former is uncertain. Derbyshire -provides no intermediate forms, and this seems to be general throughout -the country. But the period of transition may have been short, and -transitional forms may yet be forthcoming. - -We have guardedly spoken of inhumation as the _normal_ mode of -sepulture at this early period, for cremation was both known and -practised, perhaps from the very first. The occasional presence of -a deposit of burnt human bones with these contracted interments has -already been noticed. Whether, as was then suggested, it represents -the immolation of a slave on the occasion of the burial or not, there -is little doubt that it should be regarded as a subordinate feature, -and the skeleton, as the interment proper. Fire certainly played an -important part in these early funerals, as the frequent presence of a -little charcoal indicates. Why? We can only guess. It must have had a -religious import—the ceremonial purification of the grave, perhaps; and -this might well have now and again included a human sacrifice. - -There is little doubt that the drinking-cup was introduced from the -Continent,[25] and one is tempted to connect its introduction with -the brachycephalic newcomers, as also the introduction of bronze. -The immigration seems to have been of a peaceful nature, and however -much the powerfully-built “round-heads” may have influenced and even -dominated the native population, they were numerically only a small -element in it, and were ultimately—perhaps before the close of the -Bronze Age—absorbed by it. - -[25] _Journal_, Anthropological Institute, 1902. - -Before the food-vase ran its course, cremation, in the proper sense of -the term, made its appearance, and soon became the general fashion. -Perhaps it would be going too far to say that it _supplanted_ -inhumation. For anything we know to the contrary, the latter still -continued in vogue in some parts of the country to the Roman period. -At first, it would seem, the cremated remains were deposited in cists, -or otherwise entombed after the manner of unburnt bodies; but soon -the more appropriate cinerary urn made its appearance, as also the -changeful and enigmatical little incense-cup. That the cinerary urn -was derived from the food-vase is almost beyond doubt, for although -Derbyshire has not supplied examples bridging the two, vessels of -intermediate form and associated with burnt remains, but not containing -them, have been found in the north. - -Meanwhile, the objects placed with the dead became fewer and more -meagre in character, until at length they were reduced to little more -than fragments of flint, representing a rite, perhaps, with a lost -meaning. Less care was expended on the sepulchral vessels as time went -on, but the delicacy of some of the incense-cups proves that this was a -rule with exceptions. The general trend of evidence goes to show that -the later mounds raised over the dead were smaller and less stereotyped -in form than those of old. Ringed barrows and the smaller “circles” -are associated with cremated interments, especially those of the -cinerary-urn stage, in Derbyshire. - - -“Late” Prehistoric Barrows. - -The interval between the last barrows and the Roman period presents -many difficulties to the student of the ancient sepulchral remains -of Derbyshire. A few—barely two dozen—barrows have been opened in -the county which had certain features in common that markedly -differentiated them from those of the Bronze Age on the one hand and -from the post-Roman or Anglo-Saxon on the other. Some of these, perhaps -most, can certainly be assigned to this interval; and of the rest, -several seem to as conclusively belong to the Roman period. As these -differ much from the typical Romano-British barrows, they may be held -to prove that the Romanization of the natives of the district was a -slow and retarded process. From the extremely ruined condition of these -barrows and their usually meagre contents it is only by comparing them -together, and especially with the larger number of the same type in -the adjacent parts of Staffordshire, that anything conclusive can be -learned of their original characteristics. - -The mounds are sometimes of considerable size, and are wholly or -largely built up of fine materials, as earth, clay, sand, and -gravel; and if large stones enter into their composition, they are -not intermixed with the finer constituents, but form a platform or -pavement, a layer, or a capping. Occasionally they disclose the curious -constructional feature of two or more different materials arranged -in alternate layers. Such a barrow was opened at Gorsey Close,[26] -near Tissington, in 1845; its soil was found to be interspersed with -alternate layers of moss and grass. Another at Roylow,[27] near Sheen, -gave very similar results. It is also noticeable that these barrows are -often found in comparatively low-lying places. - -[26] _Vestiges_, 80. - -[27] _Proc._ Soc. Ant., 1895. - -In every known instance, the interment over which the mound was -raised had undergone cremation, and this applies to the few secondary -interments which have been noticed. The bodies had invariably been -burned on the spot, and the hard-baked floors, strewn with charcoal and -ashes, are a notable feature of these “late” barrows. The excessive -heat of the funeral pile has so completely reduced the bones that they -have often escaped detection altogether. There is reason to think that -these calcined remains were sometimes left as they were deposited by -the fire; but in a few instances they were found occupying a shallow -circular hole in the natural surface into which they had been swept -after the fire was extinguished. This may have been a common practice, -for the presence of a small depression of the kind might easily be -overlooked by the explorer. On the other hand, there was evidence -that in some of these barrows the human ashes had been collected and -placed near the summit of the mound; and the large stones which have -occasionally been observed in this position may have been the relics of -the receptacle which contained them. We thus seem to have a “low-level” -and a “high-level” type, but whether this indicates a difference of -period is by no means certain. The general trend of evidence shows -that some effort was made to seal down, so to speak, the site of the -pyre and its contents by a layer of puddled clay or earth, which was -hardened by a fire upon it, or by a layer of large stones instead. - -The articles associated with the interments, or, rather, the sites -of the piles, consist mostly of potsherds and rude implements and -chippings of flint, which are usually described as burnt. The potsherds -appear in every case to have been introduced as _potsherds_, and they -also appear to have belonged to the ordinary domestic vessels of the -time. That the introduction of these and the flints, together with -the pebbles which have occasionally been observed, had a religious -significance can hardly be questioned; and doubtless it is to this -custom, which was widespread and not confined to our shores, that the -passage in _Hamlet_ refers, anent the burial of Ophelia, that “sherds, -flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her.” Ophelia was supposed to -have perished by her own hands, and this pagan rite, reversed under the -Christian _regime_ into a symbol of execration, was deemed more fitting -in such a case than “charitable prayers.” - -Other objects than these rarely occur in these barrows, and they mostly -relate to the personal attire of the deceased. Two bronze daggers and -a pin, and a bone pin or two, have been found—all burnt; but the most -remarkable “find” consisted of twenty-eight convex bone objects, marked -with dots and described as draughtsmen, and two ornamented bone combs, -which also had passed through the fire. Fragments of iron, a coin of -the lower Empire, and the upper stone of a quern, have also been found. -The coin is a valuable link in the chain of evidence as to the age of -these barrows. It was found associated with wheel-made potsherds and -calcined bones on the site of the funeral pile, under a small mound, -near Mininglow, under conditions which left no room for doubt that -it had passed through the fire with the body and the potsherds. The -terms in which the potsherds found in these barrows are invariably -described, as “wheel-made,” “hard,” “firmly-baked,” “compact,” and -“Romano-British,” all suggest the period of the Roman occupation or -its near approach. Querns and the use of iron are admittedly of late -introduction. The bone combs referred to above have a distinct Iron Age -_facies_. The two bronze dagger-blades, one of which was found in the -earth extension of the smaller Mininglow chambered cairn, are both of -later type than those associated with the Bronze Age burials. - -On the other hand, a notable “find” near Throwley,[28] in -Staffordshire, provided a link between these “late” barrows and the -inurned interments of the Bronze Age. The barrow there, “wholly -composed of earth of a burnt appearance throughout,” was of the -“low-level” type previously referred to, and its cremated deposit was -in a circular depression in the natural soil. Among the burnt bones -were two pieces of flint and a quartz pebble; below them, the shoulder -blade of some large animal; while resting upon them were a small -bronze pin and “a very beautiful miniature vase of the incense-cup -type, ornamented with chevrons and lozenges, and perforated in two -places at one side.” This is the only complete vessel hitherto recorded -as from these “late” barrows of the two counties, and in its shape, -decoration, and other particulars it is a thoroughly typical Bronze -Age incense-cup. The circular depression was “of well-defined shape, -resulting from contact with a wooden or wicker-work vessel, in which -the bones were placed when buried, the vestiges of which in the form of -impalpable black powder intervened between the bones and the earth.” -Clearly, we have here a wooden or a basket-work equivalent of the -cinerary urn. It is probable that these circular holes were generally -similarly provided with such receptacles, for in another example, under -a barrow of the type we are considering, at Cold Eaton,[29] there were -indications that its contents had been “deposited in a shallow basket -or similar perishable vessel.” It was from this interment that the -bone draughtsmen and combs already alluded to were obtained, as also -some fragments of iron. It is interesting that in two barrows which -resemble one another too closely to be dissociated by more than a -short lapse of time, there should be objects which, _per se_, would be -relegated to two different archæological ages, for apart from the iron, -the combs were of a type found with Late-Celtic, Romano-British, and -even Anglo-Saxon remains. The inference, therefore, is that these two -barrows belonged to the overlap of the Bronze and Pre-Roman Iron Ages. - -[28] _Ten Years’ Diggings_, 130. - -[29] _Ten Years’ Diggings_, 179. - -If the various conclusions which have been arrived at in the preceding -pages are correct, Derbyshire is fortunate in her sepulchral remains -illustrating the succession of burial customs from Neolithic to Roman -times without a serious break. But there is still a difficulty to be -faced. The barrows which we have classed as of the Bronze Age are -usually ascribed to the Earlier Bronze Age, upon the evidence of the -bronze implements associated with their interments. While the socketed -axe, which is characteristic of the Later Bronze Age, is perhaps found -in greater abundance than all its forerunners put together, it has -rarely, _if ever_, been found in association with these interments.[30] -But this proves nothing, when it is considered that it has never been -found with any _other interments_. The earlier forms of the axe have -occurred, but only sparingly, with the drinking-cup and food-vase -interments; but of the hundred or more recorded inurned interments of -Derbyshire and the adjacent parts of Staffordshire, not one has yielded -a bronze axe of any kind, and this appears to be generally the case -throughout the country. These inurned interments certainly succeeded -them, so there is no reason to doubt that they represent the Later -Bronze Age among our sepulchral remains. - -[30] _British Barrows_, 44; Evans’ _Bronze Implements_, 473. - -Having brought the burial customs and remains of our ancient -predecessors in Derbyshire well within the bounds of authentic history, -we here conclude. The few remains of Roman sepulture, and the many and -varied burials of the early Anglo-Saxon period, are outside the scope -of this article, and would involve many pages to adequately describe -them. - - - - -THE PREHISTORIC STONE CIRCLES OF DERBYSHIRE - -By W. J. Andrew, F.S.A. - - -Scattered over the world, from India to Peru, from Southern Africa to -Northern Europe, wherever it may be, the megalithic circle marks a -grade in the advance of civilization, for it is man’s earliest attempt -at geometrical architecture. As such, although so uniform in design, -its age must vary by thousands of years, according to the intelligent -progression of the early inhabitants of the country in which it is -present. Old as our stone circles seem to us, those on the shores of -the Mediterranean were probably grey with antiquity when ours were -yet unbuilt; indeed, so far as the old world is concerned, it may be -assumed that the megalithic monuments of the British Isles are amongst -the latest in date. - -The circle is but an elaboration of a monolith surrounded by stones. -There is, however, every indication that it was introduced into this -country after it had passed through all its stages of evolution and -assumed its final form. Its builders made their way hither from the -south, spreading more especially over Spain, Brittany and Denmark on -the mainland, and on arriving upon our southern coasts, branching -northward through England and Scotland, even to the Orkneys, on the -one side, and by sea to Ireland and the Western Hebrides on the other. -Thus the date of its advent must have been subsequent to the mastery -of navigation. It has been assumed that because Stonehenge represents -the finished design, it must be the latest of our English examples, -and, therefore, the evolution of those rude, and often unhewn, -monuments of which so many examples have weathered more than two -thousand winters on the high-lands of the Peak. But the very opposite -proposition probably represents the truth. In the whole of our isles -there is no other example of a trilithic design, so the theory of local -evolution must fail. On the other hand, we trace it without a fault -from India, through Arabia, along the north coast of Africa, in Malta -and Minorca, and finally on the coast of Brittany, on its way to this -island. Again, the curious architectural joint of mortice and tenon, -which is so interesting a feature of Stonehenge, is unknown here, but -present in the trilithons of the Mediterranean shores. - -[Illustration: Arbor Low: General View of the Southern Half.] - -We may, therefore, infer that the builders of Stonehenge were of a -race which originally came from the south, and that the monument was -erected under the direction of men who had seen or had, at least, been -thoroughly instructed in the architecture of the earlier trilithons. -This was their work, but after them came the copyist and the invariable -deterioration. A parallel case is that of the introduction of the art -of coinage into this country about B.C. 200. It found its way to us -over nearly the same route, and in its earliest stages was, therefore, -an imitation of the Greek and Phœnician money then current; but -before many years had passed many of the designs had degenerated into -conventional figures, often of a distinctive character, yet evolved -by the exaggeration of some minor detail upon the prototype. Another -comparison may be made with the customs of burial about the period we -are considering. At first the useful and valuable flint implements -of the deceased were, with a praiseworthy unselfishness, interred or -cremated with his remains; but later, this sometimes became a mere -matter of ceremony, and it was thought sufficient to substitute flint -chippings for these offerings. - -Assuming Stonehenge to be the prototype of our rude stone circles, -it may be well to remember its general features, and particularly -the dimensions of its plan. Its architecture consisted of an outer -circle of ditch and earthen bank of an approximate diameter of three -hundred feet, broken at the entrance from the north-east, where the -banks are continued in that direction, and form an avenue of approach -fifty feet in breadth. Within was a concentric circle one hundred feet -in diameter, of upright stones supporting a continuous lintel. These -stones are roughly squared, and the pillars now measure about fourteen -feet above ground, whilst the lintels are about eleven and a half feet -long. Ten feet within was a minor concentric circle of pillar stones, -a few feet in height, arranged in pairs. Again, within were five huge -trilithons arranged in the plan of a horse-shoe with a diameter of -about fifty feet, and composed of stones similar in form to those of -the outer peristyle, but varying in height to nearly twenty-five feet -above the turf; one stone, for example, measuring, when exposed by -excavation, twenty-nine feet eight inches in length. Finally, within -the whole is the “altar-stone,” some sixteen feet by four, lying prone -and within a broken, or horse-shoe shaped ellipse of a diameter of -forty feet, composed of pillar stones about five or six feet high. -Without the whole, and at a distance of two hundred and fifty feet from -the centre, is a monolith, or “pointer,” sixteen feet high, known as -the Friar’s Heel. It stands to the north-east and a fraction to the -south of a line drawn from the altar-stone along the centre of the -avenue. Another stone, now fallen, lies on the line just within the -enclosure. - -From this very superficial description it will be noticed that there is -a certain geometrical proportion to scale. The diameter of the outer -bank is three times that of the peristyle, which, in turn, is twice -that of the trilithons. The space betwen the peristyle and the outer -bank equals the diameter of the former. The diameter of the outer -circle of small pillar stones is twice that of the inner ellipse of -pillar stones, and the distance of the Friar’s Heel from the peristyle -is twice the diameter of the latter. Even admitting a wide margin -for inaccuracy, the impression must remain that there is ground for -the suspicion that some attempt at a decimal system prevailed in the -general plan of this mysterious monument. - -These proportions are so obvious that it seems unlikely that they have -escaped the attention of those who have studied the plan of Stonehenge. -It was not, however, in relation to the great monument of the south -that a possible system of geometrical mensuration suggested itself; -but in the survey of our own hill-circles of Derbyshire, when it -appealed so forcibly to observation that it prompted a reference to the -prototype for possible confirmation. - -No other county in England is so prolific in prehistoric circles as -that of Derby. Many, probably, are still undiscovered, for the writer -has been able to add several to the list. Yet at least twenty can be -visited with the assistance of an Ordnance map, another dozen have -disappeared in modern times, but are recorded by old authorities, -and, no doubt, as many more lie hidden by the heather on our -little-frequented moors. All are in the north-west quarter of the -county, within a space of less than twenty miles square, and at an -altitude of not less than a thousand feet. - -Although differing much in dimensions and details, there was a common -purpose, and consequently there is a uniform character in all. -Commencing with the smallest, and measuring the diameters from stone -to stone, we find: (1) a plain circle of standing stones, ten feet -across, and with either a single stone or heap of stones at a short -distance outside the circle, which, for convenience of reference, may -be called the “pointer”; (2) similar, but with a diameter of twenty -feet, and an encircling mound, or vallum, of earth, in the inner edge -of which the stones are usually set; (3) the same, but with diameters -of thirty, forty, sixty, eighty, one hundred, and one hundred and -fifty feet. It is probable that, originally, all had a cromlech of -some description in the centre, or, as at Ford, a small circle in the -north-eastern quarter. At Park Gate this remains as a central cone of -stones; at Arbor Low as three great stones, which, with the rest, have -fallen; on Offerton Moor it was four stones, and at the Wet Withens a -single stone. Outside the circle at Arbor Low is a raised causeway of -earth extending in a curved line from the circle towards its artificial -mound, Gib Hill, a thousand feet away, which once it probably joined. -At Stadon a similar causeway leaves the circle, but returns to it again -in the form of the lower half of a triangle, and at the Wet-Withens Mr. -Trustram called attention to the remains of what was, very possibly, an -avenue of stones arranged in parallel lines at equal distances towards -the south-west. These alignments must be considered with reference to -the avenue at Stonehenge. - -The circles are never present on the actual summit of a hill, but are -almost invariably on the hillside near the highest point. Hence on one -side they have a sharp and near horizon and on the other a distant -view. All have, or presumably have had, a “pointer” outside the circle; -that is, an artificial mound of earth or stones or a smaller circle to -the larger examples, and a single upright stone to the smaller. - -It will have been noticed that the diameters of the circles have -evidently been planned according to a geometrical scale, of which -the unit seems to have been equivalent to ten feet of our measure. A -reference, for example, to the plan of Arbor Low will again demonstrate -this point. The average diameter of the circle of the stones is one -hundred and fifty feet, the width of the fosse is twenty feet, and -that of the vallum on the ground level is thirty feet, and its height -above the _excavated_ fosse is ten feet; the total diameter of the -monument is two hundred and fifty feet, and Gib Hill, its pointer, -stands one thousand feet away south-west by west. But the stones at -Arbor Low, and, indeed, those of all the other examples, do not form -a true circle; there is always an elliptical variation. At Arbor Low -this variation is about ten feet; at the Wet-Withens it is only three -or four feet. At the former there are in the centre three fallen -stones, which in all probability formed a dolmen, of which the capstone -measures fourteen feet in length; it may be assumed, therefore, that -its supporters occupied a space of about ten feet. At the Wet-Withens -we read that there was originally a single large stone in the centre, -which we may assume was not more than three or four feet in diameter. -If, therefore, the central cromlech was first erected, and the radius -of the circle of stones measured from its outside walls instead of from -the true centre, we have the probable explanation of the elliptical -variation in every case. The variation, in turn, should give us some -idea of the central cromlech when, as in so many instances, it has been -destroyed. - -This suggestion is supported by another distinctive feature in the plan -of stone circles, of which, also, no explanation has been offered. -Nearly every circle has two entrances, or an entrance and exit, cut -through the mound, and when a fosse is present it is broken at the -causeways; but these entrances, although on opposite sides of the -circle, and usually towards the north and south, are never directly -opposite each other. If, therefore, the central cromlech was the -dominant purpose, the roadway would pass alongside it, and not have -to deviate around it, as it certainly would if it truly bisected the -circle. - -The three principal examples in the county are Arbor Low, the Bull -Ring, and the Wet-Withens. Arbor Low is situate on the hillside, 1,200 -feet above the sea, a mile to the east of Parsley Hay Station, eight -miles south-east from Buxton. It has been termed the Stonehenge of -the Midlands, and as a megalithic monument, the very grandeur of its -loneliness appeals to memories of the days of old and the race that is -gone. Its dimensions have already been given, but its general features -are a circular plateau, averaging about one hundred and sixty feet -in diameter, and surrounded by a broad fosse, enclosed, save at the -two entrances, within a high vallum of earth. In the centre of the -plateau are three limestone blocks, of which one is fourteen feet -in length, and another, now broken, about twelve feet by eight feet -six inches; these, before destruction, probably formed a dolmen, or -trilithon, similar to those of Stonehenge. Arranged around the edge of -the plateau, and seemingly in pairs, which also allows the possibility -of a trilithic formation, are forty-six similar stones, all, with one -exception, lying prone, and measuring from thirteen feet by six to -comparatively small dimensions—the exception referred to, however, lies -at a very low angle. They seem to have been selected from the _surface_ -limestone of the district, which explains the many weathered and holed -stones amongst them; and it must be remembered that a holed stone has -always claimed a superstitious veneration. It is present in the circle -at Stennis, in our chambered barrows, and in the dolmens of France, -Russia, and India. The trilithons of Stonehenge may be its elaboration, -and in later times King Alfred caused the Danes to swear their treaty -according to their most solemn custom upon the holy ring. Even in -mediæval days the superstition connected with St. Wilfred’s Needle at -Ripon may probably have been but a survival of this archaic tradition. - -Although not shaped in the usual sense of the word, some of the stones -at Arbor Low show indications of rough dressing, particularly at the -base, which was, no doubt, for the purpose of stability when they were -originally set upright. That once they were erect there can be no -doubt, for it is essential to a stone circle that they should be so -placed. As they lie, it will be noticed that, with very few exceptions, -the top of every stone points to the centre of the plateau, whereas -the natural fall of the stones would be towards the ditch, on the edge -of which they were placed, for their foundations on that side would be -the weaker. The obvious explanation must be that they were pulled down -by ropes, and as the vallum would impede the process on the outside, -it followed that the crowd of haulers necessarily required the full -width of the plateau, and so caused the stones to fall inwards, like -the radii of a circle. Similarly the central stones were hauled down in -a straight line with the entrance to the circle, which thus gave the -necessary leverage of length. When and by whom was this done? It is -unlikely that the Romans would interfere with customs which in no way -clashed with their own. When, however, the first waves of Christianity -passed over the land, and Christian stone crosses were erected -throughout our county, it is unlikely that the stone monuments of a -pagan race would be tolerated amongst them; and in the seventh century -an edict of the Church was passed in France exhorting the clergy to -stamp out the idolatry of stone-worship. In Northumbria, which country -then included the county of Derby, King Edwin, upon his conversion to -Christianity in A.D. 627, authorised Paulinus to destroy “the altars -and temples, _with the enclosures that were about them_,” at which he -had previously worshipped.[31] - -[31] _Bede_, chap. xiii. - -We may, therefore, assume that the great circle of Arbor Low was too -prominent a monument to be allowed to remain, but the lesser circles, -no longer frequented by the people, would pass unnoticed by the -Reformers; yet the circle on Harthill Moor, only four miles away, was -left standing, although some of its stones were nine or ten feet high, -and nine stones still stood a century ago, but now only four remain, -varying in height from about four feet to eight or nine feet. Perhaps -the late interment, discovered by Mr. St. George Gray during the -excavations at Arbor Low in 1902, may have dated from the time of its -destruction, for its selection as a place of sepulture would naturally -offend the tenets of a Christian people, and call attention to the -superstitions still associated with this mysterious monument. It was -not the first interment there, for built upon the vallum adjoining the -southern entrance are the remains of a large tumulus, which yielded -to Mr. Bateman, its excavator, urns of coarse clay and other evidence -of cremation, with relics of flint and bone. Again, the summit of the -great mound of its satellite, Gib Hill, had been selected for a similar -interment in the days before the shadow of mystery was cast over Arbor -Low. - -The Bull Ring almost adjoins the modern church at Dove Holes, three and -a half miles north-north-west from Buxton. So far as the ground plan -of the circle is concerned, it is identical with that of Arbor Low, -save that the vallum is now, perhaps, not quite so high. No doubt it -is the work of the same architects, and originally contained a similar -arrangement of great stones. Unfortunately these were entirely removed -nearly two centuries ago for building purposes, and its very existence -is to-day threatened by approaching lime works. With the circle itself -its similarity to Arbor Low ends, for instead of lying on a northern -slope it faces south-east, hence as the natural conditions are varied, -so are its adjuncts. Instead of a high mound a thousand feet away, -its pointer is brought close to it, and, therefore, lower in height, -although a mound of about the same circumference; but its direction is -nearly the same, namely, to the south-west. - -The Wet-Withens is on the northern slope of Eyam Moor, 1,002 feet above -sea-level, and is the best example of the type in which the fosse is -absent. To-day it is represented by a circular mound of earth, one -hundred and twenty feet in diameter, and about ten feet broad by two -feet six inches high, broken for the entrances in the usual positions, -namely, due south and nearly north. Set in the inner margin of the -mound remain ten stones of millstone grit, most of which are upright, -and probably fifteen or sixteen originally completed the arrangement, -and some may be hidden by the heather. They stand at nearly equal -distances, but the largest only measures, as exposed above the turf, -four feet three inches long, one foot nine inches broad, and nine -inches deep. It has already been mentioned that a monolith once stood -in the centre, and there is still a considerable depression in the -ground whence it was excavated—for the hand of the quarryman has -been ruthless amongst the prehistoric monuments of our county. Forty -feet due north of the circle are the remains of a great cairn, or -tumulus, with a base seventy feet by forty feet, composed entirely -of stones averaging over a foot in length. This may have served the -purpose of the pointer, or, like the tumulus on the vallum at Arbor -Low, may merely have been a sepulchral mound, for it also yielded a -half-baked urn containing cremated remains and a flint arrow-head. If -Mr. Trustram’s theory be correct, the stone-marked avenue leads to the -south-west, and thus conforms with the pointers of Arbor Low and the -Bull Ring; also with the general direction of the avenue or causeway of -the former. - -The relative position of these three circles is certainly curious. -They form an inverted isosceles triangle, of which the base line from -the Wet-Withens to the Bull Ring is nearly due east and west; to be -accurate, it is almost the true magnetic orientation, and the apex at -Arbor Low is due south. The Ordnance map discloses the length of the -base line to be nine miles, and that of each of the sides ten miles; -in fact, the compasses pivoted in the centre of Arbor Low bisect both -the circles of the Bull Ring and Wet-Withens. It is needless to remark -that the megalithic builders had not the knowledge nor the appliances -to measure distances otherwise than on the ground level; but as the -valleys run north and south, and the line east to west is therefore -much more broken and undulating, it is not impossible that there was -a measured intention to construct these three circles as nearly as -possible in the form of an equilateral triangle, of which the circle -of Arbor Low was to be due south, according to the sun’s then apparent -meridian. Indeed, it is an interesting question of fact whether, if -measured on the ground level, these three circles would not prove to be -equidistant one from another. - -Reduce the compasses to the equivalent to eight miles, and a series of -coincidences follows. They exactly span Arbor Low and Stadon; Arbor Low -and an unmarked circle near Park Gate on East Moor; the latter and the -double circle on Abney Moor, and, again, the same circle and two others -on Brassington Moor; the Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor and the circle on -Froggatt Edge; that on the Bar Brook and the most northern of the two -on Bamford Moor; the southern circle on Bamford Moor and the double -circle on the Ford estate near Chapel-en-le-Frith; the latter and the -circle on Abney Moor, and so on, until it would seem to be worth one’s -while to follow the eight miles radius from any given circle in search -of its colleague. If there is any variation in the distances quoted -above, it is so slight as to be scarcely perceptible on the one-inch -scale Ordnance map. This is, at the least, tentative evidence of that -careful system of mensuration which seems to pervade the mystery of -these interesting memorials. - -[Illustration: Arbor Low: General View of the Southern and Western -Part.] - -The triangular arrangement of the three chief circles calls attention -to that of Stadon, situate a mile and a quarter south-east from Buxton. -Its stones, like those of its neighbour, the Bull Ring, have been -confiscated, and for centuries, perhaps, it yielded to the plough; -nevertheless, its mounds, though almost levelled, are quite distinct, -and disclose a plan probably unique in its design. It comprises an -annular vallum, forming three-quarters of a circle, the fourth quarter -being straight-sided for one hundred feet, and from the corners of this -side expand two straight causeways or mounds for a distance of about -one hundred and, presumably, one hundred and twenty feet respectively, -when they then turn at an acute angle and unite in a straight line, of -probably one hundred and twenty feet, almost parallel to the side of -the circle. Thus they form the base of an isosceles triangle, bisected -horizontally by the straight side of the circle. Unfortunately, the -south-west corner of the base line is now cut off by the London and -North Western Railway line from Buxton to Ashbourne, and therefore its -measurements can only be estimated. If continued, the apex of this -triangle would correspond with the nearest quarter of the horizon, -namely, on the ridge of Stadon Hill at a point nearly due east. On -the inside of the mounds, both of the circle and of the triangular -adjunct, are indications of a ditch, and the usual entrances are north -by west and south-east respectively. The average width of the circle -from the outside of the mounds is now two hundred feet, but owing to -the straight side it is subjected to more than the usual elliptical -variation; the width of the mounds and ditch are twelve and ten feet -respectively. These latter dimensions probably indicate that originally -it must have had a fosse and vallum of no mean importance. One hundred -and twenty feet north-by-east from the circle seems to be the base -of what was probably a large mound or “pointer,” about forty feet by -twenty feet, but this also has been levelled. - -Although lacking the grandeur of Arbor Low, the small circles have -an interest only secondary to it in any attempt to determine cause -from effect. Many of them, fortunately, have suffered from the hand -of time alone, and are to-day as the race that is gone left them. No -better examples could be desired than some in the Baslow district, -particularly that near Park Gate; but those by the Bar Brook and on -Froggatt Edge are nearly as well preserved, and the double circle at -Ford is perfect. - -Selecting the Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor as a typical example, its -description will suffice for its class. A circular vallum ten feet wide -and two feet high at the crest, with diameter varying from forty-five -to fifty feet, measured from its outer edge, and broken for the -usual entrances, which, however, in this instance are east-by-north -and south-west. Within the inner margin of the mound are arranged -nine stones, all, with one exception, still upright, and the largest -measuring, above the heather, three feet high, two feet three inches -broad, and nine inches deep. In 1848 there was a cone of stones in the -centre, but this has been destroyed; the Park Gate circle, however, -shows this in a complete form. Exactly at a distance of one hundred -feet west by south of the circle stands a single stone as the pointer, -measuring above the turf thirty inches high, twenty-two wide, and -eleven deep. It is known as “The King Stone,” and the nine stones of -the circle have given the name of “The Nine Ladies” to the monument as -a whole. This is, of course, a complimentary variant of the general -term “maidens” so often applied to the stones of circles in all parts -of the country, and for which so many derivations have been offered. - -A circle of this class which has hitherto escaped observation has -an interesting deviation from the usual lines. It stands 1,050 feet -above sea level on the hillside at Cadster, near Whaley Bridge, but -in Chapel-en-le-Frith parish. Its vallum has an elliptical diameter, -varying from thirty-five to forty feet, with entrances north-north-east -and south-west. The stones are of the same arrangement and size as -those of The Nine Ladies, and the diameter of their circle varies from -thirty feet to thirty-three feet six inches. The centre is nearly -level, but some large stones below the turf may have supported a -monolith, which, perhaps, was a large pointed stone, measuring four -feet long, two feet six inches wide, and one foot deep, now lying at -the foot of the vallum. Ninety feet nearly south by west of the circle, -almost prostrate, is the “pointer,” a block of millstone grit measuring -three feet six inches high, two feet six inches broad, and two feet -deep. In these particulars the monument closely resembles the last -described, but it lies on a hillside with a declination to the west of -one in ten, and to obtain the required plane for the western vallum and -stones, the builders have lowered the height of the vallum on the east -to about one foot high, and raised that on the west to four feet. Hence -it is nearly, but not quite, level. Although there is a very extensive -view to the north-west, the horizon is within two or three hundred -yards on the north and east. A line of sight taken over the stones -west and east within the circle exactly touches the eastern horizon, -where there is a small artificial mound of stones, and this system of -levelling the vallum and stones of a circle to the plane of the horizon -seems to be general, and is especially in evidence at Ford. - -For the purpose of these notes, and to ascertain that the vallum had -not been raised by an interment, a partial excavation has been made. A -narrow trench cut from east to west disclosed that the entire monument -is composed of loose stones, seemingly hand-laid, upon the natural -soil. On the west side the raising of the vallum was an example of -careful and permanent work. Commencing from the outside there was a -foundation of large stones sloping inwards, and acting as a retaining -wall for the stones above, and a similar foundation marked the inside -margin. In the centre of the vallum was a core of stones about two -feet high leaning towards each other, and filled in with horizontal -stones, thus forming the base of a solid triangle. Above this the loose -stones were built up to the required height and form. An examination -of some of the principal stones of the circle disclosed that they -were supported by or resting upon others of large size. As it was not -desirable to disturb more than was necessary to disclose the general -construction, and to remove turf which had overgrown some of the -pillars, a very small proportion of the whole was searched, and this -did not yield a single relic of the work of man. - -So far, we have dealt with the effect of circles as we see them; let us -look to the cause. Imagine an agricultural people without any knowledge -of the seasons or months of the year, save from the gradual changes -from cold to warm weather, and from long to short days; without the -means of estimating the length of the latter, and without even the -power of numbering the years or knowing whether they themselves were -young or old, for except, perhaps, in the calm pools of water, their -very appearance would be strange to them. A few treacherously warm days -in December, and they would sow their corn to the winds. Preparation -for winter needs or summer work would be impossible, and all would -end in famine and waste—all would be confusion. No wonder that, like -nature, they turned to the sun—the almanac of all time. No wonder their -chief astronomer became the chief priest of the tribe. So is it to-day -with uncivilized races of mankind. So, also, is the superstition of -astrology in civilized races but a survival of the days when the seer -alone cast his horoscope and foretold to the people the coming of the -seasons, the time for preparation and all that was necessary for their -continued existence. Sun worship followed, and religion and astronomy -were blended for ages to come. - -Sir Norman Lockyer and the late Mr. Penrose have scientifically -demonstrated the relation of Stonehenge with the rising of the sun -over the Friar’s Heel at the summer solstice, where tradition still -gathers people together on the morn of Midsummer day; but it is with -the more primitive and varied circles of our hilly county that we are -concerned, and these may be treated, as indeed they probably were by -their designers, in a more primitive method. - -We read a sundial from the outside, and therefore the gnomon is in the -centre and the numerals are on the outside. If, however, we stood in -the centre of a vast dial, a series of gnomons would be required to -replace the numerals. This is the stone circle. As a primitive example, -the Cadster circle will suffice for its class. When the circle was -constructed, the “pointer,” instead of being a point to the west of -south as it is now, a variation owing to the obliquity of the earth’s -axis, stood exactly due south; therefore the seer, sighting from the -point of the central monolith, knew that when the sun was directly over -it the time was mid-day—the greater distance assisting the accuracy. -Similarly the east stone is now a point to the southward, so when the -sun rose over the horizon in line with it and the central monolith, it -was the May festival, and so on for every phase of the sun. Obviously, -the northern stones would be useless for this purpose; but the object -of the vallum was to enable the line of sight to be also taken across -the circle from the outside, and over _any_ stone and the central -dial, or over any two stones, thus subdividing the then equivalent to -the hours and the months. The slope of the vallum lent itself to any -level required by the observer whilst taking his observations, and the -entrances enabled the people to pass through the circle to make their -obeisance, whilst the arch-astrologer stood by the central monolith -giving his instructions and advice. To them his simple predictions -would seem to be the greatest of miracles. As the “pointer” is not -always in a southerly or northerly position, for the latter would -serve the same purpose if the point of observation were transposed, -it follows that various monuments were dedicated to or were specially -required for various seasons or times; the winter or summer solstice -and the spring or autumn equinox being the most popular. The points of -the stones would be accurately notched or, perhaps, surmounted with a -wooden stile or pierced disc. - -In the larger circles the same system would be carried out with greater -accuracy. The ditch and vallum enabled the sights to be taken from -either the foot or the top of the stones, and the mound would, if -required, itself form the horizon. The ditch was certainly not for any -processional ceremony, for that at Arbor Low was found to be broken -across by faces of natural rock three or four feet in height; but -the curved causeway leading towards the great pointer, Gib Hill, may -have served that purpose when the seer left the circle to take his -observations, and probably to invoke the rising sun from the mound. The -central dolmen would be the inner temple of the priest, and the greater -distance of the circle of stones would increase the accuracy of his -observations. - -Let those who question this simple origin for these circles study any -one of them with as many or as few scientific instruments as they wish; -then, after allowing for the variation of the obliquity, nature’s -almanac is there to be read within the oldest astronomical observatory -known to man. - -A word as to the age of the circles. Sir Norman Lockyer deduced from -the variation of the obliquity in relation to the avenue and the -Friar’s Heel at Stonehenge, that the temple must have been erected -about the year 1680 B.C., or within a margin of 200 years of that date. -Professor Gowland, as the result of the excavations conducted by him -in 1901, arrived at practically the same period, when he inferred that -it was constructed by “the men of the Neolithic or, it may be, of the -early Bronze Age.” - -The assumption in these pages is that Stonehenge was the first and not -the last of its series. If that be correct, it follows that the design -must have been introduced by the new race, that of the Bronze Age, -when they invaded this country from the south. The Neolithic tribes had -been here for thousands of years before B.C. 1500, and it is unlikely -that they, to whom metal was unknown, attained the architectural -skill to erect a colossal and uniform temple. It is true that with -one possible exception no trace of metal was found during the recent -excavations at either Stonehenge or Arbor Low; but on the other hand, -all the interments (with again one exception, and that of late date) -found in circles are of the Bronze Age. These interments, of which one -instance was in a small circle on Stanton Moor, do not necessarily -indicate any sepulchral purpose for these monuments, but rather suggest -that sometimes the priest himself would be laid to rest in the shrine -of his order. Again, the general character of the numerous tumuli -usually surrounding the momuments is of the Bronze period, and there -seems to be some affinity between the “cup and ring” designs of the -rock carvings and the plan of these circles. One fact is certain—that -as a class they are not of any later times, for upon the vallum of -Arbor Low stands the great “low” which yielded clear evidence of a -burial of one who worked with bronze, and similar proof was furnished -by the discovery of a like interment in the summit of Gib Hill. - -It does not, however, follow that our Derbyshire circles date from -the commencement of the Bronze Age; it is more probable that some of -them are hundreds of years later than Stonehenge, and there is every -likelihood that their use was continued through the Roman even to early -Christian times, only to be stamped out when their original purpose -had been forgotten in their mystic pagan rites. There is evidence that -the great circles of the country were centres of native population at -the time of the coming of the Romans, for the roads of the invaders -were driven straight for them, as the maps of Avebury and Stonehenge in -the south, and of Arbor Low and the Bull Ring in our county, clearly -indicate. In the Anglo-Saxon language the phrase for astrology was -_circol-crœft_, and to-day the horoscope of the fortune-teller is but a -survival of our subject. - -We who look upon these temples of a bye-gone people are still the -slaves of Time, and though we measure it with the science of to-day, -it is but a question of degree, for the cause and effect is still the -same. True, we no longer worship in the Temple of Time, but we can ill -afford to sneer at those who knew no better religion than the praise of -the heavenly bodies and the admiration of nature’s handiwork as viewed -over the distant scene. Nor can we pride ourselves in our science, -which for centuries has failed to read the story of these mystic signs, -which the rude workers in bronze could yet devise and set up, to— - -“Observe days, and months, and times, and years.” - - - - -SWARKESTON BRIDGE - -By William Smithard - - -The deservedly famous old bridge of Swarkeston situated a few miles -south of Derby, where in a beautiful verdant and fertile vale the noble -Trent sweeps towards the sea in a series of majestic curves. - -The river, than which there are but two longer in the country, was of -old a convenient rough-and-ready dividing-line across the middle of -England; and the frequency with which the phrases “north of Trent” and -“south of Trent” were used, shows that the stream was a recognised and -familiar boundary to the monarchs and nobles who parcelled out shires -and counties for themselves or friends in the Middle Ages. - -Its general direction is from west to east, but its course is made up -of large bends composed of small ones. In the first part of _King Henry -IV._, Act III., Scene I., Shakespeare makes Hotspur complain of the -windings of the Trent, thus:— - - “Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here, - In quantity equals not one of yours: - See how the river comes me cranking in, - And cuts me from the best of all my land - A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out. - I’ll have the current in this place damm’d up; - And here the smug and silver Trent shall run - In a new channel, fair and evenly.” - -It is not known where or how, if at all, the Romans permanently bridged -the Trent hereabouts; probably they were content with fords and -ferries. In the Middle Ages, however, several fine stone bridges were -erected over the river; there was a very long one of thirty-six arches -at Burton in the twelfth century, and most likely there would then be -no other between that town and Nottingham, some twenty miles distant. -At any rate, the first record we have of Swarkeston Bridge is in the -year 1276, and the oldest parts of it remaining—which appear to be the -original work—appertain to the thirteenth century. - -Swarkeston is about eight miles below Burton, and the bridge, which -is nearly a mile in length, lies north and south. It takes its name -from the village of Swarkeston at its northern end, though most of the -bridge, being south of the Trent, is in the parish of Stanton, which -latter place is indebted to the bridge for the title that distinguishes -it from the multitude of Stantons elsewhere. - -The portion of the structure which actually spans the Trent is a -shapely, well-designed and very substantial modern bridge on five round -arches, put up at the close of the eighteenth century; but the special -feature about Swarkeston Bridge is that, after crossing the river -proper, it is continued as a raised causeway right across the low-lying -meadows of the Trent valley. It is in this long causeway that all -interest centres, for there—although the bridge has been widened, and -at different times repaired and renewed incongruously—we have the true -route-line of the causeway, and much original work still remaining. - -The necessity for this extension is very obvious to anyone who has -seen, as I have several times, the river in flood, when Hotspur’s -“smug and silver Trent” becomes a turbid, surging sea, many miles in -extent, completely covering all the meadows within range of vision. -The causeway is provided with culverts and archways to let the roaring -waters pass through at such periods. - -[Illustration: Swarkeston Bridge.] - -It has been conjectured, with some degree of probability, that the -Trent was first spanned by a bridge at Swarkeston to accommodate the -advance of King John’s army to the north towards the end of the year -1215. If this was the case, it must have been one of wooden piles, -provided it was erected in a hurry. A temporary erection of this kind, -in the place of a treacherous ford, would prove so useful that it would -soon be followed by one of stone. At all events, records show that a -bridge had been established here a long time before the accession of -Edward I. In 1276, when inquiries were made throughout the kingdom as -to exactions and irregularities during the much-troubled latter years -of Henry III., it is entered on the _Hundred Rolls_ that the merchants -of the soke of Melbourne had not for some three years paid toll for -passage over Swarkeston Bridge, which toll had been assigned by the -King to the borough of Derby. - -Now and again, during the next century, apparently whenever the bridge -needed serious repair, the Crown diverted the toll from the town of -Derby and assigned it to local commissioners, as entered from time to -time on the _Patent Rolls_. On 12th January, 1325, when Edward II. was -at Melbourne, he granted, under privy seal to the bailiffs and good men -of the town of Swarkeston pontage (bridge toll) for three years for the -repair of the bridge across the Trent; the toll was to be taken by the -hands of William Grave, of Swarkeston, Richard de Swarkeston, Thomas -Davy, of Stanton, or their deputy, and the whole proceedings were to be -under the supervision of the Prior of Repton. - -Before this time of three years had expired, namely, in December, -1327, Edward III., at the request of Robert de Stanton, granted to the -bailiffs and men of Stanton and Swarkeston pontage towards the repair -of the bridge between the two towns—it must have been considerably -damaged, possibly of set purpose during the baronial disturbances -towards the end of Edward II.’s reign—local commissioners being -nominated to receive the toll, and the Prior of Repton being again -appointed as supervisor. - -In 1338 pontage for four years was again assigned for repair purposes -to the good men of Swarkeston. Eight years later the pontage was -granted for three years to the bailiffs and good men of the town of -Derby, to be taken by the hands of John, son of Adam de Melbourne the -elder, and John, son of Adam de Melbourne the younger, on things for -sale passing over Swarkeston Bridge, for the repair of the said bridge. - -There is little more written history of the bridge than that here -cited, but it would not be right to omit the romantic legend as to its -origin, which is so widely current and so generally believed that it is -perhaps worthy of a qualified acceptance until some historical fact is -found to take its place. The legend bears the stamp of probability, and -it seems too good to be entirely an invention—at any rate, of modern -times. - -Once upon a time, then, according to this dateless tradition, a large -and gay party was celebrating at Swarkeston Hall the betrothal of the -two daughters of the lord of the manor. Tilting, hunting, hawking, -and other mediæval sports had been enjoyed freely for several days, -when the festivities were abruptly disturbed by an urgent summons -for the lord of the manor and the two knightly lovers forthwith to -join an assembly of the barons who were engaged in a hot dispute -with a tyrannical King. Never, perhaps, did public spirit clash more -disagreeably with personal preference; but the call of national duty -was promptly answered. - -At that time there was no Swarkeston Bridge, but in fair weather the -Trent could be forded quite easily, as it can now. I have, in a recent -summer, seen a foal walk across without wetting its knees; but the -route is devious, and the river at Swarkeston notoriously treacherous; -bright weedy shallows give way precipitately to great dark pools -difficult to fathom, and eddying whirlpools alternate with powerful -headlong currents of surprising swiftness. - -Their task accomplished, runs the tale, the two knights set off for -Swarkeston at full speed, leaving the earl to return more leisurely -with his esquires and pages. In the meantime heavy rains had fallen, -and on reaching the Trent valley after sunset, the knights found the -green sward covered by surging muddy waters, through which, with true -lover-like ardour, they spurred their tired horses in the growing -darkness, unwilling, now so near, to let even such alarming floods -prevent their reunion with the fair ladies of their choice. - -The level meadows were crossed safely, but in the gloom the gallant -knights either missed the ford across the river itself or were swept -off it by the raging torrent; by the cruellest of mischances they -were washed away and drowned within sight of the lighted windows of -the hall, where all their hopes lay, and which they had striven so -heroically to reach. - -This tragic event was indeed a crushing blow for the earl and his -family, but out of private grief came public joy. The bereaved ladies, -so says the legend, looked on themselves as widows, and, in keeping -with the spirit of the times, devoted the rest of their lives to the -memory of their deceased lovers. Neither was their devotion mere -sentiment, but it took a thoroughly practical form; determined that no -one in future should suffer owing to the circumstances in which their -own keen sorrow had arisen, they devoted all their substance to the -building of the now historic bridge, and died in a cottage as poor as -the humblest peasant. - -On the bridge there was formerly a chantry chapel. From an inquisition -held at Newark, October 26th, 1503, we learn that a parcel of meadow -land, valued at six marks a year, lying between the bridge and Ingleby, -had been given in early days to the priory of Repton, on the tenure of -supplying a priest to sing mass in the chapel on Swarkeston Bridge; -but that there was then no such priest nor had one been appointed for -the space of twenty years. (Add. MSS. 6,705, f. 65.) - -The Church Goods Commissioners of 1552 say under Stanton:— - - “We have a chappell edified and buylded upon Trent in ye mydest of - the streme anexed to Swerston bregge, the whiche had certayne stuffe - belongyng to it, ij desks to knele in, a table of wode, and certayne - barres of yron and glasse in the wyndos, whiche Mr. Edward Beamont - of Arleston hath taken away to his owne use, and we say that if the - Chappell dekeye the brydge wyll not Stonde.” - -The report of the Commissioners shows that the chapel was evidently an -integral portion of one of the bridge piers, as was often the case, and -was probably coeval with its first building. - -The chapel was demolished altogether when the spans over the river were -rebuilt in the eighteenth century, and there is now no trace of it -remaining, nor does there appear to be any drawing of the sacred place; -though, of course, anyone familiar with other such Gothic buildings can -easily picture for himself what this chapel would be like. - -For six centuries has the bridge been a popular highway for all classes -of the community, and it is linked closely with at least two important -epochs in English history. - -In the great Civil War of 1642–1646, the bridges at Nottingham, -Swarkeston, and Burton were regarded as the keys to the North. In -the winter of 1642–3, Col. Sir John Gell, the able commander of -the Derbyshire regiment, heard that the Royalists were fortifying -Swarkeston Bridge, so he marched thither, stormed the works and -dismantled the same, after driving away the enemy with a loss of seven -or eight killed and many wounded. The date of the “Battle of Swarsen -bridge” is given in the register of All Saints’, Derby, as 5th January, -1642–3. The towns of Nottingham and Burton, along with their bridges, -were taken and retaken several times during the war; but Derby was -never in the hands of the Royalists, and this immunity Sir John Gell -attributed to his having in his holding Swarkeston Bridge during the -whole of the troublous period. - -At this bridge occurred also the climax of the latest invasion of -England, _i.e._, that by the “Young Pretender” in 1745. By the time -Charles Edward Stuart had reached Derby, he realised that his project -was hopeless. His army had increased scarcely at all since he left -Scotland, and his mountain warriors, who had marched all the way from -their native Grampians, found, when they got to the end of the Pennine -Chain, their way barred by the great plain of England. They never -crossed the Trent, and although their advance guard reached Swarkeston -Bridge, that was only a movement to kill time while the courageous -Highlanders braced themselves to endure the humiliation of a retreat. - -The Prince had traversed half the length of England, only to find the -people were too prosperous and contented to wish to disturb the ruling -dynasty; and the King’s two armies, more powerful than his own, were -rapidly approaching the invader’s troops. So the 7,000 clansmen, with -their tartans and pipes, did not march over the bridge, and the people -of Swarkeston were thus deprived of a fine spectacle, doubtless much -to their relief. Since then the repose of the bridge has never been -disturbed by wars or rumours of wars. - -The viaduct over the meadows is delightfully irregular, and its course -varies sympathetically with the neighbouring river. The general -direction is north and south, but the whole length may be said to form -a gentle arc. The surface rises and falls, and the parapet walls are -full of unexpected nooks—first a corner and next a curve, now an angle -and then a bend; here a concavity and there an inward bulge. In and out -and up and down the bridge winds gently, and at intervals, near the -arches, are dark, glistening pools, fringed with the sword-like leaves -and heavy-scented yellow blooms of the iris, while on the glossy -surface of the water are spread the delicate palette-like leaves and -golden ball flowers of the water-lily. - -There are still remaining in the bridge fifteen old arches; two very -beautiful ones are near the northern end, and at the other extremity -is a fine group of six. In places, too, are stretches of very old -and weathered masonry, pathetically irregular, with parts of a bold -string course showing at intervals. The soffits of the old arches are -lined with ribs, which increase both their beauty and strength, and -there are some very interesting buttresses. It is a matter for regret -that the Derbyshire County Council found it necessary in 1899 to make -this romantic old bridge strong enough to carry steam-rollers. By the -lavish use of blue bricks to underpin a number of the old arches, the -utilitarian purpose was achieved, but much of the bridge’s peculiar -beauty has been sacrificed thereby; yet in spite of this mischance, -there is still enough charm left to make a visit to Swarkeston always a -pleasure. - - - - -DERBYSHIRE MONUMENTS TO THE FAMILY OF FOLJAMBE[32] - -[32] Owing to the lamented death of the late Earl of Liverpool, the -importance that would otherwise have attached to this article has been -seriously diminished (see preface). The chief printed authorities for -the history of the Foljambes are Nichols’ _Collectanea Topographica -et Genealogica_ (1834), i. 91–111, 333–361, ii. 68–90; _Monumenta -Foljambeana_, by Lord Liverpool, in vols. xiv. and xv. of the -_Reliquary_, and Jeayes’ _Derbyshire Charters_ (1906), wherein there -are abstracts of 230 Foljambe deeds at Osberton. See also numerous -references in Cox’s _Derbyshire Churches_ (4 vols.) and _Three -Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_ (2 vols.). - -By Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. - - -All that can be attempted in this article is to give an outline account -of the succession of the family of Foljambe during the six centuries -that they were numbered among the chief landowners of Derbyshire, -with more particular reference to their burial and tombs in the three -churches of Tideswell, Bakewell and Chesterfield. - -The Foljambe family were connected with Tideswell and Wormhill from -very early times. One of them was enfeoffed as a forester of fee (that -is an hereditary forester) by William Peverel in the days of the -Conqueror. William Foljambe, who was probably his grandson, died in -1172. Thomas Foljambe, of Tideswell, is mentioned in 1208, and again -in 1214, when he was a knight. He had three sons, whose names appear -as witnesses to various charters between 1224 and 1244; John and Roger -are described as being of Tideswell, and Thomas of Little Hucklow. John -died in 1249. - -Sir Thomas Foljambe, son of the above-mentioned John, was of Tideswell -and Wormhill; he was living throughout the reign of Henry III., and -for the first ten years of Edward I. He was also of some position -in Yorkshire, for in 1253–4 he was seized of a knight’s fee in the -Wapentake of Osgoldown; in 1282 he had the manor of Tideswell from -Richard Daniel. He died on the Saturday next after the feast of St. -Hilary in 1283. One of his brothers, Henry Foljambe, was bailiff of -Tideswell in 1288. - -It matters but little what class of old records connected with North -Derbyshire is studied, the name of Foljambe is certain to occur in -important matters, and usually with some frequency. Some serious -attention has lately, for the first time, been given to the history -of the Peak Forest (_Victoria County History of Derby_, i., 397–425), -though the mass of documents relative to its administration yet awaits -thorough study. In these records members of the family are continuously -mentioned. Thus, at the Forest Pleas of 1251, the heaviest vert or -“greenhue” fine (damage to or illicit appropriation of timber) was -that of twenty marks imposed on Roger Foljambe for a variety of -transgressions; and his two pledges for future observance of the forest -assize were John Foljambe and Walter Coterell. At these Pleas, too, -Thomas Foljambe was returned by the jury as one of the foresters of fee -for the Campana division of the Peak Forest. The next Forest Pleas were -not held until 1285. The rolls of the successive bailiffs or stewards -of the forest since the last session were produced, from which it -appeared that Thomas Foljambe had been bailiff for the year 1277, and -again in 1281. In the latter year he was also constable of Peak Castle; -his total official receipts for that twelvemonth amounted to the then -great sum of £260. - -Sir Thomas Foljambe was succeeded by his eldest son, another Sir Thomas -Foljambe, of Tideswell, who was a knight of the shire for the county -of Derby in 1297, and died in the following year. He was succeeded by -his son, yet another Sir Thomas Foljambe, of Tideswell; he represented -his county in Parliament in 1302, 1304–5, 1309, and from 1311 to 1314. -He was one of those Derbyshire knights who in 1301 were summoned to the -muster at Berwick-on-Tweed to do military service against the Scots. -He died in 1323, and was succeeded by a fourth Sir Thomas Foljambe, -who married the heiress of the family of Darley in the Dale, and so -acquired considerable estates in that neighbourhood, which passed to -his younger son, Sir Godfrey. - -There is interesting information with regard to the Foljambes in the -rolls of the Forest Pleas of 1285, from which it appears that the -family at that date held two of the hereditary foresterships of the -Peak. - -The Campana foresters of fee of that period were John Daniel; Thomas -le Archer; Thomas, son of Thomas Foljambe, a minor in the custody of -Thomas de Gretton; Nicholas Foljambe, who had been a minor in the -custody of Henry de Medue, but was then of full age; and Adam Gomfrey. -Of these foresters, Adam Gomfrey and Thomas Foljambe held jointly the -same bovate, which had formerly been divided between two brothers. -Also Thomas Foljambe and John le Wolfhunte held another bovate in the -same way, John holding his half by hereditary descent, whilst Thomas -Foljambe, senr., had acquired his half by marriage with Katherine, -daughter of Hugh de Mirhand. This sub-division of serjeanties became -burdensome to the district, as each forester of fee endeavoured to -have a servant maintained at the expense of the tenants; but the -jurors confirmed a decision of the Hundred Court of 1275 to the effect -that there could be only four such servants or officers, according to -ancient custom, for the Campana bailiwick. - -The bovate of land held by Wolfhunte and Foljambe was a serjeanty -assigned for taking of wolves in the forest. On the jurors being asked -what were the duties pertaining to that service, the following was the -highly interesting reply:— - - “Each year, in March and September, they ought to go through the midst - of the forest to set traps to take the wolves in the places where they - had been found by the hounds: and if the scent was not good because - of the upturned earth, then they should go at other times in the - summer (as on S^t. Barnabas Day, 11 June,) when the wolves had whelps - (catulos), to take and destroy them, but at no other times; and they - might take with them a sworn servant to carry the traps (_ingenia_); - they were to carry a bill-hook and spear, and hunting-knife at their - belt, but neither bows nor arrows: and they were to have with them an - unlawed mastiff trained to the work. All this they were to do at their - own charges, but they had no other duties to discharge in the forest.” - -Wolves abounded in Derbyshire to the end of the thirteenth century. -They were troublesome in Duffield Forest as well as in the Peak. There -are two highly significant entries on the _Pipe Rolls_ of Henry II. -as to the devastation then caused by wolves in this county. In 1160–1 -25s. was paid to the forest wolf-hunters as an extra fee. So great was -the value set on the skill and experience of the Peak wolf-trappers, -that Henry II. in 1167–8 paid 10s. for the travelling expenses of two -of them to cross the seas to take wolves in Normandy. The accounts of -Gervase de Bernake, bailiff of the Peak for 1255–6, make mention of a -colt strangled by a wolf in Edale, and of two sheep killed by wolves in -another part of the district. - -Reverting to the descent of the eldest line of the Foljambes of -Tideswell, John Foljambe succeeded his father, the last named Sir -Thomas Foljambe, in 1323. This John Foljambe had a younger brother, -Thomas, who had two sons, John and Thomas, of Elton, both of whom -appear to have died childless. John Foljambe entailed the family -estates in 1350, and a second entail was made in 1372, whereby on the -extinction of the male descendants of the elder line, the estates of -Tideswell and Wormhill passed to the younger branch of the family. - -The oldest known burial-place of the Derbyshire Foljambes was in the -chancel of the church of Tideswell. To be buried in such a place is a -sure proof of the importance of the family in that district, for such -a privilege would not have been granted by the Dean and Chapter of -Lichfield, as rectors, except to those of considerable distinction. -This privilege must have been granted at an early date, long before the -present beautiful fourteenth century chancel was erected. The family -settled in this parish soon after the Conquest, and John Foljambe, who -died in 1249, aged seventy-one, desired to be buried in the chancel -of the church at Tideswell with _his forefathers_. This burial-place -was used by the senior branch of the Foljambes until the time of its -extinction in the male line by the death of Roger Foljambe in 1448. -In the early part of the fourteenth century there were three Foljambe -brasses with effigies extant in this chancel, but they have long since -disappeared. They respectively commemorated (1) Sir Thomas Foljambe, -who died in 1283, aged seventy-six, and Margaret, his wife, daughter -of William de Gernon; (2) Sir Thomas Foljambe, who died in 1298, aged -sixty-eight, and Catherine, his wife, daughter of William Eyre; and (3) -Sir Thomas Foljambe, who died in 1323, aged sixty-seven, and Alice, his -wife, daughter and heiress of Gerard de Furnival. - -Thomas Foljambe, son of Sir Thomas Foljambe III., married twice. By -Aveline, his first wife, he had a son, John, from whom the elder branch -at Tideswell were descended. By Alice, daughter and heiress of Darley, -of Darley, he had a son Godfrey, the founder of the Bakewell chantry. -This John Foljambe, who married Joan, daughter of Anker Frechville, -died on August 4th, 1358, and was buried at Tideswell. John, like his -half-brother Godfrey, was a chantry founder on a munificent scale. -He assigned two hundred acres in Tideswell, Wormhill and Litton for -the support of two chaplains, who were to say divine service at the -altar of Our Lady in the church of Tideswell. In conjunction with this -chantry a flourishing gild of brothers and sisters was established. The -chantry was refounded on an extensive scale in the reign of Richard -II.[33] - -[33] For full particulars of this chantry see Cox’s _Churches of -Derbyshire_, ii., 286–291. - -On the north side of the chancel, a floor-slab, bearing the matrix -of the despoiled brass of the effigy of a man in armour with an -inscription above his head, and another round the edge of the slab, -long remained. One of the younger branch of the Foljambes, about 1675, -desirous that the memory of this benefactor should not be forgotten, -placed a small brass tablet across the breast of the former figure, -which bore, in addition to a shield of the arms of Foljambe, the -following inscription:— - - “Tumulus Johanis filii Domini - Thomæ Foljambe qui obiit quarto - die Augusti Ano Domini millesimo - Trecentessimo quinquegesimo octavo - Qui multa bona fecit circa - fabricationem hujus ecclesiæ.” - -In 1875, the late Earl of Liverpool caused this brass effigy of his -ancestor to be restored. The inscription round the margin is simply a -more classical rendering of that given above, with the addition of the -date of its restoration. The old inscription has been transferred to -another stone at the head of the brass. The fine east window of this -chancel is due to the Earl’s munificence. - -[Illustration: Tideswell Church: The Chancel.] - -This is the only remaining assured instance of the once numerous -memorials to the great Foljambe family with which this church must -have at one time abounded. It was, however, Lord Liverpool’s opinion -that the two stone effigies, both of ladies, in the north transept -of the church—the one dating from the end of the thirteenth, and the -other from the latter half of the fourteenth century—represented -members of his family. In this he is supported by local tradition, but -the question can probably never be settled. In the south transept are -two effigies of later date to a knight and his lady on a table tomb. -These have been claimed to represent Sir Thurston de Bower and his -wife Margaret, who died about the close of the fourteenth century. -This monument was considerably restored and renovated in 1873, and a -marginal inscription added naming the effigies. It is, however, quite -possible that Lord Liverpool’s conjecture as to these effigies also -representing members of the Foljambe family is correct.[34] - -[34] Lord Liverpool put these conjectures in print in a preface to -the fourth edition of Rev. J. M. J. Fletcher’s _Tideswell Church_, -published in 1906. He had intended elaborating his reasons in this -volume. - -Thomas, the elder of the two sons of John Foljambe, the benefactor -to the church, died without issue in his father’s lifetime; John was -succeeded by his younger son, Roger, who is mentioned in various -charters of the reign of Richard II. His son and heir, James, died -in Roger’s lifetime, but left a son, Edward Foljambe, who was at -Tideswell, Wormhill, and Elton in 1416. He took part in the Battle of -Agincourt, and was knighted, and dying about 1446–7, left two sons. -These sons were: Roger, who succeeded him and died in 1448, leaving -three daughters; and Thomas, who died shortly before his brother, -without issue. Thereupon, the entailed estates of Tideswell, Wormhill, -etc., came to Thomas, son and heir of Thomas, younger son of Sir -Godfrey Foljambe, of Darley. - -The Darley estates passed, as has been already mentioned, in the time -of Edward III. to Sir Godfrey Foljambe, the younger son of Sir Thomas, -of Tideswell. Sir Godfrey was a man of considerable repute; he acted -as seneschal to John of Gaunt, and was for some years Constable of the -Peak; he also represented Derbyshire in the Parliaments of 1339–40, -1363–4, and 1369–71. Sir Godfrey Foljambe, who held the old Gernon -manor in Bakewell parish and much other property, died in 1376, at the -age of 59. A remarkable monument of beautiful finish is to be seen in -Bakewell Church, against one of the nave piers, to his memory, and that -of his second wife, the co-founders of a chantry in this church. - -Sir Godfrey and his wife are represented in half-length figures of -alabaster, carved in high relief, beneath a double-crocketed canopy. -The knight is represented in plate armour, and having on his head a -conical helmet or bascinet, with a camail of mail attached to its lower -edge. The lady wears the reticulated head-dress or cowl. Over the -knight are the arms of Foljambe—_sa._, a bend between six escallops, -_or_—the same being represented on his surcoat; over the lady are -represented the arms of Ireland—_gu._, six fleurs-de-lis, _arg._, 3, 2, -1. The monument is complete as it stands without any inscription, but -in 1803, Mr. Blore, the antiquary, placed here a slab of black marble -with the following inscription in gilt letters: — - - “Godefridus Foljambe miles et Avena un: ej. quæ postea cepit in - virum Ricardum de Greene militem dno dnaque manerius de Hassop, - Okebroke, Elton, Stanton, Darley-over-hall, et Lokhowe, cantariam hanc - fundaverunt in honorem sanctæ Crucis a^o. rr. Edri tertii xxxix + - Godefrus ob: die Jovis pr: post fest: ascens. dni a^o: regis pdci 1^o - obiitq Avena die Sabbi pr: p: nativ: b: Mariæ Virg: a^o. rr. Ric. II - vi^o.” - -This may be translated: — - - “Sir Godfrey Foljambe, Knight, and Avena his wife (who afterwards - married Richard de Greene, Knight), Lord and Lady of the manors of - Hassop, Ockbrook, Elton, Stanton, Darley-over-hall, and Locko, founded - this chantry in honour of the Holy Cross, in the 39th year of the - reign of King Edward III. Godfrey died on the first Thursday after the - feast of the Ascension, in the 50th year of the aforesaid King, and - Avena died on the first Saturday after the feast of the nativity of - the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the 6th year of the reign of Richard II.” - -At the bottom of this slab is the word “Watson,” which is in itself -sufficient to stamp this inscription as of modern date; for the old -monumental sculptors were never guilty of the offence of advertising -themselves on the inscribed slabs that they erected. It has been stated -that Mr. Blore obtained this inscription from a document in the British -Museum where the original epitaph was quoted. This, however, is an -impossibility, for a contemporary inscription could not possibly have -contained the blunders of this supposed transcript. The date of the -foundation of the chantry is wrong, and it was, moreover, founded by -Sir Godfrey Foljambe in conjunction with his first wife Anne, and not -with his second wife Avena. The family from which Anne, the first wife, -came is not known, but his second wife, Avena, was the daughter and -heiress of Sir Thomas Ireland, of Hartshorne, by Avena, daughter and -heiress of Sir Payn de Vilers, of Kinoulton and Newbold, Notts. - -There has been much confusion as to the date of the founding of the -chantry of the Holy Cross in Bakewell church—Lysons gives the date -as 1365, whilst Glover assigns it to 1371; but the one has been -deceived by an inquisition taken on the death of one of the chaplains -or trustees of the chantry property, and the other by a confirmation -deed of the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield. The true date is 1344, as -is proved by a variety of original documents now extant at the Public -Record Office.[35] There was a gild of some importance in connection -with this well-endowed chantry. The ordinances to secure the regular -attendance of the chaplain of this foundation were rigorous. He was to -reside constantly in the chantry house which adjoined the churchyard. -This house was only pulled down in the year 1820. He was never to be -away from Bakewell for as much as three days without licence from -the Lord of Hassop for the time being, and if the lord was not in -residence, he was to obtain leave from the vicar of Bakewell. If the -chaplain was ever away without licence for so long a time as fifteen -days he was to be at once removed, and another chaplain was to be -presented by the Lord of Hassop for institution by the Dean and Chapter -of Lichfield. - -[35] See Cox’s _Churches of Derbyshire_, ii., 16, 17. - -The site of the chantry of the Holy Cross was at the east end of the -south aisle. This interesting mural monument is placed against one of -the piers between the south aisle and the nave. It is not quite certain -whether this is the original position, but it has certainly been there -for two and a half centuries; Ashmole, who visited the church in 1662, -gives a rough draft of the memorial, which he describes as “set upon -a pillar betweene the upper end of the south Isle and the body of the -Church.” There was daily mass at the altar of the Holy Cross, and -the chaplain was instructed, after the _confiteor_ in each mass, to -turn to the people and say in the mother tongue, “Pray for the soul -of Sir Godfrey Foljambe and Anne his wife, and his children, and for -the brethren of the Guild of the Holy Cross, and for all the faithful -departed.” - -This is the only Foljambe monument at Bakewell, but the following -members of the family were probably buried in the parish church:—Alice -(Darley), widow of Sir Thomas Foljambe; Sir Godfrey Foljambe, of the -monument, and his two wives, Anne and Avena; three of the sons of -Sir Godfrey by his second wife, Avena, viz., Sir Godfrey Foljambe -II., Alvared, the fourth son, and Robert, the fifth son; Sir Godfrey -Foljambe III., grandson of Sir Godfrey of the monument, who died in -1389; and Margaret, daughter of Sir Simon Leche, and wife of the last -named Sir Godfrey. - -[Illustration: Bakewell Church: Foljambe Monument.] - -Meanwhile, a younger branch of the family, founded by Thomas Foljambe, -second son of the first Sir Godfrey, by Avena, his wife, settled at -Walton, near Chesterfield, through the marriage of this Thomas with -Margaret, the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Loudham, of -Walton. Sir John Loudham gained the Walton estate, in the parish -of Chesterfield, by marriage with Isabel, daughter and heiress of Sir -Robert Bretton. - -Thomas, son and heir of Thomas Foljambe, of Walton, and Margaret -(Loudham), his wife, became heir male of the family in 1448, on the -death, as has been already stated, of Roger Foljambe, of Tideswell. -Though still landowners in that parish, the family ceased from that -time to be residents at Tideswell; for in 1451, this Thomas, then -aged forty, inherited further estates on the death of his uncle, and -thenceforth the Derbyshire home of the family was at Walton. The -Tideswell property was eventually sold by Sir Francis Foljambe, Bart., -who died in 1640. - -We now leave both Tideswell and Bakewell in the search for Foljambe -monuments, and go to one of the south chapels of the great church -of Chesterfield, which was the burial place of the family for more -than two centuries. In this chapel of the south aisle of the quire, -long known as the Foljambe chapel, there used to be a brass to Thomas -Foljambe, who was the first of the family to acquire Walton. There were -also brasses to his son, Thomas Foljambe, of Walton, who married Jane, -daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Ashton; and also to his son, a third -Thomas Foljambe, who died childless in 1468. But these three brasses -disappeared in the seventeenth century. - -Among the Osberton muniments are letters testimonial from the -commissary of the Bishop of Lichfield, dated 27th May, 1469, granting -to Henry Foljambe, of Walton, and John Foljambe, administration of the -goods of Thomas Foljambe, of Walton, deceased, in the estate, the same -having been appraised by James Hyton, dean of Scarsdale, and others, -and proclamations made at mass in Chesterfield church. - -The oldest of the memorials now left is a finely wrought table -or chest tomb (of the kind usually misnamed “altar-tomb”), which -commemorates Henry Foljambe, brother and heir of the third Thomas -Foljambe, of Walton, who married Benedicta, daughter of Sir Henry -Vernon, of Haddon. On the sides of this tomb are many sculptured -figures of squires and ladies under rich canopies, representing the -seven sons and seven daughters of Henry and Benedicta. The names of -these children were Godfrey, Thomas, Henry, Richard, John, Gilbert, -Roger, Helen, Margaret, Joan, Mary, Benedicta, Elizabeth, and Anne. An -agreement was entered into between the executors of Henry Foljambe, in -conjunction with his widow and children, and Henry Harpur and William -Moorecock, of Burton-on-Trent, “to make a tomb for Henry Foljambe, -husband of Bennett, in St. Mary’s quire, in the church of All Hallows, -in Chesterfield, and to make it as good as is the tomb of Sir Nicholas -Montgomery at Colley, with eighteen images under the table, and the -arms upon them, and the said Henry in copper and gilt upon the table -of marble, with two arms at the head and two arms at the feet of the -same, and the table of marble to be of a whole stone and all fair -marble.” This agreement is dated 26th of October, 1510; £5 was paid in -hand, and another £5 was to be paid when all was performed; it seems -probable that this contract referred only to the stonework of the tomb. -The brasses on the top of this table-tomb, consisting of the effigies -of Henry and his lady, together with a marginal inscription brass, -were for a long time missing, but were re-supplied by the late Lord -Liverpool; the shields bear the arms of Foljambe, Vernon, Loudham, and -Bretton. - -Near to this table-tomb is a floor-slab bearing the brasses of a knight -and his lady. This is the tomb of Sir Godfrey Foljambe IV., eldest son -of the last-mentioned Henry, and his wife Catherine, daughter of Sir -John Leeke, of Sutton-in-the-Dale.[36] He was born at Walton on -Easter Day, 1472. By his will, made in 1531, he desires: - -[36] The manner in which covenants of marriage were coolly made -at the period by parents of the landed class, on behalf of their -children, is remarkably illustrated by a covenant drawn up on 9th -June, 1489, between Henry Foljambe, of Walton, and John Leake, of -Sutton-in-the-Dale. By this document it was arranged that Godfrey -Foljambe, son and heir of the said Henry (or in the event of his death -Thomas Foljambe, second son), was to marry Catherine, daughter of the -said John Leake, or in the event of her death, Muriel, the second -daughter. It was further covenanted that John Leake, son and heir of -the said John, was to marry Jane, daughter of the said Henry Foljambe. - - “My carcass to be buried in the Chappell of Saint George, besides my - lady my wife in Chesterfield ... my funeral mass and dirge, with all - other suffrages and obsequies to be done and ministered for my soul - according as worship requires, after my degree, that my sword, helmet, - with the crest upon the head, and my coat of arms be hanged over my - tomb and there to remain for ever.” - -[Illustration: Tomb of Henry Foljambe, 1510; and Kneeling Figure of Sir -Thomas Foljambe, 1604. - -Tomb of Godfrey Foljambe, 1594. - -[_From Ford’s “History of Chesterfield,” 1839._]] - -The knight is depicted in plate armour, his head resting on his -helmet and his feet on a stag; his surcoat bears the quartered arms -of Foljambe, Loudham, and Bretton. The lady wears the low-pointed -head-dress, with falling lappets, of the sixteenth century, and is clad -in a long mantle, which bears the arms of Leeke; the gown is confined -at the waist by a girdle, fastened with a clasp of three roses, and -round the neck is a chain with a pendant cross. Sir Godfrey died in -1541, and his wife in 1529. This Sir Godfrey was thrice high sheriff of -the county, namely, in 1519, 1524, and 1536. - -Against the east wall of the Foljambe chapel is an elaborate mural -monument to Sir James Foljambe, the eldest son of the fourth Sir -Godfrey, who died in 1558. This monument was erected by his grandson, -and is a costly and elaborate example of the fashion of mural monuments -that then prevailed. Bateman, the Derbyshire antiquary of last century, -wrote of it as a specimen of “cumbrous style and horrible taste.” But -although it clashes with its Gothic surroundings, it is quite possible -to admire the beauty and workmanship of some of the component parts. -The kneeling figures of Sir James, his two wives and thirteen children, -are all represented. This Sir James Foljambe enjoyed a plentiful -fortune from his father, but had it much augmented through marriage. -His first wife was Alice, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Fitzwilliam, -of Aldwark,[37] who was slain at Flodden Field, 1515; she brought -him considerable landed property at Aldwark, and in other parts of -Yorkshire. By her he had issue, Godfrey, George and James, twins, and -three daughters, Frances, Cecily, and Mary. Sir James’ second wife was -Constance, daughter of Sir Edward Littleton; by her he had issue, a -son Francis, two other sons, and four daughters. The Latin epitaph, -composed by Sir James’ grandson, is expressed in grandiloquent terms. -Sir James is therein described, according to a translation by Lord -Liverpool, as “a man highly adorned by piety, by the integrity of his -manners, by the heraldic bearing of his ancestors, and by his own -virtues.” By inquisition taken at Chesterfield after his death, it was -found that he died seized of 40 messuages, 7 watermills, 200 acres of -meadow, and £5 rents in Brampton, half the manor in Bremington, the -manors of Elton and Tideswell, as well as a great variety of lands, -messuages, and rents in more than a score of other townships in -Derbyshire. - -[37] His brother, Godfrey Foljambe, married Margaret Fitzwilliam, the -other co-heiress. - -His eldest son, Godfrey, was twenty-four at the time of his father’s -death. He was subsequently knighted, and died in 1585. He married -Troth, daughter of William Tyrwhitt, of Kettleby. The table-tomb to -the fifth Sir Godfrey and his wife bears their recumbent effigies in -alabaster. Sir Godfrey wears a double collar ruff, and ruffles round -the wrists; he is clad in the plate armour of the period, and is -bare-headed; the head rests on the helmet, whilst a lion supports the -feet. The lady is in ruff and mantle, her head on a cushion and a dog -at her feet. Round the margin of the tomb are twenty shields, bearing -the various Foljambe alliances, whilst at the foot is a shield of all -these Foljambe quarterings impaling Tyrwhitt, whose arms are three -tirwhits or lapwings. An elaborate Latin epitaph appears on a mural -slab above the altar-tomb. Sir Godfrey is there described as “highly -adorned by his innocence, his integrity, his faith, his religion, and -his hospitality.” - -[Illustration: Chesterfield Church: Foljambe Chapel.] - -Against the south wall of this chapel is the table-tomb and monument -of Godfrey Foljambe, the only son of Sir Godfrey Foljambe V., who -erected the elaborate monuments to his parents and grandparents. He -also erected the monument to himself during his lifetime. He died -in 1594; but the sculptor placed on the margin the true date of the -execution of the work, which was 1592. The sculptured work round this -tomb is a beautifully modelled example of renaissance carving, and has -been considered worthy of special illustration in Mr. Gotch’s recent -important work, _Early Renaissance Architecture in England_. - -On the floor near by there is a large alabaster slab bearing the -incised effigy of a man in armour, with a much mutilated marginal -inscription. It appears, from church notes of the eighteenth century, -that this is the monument of George Foljambe, of Brimington, who died -in 1588; he was the second son of Sir James Foljambe. In this chapel -there is also to be seen the exceptional kneeling figure of a knight -in plate armour, which is described and engraved in the _Gentleman’s -Magazine_ for 1794. It has undergone various mutilations and -restorations. There is some difficulty in deciding whom this monument -is intended to represent; but it seems probable that it was erected to -the memory of Sir Thomas Foljambe, who was buried at Chesterfield in -1604. He was the son of Francis Foljambe, the eldest son of Sir James, -by his second wife; he was succeeded by his brother Francis, who was -created baronet in 1622. - -One of the most painful features of the troubles of the Elizabethan -recusants, or adherents to the unreformed faith, who were numerous -in this county, was the deliberate way in which family feuds were -promoted, and the bribe of inheriting forfeited estates held out to -conforming relations who would give information as to recusancy.[38] - -[38] See Cox’s _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_, i. 251–276. - -Among the Talbot papers at the College of Arms is a letter from Francis -Leeke to the Earl of Shrewsbury, dated February 2nd, 1587, wherein he -states:— - - “I was this day at Tupton where I found the Lady Constance Foljamb. - I did impart to the Lady Foljambe my comitione to comitte her to the - chardge of my cousin Foljamb. Her answer was that she was by age, and - the sikeness of the stone, not abell to travell either on horseback - or on foot, and so desired me to let your Lordshipp understand: - whereuppon she yet remeenethe at Tupton till your Lordshippe’s - pleasure be further knowne.” - -The Earl answers that her commitment is necessary, and on February 16th -of the same year, receives a letter from Godfrey Foljambe stating that -he had apprehended “the Lady Constance Foljambe, my grandmother, and -now have her in my custodie, whom, by God’s help, I shall safely keep.” -The zeal of the conforming grandson was not altogether disinterested, -for when he set her at liberty, twenty months later, by order of -the Council, he retained for his own benefit “her living, goods, -and chattels.” On September 22nd, 1589, the Lady Constance wrote to -the Earl thanking him for her release. From another source comes an -interesting evidence of the endeavours of the aged lady, within a few -days of her release, to conform sufficiently so as to escape renewed -custody at the hands of her grasping grandson. In the common place book -of Roger Columbell, of Darley Hall, occurs this note: - - “Mem. Godfrey Foljambe of More Hall, myself, my brother Blunt were at - Tupton in the Lady Constance Foljambe’s house, the 28th September, - 1589, when all the morning prayers, saving the ij. lessons omitted - for want of a byble & the collect for the daye, for want of skyll to - find it out, was distinctley read with the Latinne also by Nicholas - Harding; her man-servant, & Elianor Harrington, hir waytinge woman - beinge present, who reverently and obediently behaved themselves - during all the service tyme, as we aforenamed with Edward Bradshawe, - John Browne, and John Hawson, are to witness whensoever we shall be - called by other or otherwyse as by a byll under our hand according to - my sade cousen Foljambe of More Hall appeareth.” - -Sir Francis Foljambe, Bart., sold Walton Manor House and the Derbyshire -estate to Sir Arthur Ingram in 1633. From that time Aldwark became the -chief residence of the family. Sir Francis died, leaving no male issue, -in 1640, and the representation of his family devolved on his third -cousin, Peter Foljambe, who was able to prove his descent and claim to -the family estates. He lived at Steveton, one of the inherited estates -in the parish of Sherborn, Yorkshire, and died in 1668. It is from the -Foljambes of Aldwark and Steveton that Cecil George Savile Foljambe, -Baron Hawkesbury 1893, Viscount Hawkesbury and Earl of Liverpool 1905, -who died in 1907, was descended. - - - - -REPTON: ITS ABBEY, CHURCH, PRIORY, AND SCHOOL - -By Rev. F. C. Hipkins, M.A., F.S.A. - - -Very early in the annals of England the name of Repton appears. In the -_Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ it is mentioned three times:—(1) A.D. 755, “In -the same year Æthelbald, King of the Mercians, was slain at Seccandune -(Seckington, Warwickshire), and his body lies at Hreopandune (Repton)”; -(2) A.D. 874, “In this year the army of the Danes went from Lindsey to -Hreopedune, and there took up their winter quarters”; (3) A.D. 875, “In -this year the army departed from Hreopedune.” - -Professor Skeat thinks that “the name signifies Hreopa’s down, _i.e._, -Hreopa’s hill-fort. Hreopa being the name of some Anglo-Saxon warrior, -not otherwise known.” - -In _Domesday Book_ the name is spelt Rapendun, and many variations as -to the spelling of the name appear in mediæval and modern documents. - -[Illustration: Repton: Parish Church and Priory Gateway.] - -Stebbing Shaw, in the _Topographer_ (ii., 250), writes: “Here was, -before A.D. 600, a noble monastery of religious men and women, under -the government of an Abbess, after the Saxon Way, wherein several of -the royal line were buried.” - -Tradition says that this monastery was founded by St. David about the -year 600, but as no records of the monastery have been discovered, -we cannot tell with any precision when it was founded, or by -whom. Penda, the pagan King of Mercia, was slain by Oswin, King of -Northumbria, at the battle of Winwadfield in the year 656, and was -succeeded by his brother Peada, who had been converted to Christianity -by Alfred, brother of Oswin, and was baptized, with all his attendants, -by Finan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, at Walton, in the year 632 (Matt. -Paris, _Chron. Maj._). King Peada is said to have brought into the -midlands four priests, Adda, Betti, Cedda (brother of St. Chad), and -Diuma, who was consecrated first bishop of the Middle Angles and -Mercians. In the year 657 Peada was slain “in a very nefarious manner -during the festival of Easter,” and was succeeded by his brother -Wulphere. - -Tanner, _Notitia_, f. 78; Leland, _Collect_, vol. ii., p. 157; Dugdale, -_Monasticon_, vol. ii., pp. 280–2, agree that the monastery was founded -before the year 660, so that either Peada or his brother Wulphere may -have been the founder. - -One of the earliest references to Repton Abbey and Abbess is found -in a life of St. Guthlac, written by Felix, a monk of Croyland, at -the command of Æthelbald, King of the Mercians. Guthlac, after a nine -years’ life of plunder, obtained by fire and sword, repented of his -life, - - “And one sleepless night, his conscience awoke, the enormity of his - crimes, and the doom awaiting such a life, suddenly aroused him; at - daybreak he announced to his companions, his intention of giving up - the predatory life of a soldier of fortune, and desired them to choose - another leader. So, at the age of twenty-four, he left them, and came - to the abbey of Repton, and sought admission there.” - -This happened in the year 694, when Ælfritha was abbess. She admitted -him, and under her rule he received the mystical tonsure of St. Peter, -the prince of the Apostles. - -For two years he submitted himself to the discipline of the monastery, -but, attracted by the virtues of a hermit’s life, he left the abbey -in the autumn of 696, “when berries hung ripe over the stream,” and -drifted down the Trent till he reached the Lincoln Fens, where he -built himself a hut, and lived in it till he died in 714. It is related -that Eadburgh, Abbess of Repton, daughter of Aldulph, King of the East -Angles, sent a shroud and a coffin of Derbyshire lead for his burial. - -_The Memorials of St. Guthlac_, edited by Dr. Walter de Gray Birch, -contain the full text of Felix’s life of the Saint, interleaved -with eighteen cartoons, reproduced by autotype photography from the -well-known roll in the British Museum. - -The next event is connected with Wystan, patron saint of Repton. In -an appendix to the _Chronicon Abbatiæ de Evesham_, written by Thomas -de Marleberge, Abbot of Evesham (published among _The Chronicles and -Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle-Ages_), -there is a life of St. Wystan. Wystan was the son of Wimund (son of -Wiglaf, King of Mercia); his mother’s name was “Elfleda”; his father -died of dysentery when he (Wystan) was young. On the death of Wiglaf, -Bertulph, “inflamed with a desire of ruling, and with a secret love for -the Queen-Regent,” conspired against his nephew Wystan. A council was -summoned to meet at a place known from that day to this as Wistanstowe, -in Shropshire. Hither came Bertulph and his son Berfurt. Beneath his -cloak Berfurt had concealed a sword, and whilst giving a kiss of peace -to Wystan he drew it and smote him with a mortal wound in the head, and -so, on the Eve of Pentecost, A.D. 850, “that holy martyr, leaving his -precious body on the earth, bore his glorious soul to heaven.” The body -was conveyed to the Abbey at Repton, “tunc temporis famosissimum,” and -buried in the mausoleum of his grandfather. - -Here the body rested till the days of Canute (1016–1035), who -transferred the relics to Evesham Abbey. In the year 1207 its central -tower fell, smashing the presbytery and all that it contained, -including the shrine of St. Wystan. The monks recovered the relics, -and at the earnest request of the prior and canons of Repton granted -to them “a portion of the broken skull and a piece of an arm bone.” -The bearers of the precious relics were met by a procession of prior -canons, and others from Repton; “with tears of joy they placed the -relics, not as before in the mausoleum of St. Wystan’s grandfather, but -in a shrine more worthy, more suitable, and as honourable as it was -possible to make it in their own Priory Chapel.” - -About twenty years after the murder of St. Wystan, the Danes again -invaded the land. During the reign of Alfred, in A.D. 874, they -penetrated up the river Trent into the heart of Mercia, and took up -their winter quarters at Repton, as we read in the _Saxon Chronicle_. -Here they made a camp, a parallelogram of raised earth, still _in -situ_, by the side of the river Trent. Its dimensions are: north side, -75 yards 1 foot; south side, 68 yards 1 foot; east side, 52 yards 1 -foot; west side, 54 yards 2 feet. Within the four embankments are -two rounded mounds, and parallel with the south side are two inner -ramparts, and one parallel with the north. The local name for it is -“The Buries.” The next year, 875, they departed, having, as Ingulph -relates, “utterly destroyed that most celebrated monastery, the most -sacred mausoleum of all the Kings of Mercia.” - -For about a century the site of the monastery remained desolate, until -the reign of Edgar the Peaceable (959–975), when, as the Rev. Dr. -Cox writes, “Probably about that period the religious ardour of the -persecuted Saxons revived ... their thoughts would naturally revert to -the glories of monastic Repton in the days gone by.” On the site of -or close to the ruined abbey a church was built, and dedicated to St. -Wystan. In _Domesday Book_ Repton is entered as having a church with -two priests, which proves the size and importance of the church and -parish in those early days. - -According to several writers it was built of stout oak beams, and -planks, on a foundation of stone, and its sides were made of wattle, -composed of withy twigs, interlaced between the oak beams, daubed -within and without with mud or clay. The floor of the chancel, -supported on beams of wood, was higher than the present one, so it had -an upper and lower “choir,” the lower one being lit by narrow lights, -two of which, blocked up, can be seen in the south wall of the chancel. - -When the church was reconstructed of stone the chancel floor was -removed, and the lower “choir” was converted into the present crypt by -the introduction of a vaulted stone roof, which is supported by four -spirally-wreathed pillars, five feet apart, five feet six inches high, -eight square responds, slightly fluted, of the same height and distance -apart, all with capitals, with square abaci, which are chamfered off -below. - -As the responds are not bonded into the walls of the crypt, the -question has been asked if the walls might have pertained to the abbey, -and formed the mausoleum referred to on previous page. - -Round the four walls is a double string-course; below which the walls -are ashlar, remarkably smooth. The vaulted roof springs from the upper -string-course; the ribs are square in section, one foot wide, no -diagonal groins. The whole roof is covered with plaster; traces of red -colour wash can be seen on the capitals and roof. - -There were square recesses on the east, north, and south sides, -projecting two feet two inches from the face of the walls, six feet -two inches wide, with openings in them two feet wide, used as windows. -These recesses were capped with triangular shaped roofs, which served -the double purpose of protecting them, and also formed buttresses for -the walls. Similar triangular roofs are to be seen at Barnack and -Brigstock. - -[Illustration: Repton Church: Saxon Crypt.] - -In the west wall there is also a recess, formed by an arch; in this -recess there is a smaller triangular-shaped opening, about 18 inches -high. Many suggestions have been made as to its use: (1) it was -a “holy hole” for the reception of relics; (2) an opening in which -a lamp, let down from the chancel above, could be kept lit; (3) “a -hagioscope,” through which the crypt and its contents could be seen -from the nave of the church. Two passages led from the western angles -of the crypt to the church above. - -In the December, 1896, number of the _Archæological Journal_ there is -an article by Mr. Micklethwaite in which he refers to the fact that the -crypts at Brixworth, Repton, and Wing are alike in one respect—they -each have recesses, which he calls “arcosolia,” or arched chambers, -intended to receive tombs. At Repton and Wing there are three; at -Brixworth, two. Repton and Wing extend two feet two inches from the -face of the walls; those at Brixworth are in the thickness of the -walls. In the year 1898 I excavated the earth on the south side, and -found the foundations as before given; under a slab in the recess, a -skeleton was found. The recess on the east side was destroyed when a -flight of stone steps was made leading down into the crypt. Six of -these steps are still _in situ_. The recess on the north side was -destroyed, and replaced by an outer stone staircase, with holy water -stoup in the wall, and a thirteenth century door. - -All the various styles of architecture are to be seen included in the -walls of Repton church. Saxon or Norman in the chancel, crypt, walls, -and foundations of the present nave as far as the second pillars. -During the year 1854 the Saxon pillars and arches of the church were -removed for the sake of uniformity! The pillars are preserved in the -south porch. - -During the last restoration of 1885–6, the foundations of this part of -the church, and those of the Early English period, were laid bare. - -The Decorated style is represented by the pillars and arches of the -nave, the north and south aisles, and the tower with its steeple. -Bassano, in his _Church Notes_, records this fact:— - - “An^o 1340. The tower steeple belonging to the Priors Church of this - town was finished and built up, as appears by a Scrole of Lead, having - on it these words—‘Turris adaptatur qua trajectu decoratur. M c ter - xxbis. Testu Palini Johis.” - -The Perpendicular style is represented by the clerestory windows, of -two lights each, the roof of the church, and the south porch. - -In the year 1779, the crypt was “discovered” in a curious way. Dr. -Prior, headmaster of Repton School, died on June 16th of that year; a -grave was being prepared in the chancel, when the grave-digger suddenly -disappeared from sight; he had dug through the vaulted roof, and so -fell into the crypt below! In the south-west division of the groined -ceiling, a rough lot of rubble, used to mend the hole, indicates the -spot. - -During the year 1792 “a restoration” of the church took place; the -church was re-pewed in the horse-box style! All the beautifully -carved oak work on pews and elsewhere, described by Stebbing Shaw in -the _Topographer_ (May, 1790), and many monuments, were cleared out -or destroyed. The crypt seems to have been the receptacle for “all -and various” kinds of this “rubbish.” In the year 1802, Dr. Sleath, -headmaster of Repton, “discovered” the steps and door on the north -side of the chancel, and having cleared out the one and opened the -other, found the crypt filled up to the capitals of the pillars with -“rubbish,” which he removed, and restored the crypt as it is now. - -There are three ancient register books of births, baptisms, marriages, -and burials, and one register book of the churchwardens’ and -constables’ accounts of the parish of Repton. They extend from 1580 to -1670. - -The register book of the churchwardens’ and constables’ accounts -extends from 1582 to 1635, and includes Repton, and the chapelries of -Foremark, Ingleby, and Bretby. It is a narrow folio volume of coarse -paper (16 in. by 6 in., by 2 in. thick), and is bound with a parchment -which formed part of a Latin Breviary or Office Book, with music and -words. The initial letters are illuminated; the colours inside are -still bright and distinct. - -In vol. i. of the _Journal of the Derbyshire Archæological Society_ -(1879) there is an article by Rev. Dr. Cox on these accounts, and -he writes: “It is the earliest record of parish accounts, with the -exception of All Saints’, Derby, in the county.” Space alone prevents -me from making extracts from them and the other registers; they are -full of local interest. - -About the year 1059, a Priory of Canons Regular, of the order of St. -Augustine, dedicated to St. Giles, was founded at Calke by Algar, -Earl of Mercia. Here they dwelt till _c._ 1153, according to the old -Chronicle written by one Thomas de Musca, Canon of Dale Abbey, when -Serio de Grendon, lord of Bradley, near Ashbourne, “called together the -Canons of Kale, and gave them the place of Deepdale; here they built -for themselves a church, a costly labour, and other offices.” These -buildings became known as Dale Abbey, and here they lived for a time -“apart from the social intercourse of men, but they began too remissly -to hold themselves in the service of God; they began to frequent -the forest more than the church, more to hunting than to prayer or -meditation, so the King ordered them to return to the place whence they -came,” viz., Calke. During the reign of Henry II. (1154–1189), Matilda, -widow of Randulf, fourth Earl of Chester, who died A.D. 1153—with the -consent of her son Hugh—granted to God, St. Mary, the Holy Trinity, and -to the Canons of Calke, the working of a quarry at Repton, together -with the advowson of the church of St. Wystan, at Repton, on condition -that as soon as a suitable opportunity should occur, the Canons should -remove to Repton, which was to be their chief house; Calke Priory was -to become subject to it. - -“A suitable opportunity” occurred during the episcopate of Walter -Durdent, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (1149–1159). - -Copies of the original charters are given in Bigsby’s _History of -Repton_, Dugdale’s _Monasticon_, and Stebbing Shaw’s article in vol. -ii. of the _Topographer_. The charters containing grants extend from -Stephen’s reign (1135–1154) to the reign of Henry V. (1413–1422), and -include the church of St. Wystan, Repton, with its eight chapelries of -Newton Solney, Bretby, Milton, Foremark, Ingleby, Tickenhall, Smisby, -and Measham; the church at Badow, in Essex; estates at Willington, -including its church; and property at Croxall. - -Very few events have been handed down to us in connection with the -story of the priory. In November, 1364, Robert de Stretton, Bishop -of Lichfield, was holding a visitation in the chapter house of the -priory of Repton. For some reason unknown, the villagers, armed with -bows and arrows, swords and cudgels, with much tumult, assaulted the -Priory Gatehouse. The bishop sent for Sir Alured de Solney and Sir -Robt. Francis, lords of the manors of Newton Solney and Foremark, who -came and quickly quelled this early “town and gown” row without any -actual breach of the peace. The bishop soon after proceeded on his -journey, and on reaching Alfreton issued a sentence of interdict on -the town and parish church of Repton, with a command to the clergy in -the neighbouring churches to publish the same under pain of greater -excommunication, and publication was to be continued until they merited -the grace of reconciliation. - -By the advice of Thomas Cromwell—_malleus monachorum_—Henry VIII. -issued a commission of inquiry into the condition, etc., of the -monasteries of England. An Act was passed in 1536 suppressing those -which had revenues less than £200 a year. Those notorious men, Doctors -Thomas Leigh and Richard Layton, had visited Repton the year before, -and gave the amount of revenue as £180 per annum; they reported that -the canons were not living up to their vows, and added a note to their -report; but all competent historians agree that these reports are quite -untrustworthy. - -Under the heading of _superstitio_ the visitors made the interesting -entry that pilgrims came to the Priory of Repton to visit (a shrine of) -St. Guthlac and his bell, which they were wont to place on their heads -for the cure of the headache. This relic formed an interesting link -between the early pre-Conquest Abbey and the Norman Priory. - -On June 12th, 1537, John Yonge, or Young, was re-appointed prior by -the Crown; letters patent were granted exempting the priory from -suppression on the payment of a fine of £266 13s. 4d. But this only -delayed the surrender, which happened on October 26th, 1538. Prior -Yonge died three days before that event. Ralph Clerke, sub-prior, -signed the deed handing the priory and contents to Dr. Leigh, who, -writing to Thomas Cromwell from Grace Dieu, said, “On coming to Repton -they found the house greatly spoiled, and many things purloined, part -of which they recovered.” - -In the Public Record Office there is a very full inventory of the goods -and possessions of the Priory. A transcript of this inventory is given -by Mr. W. H. St. John Hope in vol. vi. of the _Derbyshire Archæological -Journal_, 1884. This inventory affords a very good and detailed account -of the Priory and its contents. It is termed a list of— - - “all suche parcells of Implements or houshould stuffe, corne, catell, - Ornamments of the Church & such other lyke found within the said - late p^irory at the tyme of the dyssolucon therof sould by the Kyngs - Commissioners to Thomas Thacker the xxvj day of October in the xxx - yere of o^r sov’agn lorde Kyng henry the viij^{th}.” - -A memorandum added to the list recounts that— - - “(Thomas) Thacker was put in possession of the scite of the seid late - priory & all the demaynes to y^t apperteynyng to o^r sov’aigne lorde - the Kynges use.” - -Thomas Thacker died in 1548, leaving his property to his son Gilbert; -the latter, according to Fuller, - - “being alarmed with the news that Queen Mary had set up the abbeys - again (and fearing how large a reach such a precedent might have) upon - a Sunday (belike the better day, the better deed) called together the - carpenters and masons of that county, and plucked down in one day - (church-work is a cripple in going up, but rides post in coming down) - a most beautiful church belonging thereto, saying ‘he would destroy - the nest, for fear the birds should build therein again.’” - -The Priory differed in no marked way from the usual plan of conventual -building—a square cloister, surrounded on all its sides by buildings. -Owing to the river being on the north, the cloister was on the north -of its church, instead of the south; the Refectory, or Fratry, on -the north side, the church on the south; the chapter house and -calefactorium, with dormitory over them, on the east side; the -kitchens, buttery, and cellars, with guest hall over them, on the west -side. Admission to the Priory precincts, which were bounded by the -existing walls, was obtained through a gate-house, the outer arch of -which forms the present entrance. The Trent formed a boundary on the -north. The stream which flows down the village entered the precincts at -the south-eastern corner of the boundary wall through an arch, still -_in situ_, and supplied the fish-ponds, mill, and Priory with water for -domestic, sanitary, and other purposes. - -The Priory church consisted of nave, with north and south aisles, -central tower, north and south transepts, choir, with aisles, a south -chapel, and a presbytery to the east of the choir. In the inventory the -following chapels are named: St. John, Our Lady of Pity, St. Thomas, -St. Syth (St. Osyth), Our Lady, and St. Nicholas. Many beautiful -fragments of painted canopies, tabernacle work, etc., were found among -the débris when digging foundations for the Pears School in 1885; no -doubt many of the shrines, such as those of SS. Guthlac and Wystan, had -been robbed of their relics and ornaments long before the Priory was -destroyed in the year 1553. - -[Illustration: Repton: The Priory Gateway and School.] - -Leaving the church, we enter, through a door at the east end of the -north aisle, the cloister. Passing along the eastern side we come to -the Chapter House, with _slype_, or passage, through which the bodies -of the canons were conveyed for interment in the cemetery outside. -The _slype_ is still intact, with plain barrel vault, without ribs, -springing from a chamfered string course; adjoining the slype was the -calefactorium, or warming house. - -Over the Chapter House, slype, and calefactorium was the dormitory, -with its cells or cubicles. - -The Fratry or Refectory occupied the north side, with rooms underneath -used for various purposes, and a passage leading to the infirmary, an -isolated building, now known as the Hall. - -On the west side were the Prior’s Chamber and five others, devoted to -guests who visited the Priory. Underneath was the cellarium, which -included “the Kychenn,” “larder,” and “bruehouse.” The cellar was a -long room 89 feet by 26 feet, divided by a row of six massive Norman -columns, four of which are still _in situ_. Besides these, there were -three other houses mentioned: “the yelyng house,” _i.e._, brewing -house; the “boultyng house,” where the meal was sifted; and the “kyll -house,” by which term is possibly meant the slaughter house, but more -probably the kiln house. - -The following is a more perfect and fuller list of the priors of Repton -than has hitherto appeared:— - -Robert, _c._ 1155; Nicholas, _c._ 1175; Albred, _c._ 1200; Richard, -_c._ 1208; Nicholas, _c._ 1215; John, _c._ 1220; Reginald, _c._ 1230; -Peter, _c._ 1252; Robert, _c._ 1289; Ralph, 1316–36; John de Lichfield, -1336–46; Simon de Sutton, 1346–56; Ralph de Derby, 1356–99; William of -Tutbury, 1399; William Maynesin, _c._ 1411; Wystan Porter, died 1436; -John Overton, 1436; John Wylne, 1438–71; Thomas Sutton, 1471–86; Henry -Prest, 1486–1503; William Derby, 1503–8; John Young, 1508. - -The fourth section of these outline memorials of Repton belongs to the -school, which has this year (1907) celebrated its seventh jubilee. The -founder of Repton School was descended from Henry Porte, a merchant -of Westchester (_i.e._, Chester, west of Manchester). He had a son, -also Henry, a mercer, of the same city. His son John was a Justice of -the King’s Bench in the reign of Henry VIII., who conferred upon him, -after the dissolution of the monasteries, the manor, together with the -rectory and advowson of the vicarage of Etwall; these passed to his -son, Sir John Porte (created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation -of Edward VI.), the founder of Repton School. He was educated at -Brasenose College, Oxford, in which his father is said to have provided -“stipends for two sufficient and able persons to read and teach openly -in the hall—the one philosophy, the other humanity,” one of which -“stipends” or lectureships was conferred on his son. Like his father, -he was married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir -Thomas Giffard, by whom he had two sons, who predeceased him, and -three daughters, Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Gerrard, knight of -Bryn, co. Manchester; Dorothy, who married George Hastings, Earl of -Huntingdon; and Margaret, who married Sir Thomas Stanhope, knight, -of Shelford, co. Nottingham. From these three daughters the present -hereditary governors of Repton School, Lord Gerard, Earl Loudoun, and -Earl Carnarvon, trace their descent. By his second wife, Dorothy, -daughter of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, of Norbury, he had no children. - -In the year 1553 Sir John was one of the “knights of the shire” for the -County of Derby, and served the office of High Sheriff for the same -county in 1554. In 1556 he sat with Ralph Baine, Bishop of Lichfield, -and the rest of the Commissioners, at Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire, “to -search out heresies and punish them.”—Strype, _Memorials_, vol. iii., -part 2, p. 15. - -On the 6th of June, 1557, he died, and was buried in Etwall church. -Built against the south wall in the chancel is “a comely and handsome -tomb of pure marble,” under which lie the bodies of Sir John and his -two wives. “Set and fixed, graven in brass,” are portrait figures of -Sir John, his wives, and children. - -By will, dated the 9th of March, 1556, Sir John gave and devised to -his executors, Sir Thomas Giffard, knight; Richard Harpur, Esquire; -Thomas Brewster, Vicar of Etwall, and others, certain estates in the -counties of Derby and Lancaster for the foundation and maintenance of -an almshouse at Etwall, and a grammar school at Etwall or Repton. - -As we read in the report made to the Charity Commissioners in 1867— - - “Sir John had no property at Repton. His executors were probably - induced to establish the school there, rather than at Etwall, by - finding the refectory of the building of the dissolved priory well - adapted to the purpose. By indenture, dated 12th June, I Eliz. - 1558, Gilbert Thacker, the grantee of the site of the priory, in - consideration of £37 10. ‘bargained and sold to Richard Harpur, - serjeant-at-law, John Harker, and Simon Starkey, three of the - executors of Sir John Port ... one large great and high house near - the kitchen of the same Gilbert Thacker, in Repton, commonly called - the Feringre (Fermery or Infirmary of the priory) ... upon which the - schoolmaster’s lodgings were then newly erected, together with all - the rooms, both above and beneath, of the same long house, ... also - one large void room or parcel of ground upon the east part ... lately - called the Cloyster, and one other room thereto adjoining, lately - called the Tratrye (Fratry), as the same was then inclosed with a new - wall, to the intent that the same should be a schoolhouse, and so used - from time to time thereafter.’”—(See page 43 of the Report.) - -The erection of “schoolmaster’s lodgings, with rooms above and below,” -on the ruins of the Priory, referred to above, makes it very difficult -to identify the present Priory with the original building. As Mr. St. -John Hope writes in the 1884 volume of the _Journal of the Derbyshire -Archæological Society_: - - “The western side of the claustral buildings consisted of the block - under the charge of the cellarer, called the _cellarium_. It is here - complete to the roof as far as the structure is concerned, but the - original round-headed windows (with the exception of one) have been - superseded by larger ones, and sundry partitions and insertions have - quite destroyed its ancient arrangements. The _cellarium_ appears to - be the only remaining part of the original Norman monastery, built - when the canons migrated from Calke, in the middle of the twelfth - century.” - -The ground floor consisted of a large room, divided by a row of six -massive Norman circular columns, with scalloped or plain capitals; four -of these remain. At the southern end of the west side is a slype or -entrance to the cloister; at the northern end are three rooms, probably -the kitchen larder; and from the appearance of the third—with its -groined roof, the ribs of which were intended to be ornamented with the -dog-tooth moulding, which was begun and never finished—it was used by -the cellarer as a “plate house,” etc. - -The “causey” at the south end was erected to form an entrance to the -school. - -By Royal Letters Patent, dated June 20th, 19 Jac. I. (1622), a Charter -of Incorporation was granted, by the style and title of “The Master of -Etwall Hospital, the School Master of Repton, Ushers, Poor Men, and -Poor Scholars.” The charter is quoted at length in the Report, and -consists of twenty-four ordinances, which refer to the appointment, -duties, salaries, and stipends of the said masters, ushers, poor men, -and poor scholars. - -The Thackers and the school seem to have lived amicably together for -many years; but as the school increased in numbers, that state of -affairs was not likely to last. When Gilbert Thacker sold the remains -of the Priory to the executors of Sir John Porte, he little thought -what a rookery he was making for his descendants! The boys in their -“recreation” extended the bounds, and ventured too near the inner -courtyard in front of Thacker’s house, much to the annoyance and -inconvenience of the dwellers there, as we can easily imagine. At last, -in the year 1652, a case known as “The Master, &c., _v._ Gilbert -Thacker and others,” was commenced. It was settled out of court by the -appointment of two arbitrators, Sir Francis Burdett, Bart., and Sir -Samuel Sleigh, Knight, with Gervase Bennett as referee. They pronounced -“theire award by word of mouth about the year 1653.” Thacker was to -build a wall across the courtyard, beyond which the boys were not -allowed to pass. This he refused to do, so the alleged trespass and -annoyances went on for another twelve years, when, owing to the conduct -of Thacker, the school brought an action against him. The High Court -of Chancery appointed four gentlemen as commissioners to try the case: -William Bullock, Daniel Watson, Esquires; Thomas Charnells, and Robert -Bennett, gentlemen. They met “at the house of Alderman Hugh Newton, at -Derby, there being at the signe of the George.” - -In the year 1896 I found an account of this case in the school muniment -chest. It consists of two rolled-up folios, lawyers’ briefs, with -interrogations, depositions, etc., which were taken on April 15th, -1663, and fill sixty pages of folio. The interrogations for the school -administered to the witnesses—of whom there were fifty, twenty-five -on each side—referred to their knowledge of the school buildings, -schoolmasters and boys, Thacker’s ancestors, rights of way, the award -of Sir Francis Burdett and Sir Samuel Sleigh, the Thackers’ conduct, -the value of the land, former suits at law, and the use of the yard -for recreation by the boys, etc. For Thacker the questions referred -to the knowledge of prohibitions by his ancestors and himself, and -complaints made to the schoolmasters, etc. The depositions are most -interesting, as the knowledge of some of the witnesses extended back -to within forty years of the founding of the school. I wish I could -quote them at length. Again “the differences between the parties” -were settled out of court; “they were referred to the Right Honorable -Philipp, Earl of Chesterfield, to be finally determined if he could,” -which proved a difficult task, for Thacker would not come to terms; -so another writ was issued on January 11th, in the eighteenth year of -the reign of Charles the Second, calling upon Thacker, “his Counsel, -Attorneys, &c., &c., to fulfil each and every thing contained and -specified in the aforesaid order, and in no wise neglect this at your -imminent peril.” Thacker pleaded ignorance of the order, “as it was -written in short Lattin, some of the words written very short, he did -not well understand it, nor could say if it was a true coppy.” His plea -was allowed, and a settlement was arrived at; a wall was built, part of -it still _in situ_, “by both parties, from the Chancel N.E. corner to -the north side of the door of the Nether School House,” below which the -boys were not allowed to pass. A receipt for £14 19s. for half the cost -of the building of the wall, signed by Wm. Jordan, proves that it was -built before or during the year 1670. - -For over two hundred years the school consisted of the Priory, and a -room called the “writing school,” now destroyed, which stood on the -east side of the “causey,” a paved passage between the walls, with -steps leading into the old “big school,” now the school library. The -“schoolmaster’s lodgings” were at the north end; the usher’s at its -south. The other “ushers” had their “lodgings” in a building, also -destroyed, in what is now known as the “Trent gardens.” - -During the headmastership of Dr. Prior (1767–79) the number of boys -attending the school had greatly increased; those who came from a -distance used “to table,” that is, lodge, in the village. “For the -better acomodation of boarders,” the governors of the school rented the -Hall from Sir Robert Burdett, Bart., of Foremark, who had succeeded -to it on the death of Mary Thacker, who died on January 8th, 1728. -An order was issued by the governors, the Earls of Huntingdon and -Chesterfield and W. Cotton, on the 31st day of August, 1768, that -the Hall “should be considered in all points as the master’s house, -the rent and all other expenses attending it being defrayed by the -Corporation”; from that date the Hall has been the residence of the -headmasters of Repton School. Originally it consisted of an isolated -brick tower, two storeys high, with hexagonal turrets in the upper -storey, and was built by Prior Overton in the reign of Henry VI. -(1422–61). When the Thackers obtained possession of it, they added to -it at various dates. The lower storey of the tower, now used as the -kitchen, has a fine oak ceiling, divided into nine square compartments -by oak beams; at the intersections there are four carved bosses, -bearing (1) a name device or rebus of Prior Overton, a tun or cask -encircled by the letter O, formed by a vine branch with leaves and -grapes; (2) a capital T ornamented with leaves; (3) an S similarly -ornamented; (4) a sheep encircled like No. 1. The oaken staircase -is lit by a stained-glass window, with the armorial bearings of the -founder and three hereditary governors, the Earls of Huntingdon and -Chesterfield, and Sir John Gerard. - -With varied fortune the school continued till Dr. Pears was appointed -headmaster in the year 1854, when there were only forty-eight boys in -the school! The numbers rose rapidly, and other houses had to be built. -The tercentenary of the school, held in 1857, proved to be a fresh -starting point in its history. On August 11th of that year, the late -Honourable George Denman presided over a meeting of Old Reptonians and -others. Speeches were delivered, and a sermon was preached by the late -Dr. Vaughan, headmaster of Harrow School. As a lasting memorial of the -day, it was proposed that a school chapel should be erected; hitherto -the school had worshipped in the parish church. A liberal response was -made to the appeal, and in the year 1858 Earl Howe laid the foundation -stone. Since that time it has been enlarged no less than four times to -accommodate the number of boys, which now exceeds three hundred. From -1860 to 1885 seven school houses have been built, additional form -rooms and playing fields have been added, and crowning them all is the -Pears Hall, which bears the following inscription:— - - IN HONOREM PRÆCEPTORIS OPTIMI - - STEUART ADOLPHI PEARS S.T.P. - - SCHOLÆ REPANDUNENSI PROPE VIGINTI ANNOS - PRÆPOSITI - - UT INSIGNIA EJUS ERGA SCHOLAM ILLAM ANTIQUAM - BENEFICIA - - MONUMENTO PERPETUO IN MEMORIAM REVOCARENTUR - HOC ÆDIFICIUM - - AMICI ET DISCIPULI EJUS EXSTRUENDUM CURAVERUNT - A.S. MDCCCLXXXVI. - - - - -THE OLD HOMES OF THE COUNTY - -By J. A. Gotch, F.S.A. - - -The old houses of Derbyshire are remarkable both for their number and -for the variety of architectural periods which they illustrate. In them -may be traced the development of domestic architecture, century by -century, from the time of William Rufus down to the Georges. Not only -are they interesting as a guide to the evolution of style, but also in -their variety of size and importance. There is the small and ancient -Peak Castle; the comparatively modern palace of Chatsworth; the great -house of Haddon, with work of every century from the thirteenth to the -seventeenth; the extensive ruins of Wingfield; the splendid remains of -Bolsover; while among the dales and on the hill sides of the northern -parts of the county are many diminutive manor houses, like Offerton -and Highlow, or Snitterton and North Lees. Not only are there houses -innumerable, but also many remains of the charming settings in which -they were placed; ancient gardens like those at Melbourne; simple -lay-outs, with terrace, steps, and paved walks like that at Eyam; -quaint archways, like those at Tissington and Bradshaw. In the south of -the county, near Sudbury, are several highly interesting half-timbered -houses, of which the hall of Somersal Herbert, of three distinct dates, -is the most striking instance. There is, indeed, hardly any point of -interest connected with the amenities of by-gone house architecture -which is not illustrated in this charming county. - -The Peak Castle is an interesting example of the early manner of house -building. It is a kind of midland pele-tower, resembling those small -fortified dwellings, or watch-towers, or outlying forts, which abound -in Northumberland along the Scottish border. Indeed, it is a specimen -on a small scale of what all its contemporaries were like. It consisted -of a keep and a courtyard, defended from attack by a strong wall on -one side and natural precipices on the others. Most of the castles of -that time consisted of little more. The keep was the dwelling-house, -the courtyard was the fortified enclosure, giving breathing space -and serving as a place of refuge in troublous times for the cattle -and dependants of the lord. Great keeps like those at Rochester, in -Kent, or Hedingham, in Essex, or Kenilworth, in Warwickshire, or (to -judge from its foundations) Duffield, the Derbyshire house of the -Ferrers, were tolerably well found, and provided what might then be -considered luxurious abodes. This Castle of the Peak, in its original -state, contained the minimum of what was tolerable. It consisted of -only three storeys, one of which was partly underground, and it had no -fireplace; but in those days, more often than not, the fire was placed -in the middle of the floor, and the smoke found its way out through the -windows, supplemented, where possible, by a kind of ventilating turret -in the roof. It could not have been the residence of a large family, -and may have been little more than a watch-tower. But the probability -is that it was the home of its owner, and the amount of comfort which -the stay-at-home women of the family must have experienced may be -conceived by anyone who will seat himself in one of the window recesses -on a chilly day in summer, and gaze through the rain across the valley -on to the blurred mass of Lose hill. - -[Illustration: The Castle of the Peak.] - -Very different in size and in variety of interest is Haddon Hall; yet -Haddon Hall, like the Peak Castle, is no longer, according to modern -notions of comfort, a tolerable dwelling, although we cannot agree -with Horace Walpole that it never could have been considered such. For -a long period it was the home of a powerful family, and was altered -again and again to meet the need which successive centuries demanded. -Parts of the chapel take us back to a date but little subsequent to -that of the Peak Castle; and although few, if any, remains of the rest -of the contemporary house are to be seen, yet the existence of the -chapel indicates that it pertained to a large house. It is easy to -understand that the discomforts of a primitive house would call for -remedy long before the chapel grew out of date, and we need not wonder -that the chapel should be the only surviving portion of the original -dwelling. The kind of accommodation to be found in a keep, however -large, grew to be insufficient and inconvenient, and it became the -fashion no longer to pile one room over another, but to spread them out -horizontally, and thereby, among other advantages, to assign to the -various rooms different sizes suitable to their different purposes. -The hall, always the chief apartment, was made the central feature; -the kitchens were attached to one end, the family rooms to the other; -the courtyard was enclosed by ranges of buildings looking into it, and -presenting little but blank walls to the outside world; through one -of these ranges was pierced the entrance gateway, defended by strong -doors, and sometimes a portcullis, such as rased Marmion’s plume as -he dashed in hot haste from under its falling mass. Haddon is a good -illustration of this kind of house, only it has two courts, with the -hall placed between them, as well for greater security as to obtain -large windows on each of its main sides. There are very few windows -of the older rooms looking out into the country, and the kitchen -in particular suffers in this respect, for a darker apartment can -scarcely ever have been devoted to such important uses. The windows -of the long gallery, now called the ballroom, are large and airy; -but they date from Elizabeth’s time, when defensive precautions were -no longer necessary. Haddon appeals to all sorts and conditions of -men. Its romantic situation and venerable appearance delight the -ordinary sightseer; its veritable and unrestored antiquity appeals to -the more earnest student of by-gone ways; while to those interested -in the minute details of the past, it is a storehouse of all kinds of -work wrought in all kinds of styles. Surely, it has enough of true -and genuine interest to be able to dispense with the fictitious, -sixpenny-magazine romance of Dorothy Vernon. Let those who cling to her -invented story, and picture her as a fascinating, winsome heroine, go -and look at her portraiture on her monument in Bakewell Church—a more -staid, prosaic person could hardly be imagined. - -Another romantically placed house is Bolsover Castle, which is -mentioned in ancient records as a sister stronghold of the Peak Castle. -Of the early building nothing is now left; but the sites of the keep -and of the enclosing wall are curiously preserved, and occupied -by highly interesting buildings of the early seventeenth century. -The keep is replaced by a square house, planned with considerable -ingenuity so as to obtain within a limited and strictly defined -space the customary arrangements of a Jacobean residence. It rises -abruptly from the brow of a steep hill, and looks far and wide over -the valley now studded with colliery chimneys. Within the thickness -of the wall which marks the _enceinte_ of ancient times are contrived -quaint chambers, carefully vaulted and furnished in some cases with -curious chimney-pieces. Indeed, this early seventeenth century work, -particularly in the successor of the keep, is quite remarkable in -respect of its vaulting and its fireplaces. Vaulting was very seldom -used in Jacobean work, yet here we have examples of that method of -construction which need not fear comparison with those of earlier days, -when masons were much more accustomed to its use. The chimney-pieces -at Bolsover are a noteworthy series, exhibiting a great variety of -treatment, yet preserving a family likeness, and adorned, most of them, -with unusual delicacy. This part of the castle was executed for Sir -Charles Cavendish, a son of the renowned Bess of Hardwick, about the -year 1613. The actual owner of Bolsover was Gilbert, seventh Earl of -Shrewsbury; but he had granted a lease of 1,000 years to Sir Charles, -who was at once his step-brother and his brother-in-law. - -[Illustration: Bolsover Castle: “La Gallerie.”] - -Outside the ancient precincts of this part of the castle stand the -ruins of a later building, lying parallel with the brow of the hill, -and leaving a broad terrace between the building and the sloping -ground. It is designed on a much larger and coarser scale than its -neighbour, and was built by Sir William Cavendish, son of Sir Charles, -about the year 1629. - -It was this Sir William, subsequently created, after a distinguished -career, Duke of Newcastle, who wrote a celebrated treatise on -horsemanship, some plates of which he adorned with a view of his -Bolsover building. This he calls “La Gallerie,” and it was probably -intended as a supplement to the somewhat restricted accommodation of -the earlier house. The Duke was also responsible for another charming -portion of this interesting group of buildings at Bolsover, in the -shape of the Riding School, a structure which has a considerable Dutch -flavour about it. - -Bolsover has been mentioned out of its strict chronological order -because of its early foundation and the peculiar manner in which -it preserves the outline of the original castle. It has a notable -predecessor in date at South Wingfield, where, about the middle of the -fifteenth century, Ralph, Lord Cromwell, treasurer to King Henry VI., -built a lordly house, which vied with Haddon in importance. Much of -it has gone to hopeless ruin, but there still remain long stretches -of wall and decayed buildings forming two large courts. The outer -gatehouse is left, flanked by an ancient barn. Through the middle of -the range which divides the courtyard is pierced a second gateway, over -which are carved the purses of the Lord Treasurer. On the opposite -side of the second court is the porch of the house itself, leading on -one side to the great hall, with its vaulted undercroft, and on the -other to the kitchen department. Midway along one of the far-stretching -fronts rises a lofty tower, from the summit of which may be studied the -domestic economy of a colony of rooks as they sway below in their nests -among the topmost branches of the trees. - -On the death of its builder, Wingfield passed by purchase to the Earls -of Shrewsbury, and in the fulness of time it passed to Gilbert, seventh -earl. On his death it went to his eldest daughter, who had married the -Earl of Pembroke. Then came the troublous times of Charles I., and -Wingfield, being held by the then Earl for the Parliament, who should -be sent to attack it but his kinsman, William Cavendish, of Bolsover, -Duke of Newcastle, and author of the treatise on horsemanship. The -attack was successful, but fickle fortune soon restored it to the -Parliament, and by order of that assembly the place was “slighted.” -From that drastic operation it has never recovered, although part of it -was for a time patched up and made into a residence. - -Of work dating from the time of Henry VIII. the county can show hardly -any examples. Some panelling at Haddon is the most noteworthy, but this -lacks that peculiar mixture of Gothic and French renaissance which -makes the work of that time particularly interesting. Yet, even in this -panelling, put up by Sir George Vernon, the “King of the Peak,” as he -was called, although it is free from the actual renaissance touch, -there seem to be indications which point that way, and it forms one of -the links which connect the old style with the new, and goes to show -that in the development of architectural style no change came quite -abruptly. - -[Illustration: - - [_J. Buckler, 1812._ - -Haddon Hall (North View). - -(_From a Water-colour Drawing in possession of Hon. F. Strutt, showing -16th Century Brewhouse, now removed._)] - -During the next of the periods into which styles group themselves, -namely, that of Elizabeth and James I., there were notable additions -made to Derbyshire houses. There is all the beautiful work of the -Earl of Rutland at Haddon—of him who came into possession in right -of his wife, Dorothy Vernon. Chief among it is the long gallery, -which he formed among the ancient walls, pulling down here and adding -there, adorning it with handsome panelling and a fretted ceiling, all -ornamented with his own arms and those of his wife. There are Hardwick -Hall, and Barlborough; the remains of Swarkeston in the extreme south, -and Sudbury in the south-west, not to mention numerous manor houses -scattered all over the county. - -Hardwick Hall is, in some respects, one of the most interesting of -Derbyshire houses. It is an excellent example of the stately and -symmetrical planning which was much in vogue in the days of Elizabeth, -and it has survived without any serious alterations, except such as -were necessary for the comfort of modern life. Haddon has not been -obliged to submit to this test, and therefore retains even more of its -original flavour; but Hardwick illustrates vividly the large ideas and -the desire for magnificence which dominate much of the design of that -period. Moreover, it retains what very few of its contemporaries can -boast of—its entrance gatehouse and garden walls. The builder was the -renowned Bess of Hardwick, one of the great Elizabethan builders, a -worthy rival of the Cecils and Hattons. She claims on her monument in -All Hallows’ Church, Derby, to have built Hardwick, Chatsworth, and -Oldcotes; but the last-named has disappeared, and Chatsworth has been -rebuilt, leaving this house as her sole monument. The legend runs that -so long as she kept building she would not die, but that a long frost -occurring while she was engaged upon Bolsover, the men were obliged to -desist from their work, and thereby struck the knell of their mistress. -But we have already seen that Bolsover was the work of her son, and -that it was not begun until six or seven years after her death. - -The work at Hardwick presents the most complete contrast to that at -Bolsover. There everything had to be restricted to the narrow limits -of the old site; all the work is carefully designed, and much of it -delicately executed. Here the arrangements are far from compact, and -the detail is coarse. No particular ingenuity has been exercised. The -staircases are merely flights of steps, without any of the charming -balustrades and newel-posts which adorn most Elizabethan staircases. -The windows are so overdone in order to produce a striking external -effect, that many of them are mere shams, and never were anything else, -while others have a floor going across them, and light one storey with -their lower lights and another with their upper. But it is just these -points which lend interest to the place, and show how everything had to -give way to the prevailing passion for symmetry. - -There are some fine rooms on the top storey: the presence chamber, -with a deep frieze of modelled plaster exhibiting a variety of hunting -scenes; the library, with a charming relief over the fireplace of -Apollo and the Muses; the long gallery, a characteristic apartment of -the age; and a room called after “Mary Queen of Scots,” but bearing the -date 1599, which was twelve years subsequent to her death. It is true, -however, that Mary was placed for some years under the custody of the -Earl of Shrewsbury, who was husband of Bess of Hardwick (her fourth -venture), and it is also not improbable that the wife was inclined to -be jealous of the influence which the royal captive obtained over her -husband. - -[Illustration: Haddon Hall (North View), _circa_ 1825. - -(_From a Water-colour Drawing in possession of Hon. F. Strutt, showing -16th Century Brewhouse, now removed._)] - -The documentary evidences of Mary’s long period of custody are -copious; they afford no suggestion of her visiting Hardwick, but she -was on several occasions at Bess’s other great house at Chatsworth. -Moreover, the true dates of the second hall at Hardwick make the -Queen’s sojourn here an impossibility. The date usually assigned to -Hardwick Hall is 1576, but the dates actually appearing in the house -are 1588, 1597, and 1599, all subsequent to Mary’s death. The parapet -is ornamented with Bess’s initials, E.S., and a coronet. - -In front of the house which Bess built lie the ruins of that in which -she was born. This, also, must have been a good house, but one of the -older manor-house type, and not conforming to the new and fashionable -order of things. Nevertheless, it was adorned from time to time to -suit the prevailing fancy, and both it and its more splendid offspring -flourished side by side for many years. It offers another example of -the fact that so strong was the desire among those who could afford it -to build afresh in the new style, that in many instances houses built -in Henry VIII.’s time were either rebuilt in Elizabeth’s or, as here -at Hardwick, were suffered to remain and to add point by their modest -dimensions to the extent and splendour of the newer dwelling. - -At Hardwick, the old custom of building round a court, which we have -met with at Haddon and Wingfield, was abandoned; the idea of adopting -defensive precautions had no part in its arrangement—it was frankly -intended for display and cheerfulness. But the courtyard still survived -up and down the country, although rather for convenience than for -defence. In some cases it became so contracted as to be little more -than a well, admitting a modicum of light and air. Such contracted -courts are both cheerless and insanitary, especially when they were -made the meeting place of the household drains; and in many instances -they have been roofed over in modern times and incorporated into the -house itself. - -Barlborough, in the north-east corner of the county, is a case in -point. It is a house with an interesting plan, being almost square -in shape, yet contriving to obtain the kind of rooms and the general -disposition which were usual at the time. The effect is quaint, -especially as the octagonal bays are carried up above the roof to form -turrets. The small central court has been converted into a staircase. -The builder was Francis Rodes, a judge, like many of the builders of -Elizabethan houses. It is almost contemporary with Hardwick, as it was -built in 1583–84. It bears its date on the pedestal of the pillars -flanking the front door, and students of by-gone architecture cannot -be too thankful to the old masons for having dated their work so -frequently as they did. Nor is our gratitude less for the fashion which -made heraldry one of the chief sources of ornamentation. No doubt the -display of arms and badges was a weakness of the worthy people of that -age. It is even conceivable that men who achieved their own fortunes, -as many did under Elizabeth, unduly emphasized their ancient descent, -and occasionally recorded as facts what really were surmises. But -anyone who has spent time in ferreting out the history of an old house -is very willing to condone this foible in return for the clues with -which it furnishes him. - -Far be it from us, however, to throw any doubt on Francis Rodes’s -heraldry; it serves to fix beyond a doubt who was the builder of -Barlborough. In the drawing-room is a handsome, lofty chimney-piece, -which is quite characteristic of the times. It displays the arms and -the effigies of Francis Rodes and his two wives, and is dated 1584. -There seems to have been no hesitation in those days about second -marriages. Whatever poets may have said about the marriage of true -minds, and the lasting passion of one man for one woman, neither man -nor woman forbore from marrying again and again, nor did they conceal -from the later spouses the charms and the arms of the earlier. Here, -for instance, on this chimney-piece are the arms, the name, and the -office of Francis Rodes set forth at large, and below are two other -shields with his arms impaling severally those of his two wives, -each shield being supported by a representation of himself and the -wife whose arms are impaled. To remedy any defect in the sculptor’s -portraiture, or for the benefit of future generations who knew not -the ladies in the flesh, their names are legibly printed at their -sides—“Elizabeth Sandford,” “Maria Charleton.” - -[Illustration: Snitterton Hall.] - -So far, all the houses mentioned have been of considerable size or -well-established fame; but scattered about the county, in small -villages or among the dales or on the hill-sides, are numerous manor -houses, the homes of the small gentry or of the well-to-do yeomen. -There are some of these near Hathersage, several of which belonged to -various branches of the family of Eyre. North Lees is one, in a retired -situation and falling to decay, at least so far as its decoration is -concerned; one deserted room still retains some of its panelling and a -fretted ceiling. Its stone walls, mullioned windows, and bold chimneys -lend an air of romance to the house half-hidden among the trees. -Highlow Hall is another of the group, chiefly notable for the quaint -gateway which leads to the entrance court. Not far away is Offerton -Hall, now a farmhouse, but an excellent example of the planning -and simple architectural treatment of a small house of the early -seventeenth century. Near Matlock is Snitterton Hall, the remains of a -rather more considerable house, with remnants of a lay-out, and with -many of its contemporary farm buildings. These are but a few of those -which might be named, and the wanderer in out-of-the-way places will -often be rewarded by the discovery of these links with the past. - -There is no notable example within the county of the work of the later -seventeenth century, of the time rendered famous by Inigo Jones and -Sir Christopher Wren. But of the period which succeeded them, when the -rules of classic architecture were firmly established, and spontaneity -in design had given way to propriety, there are one or two specimens. -Of these the most characteristic is Kedleston. This great house was -designed in the grandest manner of the time. It was to have had a large -central block, with four outlying pavilions attached to it by curved -colonnades, but two of the pavilions were never built. This place well -illustrates the prevalent method of designing mansions. The principal -floor was devoted to functions of state, and is occupied by large and -lofty apartments, far too huge for comfort. They resemble apartments -in some large public building. The family rooms are tucked away in a -basement beneath the state apartments. It was the fashion of the age. -Architecture was chiefly a means for display; the noble conceptions of -the architect left his clients with scarce a comfortable corner for -themselves. The surroundings of the house are also characteristic. It -is itself placed in a somewhat haphazard position, backed by a range of -trees; the stables are concealed by trees, and approached by a covered -way; in the park is a bridge, so placed as to group in a casual way -with the house: the whole idea being to obtain a pictorial effect, -without any consideration for convenience of approach or convenient -arrangement when the house is reached. - -Such were the _tours de force_ of the times, when wealth helped, and -there were no restraining conditions; when the architect had a free -hand to design, and the client another to pay. But in cases where the -opportunities were more limited, the results were more reasonable, -and such houses as Foremark are quite satisfactory. They have not the -sparkle of their predecessors, it is true, but they combine dignity -with comfort. Calke Abbey, lying hidden amid its ancient woodlands, is -another fine example of the time. - -There are not a few good specimens of formal gardens in the county. -Haddon has terraced gardens which hardly receive the attention they -deserve, so much is the interest of the visitor absorbed by the house. -Eyam Hall, in the village rendered famous by the heroism and energy -of its rector during a visitation of the plague, has a simple -lay-out of walls and steps and formal paths. Locko rejoices in terraced -gardens judiciously laid out, and resulting in admirable though simple -effects. But the finest gardens are at Melbourne, in the south of the -county, where stately vistas cross each other and give distant glimpses -of urns or statues, which themselves are worth careful inspection -when at length they are reached. The effect is increased by placing -some notable feature, such as a fine vase, at the meeting of several -avenues; seen thus again and again from unexpected points, it adds to -the apparent extent and intricacy of the lay-out. There is a long walk -completely tunnelled over with dense yew hedges, and down in the bottom -is a placid pool where sportive cupids play. - -[Illustration: North Lees Hall.] - -[Illustration: Foremark Hall (Garden Front).] - -Such is a brief glance at some of the more noteworthy houses of the -county; others there are waiting for the explorer to discover, as he -will do in almost any expedition he can make, whether it be among the -pasture land of the south, or the more bleak and invigorating hills -which culminate in the wild plateau of Kinder Scout. - - - - -WINGFIELD MANOR HOUSE - -IN PEACE AND IN WAR - -By G. le Blanc-Smith - - -Derbyshire, if unable to boast of that share of stirring episode with -which war and the hate of man have impregnated other counties, if -unable to show the numerous stately castles and religious houses of its -neighbouring shires, can at least proudly name a house which, while -being a gem of architecture, yet was so cunningly situated by its owner -as to prove a menace to the surrounding country, and a fortress which -required no mean ability to compass its surrender, at the same time -being of a nature so secure that it was used as the prison-house of the -greatest political prisoner in our island’s history. - -Such is Wingfield Manor House; beautiful, stately, isolated, and—in -ruins; mansion, fortress, and prison. In no way does this manor house -resemble its more ambitious neighbour, Haddon Hall. Haddon is just as -weak, strategically, as Wingfield is strong, for the latter is perched -on a hill top, whose sides may be well described as precipitous, at -least on two sides. Another side of the hill, while less steep, is -useless for purposes of cavalry attack, whilst the fourth is more level -in character. - -[Illustration: The Tower, and Rooms occupied by Mary Stuart: Wingfield.] - -With the early history of the manor we have no concern, save in so far -as it affects that of the manor house. In the year 1440, the manorial -rights were vested in Ralph, Lord Cromwell, but his undoubted rights to -its possession were not absolutely proved till this date owing to -a prolonged law suit with Sir Henry Pierpoint over the finding of an -inquisition taken at Derby as long before as 1429. It was then found -that Ralph, Lord Cromwell—a man of immense wealth—was heir, _inter -alia_, to the estates, owing to his relationship with Margaret de -Swillington, heiress of John and Robert, her brothers. Briefly, Lord -Cromwell traced his descent from the family of De Heriz, who, in the -person of one Mathilda de Heriz, was connected by marriage ties to a -certain Thomas Beler, or Bellers. This man’s sister married Sir Ralph -Cromwell, and owing to these marriage ties Lord Cromwell laid claim to -the property, as being a descendant of a de Heriz, whilst Sir Henry -Pierpoint, on his side, claimed an equal right to possession as being -a descendant of Sarah de Heriz and Robert Pierpoint; Sarah being aunt -to the member of the same family from whom Lord Cromwell proved his -descent, _i.e._, Mathilda, who married Thomas Beler. Why the family of -de Swillington was introduced it is hard to understand; but perhaps it -was in the nature of a red herring, used to draw the scent from a good -point in the adversary’s case, or to cover a weak spot in the claim of -the opposite side. - -However, it is with the fortunes of Lord Cromwell that we are -concerned, and we find that, three years after his possession was -assured to him, he was taken under the wing of King Henry VI., and was -enriched by appointment to the lucrative posts of Treasurer of the -Exchequer,[39] Constable of Nottingham Castle, and Steward and Keeper -of Sherwood Forest. Within the next two or three years he was further -advanced in royal favour and finances by being appointed Master of the -Royal Hounds and Falcons. From these appointments it may be fairly -deduced that he was a good financier and even better sportsman. - -[39] The emblem of this office, double money bags, is carved over the -entrance gate to the inner courtyard. - -Shortly after his lawsuit was satisfactorily settled, he proceeded to -erect the beautiful manor house. He did not, however, live to enjoy -his new possession for very long, as he died January 4th, 1455, being -buried in a church which his enormous wealth had enriched, _i.e._, -Tatteshall, Lincolnshire. Ralph, Lord Cromwell, sold the reversion -of this manor during his lifetime to John Talbot, second Earl of -Shrewsbury, who was to occupy it after his (Cromwell’s) death. The -new owner had much to do in the way of roofing and plastering his new -possession, so we may safely conclude that it was far from finished -by Lord Cromwell. Owing to the condition of the fabric, its new owner -was unable to inhabit it for some time; but after spending large sums -of money in roofing, etc., he finally occupied it in 1458, coming into -residence with a numerous retinue. After his death at Northampton, -in 1460, the manor and manor house descended in his family for many -years, being apparently a much favoured country seat. The death of his -grandson, the fourth earl, here was apparently quite unexpected, for, -on July 6th—only twenty days before his death—he humbly prayed, through -the Earl of Southampton, that King Henry VIII. would deign to visit his -“pore house at Wynfeld and hunt in Duffelde Frithe” on his approaching -visit to Nottingham. - -The following account of his funeral is quoted from Holmes’ MSS. (Harl. -Lib.):— - - “The xxvi of July Anno Regis Hen. viii tricesimo, departed out of this - world the right noble & puissant George, Earl of Shrewsbury & Lord - Talbot, Furnival, Verdon & Strange of Blackmoor, & High Steward of the - King’s most honble. household etc. on the 27^{th} of March (?) this - noble earl was removed from Wynefield to Sheffield with women and tall - yeomen, & the same night his dirige done & his body honourably buried. - - “The morrow after his masses solempnely sung—,first one of the - Trenitie, another of Or. Lady, and the third of Requiem.” - -The fifth earl, Francis, was born in 1500. At the age of forty-four he -was made Lieut.-General of the North; a year later he was installed -Knight of the Garter, and was later made Justice in Eyre of the forests -north of the Trent. He was a commissioner in the trial of Sir Nicholas -Throckmorton, a leading light in Wyatt’s insurrection, who was tried -and found “not guilty” by the jury; but the judges, in their wrath at -this finding, compelled the jury to enter into recognizances of £500 -each for their appearance in the famous Star Chamber when called upon. -On their appearance, as desired, the unfortunate men were thrown into -prison for daring to give judgment according to their consciences. - -The fifth earl died on September 21st, 1560, and was followed by his -son George in the possession of Wingfield. - -It is to this sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, and to his times, that we owe -much of the glamour and interest of Wingfield’s history, owing to the -fact that for well nigh sixteen years he was the custodian of that -unhappy lady, Mary Queen of Scots. For various lengthy periods the poor -harassed Queen was a close prisoner within the all-too-hospitable walls -of this manor house. The Earl’s charge of Queen Mary was no sinecure it -seems, as according to Blore:— - - “In this service he preserved his fidelity to Elizabeth unshaken; - but he was so perpetually teized (_sic_) by her suspicions and those - of her ministers, that his office, which might otherwise have been - desirable to so great a nobleman, as a distinguished mark of honour - and confidence, appears to have inflicted upon him a severity of - punishment little inferior to that of his unfortunate captive. The - fear of Elizabeth’s displeasure induced him, at times, to a moroseness - in his behaviour to Mary, which implanted in her bosom sentiments of - distaste and resentment, that her high spirit could not be subdued, - by her sufferings, to dissemble; whilst at other times by real or - colourable marks of kindness and attention to Mary, he drew upon - himself the malevolence of a wife, ever alive to jealousy and prepared - to empoison his comforts, and the suspicions and rebukes of his Queen, - who had no trifling satisfaction in mortifying and humiliating the - greatest of her subjects.” - -He was, in other words, “between the devil and the deep sea.” The -custody of the prisoner Queen was first placed in Lord Shrewsbury’s -hands during January, 1569, while he was in residence at Tutbury -Castle; her removal to Wingfield took place on April 20th of the same -year. - -Three weeks later she was suddenly and mysteriously seized with a -violent attack of some malady, which caused grave anxiety to her -custodian. Two physicians were promptly dispatched by the Privy Council -to undertake her cure, and these worthies gave but a bad account of -the sanitary conditions of her prison quarters. Their report seems to -have considerably nettled the Earl of Shrewsbury, who retorted that -“the very unpleasant and fulsome savour, in the next chamber, hurtful -to her health” was directly owing to the “continual festering and -uncleanly order of her own folke.” Since the cause was known to him, -it seems strange that he did not try to do something to better it. The -unfortunate Queen was removed with all speed to Chatsworth—where her -moated bower still remains—for this princely residence was brought to -the Earl by his second matrimonial venture, Elizabeth, better known as -“Bess of Hardwick.” - -June 1st once more saw her installed in her old apartments at -Wingfield, they having been cleaned and sweetened. In the following -August she once more fell ill of the same malady, and requested the -Earl to find her another prison-house. She was therefore removed to -Tutbury, between which place and Sheffield she alternated for the next -fifteen years. Once more her custodian had to complain that his mansion -and her rooms, “in consequence of the long abode here and the number of -people, waxes unsavoury.” This is hardly to be wondered at when it is -remembered that at her second period of captivity at Wingfield, after -fifteen years’ absence, the poor Queen’s personal attendants numbered -47 persons in all: 5 gentlemen, 14 servitors, 3 cooks, 4 boys, 3 -gentlemen’s men, 6 gentlewomen, 2 wives, and 10 wenches and children. - -The year 1584 again saw the captive Queen at Wingfield, and the Privy -Council proposed that she should be incarcerated in the castle of -Melbourne, also in Derbyshire; but, owing to the fact that there were -structural alterations of an extensive nature required there, it -was decided to saddle the poor Earl of Shrewsbury with his weighty -responsibility once more. Orders to this effect were dispatched to -him on March 20th, 1584, till such time as Melbourne Castle was -prepared—which never came to pass. These orders to the Earl commanded -the removal of the Queen from Sheffield to Wingfield, and “that for -the more safety in conveying the said Queene, in case you shall find -it necessary, for your assistance you may use the ayde of the sheriffs -of our countys of Derby and Leicester.” Whilst the Earl’s duties -to his sovereign kept him at Court, the Queen’s custody was in the -hands of Sir Ralph Sadleir, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and -a distinguished soldier. Sir Ralph wrote, on August 25th, 1584, to -Sir Francis Walsyngham, and informed him that he had begged the Earl -of Shrewsbury not to transport the Queen to Wingfield till further -instructions from the Sovereign were received. He continues by saying -that he would rather “keep her here (Sheffield Castle) with 60 men than -at Wingfield with 300.” In a paper read before the members of the Royal -Archæological Institute, then visiting the manor house, by the Rev. J. -Charles Cox, the author stated that: - - “having carefully gone through the whole of the documents in the - Public Record Office pertaining to Mary Queen of Scots, as well as the - little known Talbot papers at the College of Arms, and the Shrewsbury - papers at the Lambeth Palace Library, I have come to the conclusion, - for reasons that would be far too long to now explain, that the Earl - of Shrewsbury, worn out by the jealousy, meanness, and cruelty of his - wife, as well as by the suspicions and displeasure of Queen Elizabeth - and her Council, and filled with a growing sympathy for his prisoner, - did his best to bring about this second sojourn at Wingfield in the - hopes of her escape.” - -An excellent guard was placed over the Queen, for Sir Ralph Sadleir -set a watch of eight soldiers at night time, taking turns in watches -of four, to patrol the immediate vicinity of the Queen’s apartments in -the inner courtyard. Two other soldiers kept a day and night watch in -the house itself, at the entrance to her rooms. - -The captive Queen arrived in September, 1584, for this second enforced -visit, with a huge retinue, which must have seriously taxed the -accommodation of the manor house. The Earl of Shrewsbury had 120 -gentlemen, yeomen, and servants; Sir Ralph Sadleir followed suit with -50, whilst there were 40 trained men at arms. Including the prisoner’s -personal retinue, there were 257 persons herded together within these -walls, the Queen and her suite occupying fifteen rooms; yet, despite -guards and precautions, one man alone was able to plot with the Queen -herself for her release. - -The daring plot was the child of the fertile brain of one Anthony -Babington, whose family seat was at Dethick, about five miles to the -west. Babington was in a way a fanatic, and the pity for, and desire -to liberate, his beloved Queen was the mania which brought him to the -scaffold. Stained with walnut juice, and disguised in gipsy garb, he is -said to have constantly visited the captive, and a curious tale is told -of his visits. Just outside the Queen’s rooms grows a huge walnut tree, -and tradition hath it that this tree is sprung from a walnut dropped by -Babington himself when on one of his surreptitious visits. - -[Illustration: The Porch of Banqueting Hall: Wingfield.] - -This plot was not the first having the same end in view, for in 1569 -a certain Leonard Dacre was implicated. Now if this was a relation of -the Earl of Shrewsbury’s, through his mother, Mary Dacre, the Earl may -well have been the instigator of the plot, for we have seen how little -he cared what became of his charge. What is more likely than that he -should choose Dacre, a relative, to assist the enterprise—and bear the -blame—as a blood tie would be less an object of suspicion, and at the -same time more loyal to his employer? Dacre’s plot at once aroused the -slumbering suspicions of Elizabeth, and she, giving as a reason that -Lord Shrewsbury’s health was not of the best, directed the Earl of -Huntingdon to watch the Queen. The immediate outcome was a reduction in -her retinue to thirty persons, with the object of avoiding the influx -or substitution of suspicious persons. Other futile attempts, devoid of -interest, were made at various times and by various persons to effect -the release of this interesting prisoner. - -It is easy to understand how in a house like this, teeming with menials -and servants, the substitution of a servant for a spy or messenger -for Mary Stuart would be an easy matter. The kitchen staff must have -been enormous, as, according to Sir Ralph Sadleir’s report, the daily -meals of the Queen “on Fishe days and Flesh days” consisted of “about -16 dishes dressed after their owne manner, sometimes more or less, as -the provision serveth.” The price of necessary foodstuffs at Wingfield -at the time was not high according to present day reckoning, for “a -good ox cost £4, sheep £7 a score, veal and other meats reasonable -good charge, about 8s.” Wheat was priced at £1 a quarter; malt at 16s. -a quarter; hay 13s. 4d. a load; oats 8s. a quarter; and peas 12s. for -the same quantity. The drink bill—no small item in those days—run up by -Queen Mary was for ten tuns of wine annually. - -The captive’s linen was provided by the Earl of Shrewsbury, for -that supplied by Queen Elizabeth was declared to be “nothing of it -serviceable, but worn and spent.” - -The before-mentioned report of Sir Ralph Sadleir states that the -Queen’s stable held four good coach horses of her own; her gentlemen -had six, and the total number kept was about forty. - -It would thus seem easy for a stranger to obtain a post among such -numbers without a fresh face being observed, and in the crowded -kitchens the entrance of a disguised stranger through the little door -opening towards Dethick and the west would possibly be unobserved. -Then, among the number of servants some might be won over by a bribe, -a note concealed in food might reach the Queen; or among the stable -helps one might be found who could give news to the captive for some -trifling reward. Chances seem to have existed on every hand. But to -return to the ill-fated Babington. Babington had been brought up by -his mother and two guardians in an atmosphere of stout but secret -Roman Catholicism, and no doubt his situation at the age of sixteen -as Queen Mary’s page was productive of a chivalrous love for the fair -captive. At nineteen years of age he was the moving spirit in a plot -to conceal two Jesuits; and three years later his thoughts reverted -to the release of the Queen, whose plight had so strongly appealed -to his youthful mind. The following year he formed a plot for Mary’s -release and Queen Elizabeth’s assassination; but all the while the -busy spies of Walsyngham were quietly collecting material from the -correspondence relative to his cherished scheme, and were suiting their -actions to his, with a view to successfully foiling his attempt. He -was hunted down, but escaped till 1587, when he was caught and tried -with a dozen other well-born youths, and met his death on September -20th at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. In the report of the apprehension of the -conspirators is the following:— - -“The names of sooche as are touched as made partyes of the -confideracye,” followed by the names of Ballard, Savage, Tycheborne, -G. Gifford, St. Donne, Tylney, and Gage; “and there were,” the report -continues, “13 who were at large, vizt., Babington, Barnewell, -Salisbury,” etc. - -The Queen, who was removed from Wingfield on January 13th, 1585, was -incarcerated at Tutbury. A curious tradition of late years has been -put forward; it is to the effect that _her son was born at Wingfield_! -The authority for this has been traced to a statement in a guide book -to the effect that “Mary Stuart was made a prisoner, and it was at -Wingfield Manor that she spent part of her confinement.” This erroneous -reading has obtained a footing, and should be promptly eradicated. Thus -is “history” made. - -On the death of the seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, his three daughters, -co-heiresses, divided the estates, Wingfield falling to the eldest, -Lady Pembroke. The new owners were now in troublous times, and during -the Civil Wars the manor house was stoutly held for the Parliamentary -forces. The little garrison of about one hundred men at arms was -reduced to sixty at the request of the Parliamentary leader, Fairfax, -who was forcing his way northwards into Yorkshire. Sir John Gell -complied with the request in 1643, and left the house too weakly -defended; the close of the same year saw a vigorous and successful -attack by the Royalist troops under the Earl of Newcastle, and the -manor house, after a twelve days’ struggle, was occupied on December -19th. On the day following Sir John Gell arrived, and proceeded to -stir up the new owners, who were as yet far from fully acquainted with -their new quarters. Preliminary skirmishes took place in the vicinity, -in which two columns of horse lost their colours, these being sent to -London by the triumphant Gell. - -The Earl of Newcastle passed on the command to Sir John Fitzherbert, of -Tissington, who held the house for six months. The Wingfield garrison -proving troublesome to the Parliamentary forces, Sir John Gell was -told off to retake the manor house, which he did with difficulty, as -it required all the forces at his command, reinforced with 200 foot of -Colonel Hutchinson’s. Gell sent to Nottingham for troops, asking for -“assistance to beleaguer Wingfield Manor, because it was as great an -annoyance to Nottinghamshire as to Derbyshire.” This diplomatic request -was productive of the desired result. Strict siege was laid to the -manor house for fifteen days, after which Gell’s troops were called off -to repel a threatened Royalist attack; this they accomplished to their -satisfaction, and they once more returned to the siege. The naturally -strong situation of the house was nearly an insurmountable obstacle -to Gell, and he found that unless his artillery was considerably -reinforced by heavier pieces, he should be compelled to starve the -gallant little band out as the only practicable means of reducing their -fortress to submission. This plan was evidently not to his liking, as -he was likely at any time to be set upon by small bodies of Royalist -troops, whose harassing action would compel a temporary raising of the -siege, and consequently a corresponding influx of provisions to the -defenders during the absence of the beleaguering troops. He therefore -requested heavier pieces of ordnance from Major-General Crawford, and -on receipt of his new artillery he set to work to make a breach in the -walls with all dispatch. So great was his success and so true his fire -that after only three hours’ assault with his “foure great peeces for -battering,” the whole defending force of 220 men surrendered themselves -on condition that every man should be allowed to return home unharmed. - -It is hard to determine whether it was fear of the ultimate result -of the use of these heavy guns, or the sight of the actual damage -done, which caused this sudden collapse of the defence on the day of -the great assault, July 20th, 1644. The heavy guns were, it is said, -situated on the flat ground on the east of the house, and on the other -side of the valley—a distance of one and a quarter miles. Some assert -that the range from here (Pentrich Moor) was too great, and that the -guns were brought round to the west side and placed in a wood, a breach -being opened from there. Should this have been the case, the breach -would be in the south-west angle of the larger courtyard, and the -approach to this is of such a nature that an entry would be a matter -of difficulty. The necessity of an armed assault on the breach was -nullified by the collapse of the defence. - -[Illustration: The Window in the Banqueting Hall: Wingfield.] - -The death of the Royalist governor, Colonel Dalby, who succeeded -Colonel Roger Molineux, can have had no part in causing the surrender, -for, according to Pilkington, he was traitorously shot by a deserter, -who had recognized him despite his disguise of a common soldier, and -who is said to have put his musket through a hole in the wall of the -porter’s lodge and shot him in the face. Pilkington also asserts that -one of the cannon-balls which he saw weighed 32 lbs.! This was in 1789. - -The surrendered garrison was a resourceful one it appears, as the -besiegers either having cut off the water supply (presumably in pipes) -or else seized the source of this necessary fluid, they promptly dug a -well in the south courtyard, and therefrom secured a sufficient supply. -This well fell in about 1850, and the hole was filled up. - -An old account of the capture of the manor house runs thus:— - - “Colonell Gell finding that his ordinance would do noe good against - the Mannor and understanding that Major General Craford had foure - great peeces, sent two of his officers unto him to desier him to send - them for three or foure days for battering; and in soe doinge he would - doe the countrey good service, because it was a place that could not - bee otherwise taken without they were pined (starved) out.” - -The stirring times of war now left the house, and its further use as a -fortress was nullified by an order for its dismantling on June 23rd, -1646. - -The fabric of the house now went from bad to worse as it passed from -one owner to another. Twenty years after the order for its dismantling -was received, it was occupied by one Imanuel Halton, an auditor of the -Duke of Norfolk. As a man of culture and learning he was more or less -distinguished, being especially noted as an astronomer; while allowing -much of the fabric to fall into ruins, he amused himself by decorating -the crumbling walls with sun-dials, two of which remain. A piece of -gross vandalism was perpetrated by this worthy, for he converted the -magnificent banqueting hall into a two-floored dwelling-house, with -chimneys in the centre, and made ugly structural alterations to the -north windows to suit his convenience. The Halton family continued to -enjoy the air of Wingfield, and to pull the manor house about, for -the next hundred years, till, in 1744, the “powers that were” decided -to pull down the lovely building, which they utilized as a convenient -quarry from which to obtain stone for the erection of a truly ugly -house—described as “a small box at the foot of the hill”—which is the -present Hall. After this disgraceful exploit, the progress of decay was -practically unchecked, and at this day the buildings are deteriorating -more and more rapidly under the changes of our capricious climate. -In the _Topographer_, by Shaw, vol. i., of 1789 (only fifteen years -after the removal of the family residence to the new hall), it is -stated that the roof was gone from the banqueting hall, and that all -the arms and quarterings of the great family of Shrewsbury were open -to the destructive influences of the weather. This was in 1789, yet in -1785—only four years previously—a sketch by Colonel Machell shows the -banqueting hall as roofed and glazed. At the close of the eighteenth -century a great part of the banqueting hall—between the lovely oriel -window and the porch—fell down; about a quarter of a century later a -tower in the south-east angle of the inner courtyard (at the back of -the present farmhouse) collapsed utterly. - -The statement often made that no less a person than the much maligned -Oliver Cromwell was present at the fall of the manor house in person -is, of course, a fiction used by some for the greater entertainment of -visitors to the house. Nevertheless, it is a curious coincidence that -by the power of a Lord Cromwell these magnificent buildings were raised -from the ground, and that by the power and will of another Cromwell -they were razed, in places, to the ground, but two hundred years -separating the two events, and including much history of more than -local interest. - -The actual buildings form one of the most beautiful examples of -fifteenth century domestic architecture to be found in the kingdom; -hence Wingfield is far better known to the architectural student than -to the historian. Of the present state of the walls, the less said and -seen the better. To look at them recalls the lines from _Idylls of the -King_ (Geraint and Enid):— - - “All was ruinous. - Here stood a shatter’d archway plumed with fern - And here had fall’n a great part of a tower, - Whole, like a crag that tumbles from a cliff, - And like a crag was gay with wilding flowers: - And high above a piece of turret stair, - Worn by the feet that now are silent, wound - Bare to the sun, and monstrous ivy stems - Claspt the gray walls with hairy-fibred arms, - And sucked the joining of the stones, and look’d - A knot, beneath, of snakes, aloft, a grove.” - -It is a pitiable sight to see some of the most beautiful and -interesting parts of the grand old house in such a deplorable and -tottering state. Nothing so much enhances the value, sentimentally, -of an ancient building as a considerable fall of its walls; then, of -course, a great outcry is raised—when it is too late. It is not the -decay of past years which must be viewed with alarm, but the steady, -increasing hold which ruin is obtaining on this structure. “Gutta cavat -lapidem non vi, sed semper cadendo,” is a good maxim to remember, but -if remembered in this case, it has never been thought sufficiently true -to be worth acting upon. So year by year the stones fall and the mortar -crumbles, the ivy, trees, etc., force their way between the stones, the -frost shells off the fine, smooth surface of the ashlar, and the wind -carries destruction, and future destruction in the form of seedlings, -into every part of the beautiful buildings; and the people look on and -admire the craft of their forefathers, but they do not stretch forth a -hand to save what gives them pleasure. Their country has given them a -great treasure, and they enjoy it and value it; they value it so much -that they will see not one stone left upon another before they resort -to methods of salvation; it is a ruin, it was a ruin, let it remain a -ruin, they say. Some day it will be a ruin of such a nature that none -shall recognize its likeness to a building, for when it falls down the -steep hillsides, “great will be the fall thereof,” and the noise of -its fall will be equalled only by the noise of lamentation at such a -catastrophe. - -The manor house consists of two courtyards, of which the southern -is the larger, whilst the northern one contains the more beautiful -specimens of architecture. The extreme length of the house is 416 feet, -with a total width of 256 feet. There are two entrances to the south -courtyard, one on the east in the southern corner and another on the -west. The north courtyard is entered from the southern one by a fine -gateway, flanked by two turrets, and the north wall is likewise pierced -by a now destroyed entrance of fine proportions. There is also a small -ogee-headed doorway opening into the kitchens on the west side. The -south courtyard was bounded on the east by the retainers’ quarters, now -a crumbling ruin; on the south by the fine old barn, still excellently -preserved, and also the stables, long since destroyed. The west side, -with its sally port, was formed by the quarters of the guards, and the -north of the courtyard still retains the mutilated range of buildings -which form the southern bounds of the north quadrangle. The farmhouse, -which is now occupied, is a mere shell, as all the interior is modern. - -The north courtyard has the great tower at its south-west angle, -and from here, up the west side, runs the range of apartments once -occupied by Mary Queen of Scots. The north boundary is formed by the -kitchens on the west, the state apartments in the centre, and the grand -banqueting hall on the east. The eastern boundary of this courtyard -has disappeared, and here, it is conjectured, was the chapel, which no -doubt the Halton family utilized as a quarry, as being to them the -least useful part of the house. The southern boundary is formed by the -farmhouse and buildings already mentioned as being the northern limit -of the south court. - -The glory of Wingfield Manor House is the banqueting hall, with its -undercroft beneath it. This noble chamber, now sadly mutilated, is 72 -ft. 2½ in. long and 36 ft. 1 in. in width. The most notable feature -in this scene of by-gone revelry and lavish hospitality is the great -oriel window, a piece of architectural excellence hardly to be equalled -elsewhere in the kingdom. This beautiful projection is situated at the -east end of the south front of the hall, whilst at the opposite end of -the same side is a porch, which is well worthy of a place in the same -edifice as the above-mentioned window. This porch is of two floors; -the ground floor gives entrance to the banqueting hall, and is entered -by an archway of boldly conceived design, on which is cut a series -of handsome flower petals. On the right of the entrance is a little -traceried window, which can only be described as a glittering gem of -architecture. The battlements which still remain over porch and oriel -window are now denuded of their quartered shields, but the excellent -diapered pattern, consisting of quatrefoils, is still in almost its -pristine beauty. - -The most striking feature of the manor house is part of the great -tower, which Wingfield’s old historian, Thomas Blore, has completely -omitted in his engraving. Though not of any great height, the aspect of -this towering sentinel is imposing. - -The apartments which once sheltered Mary Queen of Scots are indeed in -a sad state of ruinous decay. Nothing remains but the outer walls, -with the fireplaces and chimneys, the former with nodding heads and -the latter with, apparently, a serious spinal complaint. The walls -themselves are scored by many a huge and gaping wound, not the wounds -of honour received in battle, but the wounds caused by the horrid -disease of decay unchecked and unheeded. It is sad to think that the -first part of the hitherto unbroken line of wall round this courtyard -to succumb to this fell disease will be the most interesting portion of -this historic house. - -The kitchens, which lie between the Queen’s rooms and the banqueting -hall, are likewise in a sad state; the depressed form of arch -surmounting most of the doorways, despite the presence of “arches -of construction,” are fast bowing their heads beneath the weight of -masonry and the neglect of centuries. Adjoining the servants’ quarters -and the banqueting hall are the state apartments, lighted by a huge and -by no means beautiful window of Perpendicular times, if judged by the -standard of excellence obtaining elsewhere in the fabric. A curious -feature noticeable from the courtyard is the fact that this window, -like the little gem of a round one above and the traceried lights -below, is far from being central in the gable or in line with its -neighbours above and below. - -[Illustration: The Undercroft: Wingfield.] - -The undercroft, more often known as the crypt—an ecclesiastical term -possessing no right here—is of the same dimensions as the hall above. -The ceiling is composed of beautifully wrought stone groins, with -large circular bosses, cut with fine traceried designs; the springing -of the arches is from the walls on either side and the five stone -pillars in the centre respectively. This subterranean chamber has now -begun to show most unmistakable signs of the gross neglect which so -characterizes the remainder of the house, for the stone ribs of the -vaulting have fallen over the eastern entrance—and there they lie. The -entrances to this undercroft are four in number—one at the north-west -corner, one at the south-west, one at the south-east, and one in the -centre of the east end. Three of them communicate directly with the -banqueting hall above, whilst the fourth opens into the open air. This -cellar-like room has been described as the chapel, and also as the -retainers’ hall, but the general opinion of those whose opinion is -worthy of consideration is that it was a general store house for the -huge retinue of owner, guests, and prisoner; such was no doubt its use, -but what the intentions of its builders were is quite another question. - -The inner courtyard with which I have just dealt is far better -preserved than its southern neighbour, which seems to have proved -a better mark for Gell’s big guns and Halton’s destructive genius -than the other. The entrance gate to the inner court is fairly well -preserved, but the greater part of the rest is in but a sorry plight. -The great entrance on the east is shorn of its upper storey, but the -adjoining barn is in a delightful state of repair, and is of a nature -to arouse the enthusiasm of students of our mediæval barns. - -On the east side of the house were the old gardens, now presenting a -dismal appearance, for the sole surviving signs of the topiary work -of our forefathers are the broken ranks of a long line of stunted -yew trees; even these trees have not been spared of late years, and -the woodman’s axe has been responsible for considerable gaps. On -this side, too, remain traces of the old earthworks thrown up by the -Royalist garrison to repel the besiegers on this, the most weakly of -the naturally strong defences formed by the slope of the hill. In the -farmhouse reposes a collection of old cannon balls rescued from the -ruins, methods of destruction far preferable to the stealthy creeping -action of the prince of destroying agents—Unchecked Decay—now so busy -there. - -Let us hope, however, that before it is too late a helping hand may -lay its healing touch on these walls which crown the slope, a spot -noiseless save for the thousand and one sounds of the neighbouring -farmyard, and that distant and discordant triumph of modernity, the -railway, which, thanks to the situation of the manor house on its hill, -finds no near approach. - - - - -BRADSHAW AND THE BRADSHAWES - -By C. E. B. Bowles, M.A. - - -Chapel-en-le-frith, a little old-fashioned town in the heart of the -Peak, is fairly encompassed by a range of hills, one of the loftiest of -which, rising, indeed, to a height of 1,225 feet, is Eccles Pike. About -a mile and a half from the town, and on the southern slope of this -hill, which towers above it, safeguarding it from the cold blasts of -the north wind, stands the old homestead of the Derbyshire Bradshawes. -Built in the more peaceful times of the first Stuart King, Bradshaw -Hall is to-day a substantial witness to the fact that, unlike our -Georgian ancestors, they who lived in the time when James the First was -King were like ourselves—most appreciative of a home commanding a wide -expanse of land and sky, and yet beneath the friendly shelter of a hill. - -[Illustration: Bradshawe Hall.] - -The hall is girt on all sides by the lands which have formed part of -the domain for many centuries. Many of them, too, are known to-day by -the same names which have distinguished the various enclosures through -nearly all that time. The ground immediately below the hall on its -southern side was the old pleasance, and bears traces of having been -originally terraced. Here were the gardens and orchards, the latter -certainly in existence as early as 1542, being mentioned in a lease[40] -bearing date 20th April, 33 Henry VIII. Below them was the Home -Croft, a seven-acred field now called the Hall Meadow. The view from -these old pleasure grounds must have been very striking, extending as -it does right away to the Combs Moss and Valley, and looking towards -the Black Edge. - -[40] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_, vol. xxv., p. 59. - -In the present day the view is certainly much enhanced by a large sheet -of water—the reservoir which supplies the Peak Forest Canal, for it has -all the appearance of a natural lake. About half an acre of this water -covers land which originally formed part of the Bradshaw domain. - -On the east side of the hall lies a field known by the name of Hob -Hollin, at the back of which is the Hob Marsh. These are bounded on the -east by a field called “Little Park” and a pasture named “The Greavy -Croft.” This latter field was in ancient times a wood, probably planted -to protect the hall from the east winds. This is evident from an old -lease, dated “The assumption of our Lady in the 18 year of King Edward -IV. (15 Aug., 1478),” in which the description of the lands which -fell under it makes a special exception of “a wode calde ye Greyve -Crofte.”[41] - -[41] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_, vol. xxiv., p. 40. - -Below the hall meadow lies the “Hollow Meadow,” the subject of a long -protracted dispute as to its ownership which ended in a law suit in -the year 1500. All these fields, with others lying above the hall, are -mentioned by name in a division of lands between William Bradshawe and -his nephew Richard for farming purposes, which is dated 20th April, 33 -Henry VIII. (1542). The name Hollow Meadow, however, occurs in a deed -far earlier than this—being mentioned in a charter dated 6 Edward III. -(1332), where it is called “Holu-medue.” To the south of this field -lie some twenty-two acres of pasture, which are known by the name of -“The Turncrofts.” This land, probably originally “Town Crofts,” has -been so called as far back as 1398, when a grant of “seven acres of -land lying in Turncroft was made by John, son of John de Bradshawe, -senr., to William, son of John de Bradshawe, junr.” It is dated at -Chapel-en-le-Frith the Monday after the feast of St. James, 21 Rich. II. - -In more than one deed there is evidence that at one time a -dwelling-house and farm buildings stood on this ground, and it then -formed a separate farm. For instance, William Redfern and Emmot, his -wife, were, on the 4th of October, 1458, granted a lease for ten years -of the Turncrofts, and later on, namely, from 1537 to 1543, Henry -Bradshawe and his wife Elizabeth were living there as tenants of their -nephew Richard, the then head of the family. - -A long line of grass fields now extend along the side of the road as -far as the outskirts of Chapel-en-le-Frith. The larger portion of these -fields are to this day known by the name of “The Broad Marshes,” and -by this name they are referred to in deeds as early as 1429, at which -date a conveyance of land called Bradmersh was made by John Bradshawe, -of Bradshaw, to Wm. Bradshaw for trust purposes. In 1444, and again in -1457, leases of “The Bradmersh lands” are granted by Wm. Bradshawe, of -Bradshaw, to Roger Cooper, subject to an annuity already settled on his -mother Joyce. - -That the Bradshawes have owned the lands now held by their lineal -descendant and representative from the times of the early Plantagenet -kings is proved by the deeds which have descended to him with the -lands. How long the homestead has occupied the identical site where the -present hall now stands cannot be ascertained. That this is not the -first residence of the Bradshawes erected there is certain, and it is -more than probable that they have never lived very far away from that -identical spot. The first Bradshaw residence of which there is any -documentary evidence must have been built about the years from 1215 -to 1221. This is the period covered by an Assart Roll in the Record -Office, on which is recorded, among other interesting transactions -connected with the forest laws and customs, the various grants made -by King John and his son Henry III. of land in the forest of the High -Peak. It contains much information with respect to the ancestors of -many well-known North Derbyshire families. Among those to whom leave -was granted by the King for the erection of a dwelling-house are -several members of the Bradshawe family. From these it is not an easy -matter to select for certain the immediate ancestor of the man who -owned the land and built the house on Eccles Pike. A deed of grant has -descended from his Bradshawe ancestors to the writer of this article -dated at Chapel-en-le-Frith 6 Edward III. (1332), in which “Richard, -son of John de Bradschawe, granted to John de Bradschawe, my father, -and to Mary, his wife my mother, certain lands in Bowden.” Of these one -portion is described as being in Wytehaln feld, and another, called -Perts’ Acre, as situated near the Holumedue, which latter piece of -land there is not much doubt is identical with the Hollow Meadow. The -mention of the Wytehaln feld, or Whitehall field, in the deed would -suggest—as an ancestor to the above John—one Richard, son of William de -Bradshawe, who about the time of 19 Henry III. (1235), made an addition -to the land in Whitehall[42] which his father William had assarted at -some previous time. This is the more probable, because there has always -been a tendency to preserve Christian names in a family. But more than -one Bradshawe had grants at this date for the clearance of the forest -land in Whitehall. Ivo de Bradshawe and Walter de Bradshaw both held -land “in capite” of King John and his son Henry III. - -[42] Whitehall and Whitehough adjoin, and are about a mile from -Bradshaw. - -This Walter—son of another Walter de Bradshawe—and one Randolph de -Bradshawe, both built a house in Bowden, a part of Chapel-en-le-Frith, -in which a portion of the Bradshaw lands are situated to this day. -Thus it is quite possible that one of these houses is the original -Bradshaw Hall. - -The Heralds’ Visitation begins the pedigree with a John de Bradshawe, -possibly son of Richard Bradshawe of the deed of 1332, who by his -marriage with Cicely, daughter of Thomas Foljambe, was father of -William, evidently identical with the William, son of John de -Bradshawe, junr., before mentioned, on whom the seven acres of -Turncroft were settled in 1398. The lease, however, of 1457, cited -before, proves that the Christian name of William’s mother was Joyce. -Either she was his stepmother or, as is quite possible, a generation -was omitted by the heralds, and the man who married Cicely was the John -de Bradshawe, senr., of the 1398 settlement. His son, then, either by -her or by a former marriage, would be John de Bradshawe, junr., the -husband of Joyce, and the father of William. Cicely must have outlived -her husband, for there is evidence that she was in enjoyment of an -annuity, from which the estates were released on her death in 1408, for -on the 6th of May, 9 Henry IV., John de Bradshawe settled on certain -trustees “all the lands in the Ville of Bauden which lately descended -to me in right of heirship after the death of Cicely Foljamb.” It will -be observed that her maiden name is used. This was not unusual in legal -documents of a certain date. - -In 1429 John de Bradshawe executed two entail deeds, by which “Two -messuages and 40 acres of land, lying in Bradshaw and Turncroft, in -the Township of Bowden, were settled on his eldest son William and -his heirs male, and in default of male issue on his other sons, John, -Robert, and Henry, in tail male.” The other deed entails the Lightbirch -Estate on his second son, John, and his brothers, in tail male. The -eventual sale of the Lightbirch Estate to Reynold Legh, of Blackbroke, -near Chapel-en-le-Frith, was the cause of the dispute about the Hollow -Meadow previously alluded to. It originated in a statement made by -Reynold Legh that the “Holle Medow,” or Hollow Meadow, was attached -to the Lightbirch Estate when sold to him. The first step to disprove -this of which there is any evidence was taken on the 2nd of August, -1483, when Nicholas Dickson, parson of Claxbe, co. Leicester, obtained -the depositions of William Bradshawe of Bradshaw, on his death-bed. -He most solemnly declared that the “Hoole Medow had never formed -part of the Lightbirch Estate, and had not been given to his brother -John by his father with the Lightbirch lands.” But not until fifteen -years later was it apparently found necessary to take the evidence -of John Bradshawe, the owner and vendor of the Lightbirch Estate. -Possibly during that time Reynold Legh had remained quiet. Then, -however, we gather from an original MS. in the writer’s possession -that John Bradshawe made a statement before witnesses to the effect -that his father, John Bradshawe, had in his own house at Lichfield -denied that the land in dispute had ever been owned or sold by him, -but that Reynold Legh had endeavoured ineffectually on three separate -occasions to obtain an admission from him that it had been included in -the Lightbirch Estate, first, by sending a servant with a document for -him to sign, then by coming himself, on which occasion he became so -pressing that he had found it necessary to leave him and to refuse to -speak again with him on the matter, and finally by requesting Thomas -Auby, who happened to be at Blackbroke on other business, to go to -Lichfield and endeavour to obtain the admission he had himself failed -in obtaining. - -The next step was taken on the 28th of August following, when Henry -Bradshawe, who as his father’s son and heir had been in possession -of the estates, including the land in dispute, since the year 1483, -obtained a warrant against Reynold Legh to answer for a trespass -“upon a meadow in Bowden called Holmedowe,” which was followed by an -order made to the Sheriff, May 1st, 1499, at the instance of Reynold -Legh himself, to summon a jury to try the case. The jury, which was -composed of men well known in the county, such as Peter Pole and John -Gell, of Hopton, decided in favour of Henry Bradshawe of Bradshaw, -who was thenceforward left as undisputed owner of the field, which -is in the possession of his descendant to-day. Five years before -William Bradshawe’s death, his son Henry had been practically master -at Bradshaw, probably because his father had become conscious of the -infirmities of age, for he must have been exceedingly old when he was -troubled on his death-bed, in 1483, with the dispute about the Hollow -Meadow. A lease had been executed by Wm. Bradshaw,[43] which seems to -have been in lieu of a will, letting for twenty-one years to his son -“Hare,” “his place calde ye Bradsha, and all ye lade and meydo [land -and meadow] with ye apurtenances logyg yereto [belonging thereto], -except a wode calde ye Greyve Crofte,” but in making arrangements -for the maintenance of his widow, he stipulates that “unless it -plesse her bettur to be in any odr plase, ye seyde Hare shall fynde -and suffyshundeley kepe his Modr at things to hyr necessare to hyr -degre.” He also arranges for his son to relieve him of the worry of -paying the King’s taxes in the words, “and ye seyde Hare to pey ye -Kyge his dute for ye whole lynelode” [income]. He also gives to “ye -seyde Hare all his stuffe of Howsholde, wit all things of his yt -longus to husbodry” [that belongs to husbandry]. This curious lease -is dated at Chapel-in-ye-Frythe, 18 Edward IV. (1478). William’s wife -was Elizabeth, a member of the family of Kyrke, of Whitehough, near -Chapel-en-le-Frith[44]. - -[43] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_, vol. xxiv., p. 42. - -[44] In possession of the writer; printed in full in _Derbyshire -Archæological Journal_, vol. xxv., p. 58. - -Henry appears to have been their only son, and probably lived with -his parents at Bradshaw Hall. He died in 1523, and his will, made two -years before, is a curiously worded one, with quaint spelling. Having -satisfied his conscience with regard to the Church, and dealt with the -two farms in his occupation, the testator proceeds:— - - “I beqweyth to my wyff Elizabeyth to hyr dowary & joyntre a mesne - place off land callyd ye Tornecrofts w^t all the aportenās, and all ye - Bradmarchys w^t the aportenās unto the end of hyr lyffe & afft^r to - ye performacyon off my Wyll y^t ys to Wytt unto my too sonnes Wyllm & - Henry unto y^e tyme that Rych^d Bradsha son off John Bradsha cum to ye - age off xxi - zeres ffully.” - -At the close of the will, the testator mentions John as his eldest son -at that time deceased. Richard therefore was legally the heir to the -estates, and, as a minor, was left under the guardianship of his two -uncles. Henry then expresses the desire that: - - “my wyffe & my sayd sonnes kepe to scole the sayd Rych: unto he come - to ye age of xxi yeres fully yff he will, & mey be att theyr kepyng & - yf noo I wyll y^t my wyffe & my sayd sonnes Wyllam & Henre gyffe to - y^e sayyd Rych Bradsha xl^s off gud money yerely to hys ffynding unto - ye tyme y^t Rych Bradsha cum to y^e age of xxi yeres.” - -His two sons, William and Henry, and his daughter, Margaret, have their -fair share of his estate, and he beseeches - - “Sir Godfrey Foljamb of Walton Knt & Sir George Savage off y^e Spetyll - parson to be y^e Ouersears off thys sympull testamett & last Wyll & to - be gode maysturs to my wyffe & too my sonnes ffor Goddes sake & trew - preyars ffor them qwycke & ded.” - -Henry Bradshawe’s wife Elizabeth was one of the daughters of Robert -Eyre, the second son of William Eyre, of North Lees, near Hathersage. -His deceased eldest son, John Bradshawe, had married, according to -_Lincolnshire Pedigrees_,[45] Isabella, daughter of Peter Ashton, of -Halmear Grange, in Spalding, co. Lincoln. Both he and his wife had -apparently died leaving only one child, Richard, who could have been -little more than ten years of age when, in 1523, his grandfather’s -death placed him as heir to the estates, under the guardianship of his -two uncles. - -[45] _Harl. Society_, vol. iv., page 1139. - -Possibly Richard was not easy of control, and did not remain at school -sufficiently long to learn wisdom, for before he could have arrived at -the age of thirty he had come to grief, and his possessions had all -passed into the hands of his uncle William, who was thus the progenitor -of the future Bradshawes of Bradshaw. - -Various circumstances, however, lead to the supposition that for some -time after he had attained his majority, which must have been about the -year 1534, Richard had his home at Bradshaw Hall with his uncle Henry, -who was, without doubt, living there with Elizabeth, his wife, as -tenant up to the year 1541. Before this event, however, the foolish lad -had entered upon the extravagant and downward career which ultimately -led to his ruin and to his banishment from the old home and lands. His -frequent appeals to his uncle William for money resulted in, first a -mortgage, and finally, in December, 1542, the absolute sale of his -interests in the whole of the Bradshaw domain to his uncle William, -of Marple, co. Chester. One of the sums of money sent to him by his -uncle was the result of a most piteous appeal, which ends thus: “For -I have no money bott off you, nor I cannot boro non but of you, nor I -wyll not, and therefore I prey you to be good to me of thys.” In an -exceedingly neat and educated handwriting are the few words written in -the spare space below Richard’s letter complying with the request, and -signed “Wylliam Bradsha.” After the 20th October, 1547, the date of a -sale of an annuity by him to a man at Stockport, nothing is known of -Richard Bradshawe except that by his wife, Katherine, daughter of Elys -Staveley, of Redseats, near Castleton, he left a son, Thomas, described -in 1582 as of Swindels, co. Chester. - -William Bradshawe thus became possessed of the Bradshawe estates. He is -described as of Marple, co. Cheshire, as early as February, 1534, and -as late as November, 1549. The first deed in which he is described as -of Bradshaw is dated 15th July, 1547. - -It is doubtful, however, whether he ever altogether abandoned Marple, -as his second son, Henry, appears to have succeeded him there. He must -have died about the year 1561, for the first mention of his wife, -Margaret, as a widow is in a deed concerning her dower, which is dated -2nd February, 1562. She was a daughter of Christopher Clayton, of -Strindes Hall, near Marple, co. Chester. - -As the three eldest of their children were born before the times of -parish registers, it has been most helpful to discover among the family -deeds a long slip of parchment endorsed: “The sevrall ages of Wm. -Bradshawe’s children.” The information, which is in Latin, and in a -legal handwriting, is as follows:— - - Birth of Godfrey Bradshawe, 29th September, the second hour after - noon, A.D. 1531. - - Birth of Elizabeth Bradshawe, 24th August, in the morning, A.D. 1533. - - Birth of Henry Bradshawe, 6th September, the eighth hour before noon, - A.D. 1535. - - Birth of Margaret Bradshawe, 10th July, the third hour after noon, - A.D. 1539. - - Birth of Francis Bradshawe, 14th June, the sixth hour after noon, A.D. - 1543. - - Birth of Anthony Bradshawe, 3rd February, the ninth hour after noon, - A.D. 1545. - - Birth of Francis, son of Godfrey Bradshawe, 17th February, the eighth - hour after noon, A.D. 1555. - -Of these children Godfrey, as the eldest son, inherited the Bradshawe -estates, as will be presently seen. Henry, the second son, eventually -purchased the Marple Hall estate, where he had been bred, and most -probably born. He founded the family of Bradshawe, of Marple Hall, -co. Chester, now represented by Mr. Bradshawe Isherwood; but he -is especially noted for being the grandfather of John Bradshawe, -President of the High Court of Justice which tried and sentenced King -Charles I. to the scaffold. President Bradshawe, the second son of -Henry, the elder of the two sons of Henry Bradshawe, of Marple, was -born at Wybersley in December, 1602. Against the entry of his baptism -in the Stockport registers for the 10th of that month, some loyalist -has written the word “traitor.” He was called to the bar in 1627, and -was a member of Gray’s Inn. In 1640 he was appointed Judge of the -Sheriff’s Court in Guildhall, London, and Serjeant-at-Law in 1648. -When the House of Commons had decided on the trial of the King, they -appointed a Court of Commissioners, the presidency of which was offered -to John Bradshawe. It is only fair to say that he earnestly pleaded to -be excused, though it is possible that this hesitancy may have been -due to the undoubted danger attached to the position, which he was -apparently aware of if we are to judge by the broad brimmed hat[46] -which he wore during the trial, still preserved at Oxford, for it is -lined with plated steel as a protection against personal violence. - -[46] _Annals of Hyde_, by Thos. Middleton, p. 237. - -The High Court began their work on the 20th January. The first few -days were entirely occupied by a lengthy dispute between the King and -John Bradshawe concerning the authority of the Court, which, as King, -Charles naturally refused to acknowledge. On the 29th of January, -however, the death warrant was signed, to which the signature of John -Bradshawe stands first as president. He did not live to witness the -Restoration, for he died 31st October, 1659, and was buried with great -pomp in Westminster Abbey. His body was, however, exhumed with those of -Cromwell and Ireton, and all three were hung and buried at Tyburn. - -[Illustration: John Bradshawe, Serjeant-at-Law. - -President at the Trial of King Charles I., 1649.] - -John Bradshawe seems to have kept up friendly relations with his -Derbyshire kinsmen. His signature appears in more than one of the deeds -connected with family arrangements, and he acted as one of the -overseers to the will of George Bradshawe, of Eyam, the High Sheriff’s -brother, made 17th June, 1646. - -Anthony Bradshawe the youngest son of William Bradshawe, of Bradshaw, -is perhaps better known than his brothers by reason of his quaint -monument in Duffield church, a photograph of which illustrates this -article. He was born on February 3rd, 1545; was educated at Oxford, -where he took his B.A. degree 3rd April, 1566;[47] and entered as a -student of the Inner Temple 25th May, 1573. He made his home, however, -in Duffield, where he lived in a house called Farley’s Hall. He owned -the Duffield mill, and lands in Duffield and Holbrook, and other -places in the neighbourhood. He was the author of various interesting -articles, which prove that not only was he an adept in his vocation -as a barrister, but also was an industrious and intelligent student -of the history of his own county. He wrote a most remarkable poem of -fifty-four stanzas, giving an interesting account of Duffield and -Duffield Frith. It is published at length in the _Reliquary_.[48] All -his MSS. were specially left to his son Jacynth, but with the exception -of that on his own family, of which a literal transcript is given, they -have all mysteriously disappeared. Some of them found their way, many -years ago, into the possession of Mr. Barber, of Smalley. Extracts from -these are quoted by Rev. C. Kerry, late rector of Upper Stondon, in the -article on the “History of Peak Forest” which he contributed to the -_Journal of the Derbyshire Archæological Society_ in 1893.[49] - -[47] Forster’s _Alumni Oxonienses_. - -[48] Vol. xxiii., p. 69. - -[49] Vol. xv., p. 67. - -One of these MSS., a great portion of which has been there transcribed, -supplies most curious and interesting information concerning the -customs and duties of the officers of the forest of the High Peak. -Other MSS. had been published ten years before by Mr. Kerry for the -_Reliquary_.[50] One of these contains “the Account of a Conference” -held between himself and a distinguished visitor, “W. N., a Sowthern -gent att the howse of the said A. B., called ffarley’s House, in -Duffield, in the County of Derby,” on 1st May, 1603. - -[50] Vol. xxiii., p. 137. - -It begins thus:— - - “W. N of C in the Countie of Suffolk gent an auntient Scholar and - Companion of the said A B above 40 yeres past in the vniversitie of - Oxford (there p’ceding graduats togeather) & afterwords dyvers yeres - fealow student by practique w^{th} the said A B in the Inn^r Temple - London ... tooke paynes to repose himself for a few daies w^{th} the - said A B att his house aforesaid whenne he went to Buxton Well & so - to Bradshaugh Hall in Bradshaugh Edge a little there begyled where - the said A B was born & his auncestors whither the said A B verie - willinglie accompanyed him & the better occasioned to visit his - brother & friends there ... - - “W. N. And what is that w^{ch} you call Bradshaugh Edge wherein your - brother now dwelleth - - “A. B. Sr I take that to be a c^rten part of the p’ishe of Chapell de - le ffryth w^{ch} the King of England in time past gave vnto one of - my Auncestors for s^rvice done as p’tly appereth in some evidences - of my brothers w^{ch} are without date afore the conquest of England - and I fynd that that p’ish conteyneth three Edges vidlet Bradshaugh - Edge Bowdon Edge and Cambis Edge and that so the said Edge called the - Bradshaugh Edge conteyneth Ashford p’te of the said p’ishe and was all - graunted to my auncestors though my former auncestors were of like - vnthriftee and have in tymes past sold away most of the same, and so - my brother hath but a small remaynd^r therein And touchinge the Armes - of the said house of Bradshaughe I will not take upon me to blaze the - same leaving itt to the Heralds for avoyding of offence but the crest - is the Buck in his naturell couller vnder the hawthorne tree browsing - or rompant.” - -With regard to the office he held, and his work as a barrister-at-law, -his remarks—greatly abbreviated and modernised in spelling—are as -follows:— - - “Being in 38 Elizabeth Regina by the Hon^{ble} Gilbert Earl of - Shrewsbury her Majestys High Steward of the Honor of Tutbury charged - trusted & deputed to be understeward there and also having spent above - 30 years time partly in the Inner Temple and partly in the C^t of the - Com:n Pleas at Westminster where I also practised above 30 years as - Attorney.... For the better instructing of my sons and clerks which - I employed under me in that office I ... collected certain little - books ... concerning my Service doing in the said courts as namely - one little book of such points & learning of the Forest lawes as I - supposed to be convenient,” etc. - -Among other benefactions to the place in which he had chosen to reside, -he founded an almshouse. He alludes to it in these words:— - - “Onlie this I ympose & devyse & hope ytt will not offend that where I - have erected a litel Almeshouse for harbouring of a ffew poore ffolks - in y^e towne of Duffeld aforesaid (as the pore widow offered her myte) - & have established for the same poore but thirtie shillings yerely - to buy them some symple cloth for coates: I say I have ordered the - auntient of the same poore for the tyme being shall keep the kay of - the box wherein the same book of Regist^r shall lye in my said house” - ... - -In the indenture, which he says he intends to leave within his will, he -alludes to it thus:— - - “I have often ment & prposed & in my litle monument standing in the - Church of Duffield abovesaid do shew that I wuld p’vyde to allow an - hospithall or litle almeshouse in the towne of Duffeld w^{th} certen - allowance for harbouring of ffour poore p’sons widows or others to - contynue in man^r & forme in my last will & testem^t declared or to - be sett downe or referred and haue now devysed by my last will and - testament, God willing, my Tenemt in Derby in Full Streete there now - or late occupied by one Thomas Wright And my cotage and garden to - y^{tt} adjoyning and belonging in Duffeld abovesaid.... Therefore - now ... my desyre & intent is that that my heires & all myne & there - heres posteritie to whom the said Tenem^t & rents & cotage shall - descend or come by vertue of my said will shall for eu^r & from tyme - to tyme hereafter elect allow and admytt ffour poore p’sons of Duffeld - viz^t two aged or ympotent men and two like women widows or others of - honest behavior to be harboured lodged & dwell in my said hospitall - or almsehouse & to use the said garden therew^{th} for and during the - lyves & lyfe of any such poore p^rsons ev^ry one of them paying only a - godspeny a^{tt} there seu^ral admissions to my said heires,” etc. - -The document ends with the rules to be observed by the occupants of -the almshouse regarding their language and their attendance at church, -where they were to sit “att the backe of my pewe,” which pew, as well -as his monument, they were to dust and keep clean. The “monument” -referred to here is in the church, and in good preservation. The -“almshouses,” which stood in the Town Street between “Duffield Hall -and the road, were pulled down in 1804,” says Dr. Cox in his work on -_Derbyshire Churches_, and he remarks: “They were most improperly -bought of the parish in 1804 by Mrs. Bonnell, of the Hall, for £120, -and pulled down, in order to enlarge the grounds.” Quoting a letter -written to Mr. Lysons in 1816 he adds: “The annexed lines are inscribed -on a stone now making part of the fence in Bonell’s pleasure grounds at -Duffield, but formerly placed in front of Bradshaw’s almshouses, which -I have heard stood near the same spot, but is now entirely erased.” - - “B ehold Lord of Life this myte I restore - R endering thanks unto thee for all that we have - A nd this little Harbour I leave for the poore - D evised to lodge four who else may alms crave - S hure trust I repose & myne I exhort - H enceforth this Hospital as it needs to renew - A llowing such things as my will doth purport - W e meane & pray God for ay to continew - G od grant that others more able than I - H ereafter may better pore people supply.” - -[Illustration: Duffield Church: Monument of Anthony Bradshawe.] - -Anthony Bradshaw’s monument to himself, his two wives, and twenty -children, was erected in 1600; he did not die until 1614, having had -in the meantime three additional children. It stands against the -east wall of the north transept of Duffield church, and is in a fair -state of preservation. At the top of the monument is the Bradshaw -coat—_arg._, two bendlets between as many martlets, _sab._, surmounted -by the crest of a hart standing under a vine bough. Across the centre -of the monument, between the inscription proper and the acrostic, are -the small incised effigies (half length) of himself, his wives, and -children distinguished by their respective initials. The following are -the inscriptions:— - - “Parvū monumentū An^{ij} Bradshawgh interioris templi L. generos. - (quarti filü W^i Br. de Bradshawgh in hoc comitatu Derb. gent.) nup. - coron, ac subvic. com. ejusd. Ac etiam uni. atturn. cur. de banco - apud Westmr necuon dep. slli totius feodi de Duffield Hic qui dnas - hūit uxores & xx^{ti} liberos subscript. quibus et pro quibus (inter - multa) ut sequitur oravit et [~p]cepit, Ac postea p’ult. volun. ac. - testm. sua in scriptis remanem unam [~p]vam domum cum gardino sumtu - suo proprio in Duffeld hic conditam pro hosp. quatuor pauperum istius - ville (per heredes suos de tempore in tempus eligend. et locand.) - inter alia volvit et legavit ac devisavit cum allocaoñ in dcō testō - mancōnatis impp̄m continuand. ac per heredes suos manutend. modo et - forma in eodem testō limitat, et content. et sic obüt hicque sepelit’ - ... die ... A^o Jesu X̄r Salutis suæ.... - - “Griseld Blackwall (daughter & Heire of Richard Blackwall of Blackwall - in this county of Derby Gent. & of Anne sister of Thomas Sutton of - Over Haddon Esq.) was his first Wief by whom he had 4 sonnes W^m Fra - Exupie. & John. W^{ch} Richard was one of the cozeyns & heires of Mr. - Boyfield of Barford in the countie of Northton Esq. - - “Elizabeth the daughter of Richard Hawghton was his second wyfe by - whom he had xvj children, viz. Jacincth, Antonie, Michaell, Elizabeth, - Felix, Quyntin, Petronilla, Athanasia, Isadora, Mildrede, Brandona, - Erasmus, Josephe, Millicent, Cassandra, Vicesim. - - “Quorum cuique A. Br. dixit viz. - - “Deum tunc Regem honora ac parentes cognatos cole magistratos metue - maiore cede minori parce prox̄mum dilige sicut teipu et cum boni - ambula. - - “Dum fueris fœlix, multos numerabis amisos, tempora si fuerint nubila - solus eris. Ergo sic utere tuo ut alieno ne indigens, ac semper - intende [~p]. Dē. [~p]cede et regna.” - - Nam. - - A s God dyd give this man, - N o small charge as you see, - T o trayne them he began, - H ere ech in there degree, - O ft wishing them such grace, - N o future course to take, - I njurious to there race, - E Is end of lief to make. - - B less them oh Lord with peace, - R esist there adverse fates, - A lways them well increase, - D efendyng them from hates, - S uch lyvelode to them gyve, - H ere whylest on earth they bee, - A s they may love & lyve, - W ee praye O God q^{th} He. - G. - H. - - A. {Different tyme I wishe thee But put thy hous in order} B. - {Q^{th} he which here doth lye For surely thou shalt dye} - #/ - - -It is of some interest to print for the first time a quaint Bradshaw -pedigree, which is an exact copy of one in my own possession, in the -handwriting of Anthony Bradshaw; it was too much worn to permit of -reproduction in facsimile. - -Several of his twenty-three children settled in the neighbourhood, -not only at Duffield, but at Makeney, Idridgehay, and Belper, and the -Duffield registers[51] record their existence during the whole of the -seventeenth century. - -[51] _Reliquary_, vol. xxiii., p. 134. - -Vicesimus, the last of the children recorded on the monument, was -baptized 10th March, 1600, and married Ellen, daughter and heiress -of Richard Fletcher, of Makeney. Their descendants intermarried with -various local families, and one of them married Thos. Ward, curate of -Duffield, early in 1800. Peregrine, born in 1602, after the monument -had been erected, was perhaps one of the best known to the world at -large of this big family. He settled in London, and later on was of -Wymondham, and acted as page to Anne of Denmark, wife of James I., and -afterwards as “Esquire to the body of King Charles I.”[52] - -[52] _Lincolnshire Pedigrees_, _Harl. Society_, p. 109. - -Anthony Bradshawe died 1614. His will was proved on the 3rd May in -that year. He leaves legacies to “Francis Bradshawghe, of Bradshawghe, -Peter and Henry Bradshawghe,” and a ring is left to John Curzon, of -Kedleston, who was father of the first baronet, and ancestor to the -present Lord Scarsdale. Jacynth is the fortunate inheritor of his -signet ring, furniture, books, and MSS. - -[Illustration: - - Com. Derby { Will̄m Bradshawghe of Bradshawghe in the County aforesaid - ffebr. 1610. { gent (who and his Ancestors have beene lawfull and right - { Inheritors and owners thereof by antient desent ever - { synce afore the Conquest whiche auntient evidences thereof - { doe shew) maryd Margret the daughter of M^r Cleyton of - { Stryndes hall in Cheshire, by whome hee had yssue - { liueinge— - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 - ---------+---------+---------+----------+-----------+----------- - Godfrey | Henerie | Francis | Anthony | Elizabeth | Margret - G1 | H2 | F3 | A4 | E5 | maried to - | | | | | Littlewood - ---------+----+----+---------+ +-----------+ - francis | Henerey | - f1 | H3 | - +--------------+---------------------------------- - | Anthony - | A3 - --------------+------------------------------------------------- - | The same ffrancis the sonne had | - | yssue by the said Anne his | - | wife diu^rs sonnes and daughters | - | here under menconed viz | - -G1. Godfrey his eldest sonne maryed to Em daughter to Anthony -Shalcrosse of Shalcrosse in the said County Esq^r by whome hee had -yssue ffrancis Leuon^rd Godfrey Peeter & Henerie and divers daughters -whose names and matches are here und^r mencioned - -H2. Henerie maried to Dorotha daughter of Xpofer Baghau of the townhed -in y^e Chapell of ffryth gent by whome hee had ishew one sonne Henerie -and oy^r daughters by dyu^r venters Elizabeth maryed to - -F3. Francis maried to Mary the sister of Juxe Esq^r servante to the -late Queene Elizabeth by whome he had issue ffrancis and other Children -now dwelling att Wakesay by Charleton in the County of Willtesh^r -purchased by the said ffrancis the father - -A4. Anthony who had two wyves the first Grisild daughter and heire of -Richard Blackwall of Blackwall of Derbysh^r gent^l Inheritor of the -third pt of Barford in (now sold to M^r Lane there) w^{ch} Richard -had to wife Anne the sister of Tho. Sutton of Ou^rhaddon in the said -County of Derby Esq^r (whose widow John Bently aft^r maried) by whiche -Grisild the said Anthony had 4 sonnes viz Willm ffrancis John (w^{ch} -three dyed all younge w^{th}out issue). And Exuperie who maried Ann -one of the daughters of Lysle of Maxhill in the County of Warr Esq^r -by the daughter of Repington of Annyngton in the same Countie Esq^r -(whose former husband was one M^r Willughby) whiche Exupie hath not -yette any yssue The same Anthony second wife ys Elizabeth the daughter -of Richard Haughton of Holbroke in the said County of Derby (decended -from Haughton of Haughton tower in the County ofcLanc. Esq^r). By which -Elizabeth the same Anthony had Ninteene Children viz Nyne Sonnes viz -Jacquth, Erasimus, Joseph, Vicesimus & Peregrine yet liveing, Antony, -Quintin, Micaell & Candidus deceased, tenn daughters viz Elizabeth, -ffelix, Petronilla (modo nuta Marco Jackson in Com. Leic. gent) also -Atanasca, Mildred, Brandona, Milicent, Casandria, Penultima yet -liueing, and Isodora deceased - -E5. Elizabeth mared to John Bagshaw of Bradshawgh Esq^r gent, who had -ysue one sonne Nicolas & daughters Marie, maried to M^r Rawlison of -gate by - -f1. The said francis the eldest sonne of the same Godfrey the father -Maried Anne one of the four daughters and co-heiress of Humph of Eyam -in the said County Esq^r (by whome he had Eyam hall and those Lands in -that partition). And Roland Eyre of Hassoppe in the same County Esq^r -maried another of the same daughters. And Mr. Savage of Castleton -in the same County maried the third of the same daughters and Mr. -M----wood of Stadon in the same County maried the fourth of the same -daughters and coheirs of the same M^r Stafford - -H3 Henerey the sonne hee maried one of the daughters and heires of -Wynyngton gent. (with whome hee had certaine Lands in Alfreton) in the -pish of Stokport in Cheshire by whome hee had yssue Ralfe This Henery -purchased dyu^rs Land in Marple and ellswhere - -A3. Besides some other Lands to him decended This Anthony purchased -ffayrles and ffayrles hall and certaine other lands in Dufeild and -in Derbysh^r from the said Dorothee, Anne Derby and erected a little -Almshouse in the towne of Dufeild, and his little Monument his other -Sister and being married to owne in Dufeild Chirch Thornell there - -ffrancis Bradshawgh being nowe 1610 of the In^r Temple London, and -Counsello^r of the Law Esq now maried to Barbary one of the daughters -of S^r John Davenport of Davenport in the County of Chester Esq^r (unto -which ffrancis, the mano^r of Abney, by Eham, decended or was devised, -from and by Godfrey Bradshawgh his unckle who [dyed w^{th}out yssue] -did purchase the same Mano^r and dyed w^{th}ou issue And the said -[Leonard] ffrancis the father had other sonnes viz Humphrey, Roland, -George, and Peeter (and diue^{rs} daughters hereunder also mentioned) -by the said Anne And the said Godfrey the eldest, haueing as aforesaid, -other young^r sonnes, Len^rd, Godfrey, Peeter, and Henery as first -abovesaid the same Henery the youngest brother dyed also younge and -w^{th}out yssue And the said Leon^rd the second sonne of the said -Godfrey the eldest hath yssue Leon^rd, Peeter and Mary yet livenge -And the said Peeter the third sonne of the said Godfrey the eldest -maried with one of the daughters of M^r Johnson of the redd Crosse in -Wattlinge streete Citizen and Merchant Tayler of London, by whome he -hath nowe two sonnes viz Edward and yett liveing, god blesse them The -said Godfrey the ffather had also diu^rs daughters viz Amye who dyed -unmaried Marie who maried one Smith of Lincolnsh^r, by whome hee had a -sonne who now is a vintner & keepeth the three tonnes att Yeald hall -gate in London Hellen maried to one Martin Ashe of Ashgate in Brampton -nere Chesterfeild by whome hee hath diuers children - -The same ffrancis the ffather also had diue^{rs} daughters, viz - -Endorsed. _Anthony Bradshawes Pedigree in his handwriting._) -] - -Godfrey, the eldest son of William Bradshawe, of Bradshaw, was born -29th September, 1531, and began his experiences of the troubles of life -very early. At what date he married Margaret, daughter of Roger Howe, -of Ashop, is not recorded; but as early as 1550, when only 19, he -and his wife are quarrelling like the children they undoubtedly were, -and after ineffectual attempts “to cause them to continue lovingly -together as man and wife,” their respective parents took the necessary -legal proceedings to separate them so that each might be enabled to -marry again. The old MSS. connected with this part of Godfrey’s life -are very curious reading, as they arrange for the partition of the -household goods, and even to the return to Margaret’s parents of the -clothes provided for a possible nursery. After the divorce, Godfrey -did not go far afield for a second wife. He married Emma, the daughter -of Anthony Shawcross, of Shawcross, quite a near neighbour. In 1568 -serious troubles arose[53] in consequence of his having enclosed a -portion of his land at Chinley, not two miles distant from Bradshaw. -His action was highly resented by the inhabitants, who pulled his -fences down, burnt a house, and - -[53] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_, vol. xxi., p. 61. - - “assembling themselfs together in great companies at the Towne of - Hayfield w^{th} unlawfull weapons that is to saye w^{th} bowes pytche - fforks clobbes staves swords & daggers drawen Ryotously dyd then & - there assaulte & p’sue the sayd Godfrey & Edward Bradshawe.” - -On another occasion certain people - - “on foote & Raulphe Mellour upon his horse backe ryotouslye followed - the sayd Edward Bradshawe & Godfrey Bradshawe the space of one quarter - of a myle from the sayd towne of Heyfield & w^{th} drawen weapons - had ryotouslye like to have slayne & murthered the sayd Godfrey & - Edward.... At another tyme by nyght ... the sayd p^rcell of grounde - beinge newlye enclosed agayn by the sayd Godfrye by ther consents - beinge quicksetts w^{th} xliii hundreth quicksetts willowes & willowe - stacks they dyd pull downe the same agayne,” etc., etc. - -The disturbances were eventually quelled, and the rioters tried in the -Court of the Star Chamber. - -On the 10th April, 1570, Godfrey executed a deed of entail of Bradshawe -on himself for life, with remainder to Francis, his eldest son, and -then to Leonard, Godfrey, Peter, and Henry, his other four sons, in -tail male, in default to his three brothers, Henry, of Marple, Francis, -and Anthony. In a list of the principal landowners in the High Peak for -1570 appear the names of Godfrey Bradshawe, of Bradshaw, and of his -wife’s brother, Leonard Shallcrosse, of Shalcross.[54] - -[54] _Reliquary_, vol. viii., p. 189. - -Godfrey died early in the year 1607, and was succeeded by his eldest -son, Francis, who was married when quite a child to Anne, one of the -four daughters and co-heiresses of Humphry Stafford, of Eyam. Indeed, -he was not much more than nine years old according to the register of -his birth, for the 4th May, 1565, appears to have been the day on which -he was married. The Staffords had been settled at Eyam certainly as far -back as the reign of King John, at which time their lands were held -“by hereditary right for the free service of finding one lamp burning -before the altar of St. Helen in the church at Eyam throughout the year -during divine service.”[55] - -[55] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_, vol. xxiii., p. 83. - -The possessions to be divided among the four daughters appear to have -been very considerable. In 1568 a deed was executed to enable Francis -Bradshawe and Anne, his wife, peaceably to enjoy a fourth part of the -lands lately the inheritance of Humphry Stafford. This consisted of -much of the ancient domain of the Staffords actually in Eyam, with the -Old Hall, and included lands in the vicinity at Monyash, Chelmorton, -and other places, as well as the whole of the townships of Bretton and -Foolow. No evidence exists as to the destiny of the two children for -some years after their marriage. Ten years later, however, they were -apparently living in the Old Hall at Eyam, and on the 8th of January, -1576, a settlement of the hall and lands at Eyam was executed on the -young couple, and upon their eldest son. The deed must have been -drawn up either before or immediately after his birth, for a space has -been left blank throughout the original deed for the Christian name of -“their son and heir.” The Manor of Abney, which marched with his wife’s -estates, was bought in October, 1593. It adjoins Bretton and Foolow, -which are townships in the ecclesiastical parish of Eyam. - -There is no evidence that Francis Bradshawe ever lived in Bradshaw -Hall, which devolved on him on the death of his father, Godfrey, in -1607. Only three years elapsed between this event and his eldest son’s -marriage, and in all probability the Hall had no permanent tenant until -after it had been rebuilt. At any rate there is little doubt that -Francis Bradshawe, the elder, as he is generally styled, lived on at -Eyam Hall, where his chief interests lay, until his death, of which -date there is no record. After the year 1615,[56] when he qualified -as a magistrate for the county, nothing is known about him. His wife -died before the 18th December, 1606, the date of a settlement of “money -which rightly belonged to the said Francis in right of Anne, his late -wife.” Francis, the eldest son of their very large family, succeeded -him. The first date of which there is any evidence of his being in -possession of the estates is 10th June, 1619, when he executed a deed -entailing them on his heirs male. This same year, too, evidently marked -the completion of the rebuilding of the Hall, for a stone is still in -existence inscribed F.B., B.B., 1619, which most probably formed the -centre-piece over the doorway in the entrance porch, now demolished. -His wife was Barbara, daughter of Sir John Davenport, of Davenport, -co. Chester. In his marriage settlements, bearing the date of 1610, -he is described as barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple. Possibly he -made London and Eyam Hall his headquarters till the completion of the -hall, which work may well have begun soon after his grandfather’s death -in 1607, when it was probably assigned to him as a future residence. -It is fairly certain that the present hall was the first stone-built -residence of the Bradshawes, for the following reason. After the -civil wars of Stephen’s reign, it was found necessary to forbid such -substantial residences to be built without permission from the King. -Timber, therefore, was the principal material used for ordinary -buildings, and only in the time of the Tudor Sovereigns did the long -established custom of ignoring the stone of the district begin to die -out. The half-timbered houses still so prevalent in Cheshire are scarce -in our own county, but 300 years ago they were probably common enough, -and as a contrast to the stone walls must have added considerably -to the beauty of the Peak country. Such a house, therefore, we may -well imagine the original Bradshaw Hall to have been, standing in a -conspicuous place on the slope of Eccles Pike. - -[56] _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_, by Dr. Cox, vol. i., p. 38. - -In the time of Henry VIII., however, the ancient custom of allowing the -smoke to find its own way out through a hole in the tiling, which was -called the “louvre,” began to be discontinued, and stone-built chimneys -were then added outside the timber house for the sake of safety. Mr. -Gunson, in his article on Bradshaw Hall,[57] says:— - -[57] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_, vol. xxv., p. 5. I am indebted -to Mr. Gunson for much of the description of the actual building. - - This chimney contained a broad archway opening into the room in - which the log fire was kindled. This seems to have been the case at - Bradshaw, for on the line of what was formerly the outside wall of - the hall is still standing a great stone chimney stack. That it was - the chimney to the ancient Hall, and is the oldest portion of the - present building, there can be but little doubt, for it plays no part - in the later design. Moreover, a portion of the top where the plaster - ‘parging’ of its flue can still be seen has been taken down to allow - the main timbers of the present roof to pass over its head; it has - been filled in and its archway beneath built up. When the architect - designed the later building he found that this old stack fell into - line with his plan and served as a support for the great staircase - which he built around it.” - -No doubt it was the presence of this huge and apparently useless block -of masonry, running the whole height of the house, which gave rise to -the generally accepted notion that Bradshaw Hall possessed a secret -chamber or “priest hole.” This legend is adopted by Mr. Allan Fea, who -remarks in his interesting book on _Secret Chambers and Hiding Places_: -“Bradshaw Hall has or had a concealed chamber high up in the wall of a -room on the ground floor, which was capable of holding three persons.” -Of course, tradition says “the wicked judge was hidden here.” The -actual place here described is a modern cupboard, which has not been in -existence a century as yet! - -One other remnant of the old house remains in the present structure. To -use Mr. Gunson’s words: - - “The staircase is supported on bearing timbers made of principals from - the old high-pitched roof, in which the mortices and oak pins still - disclose their previous use and design; these, after serving their - original purpose for generations, were yet sound enough to be used to - sustain the heavy staircase—a remarkable testimony to the quality of - the oak selected for such purposes some six centuries ago, and still - apparently as good as ever.” - -The interior of the house some sixty or seventy years ago was somewhat -altered to meet the requirements of two families of farm tenants; but -as originally built, it contained the dining-hall—which was also the -usual living room of the family—out of this opened the withdrawing -room. These two rooms occupied the whole of one wing, and were -accessible from the main entrance through a vestibule or small hall, -lighted by a quaint little window on the right, and entirely shut off -from the big staircase. The dining-hall was a spacious room, lighted by -a pair of four-light windows, now converted into modern sash lights. - - “Above, to support the floor of the upper storey are massive oak - beams about 16 ins. deep by 14 ins. wide. On the left is a very fine - segmental arch over the entrance to the staircase; it has a span of - 4 ft., and its depth from front to back is 4 ft. 1 in., being deeply - splayed on the outer side. Altogether the design is striking, and if - the old window lighting the staircase behind it were but opened out, - the effect would be distinctly quaint and picturesque.” - -Another archway leads to the kitchen, and at the top of the hall was -the original great fireplace and a door, which led into the withdrawing -room. The same kind of beams cross the ceiling of this room, though -in a different direction to those of the hall, and it is lighted by -similar windows. All the rooms at Bradshaw are exceptionally lofty, and -the windows, which have not been tampered with, - - “are beautifully proportioned examples of the plain mullioned and - transomed type. An especial feature of Bradshaw is that all the door - jambs have been splayed off. The direction always follows the line of - general traffic, and the idea evidently was to cut off the corners, - and especially in the case of the kitchens, no doubt to facilitate the - carriage of the heavily laden trenchers to the dining hall.” - -The kitchen and offices formed the other wing. - - “The massive staircase is about 4 ft. in width, and consists of solid - oak steps; it is supported by the ancient chimney stack, and opens - into a small landing on the first floor, from which access is given to - various bedrooms, and through them to others. This landing, which was - originally lighted by the usual four-light window, now partially built - up, has a remarkable ceiling, cornice, and frieze, in plaster work. - Around the latter in raised letters is the following verse:— - - LOVE GOD BVT NOT GOLD. A MAN - WITHOVT MERCY OF MERCY SHALL - MISS BVT HE SHALL HAVE MERCY - THAT MERCYFVL IS.” - -An inventory[58] of the contents of the hall, taken after the death -of Francis Bradshawe gives us not only an idea of the contents of the -mansion house of a gentleman of that period, but it also furnishes -us with the names of the various rooms. Among them is mentioned “The -Gallerie, the Gallerie Chamber, and the Clocke Chamber.” The contents -of his own bedroom are as follows: - -[58] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_, vol. xxv., p. 66. - - “One bedstedd w^{th} curtaines and Vallancies and all other Furniture, - a Truckle Bedd and Fether bedd thereon Two tables one Standinge - Cupboard Three Chaires two plaine Chaires Nyne Joynt Stooles two - little ones a Close Stoole six Tables and Cupboard Cloathes. Two - Skreenes, a Lookeing Glasse Three Brushes a p^r of Snuffers Firepan - and Tongs.” - -Over the kitchen a fine example of an oak panelled room still remains -in good condition. The contents of the cellars are described in the -inventory as “one greate tuninge vessel and 3 lesser vessells and -twentie barrells.” These big cellars have apparently been filled in and -flagged over, for in spite of the legend that they still exist, it has -been found impossible to discover their position. Of the outbuildings, -the big cow house still remains, of the same date as the hall, with -windows of a similar design. - -The principal entrance to the hall, with its porch, now removed, -originally faced Eccles Pike, over which ran an ancient highway, and -connected with this was an old bridle road leading to the stone-built -arch which was the main gateway. This is still in admirable condition, -and beyond the fact that there are indications that originally the -archway was enclosed with double gates, which are not now in existence, -it is much as it left the builders’ hands. Over it, on the side facing -the hill, is a shield bearing a coat of arms, as follows: “Argent two -bendlets between two martlets sable” for Bradshawe. Impaling “or a -chevron gules between three martlets sable” for Stafford. Above the -shield is the Bradshawe crest, “A stag at gaze proper under a Vine Tree -fruited proper.” - -This coat bears the impress of the work of an amateur, as Francis -Bradshawe could only have impaled the Davenport arms as borne by his -wife’s family, while he had the right to bear the Stafford arms -quarterly with his own, because his mother was an heiress. Had his -father built the archway, as some writers have suggested, the Stafford -coat would have been borne over the Bradshawe shield on a “Scutcheon of -pretence.” - -On the reverse side of the archway is the inscription, “Francis -Bradshawe, 1620,” below which is a shield bearing the curious device, -apparently heraldic, of a thorn between six nails. It has puzzled -several students of heraldry. The suggestion was made a few years ago, -which is almost certainly the correct one, that it is no heraldic -achievement, but “a rebus” on the name Bradshawe: - - “viz six nailes for the plural ‘Brads’ a species of nail, and the - thorn for the old English Haw hence Brads-haw, that the scroll of - foliage surrounding the shield may be a spray of barberry, the - whole being in honour of Barbara Bradshawe, whose name would thus - appropriately follow that of her husband as her initials did upon the - stone of the previous year.” - -[Illustration: Bradshawe Hall: Detail of Gateway.] - -A feature of the walling round Bradshaw is its heavy double coping. The -building of the archway and stone fence would not have been built till -after “the bulky traffic necessary during the building operations no -longer prohibited a restricted approach.” This would account for the -date of the gateway being a year later than that of the hall. Here, -then, Francis Bradshawe and his wife took up their abode, in the old -home rebuilt and modernized according to the fashion of the times. In -the year 1630–1 he served the office of High Sheriff for the county, -succeeding Sir John Stanhope, of Elvaston. The accounts connected with -his shrievalty were kept with scrupulous care. They were published in -the _Archæological Journal_ for 1904, and are very quaint reading. The -board and lodging of the two judges on circuit, for all the officials -connected with the Court of Assize, and for the prisoners awaiting -their trial, as well as the expense entailed by the execution and -burial of those condemned to be hanged, are all included. Contrary -to the custom of the present day, the grand jury were fed at the High -Sheriff’s expense, and a band was provided to entertain them. Among -his personal expenses we read that £11 6s. was paid for lace, £1 3s. -10d. for twenty-six long buttons, 19s. for two dozen “silke and gould -buttons and a neeke button,” £30 for twenty-six hatbands, 10s. for -his boots, £2 3s. 4d. for his saddle, 11s. 8d. for the fringe, and £1 -3s. 10d. for the “silver boole,” which may have been his buckle, but -might possibly have been a bowl to be used as a loving cup. At Kirk -Ireton he is charged for the hire of a horse, as well as for the keep -of the one he left behind, which item suggests the probability that in -riding his own horse, as would have been most likely, all the way from -Bradshaw to Derby, he had been obliged to change horses on the road, -and Kirk Ireton, being on his line of route in travelling by the old -but now disused road from Bakewell, he had elected to make the exchange -there. During this year he had the misfortune to lose his wife. The -entry of her death in the parish registers of Chapel-en-le-Frith for -the year 1631 is as follows: “Barbara, the wife of Francis Bradshawe, -of Bradshaw, High Sheriff for this Countie this yeare, was buried -in the chancell the xviiijth day.” On the 31st of July, 1632, he -married as his second wife Lettice Clarke, widow, described in the -Chapel-en-le-Frith register as “step-daughter to Sir Harvey Bagott, -Knt.” She was the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Dilke, of Maxstoke -Castle, co. Warwick. After his death she married, as her third husband, -Sir John Pate, Bart. Francis Bradshawe died 25th March, 1635, and was -buried with his wife on the 27th. His will, made about a month after -his second marriage, left two-thirds of his residue to his brother -George, his successor in the family estates, and one-third to his -widow. She appears to have made Bradshaw her residence till about the -year 1637, at which date Bradshaw Hall was apparently occupied by a -Mr. Thomas Wigstone; at any rate, he is described as of Bradshaw in the -register of the baptism of his daughter Lettice in the October of that -year. He may have been a friend or relation, but Nicholas Lomas, who, -according to the register, died at Bradshaw in 1640, would certainly -have been a tenant. Francis Bradshawe was the last member of the family -to reside at Bradshaw; notwithstanding the large amount of money that -had been expended on the hall only fifteen years before. - -George Bradshawe, his brother and successor, lived throughout his -married life at Eyam; the old Hall, the home of the Staffords, his -mother’s ancestors, having been entirely rebuilt for him. He was buried -in Eyam Church, 25th June, 1646. His widow lived on at Eyam until she -and her only unmarried daughter were driven away by the plague, which -was raging in that village during the years 1665 and 1666. Francis, -the eldest son, who inherited all the Bradshaw estates, had married -in 1652 Elizabeth Vesey, a Yorkshire heiress, and he elected to live -in his wife’s ancestral home at Brampton, co. York, and there did -all the future Bradshawes, of Bradshaw, live, forsaking the old home -and county. Francis Bradshawe died at Brampton, 21st December, 1659, -leaving two sons. Francis, the elder, who succeeded to the estates -but died unmarried in 1677, left all his estates to his brother, John -Bradshawe. Living as his father had done in the old hall at Brampton, -John Bradshawe allowed strangers to continue to rent Bradshaw Hall. -In 1660, during the minority of his brother, the hall had been let to -Edward Ash and Thomas Wright, and he himself let it to John Lowe in -1693. In 1717 John Bradshawe was High Sheriff for the County of Derby, -but he died where he had lived, at Brampton, co. York, in November, -1726, leaving by his wife Dorothy, daughter of Anthony Eyre, of -Rampton, co. Notts, a son, George, and a daughter, Elizabeth. George -Bradshawe succeeded to the Bradshawe estates, but dying childless in -1735, the estates devolved on his sister’s son as heir-at-law and from -him the present representative of the family is descended. - -It is a curious coincidence that the last official act of George, the -last Bradshawe, of Bradshaw, of which there is any evidence, was, -only three months before his death, to execute a lease, dated 13th -September, 1735, for eleven years to Robert Lowe and John Jackson of -the old hall of his ancestors, in which document it is described as -“all that capital messuage with the appurtenances lying and being in -the parish of Chapel-en-le-Frith, commonly called or known by the name -of Bradshaw Hall.” - - - - -OFFERTON HALL. - -By S. O. Addy, M.A. - - -The hamlet of Offerton is near Hathersage, and now consists of three -houses, called Offerton Hall, Offerton House, and Offerton Cottage. It -stands high, but the moors on the south rise higher still, and partly -hide the rays of the midday sun from these buildings. So, as you walk -up the hill on a summer’s morning, the gateway of the hall, already -darkened by time, is further darkened by shadows. But there is plenty -of light when you get into the courtyard. - -You ascend a little-used, narrow lane, with walls on either side, and -leaving Offerton House, itself a quaint old building, on your right, -you presently enter the courtyard of Offerton Hall through a tall -gateway, which stands between farm buildings on one side and a barn on -the other. Within the archway on either side are mullioned windows, and -just beyond the archway is a door, as if a porter once kept the gate. - -[Illustration: Offerton Hall (Front View).] - -[Illustration: Offerton Hall (Back View).] - -Open the barn doors and peep inside. At one end, raised high above the -floor, you will see a large wooden platform, which can be raised up -and down at will, and is used for clipping sheep. You will also notice -that the great oak beams or rafters which support the roof of the barn -extend down to the ground. These beams are thick and rude, and have -hardly been touched by the carpenter’s tools. They are locally known as -“crucks,” which is an older form of “crutches.” A book which has just -been published contains an extract from a lease dated 1432, in which -“crukkes” are mentioned, and it is remarkable that the word is used as -a translation of _laquearia_.[59] The barn at Offerton Hall consists -of four bays, measuring 15 feet by 16 feet each, so that the floor of -each contains 240 square feet. Some of the crutches are bigger and -heavier than the others, and they all rest on stone pedestals, varying, -according to the size of the crutches, from two to four feet from the -ground, the crutches which stand on the two lowest pedestals being the -thickest. All the crutches have mortise holes for rafters on their -outer faces about a foot above the lowest of the two tie-beams by which -they are joined together. This shows that the roof of the barn, or the -roof of an earlier building which the crutches once supported, sloped -from the ridge to the ground. The tie-beams are held in their places by -tree-nails or wooden pegs. - -[59] The lessee covenants to build a house “de octo laquearibus, -Anglice viii. _crukkes_.”—Ling Roth’s _The Yorkshire Coiners_, 1906, p. -155. - -As I have shown elsewhere, the bay was a unit of measurement, -containing 240 square feet. The evidence supporting this conclusion -may be seen in various ancient documents. For instance, in the twelfth -century, the villans of Aucklandshire had to “make the bishop’s hall -in the forest, of the length of 60 feet, and of the breadth within -the posts (_infra postes_) of sixteen feet.”[60] In other words, the -hall was to consist of four bays of 240 square feet each, like those -in the barn at Offerton. In 1694 there was a fire at Long Eaton, near -Derby, which “consumed fourteen dwelling houses, togeather with the -barnes, stables, outhouses, and other buildings, containeinge ninety -bayes of buildings.”[61] Here the houses of a village are estimated -by the bay, which must have been a recognised measure of quantity. It -appears in the Eckington Court Rolls that in 1758 a man borrowed £40 -on the security of “all that one bay of a barn, situate and being in -the High Lane, called the Farr Bay, and all that close there called -the Farr Over Close adjoining to the High Lane aforesaid southwards, -containing by estimation three acres.” In 1764 an Eckington man and his -wife surrendered “all that middle bay of a barn situate and being at -High Lane aforesaid, together with twelve yards and two feet of land -in length on the north side of the said barn, and one yard in breadth, -with all the priveledges and appurtenances to the same belonging,” to -the use of John Gill, of Cuckhold’s Haven, in the parish of Eckington, -sicklesmith. The meaning is that bays, being measures of quantity, were -sold like acres, or, rather, like links of sausages. We must not, of -course, suppose that all bays were exactly of the same size, or that -each of them contained an area of exactly 240 square feet. We might as -well expect every acre in the fields to contain exactly 4,840 square -yards. - -[60] _Boldon Buke_ (Surtees Soc.), pp. 26, 62. - -[61] Document in Cox’s _Annals of Derbyshire_, vol. ii., p. 294. - -In examining the outside of Offerton Hall, the first thing to be -noticed is a small projection from the back or western side. It is a -quadrangular tower, and contains the stairs which supply the two upper -floors of the building. As will be imagined from the outer appearance, -the stairs are not spiral, but go in short, straight flights, with -proper landings. The steps are of stone; first, six steps and then a -landing; in nine more steps you get to the first floor; after this, six -steps and a landing, then, the uppermost floor or garret. The staircase -is really a detached room, and you can only get into it by opening a -door. Taking the word in its etymological meaning, a staircase is a -“case” which holds a “stair” or ladder. In some old Lincolnshire houses -the “stair” is in fact a ladder inside a little closet, like a voting -compartment, in a corner of one of the rooms. At Garner House, about -a mile from Offerton, the winding stair, now of wood, but formerly -of stone, is in a round turret at the back of the house; half of the -turret is visible outside, the other half is concealed in the wall. - -Offerton Hall is one of those buildings which have escaped the -practical joke of “restoration.” It consists of a “house-place” or -large central room, with a projecting wing on either side—a form -which was very common in the seventeenth century. In the angle formed -by the “house-place” and the southern wing is a yellow-washed stone -porch, about two feet deep. Just above the entrance to the porch is a -tiny window, with diamond panes and angular top. Below, in an incised -panel, the letters M.G. are carved, and, just beneath those letters, -R.G. 1658. Although the plan of the house is consistent throughout, -it was not all built at the same time, and the two pairs of initials -may represent two different owners or builders. Ralph Glossop, of -Offerton, appears in the Hope Easter Roll for this very year 1658, and -also Edward Glossop, of the same place.[62] A list of the freeholders -of Derbyshire made in 1633[63] shows that Ralph Glossop was the only -freeholder at Offerton in that year. According to Hunter’s large -_Pedigree Book_, printed by the Harleian Society, Ralph Glossop, of -Offerton, married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Jeremy Ward, of Ashop, in -Derbyshire.[64] This Ralph Glossop is not, like his neighbour Thomas -Eyre, of Highlow, described in the list of freeholders as an esquire, -and accordingly Offerton Hall would seem to have been the residence of -a substantial yeoman. - -[62] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_, vol. xi., p. 21. - -[63] _Op. cit._, vol. vi., p. 7. - -[64] _Familiæ Minorum Gentium_, 647. - -Opening out of the little porch is a strong oak door, studded with -iron nails. The height of the door is five feet eight inches, and it -is below the level of the sill or threshold, so that when you enter -the house you go down one step. As you enter you must take care both -of your head and your feet, or you may come to grief at both ends. Dr. -Troels Lund says that in Danish houses of the sixteenth century “the -door was extremely low, so that a person entering had to bend down, -and at the same time the sill was so high that the foot had to be well -lifted up. And if a man had reason to fear a hostile attack, it was a -considerable help that the entrance, which was always a weak point, -should be as narrow and low as possible; if the door were burst open, -the enemy might get his death-blow as he stepped over the sill with his -back bent and his foot lifted up.”[65] - -[65] _Das Tägliche Leben in Skandinavien während des sechzehnten -Jahrhunderts_, Copenhagen, 1882, p. 12. - -At Offerton Hall, instead of lifting your leg up you have to drop it -down, and at the same time if you are a tall man you have to bend your -neck. In the English, as in the Danish case, the intention was to make -entrance difficult, and to prevent surprises. The thick oak door opens -inwardly. As you go in you do not see the house-place; you face the -great chimney wall, and to get into the house-place you pass through -another door on your right. Thus the house contains both an inner and -an outer porch, the inner porch answering to the “speer” of Lancashire -cottages which have no outer porch. The door of entrance is fastened by -an oak bolt one foot nine inches in length, and three inches by four in -thickness. The bolt fits into a hole in the wall, and is drawn out by -an iron ring. - -The house-place, or “house-body” as they call it at Halifax, is still -the centre of domestic intercourse, as it has always been. As you -enter, your back is turned to the great fireplace which once warmed -all the house, and which was kept burning day and night. When you -get inside the house-place the great vault of the chimney, more than -eleven feet wide, is before you, spanned by a depressed arch. People -in the neighbourhood speak of the chimney of Offerton Hall as “a -lantern chimney.” If you ask them why it was so called, somebody may -tell you, without blushing, that it was because a man went up to sweep -it with a lantern. The term “lantern chimney” is not to be found -in dictionaries, and may therefore be presumed to be unknown. There -must once have been a louver or lantern at the top of the chimney at -Offerton, like the one, for instance, at Tisbury, in Wiltshire, figured -in Parker’s _Glossary_. The chimney at Tisbury is octangular, with a -conical roof, like the top of a stable lantern, and with lateral holes -for the emission of smoke. The summit of the chimney at Offerton may -originally have been of this form. - -The base of the chimney has a breadth of twelve feet six inches on one -side, and ten feet six inches on the other. It is built of stone, and -in the chamber above the house-place it begins to taper off, so that -its sides might be compared to the “steps” on the Great Pyramid. Big -central chimneys like this are the first rude attempts to get rid of -the open hearth, from which the smoke escaped by a hole in the roof, or -by a louver. It is said that “chimneys were not used in the farmhouses -of Cheshire till within forty years of the publication of King’s _Vale -Royal_ (1636); the fire was in the midst of the house, against a hob of -clay, and the oxen lived under the same roof.”[66] - -[66] Whitaker’s _Craven_, 1812, p. 334. - -The rooms of the house are about eight feet high on the ground floor, -and seven feet on the upper floor, and the principals supporting the -roof in the garret are a good deal like the crutches which have just -been described. There is no panelling in the house, and no cellar. In -front of the building is an old-fashioned garden. - -In 1545 Robert Glossop, of Offerton, was fined for trespassing on -Abney Common.[67] In 1465 John Glossop, of Wodsetys, in Norton (Norton -Woodseats, near Sheffield), leased to Henry Foliaumbe a messuage in -Offerton called Le Storthe for twelve years.[68] It would not be -difficult to make out a considerable history of the Glossop family and -their relations from the Lichfield wills and the other usual sources of -information. - -[67] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_, vol. xxiii., p. 89. - -[68] Jeayes, _Derbyshire Charters_. - -We must not be in too great a hurry to conclude that Offerton means -upper farm, as Over Haddon means Upper Haddon. Overton, in Ashover, -means upper farm, but Mr. Jeayes has shown that in the thirteenth -century Offerton, in Hathersage, occurs once as Hofnertoun, and that -a man called Eustace de Hofnerton lived there.[69] Other early forms -of the name are Offirtun and Offreton; in _Domesday_ it appears as -Offertune, a berewick of Hope. Mr. Searle has told us that _Offerd_ -is found in Old English charters and in _Domesday_ as a form of the -man’s name _Osfrith_,[70] and, if we could put aside Hofnertoun as a -scribe’s error, this is probably the first element of the word. In the -thirteenth century we have Over Offerton and Nether Offerton, otherwise -_Kauereshegge_.[71] Was Nether Offerton ever so called? Possibly the -scribe should have written _Hauereshegge_, a form of Hathersage, as old -documents show. - -[69] Jeayes, _Derbyshire Charters_. - -[70] _Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum_, Cambridge, 1897. - -[71] Jeayes, _op. cit._ - -The Offerton Hall estate is the property of H. Cunliffe Shawe, Esq., -of Weddington Hall, Nuneaton, to whom it has descended from Robert -Newton, Esq., of Norton House, who was born in 1713 and died in 1789. -Mr. Newton was a wealthy man and a great purchaser of land, this being -one of his many estates. In a survey belonging to Mr. Shawe, made about -eighty years ago, the Offerton Hall property is described as containing -eighty-five acres, and as including the following fields: The Acre with -Kentny Barn, Great Kentny, Kentny Meadow, Kentny Wood, Breedy Acre -with the Precipice, Wild Hey, Siss Acres, Cornhill Cap Meadow, and -Great White Ley. As the map shows, Kentny Meadow is close to the hall. -A place called Kenteney, in Upper Offerton, is mentioned in deeds of -the thirteenth century.[72] This name represents an older _Centan-īg_, -meaning Centa’s “island,” and we have the same termination _ey_ (_īg_ -or _īeg_) in Abney, which adjoins Offerton, and in a manuscript survey -of 1451 is written Albeney.[73] We can rely upon this form of the name, -not only because it was taken from an older survey, but because the -surname De Albeney occurs in North Derbyshire in 1250.[74] Now the -surname Albeyn is found at Chesterfield in 1339,[75] and is the English -form of the Latin _Albāgnus_. Abney, therefore, means Alban’s “island.” -Eyam, which adjoins, is written Eium or Eyum in the thirteenth century, -and the termination _-um_ is so very frequent that we cannot doubt -that it is a dative plural, and that the word means “islands.” These -“islands,” it need hardly be said, were not pieces of land surrounded -by water. They remind us of the intermixed townships which are so -frequent in some parts of England, as if strangers or conquerors had -settled amongst a conquered people. At Eyam, the “islands” seem to have -been the lands which were held by military tenure, or “hastler lands,” -as they were known in the neighbourhood. - -[72] Jeayes, _Derbyshire Charters_. - -[73] _Feodarium_, in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk. - -[74] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_. - -[75] Jeayes, _op. cit._ - - -Siss Acres may be six acres, for Chaucer has _sis_ for six. If so, -the word is interesting as pointing to French influence in the -neighbourhood. - -In 1611 it is said that Offerton is a manor of itself, then in the -tenure of Henry Cavendish, Esq.[76] - -[76] _Derbyshire Archæological Journal_, vol. xxiii., 89. - - - - -ROODS, SCREENS, AND LOFTS IN DERBYSHIRE CHURCHES - -By Aymer Vallance, F.S.A. - - -Although still comprising a considerable amount of excellent -screenwork, the county of Derby has suffered grievous losses in -this regard, losses for which, if fanaticism in the sixteenth and -seventeenth centuries was primarily responsible, ignorance and -indifference in the eighteenth century, and wilful perversity of -so-called “restorers” during the “Gothic revival” of the nineteenth, -have produced consequences not less disastrous. - -At the beginning of the religious revolution in England, inaugurated -in the reign of Henry VIII., every church and chapel in the land had -its rood-screen, surmounted by a rood-loft. Above them both was the -great rood, or cross, with a figure of Our Lord outstretched upon it, -flanked almost invariably by statues of St. Mary and St. John. Of these -ornaments the rood-loft was the latest to be developed, not becoming -general previously to the fifteenth century. It had, however, been -preceded in cathedral and monastic churches by the pulpitum, a thick -wall with a gallery on the top of it at the west end of the quire. In -churches of this class, the rood-screen would be situated parallel to -the pulpitum, but further westwards, in the nave. - -[Illustration: Fenny Bentley Church: Rood-Screen.] - -The pulpitum and the parish church rood-screen, although the former is -usually a solid stone structure, while the latter consists of openwork, -and is of wood rather than of stone, so far resemble one another -that both have a central doorway, whereas the cathedral and monastic -rood-screen appears to have had, as a rule, two doorways in it, one at -the north and the other at the south end, with an altar (which ranked -as the principal one among the altars of the nave) placed between them. -It was in front of this altar, and at the foot of the great rood, that -the procession, which perambulated the church before High Mass on -Sundays and great feasts, having traversed the appointed route, finally -drew up to make a solemn station. This done, those taking part in the -procession would file off to right and left in two divisions, either of -them passing through one of the doors in the rood-screen, and thence -under the pulpitum into the quire for the celebration of the chief -service of the day. - -In illustration of the foregoing, it is of interest to recall that -excavations, carried on at the end of the seventies of the nineteenth -century, on the site of the Premonstratensian Abbey of Dale, revealed, -at the eastern crossing, the bases of the two parallel walls of the -pulpitum, about five feet apart, and pierced by a central doorway, 4 -ft. 6 in. wide. A year later much of the tile pavement of the nave was -unearthed, disclosing the tiles spaced and arranged in bands to mark -the exact position for the procession, as before described. Further -may be cited the accounts of the sale of the effects of the abbey, -drawn up by order of the Royal Commissioners on its dissolution in -1538. This document is dated 24th October, in the thirtieth year of -King Henry VIII.’s reign. It enumerates, beside “the seats in the -Quier; a crucifyx, Mary and John; a payre of organs; ... the rode alter -in the Churche,” _i.e._, in the nave, “and a rode there,” _i.e._, -presumably the great rood. Another item disposed of, viz., “The -partition of tymber in the body of the Churche,” most probably refers -to the rood-screen in the nave; while the before-named “rode alter” -would be, by analogy, the altar in the midst of the rood-screen; for -such was the usual dedication. The greater number of the fittings of -Dale Abbey were acquired at the sale by Francis Pole, of Radburne. It -is, therefore, not without good reason that certain linen-fold panels -in Radburne Church—eighteen in all—have been identified as belonging -formerly to the rood-screen of the abbey church. And yet another item -sold, “a grate of yren” (iron) “abowte the Founder and the tymber worke -there” would include parclose screenwork such as is described hereafter. - -The church of another Premonstratensian abbey also, that of Beauchief -(founded between 1172 and 1176), had its altar of the Holy Cross. -Evidence of the fact is extant in the shape of a deed, _circa_ 1300, -by which Sir Thomas de Chaworth, lord of Norton, made over the entire -village of Greenhill, moor included, by way of endowment, to maintain a -canon to celebrate mass at the altar of that name in perpetuity. I have -found no other particulars of Beauchief bearing on the present subject -except in the inventory, dated 2nd August, 1536, wherein occurs:—“It’m -a p’ of organnes,” which same may be assumed to have stood upon the top -of the pulpitum. - -Neither, again, has very much that is relevant come to light concerning -the vanished church of the Augustinian canons at Darley. Their abbey, -in its time the largest and most important of the religious houses of -Derbyshire, was suppressed in the autumn of 1538, as the result of -three months’ unremitting pressure on the part of Cromwell’s agent, -Thomas Thacker. This man actually wrote, at the close of the first -three months, to inform his master how little effect his cajoleries -and threats had had upon the abbot; and to solicit the all-powerful -minister’s favour and help in securing possession of the house and -goods for himself, when he should have succeeded in the design of -coercing the unhappy man. It is at least some slight satisfaction to -know that Thacker’s petition was disregarded as far as Darley Abbey was -concerned. The abbot’s consent to the suppression at length wrung from -him, no time was lost before cataloguing and selling the effects of the -abbey. The inventory of the sale is dated 24th October (only two days -later than the signing of the act of “surrender”), and comprises the -“Great Crucyfyx” of the abbey church and “tymber about ... Seint Sythes -Chapell,” meaning, obviously, the parclose screens that surrounded it. - -With the foregoing may be compared the priory church of another -Augustinian house, founded in 1172 at Repton. The inventory of the -sale, dated likewise in October in the year 1538, specifies, besides -the rood, at least six partitions of timber, or parcloses, fencing -round the chapels respectively of Our Lady, St. John, St. Nicholas, -and St. Thomas. The church, dismantled, as has been stated, under -Henry VIII., still continued standing “most beautiful,” according to -the testimony of the historian Fuller, until the reign of Queen Mary, -when, in a single day, it was utterly demolished by the intruder in -occupation, Gilbert Thacker. This miscreant belonged to a family -deeply tainted with the guilt of sacrilege. He was, in fact, son and -heir of the before-named Thomas Thacker, and becoming alarmed at the -news of the rehabilitation of the religious orders, and determined to -prevent such an eventuality in the case of Repton Priory, promptly -acted on that resolve by destroying, as he himself expressed it, “the -nest, for fear the birds should build therein again.” Excavations -conducted in 1882 and two successive years on the site of the former -church, discovered practically all that is ever likely, under the -circumstances, to be learned from investigations on the spot. The -results, embodied in two reports by Mr. W. H. St. John Hope, were -published in volumes vi. and vii. of the _Journal of the Derbyshire -Archæological Society_, from which, as comprising the whole of the -available information relevant to the present subject, the following -particulars have, for the most part, been extracted. - -The stone pulpitum, like that at Dale, occupied the space between -the two piers of the eastern crossing; but, unlike the Dale pulpitum, -the Repton one was a solid structure. It measures 5 ft. 4½ in. deep -from east to west, and is pierced by a central doorway 4 ft. 4½ in. -wide. Its eastward front, against which backed the return stalls, -measures 26 ft. 2 in., the total width of the quire. The westward -façade (except for the door-jambs, which are moulded and flanked on -either side by an ornamental buttress, and when uncovered in 1883 -showed traces of brilliant scarlet and black colouring) was austerely -plain. Its flatness was relieved, however, by the loft above being made -to overhang. That this was so is deduced from the fact that had the -loft-floor not projected beyond the area of the base of the pulpitum, -there would have been insufficient room for anyone ascending to the -top to turn round on emerging from the staircase. The latter, 3 ft. -2½ in. wide, was hollowed out of the solid in the northern half of -the pulpitum, and raked upwards in a straight flight from south to -north. The “pair of organs” named in the inventory, stood, it may be -assumed, on the platform at the top. That the pulpitum itself must -have been coeval (_circa_ 1275–1300) with the piers and integral in -structure with them, is manifest from the plinth that forms the base of -pulpitum and piers alike being finished with the same hollow chamfer -continuously all round it. A curious feature is that, notwithstanding -there is a step leading up from the nave to the pulpitum door, on the -east side there is a descent of one step again on to the floor of the -quire. South of the pulpitum a screen of wood shut off the quire’s -south aisle (which is ten feet wide) from the transept. Another screen, -in line with the last-named one, extending 21 ft. 9 in., _i.e._, as -far as the south wall of the transept, enclosed the spacious chapel -of Our Lady, which was situated parallel to the quire, on the south -side of the quire’s south aisle. The former existence of these screens -is proved by holes sunk in the masonry to receive the timber work. -The north transept was too ruinous to furnish any indication of its -ancient screen arrangements; but there were found some signs of a -screen having stood between the first pair of piers in the nave (which, -exclusive of the aisles, is 22 ft. 2 in. wide). This would, of course, -be the position of the rood-screen proper. - -To resume, as to collegiate churches, some were provided, like -cathedrals, with a solid pulpitum, others with a rood-loft only, -which in their case had to do duty for pulpitum; that is to say, -the ceremonial singing of the Gospel was wont, as in cathedrals and -monastic churches, to take place on the top of it at High Mass on -Sundays and great feasts. The knowledge of this circumstance has -given rise, apparently, to the mistaken notion that the rood-loft in -ordinary parochial churches was used for the same purpose, which was -decidedly not the case. Nay, in some parish churches sculptured stone -desks, projecting from the north wall of the chancel, near the high -altar, were provided expressly, as authorities on the subject agree, -for the reading of the Gospel at that spot, in contradistinction to -the cathedral, monastic, and collegiate usage. The Derbyshire parish -churches of Chaddesden, Crich, Etwall, Mickleover, Spondon, and -Taddington are especially remarkable as being fitted with lecterns of -this description. - -Against the east side of a pulpitum return stalls for clergy or monks -were invariably fixed; but that this arrangement was not confined -exclusively to cathedral, monastic, and collegiate churches is proved -by the fact that certain Derbyshire churches, which have never belonged -to any of those categories, and could scarcely even be described as -connected except indirectly with cells of religious houses in their -neighbourhood, _e.g._, those at Chaddesden, Elvaston, Norbury, and -Sawley, were provided with return stalls in the chancel. And again, not -least extraordinary, in the out-of-the-way parish of Chelmorton, the -ancient rood-screen, itself of stone, to this day still has a stone -bench attached to it, and running the length of its eastern side, for -clergy to occupy, backs to the screen and faces towards the altar, just -as though in a cathedral quire or in that of some religious order. - -[Illustration: Norbury Church: Stall End attached to Jamb of -Rood-Screen.] - -Three of the before-named churches, viz., Chaddesden, Elvaston, -and Norbury, present (or, rather, if the handiwork of the mediæval -joiners had not been subsequently tampered with in any of them, would -present) a feature highly characteristic of Derbyshire churches in -the treatment of the outer ends of the return stalls that flank -the passage through the rood-screen into the chancel. The Norbury -specimen (see illustration), handsomely sculptured, with a panel of -vine ornament, and with a projecting elbow formed of the half-length -figure of an angel, is, however, in point of size the least accentuated -of the three. But the pair at Chaddesden, with a series of enormous -crockets climbing high up the eastward face of the muntins which form -the entrance jambs, if scarcely noticeable when the screen is -viewed from the nave, are very conspicuous from within the chancel; -so much so, indeed, as to dominate and outscale all the rest of the -screenwork to which they belong. How so strange an anomaly ever came -to be introduced into an ordinary parish church is merely conjecture. -The quire of the church of All Hallows, Derby—the sole collegiate -foundation in the county surviving as such until the sixteenth -century—must, of course, have been furnished with return stalls; but -whether they exhibited the huge proportions of those at Chaddesden, or -whether, if that were so, the Chaddesden stall ends were or were not -deliberately imitated from those of All Hallows’, one may wonder and -argue as one will, without the possibility of arriving any the nearer -to positive assurance on the subject. - -[Illustration: Chaddesden Church: Detail of Rood-Screen from the -Chancel.] - -In default of a cathedral church within the borders of Derbyshire, -the tendency would be to emphasize the dignity and importance of its -greater churches. Among these the grand collegiate church of All -Hallows was foremost, and as such it came to be regarded as, in some -sort, the minster and mother church of all the southern part of the -county. Thus it would, perhaps, be but natural that All Saints’, -Derby, should supply the model for numbers of churches round about, -and that its individual features should reproduce themselves even in -some of the furthest corners of the shire. The love of generations -of Derbyshire men for the fabric of this glorious church, and the -jealous pride with which they defended its ancient privileges, are -matters of history; and if it is not possible now to trace to a common -original the distinguishing features of the churches of the county in -general, which would, in all probability, have had their prototype in -All Saints’, the ever-to-be-regretted reason is that the whole of the -venerable building, with the exception of the tower at the west end, -has disappeared—wantonly and wilfully destroyed in February, 1722–3. -This irreparable loss was brought about solely through the guile and -strategy of one unscrupulous tyrant, the then minister in charge, Rev. -Michael Hutchinson, D.D., the memory of whose deed and name deserves to -be handed down in undying opprobrium. - -Neither plan nor any satisfactorily complete description of the -mediæval church of All Hallows is extant; but this much is known, that -it comprised nave and aisles and quire, with a chapel on the south, -and that it contained, besides other altars, a chantry of Our Lady and -one, also, of St. Nicholas. Both of these—the fact is established by a -process of elimination, the south chapel having been appropriated to -St. Katherine—were situated in the body of the church, and would almost -certainly have been enclosed within screens such as survive in a number -of Derbyshire churches to this day. - -And here, before proceeding further, it is necessary to point out how -largely the ground plan favoured in the churches of mediæval Derbyshire -has affected and determined the conditions of their screening system. -At the same time, I would add that what I am about to say does not -pretend to universal application in every individual church throughout -the county; for, in the nature of things, there are bound to be plenty -of exceptions. Nevertheless, that the main trend of development -proceeded along the lines indicated will not, I think, admit of dispute. - -Now, in other districts, a church of the scale and grandeur of that, -say, of Ashbourne, Bakewell, Melbourne, Norbury, or Spondon, could -scarcely have failed to be enlarged, when extra chapels came to be -called for, by the addition of chancel aisles. And yet in every one of -these Derbyshire instances the chancel is aisleless—an anomaly, surely, -remarkable enough! Nay (albeit the important churches of Chesterfield, -Morley, and Norton, for example, testify to the contrary), it is -noticeable in how many cases almost any other device was more welcome -than that which would have involved interfering with and arcading -the side walls of the chancel. An east aisle to the transept would -occur more readily than the erection of a new aisle to the chancel in -cruciform churches (as, for instance, at Ashbourne and Bakewell), or, -in churches where there was no transept to widen nor to appropriate, -the area of the nave itself (as at Fenny Bentley), or of the nave -aisles (as at Elvaston and Sawley), would be encroached upon for the -purpose; the wealthy corporate body or individual having as little -hesitation about annexing and enclosing the amount of the parish -church’s space which they wanted for their own uses, as they would -about enclosing (provided it could be accomplished with impunity) the -people’s common land. A typical Derbyshire parclose, then, is no mere -grate within an arch, to connect the one side of it with the other, -but rather a formidable barrier fencing in, on two sides, a specific -portion of the body of the church, and even, may be, comprehending (as -in the before-mentioned instances of Elvaston and Sawley) a column or -more of the arcade itself. - -Whatever may be thought of the propriety of this local caprice (for -what else was it which, in a county abounding with excellent building -stone, could have caused the bodies of parish churches to be thus -cut up with internal partitions, instead of extending them from -without by additional chapels and chancel aisles for the reception -of fresh chantries?), the net result has been to enrich Derbyshire -with even greater distinction in respect of its parcloses than of -its rood-screens; notwithstanding the parcloses which still remain -represent only a proportion of all those ascertained to have been -formerly in existence, but such that have now gone, many of them, and -left nothing beyond the bare record behind; or of that, no doubt, -larger quantity whereof even the very memorial has perished. - -Some of them have been shifted from their original positions and made -up afresh, others have been cut short or otherwise maltreated and -defaced; but, for all that, it is not too much to say that there is not -a county in the kingdom can boast as magnificent a series of parclose -screens as this one still possesses, in more or less perfect condition, -in the respective churches of Ashbourne, Bakewell, Chesterfield, -Elvaston, and Kirk Langley. The exquisite parclose which runs the whole -length of the south transept at Chesterfield, with its vaulted cornice, -rather resembles a rood-screen. The truly characteristic variety of -parcloses, however, should be sought, not at Chesterfield, but at -Ashbourne, Bakewell, Elvaston, and Sawley. A peculiarity common to all -four is the pierced tracery panelling of the lower half of the screen. -In each case, except in the Bakewell parclose, it takes the form of a -horizontal band of ornament immediately beneath the rail or cill of the -fenestration. Such is the feature which, as I submit, constitutes the -speciality of parcloses as distinguished from rood-screens. And it is -just because of its being present also in the screenwork now made up -into a chancel-screen at St. Peter’s, Derby, that I am disinclined to -believe that this particular screen was designed in the first place for -a purpose other than that of a parclose. - -[Illustration: Elvaston Church: Parclose Screen in the South Aisle.] - -The history of this screen has not been uneventful. It is well known -to have belonged formerly to the church at Crich, and to have been -ejected from thence at the devastating “restoration” which befel in -1861. Conveyed to a timber-merchant’s yard, for awhile it lay there -awaiting a ruin that seemed imminent, until the late Rev. W. Hope, at -that time vicar of St. Peter’s, fortunately saw it, acquired it, and -set it up, repaired and remodelled, in its present position. To return, -now, for a moment to the matter of Crich church. It is on record that -there were two chantries founded here by William de Wakebridge in the -fourteenth century. The one, receiving episcopal licence in 1357, was -situated in the north aisle; the other, in 1368, at Our Lady’s -altar, which may be presumed to have occupied a corresponding position -in the south aisle. Both of these chantries would eventually, according -to the prevailing Derbyshire custom, have been surrounded with parclose -screenwork. Of the remains of that which stood in the north aisle, -the heraldic painter, Bassano, and also J. Reynolds, took note when -they visited Crich church, the first in 1710, the second in 1758. I -do not gather, however, that either of them recorded the existence -of a rood-screen there. This negative evidence on their part is too -significant to be set aside, and so, commonly though it is stated -that the screen at St. Peter’s, Derby, is identical with the ancient -rood-screen of Crich church, I am not convinced. I can more readily -suppose that the Rev. W. Hope was too thankful at having secured so -authentic a relic of antiquity to spend time in prosecuting any very -searching inquiry as to the precise nature of the office it might have -fulfilled in days gone by; but that, seeing his own church was bare of -a rood-screen, he very naturally adapted the screen which he had become -possessed of to supply the deficiency, although comparative study of -the design and formation of Derbyshire screens in general might have -led him, as it has led me, to conclude that this one from Crich could -not originally have been a rood-screen. - -Neither, again, may the apparent exception, which the chancel-screen -in Haddon Hall chapel affords, be adduced. For, though it is true that -to-day visitors to Haddon find, beneath the fenestration cill on either -half of the screen there, a band of Gothic tracery—authentic, if of a -somewhat flamboyant type—which fits its position plausibly enough, the -view of the chapel by George Cattermole, lithographed by S. Rayner, -and published in 1839, while agreeing in every other particular with -the present unchanged aspect of the place, shows no ornament here at -all. The panels were still without tracery when, between 1880 and -1885, a photograph of the interior was taken, which is reproduced in -the third volume of _The Abbey Square Sketch Book_; and the Rev. Dr. -Cox possesses a coloured sketch, dated 1898, which does not differ in -this regard from the earlier representations. But in either event the -screen at Haddon, whether traceried or plain, is no case in point, for -the simple reason that the panelling itself is blind. In order to be -analogous to the parcloses at Ashbourne, Elvaston, and Sawley, it would -need to be perforated. - -As far as I have been able to ascertain, the following are the -churches which contain the most notable parclose screens:—Ashbourne, -Bakewell, Chesterfield, Darley Dale (stone), Elvaston, Fenny Bentley -(moved from its place), Kirk Langley (portions made up), and Sawley -(the lower parts only of two parcloses); while, if not now, there -existed anciently, or there are believed to have existed, parcloses -at Alkmonton hospital chapel, Ashover, Chelmorton (stone), Church -Broughton, Crich, old St. Alkmund’s, and old All Hallows’ and St. -Peter’s in Derby, Horsley, Longford, Longstone, Mugginton, Norbury, -Radburne, Tideswell, Weston-on-Trent, and Youlgreave. But all this on -the subject of parcloses is to anticipate. - -[Illustration: Ilkeston Church: Stone Rood-Screen, from the Chancel.] - -The earliest surviving screenwork in Derbyshire does not date back any -earlier than the beginning of the fourteenth century, and is, as might -be expected, of stone. Of this material, the most imposing specimen is -the rood-screen at Ilkeston, and that notwithstanding the excessive -“restorations” it has had to undergo at various times, particularly in -1855—ordeals out of which it has emerged in a very different condition -from that which it must originally have presented. The upper part has -been scraped and renovated; the columns smoothed and repolished. And -as for the lower part, one can only say that to afford any effective -protection to the chancel it must have been something far more -substantial than the gaunt skeleton framework it is at the present day. -The screen occupies the opening from the nave into the chancel. It -consists of an arcade of five arches, which, cinquefoil-cusped and -having pierced quatrefoils in the spandrils, spring from cylindrical -columns of grey marble, with circular moulded caps and bases. These -again rise from a horizontal moulded rail, supported on similar -columns; the whole standing upon a stone plinth. The mouldings and -capitals of the columns (some of which only are original) have an Early -English appearance, but the main part of the screen is of later style. -The markedly ogival form of the doorhead betokens a fairly developed -phase of Decorated. Along the top of the screen runs a simple coping -ridge, which, if not the original, represents well enough the type of -finish a screen of the period would have had in the days before the -introduction of rood-lofts into parish churches. The doorway centres -4 ft. 2½ in., with a clear opening of 3 ft. 10 in.; the side bays -having an average centring of 3 ft. 2½ in. The total height of the -screen, as at present made up, is 14 ft. 6 in., a dimension greatly -disproportionate to its comparatively short length of 17 ft. 4½ in. -It may be explained that the photograph was taken from the chancel -in order to avoid the halation of the east window, both sides of the -screen being alike. - -The stone rood-screen at Chelmorton, if less ancient than the foregoing -by some thirty or forty years, is the more interesting, because it has -been allowed to retain its original form almost untouched. The screen -stands in the chancel arch (12 ft. 6 in. wide), and consists of two -parts, having a clear opening of four feet between them. The northern -half measures 4 ft. 3½ in. long, the southern half one inch less. The -motif is that of an embattled wall, 6 ft. 6 in. high, with a pierced -band of quatrefoils to the depth of twenty inches from the level of the -top, and, beneath, blind panelling of trefoil-headed ogival arches. The -screen wall being flat on its upper surface, might well have afforded -a foundation for timber screenwork above it; for owing to the rise of -the ground towards the east, the chancel floor is three steps higher -than that of the nave, and consequently the screen has but a moderate -elevation on its eastward side. There is, however, no sign of any -mortice holes visible in it. Built into the wall of the porch is a -slab of stone, sculptured with quatrefoils, which was dug up under the -floor, and is conjectured to have formed part of a parclose, matching -the rood-screen and screening of the south transept for a chantry -chapel. - -At Monks’ Dale, in Tideswell parish, was formerly a grange, with a -chapel attached, supposed to have belonged to Lenton Priory. The -walls of the chapel are overthrown down to the foundations. “All that -remains of it above ground are the beautifully carved stones of the -low ... stone screen that divided the chancel from the nave. They are -of fourteenth century work”—of the date 1360, _circa_, according to -the late Rev. Prebendary Andrew—“and exactly correspond to those ... -in the chancel of Chelmorton.” This account appeared in 1877. By 1882 -the aforesaid stonework had been removed to the vicarage garden at -Tideswell. - -Embedded in a wall in Allestree parish, near the site of the old manor -house, on the road to Mackworth, is, or recently was, to be seen -another fragment of worked stone, with sculptured quatrefoils, and -altogether so closely resembling the before-named examples as to lead -to the conclusion that it must have formed part of an ancient screen in -Allestree or some neighbouring church. - -[Illustration: Chelmorton Church: - -Southern Half of Stone Rood-Screen.] - -[Illustration: Darley Dale Church: - -Detail of Stone Parclose.] - -A rood-screen of similar design is believed to have occupied the -chancel opening (13 ft. 6 in. wide) at Darley Dale church, to judge -from a fragment of stone carving lying (as recorded in 1877) in the -parish clerk’s garden there. In the south aisle of this church, close -to the south door, stands a family pew, built out of the remains -of a stone parclose and the stone frames of a couple of two-light -Perpendicular windows—one having had its mullion knocked out to make -the doorway, and both betraying their extraneous origin by being -grooved in the usual manner for leaded glazing. That part of the -enclosure which is genuine screenwork comprises two distinct, though -not very incongruous, designs of the first half of the fifteenth -century. Exclusive of the alien window-work, that portion of the screen -running east and west measures 11 ft. 6 in. long; that portion running -north and south, 3 ft. 7 in. The shorter length consists of a plain -wall below a tier of cinquefoil-headed lights; the longer, of ogival -panelling in eleven cusped compartments, corresponding to the same -number of cinquefoil-headed lights in the upper part. A detail of it -is here illustrated. The blind panelling measures 4 ft. high to the -cill of the fenestration, the inclusive height of the screen being 7 -ft. 6 in. It has not been ascertained whether the space enclosed by -this screen represents the original position of the chantry, but more -probably it was situated in some less westerly part of the building. -“It was unfortunately set back,” writes the Rev. Dr. Cox, “a foot or -two to give more room to the aisle in 1854, but otherwise remains as -it was before the ‘restoration.’ Stone parcloses, though of fairly -frequent occurrence round chantry tombs in cathedrals, are very rarely -met with in parish churches.” - -The stone screens, then, existing, or accountable for as known to -have existed, in Derbyshire comprise those at Allestree, Chelmorton, -Darley Dale, Ilkeston, and Monks’ Dale. Another one also must be -included in the list, viz., the former rood-screen at Bakewell. From -a description of it in 1823, while it might still be seen _in situ_ -separating the chancel from the rest of the church, it appears to -have been of Decorated workmanship. Either half of it measured six -feet long, exclusive of the space for the central entrance. The -recorded height, 4 ft. 9 in., implies that it was the base or plinth -merely, not the complete screen. At some subsequent time during the -“repairs” which went on from 1841 to 1851—a sad decade of disaster for -Bakewell church!—its stone screen was carried off by that notorious -archæological raider, Mr. Thomas Bateman, to swell his predatory -collection at Lomberdale House. The virtuoso himself being long -since dead, and the contents of his museum dispersed, there is now -practically no likelihood of the missing screenwork ever being traced -and recovered. If it be still in existence anywhere, it should probably -be sought for in the Weston Museum at Sheffield, whither most of the -Derbyshire spoils from Lomberdale House are said to have found their -way. If that be so, the screen ought certainly to be restored to its -rightful place again at Bakewell. The loss of so venerable a monument -cannot be too deeply deplored, and reflects the utmost discredit on all -persons concerned in the removal of this ancient screenwork from the -church to which it belonged. - -The oldest actual example of timber screenwork in Derbyshire partakes -of so little in common with the generality of woodwork, either in -design or mode of treatment, that it is perhaps appropriate to deal -with it here, in association with stone screenwork, as occupying an -intermediate stage between the two several classes. I refer to the -remains of the rood-screens at Kirk Langley, which, unworthily made -up as they are into a box-door, placed at the west entrance, in the -ill-lighted lowest storey of the tower, seem to me scarcely to have -received the attention they might have claimed. Indeed, the deceptive -environment of modern accretions combines with the twilight to make -it extremely difficult for anyone to form a just estimate of the -work or of its proper dimensions. As far as the existing remains, in -their mutilated and altered condition, admit of a reconstruction of -the original plan of the screen, it would appear to have consisted -of two lengths of 4 ft. 6 in. each, and two doors of the same height -and pattern as the other part; so that, when the whole stood intact, -the fenestration must have formed a continuous arcade of trefoiled -lights, their average centring 8¾ inches, each of them with an ogival -crown, indenting a complete trefoil, balanced upon its apex. As the -illustration shows, the treatment of this tracery work is peculiar. The -component members of it—in plan square, with sides slightly concave—are -set angle-wise to the front, and present a series of prominent edges -without the usual fillet. Thus they have an effect of crisp and almost -metallic acuteness, unfamiliar in woodwork as also it is in stone. -The face of the cill below the fenestration is carved with a band of -quatrefoils, having each a four-petalled flower—not a rose—in the -centre. The design is of the fourteenth century, and it might possibly -have been executed towards the close of Edward III.’s reign, or not -later than the deposition of Richard II. - -[Illustration: Kirk Langley Church: Detail of Former Rood-Screen in -Oak, XIV. Century Work.] - -The remarks which follow should be understood to apply to screens -which are true timberwork, alike in _motif_ as in material. In -structure and proportions, Derbyshire screens for the most part -assimilate to the midland type, as exemplified at Newark and Strelley, -in Nottinghamshire, or Wormleighton, in Warwickshire, and as -distinguished from that of the south and west of England and Wales. -That is to say, not a few of them rise to a stately height, with -remarkably lofty fenestration; the latter being, in some instances, -narrow even to attenuation. Thus the rood-screen at Breadsall, as -far as can be judged by what remains of it, notably illustrates this -peculiarity; in which regard it affords a striking parallel to the -screenwork at Newark church before-mentioned. - -But it is rather in parclose screens that this feature of excessive -elongation is more especially in evidence. To counteract its ungainly -appearance, without at the same time diminishing the extent of the -aperture, resort is had in the principal screens at Chesterfield to -the device of a transom to divide the fenestration about midway. This -horizontal member, being feathered underneath, not only enhances the -decorative character of the screenwork by the added effect of a lower -tier of tracery-headed lights, but also makes for structural strength -by providing a latitudinal junction from muntin to muntin. - -Another point of similarity between Derbyshire rood-screens and the -typical midland screens at (_e.g._, at Somerton, in Oxfordshire; Blore, -in Staffordshire; Wormleighton, in Warwickshire; and Strelley, in -Nottinghamshire), and of divergence between the former and southern -examples, is that, where the design comprises vaulting, the springing -of the ribs is not necessarily in line with the cord or base of the -pierced tracery of the bay-heads (as is practically the rule for it -to be in Kent, Devonshire, and Somerset), but at a higher level, -sometimes with a discrepancy of nearly two feet between the two levels. -The result of this arrangement is not altogether happy. For traceried -ornament that extends below the limits of a tympanum, failing to define -the springing-point, tends to make the vaulting itself look dwarfed and -curtailed. For the latter to show to best advantage, the ribs should -have an obvious correspondence with the sweep of the fenestration arch -from spring to crown. Wherever it is otherwise, a sense of lack of -homogeneity between the parts cannot but be felt. - -Another feature which Derbyshire screens share in common with other -midland screenwork, is the very usual inequality which the traceried -fenestration-heads present on the obverse and reverse. In the south -and east of England both surfaces are almost invariably carved and -moulded with identical design and equal completeness; so that if I met -with a detached portion of church screen tracery anywhere in Kent, -for instance, I should at once know by its treatment to what part of -a screen it belonged. For the back would only be smooth and unmoulded -if it had been intended to fit flat against blind panelling in the -lower half of a screen, and _vice versâ_. But Derbyshire tracery, -as a rule, does not furnish such indications; and so, unless the -design bore the outline of an arch, and were therefore unmistakably -intended, like the Breadsall example illustrated, for the upper part -of a vaulted screen, it would be next to impossible to determine its -place in the composition. For even _à jour_ tracery, meant to be looked -at from either side, is usually plain and flat on one surface, as in -the case of the parclose at Elvaston (see left-hand distance in the -illustration), and that also at Fenny Bentley. The rood-screens at the -latter church and at Ashover are both of them instances in which the -upper traceries are enriched with the addition of crocketed ornament on -the westward side, while they are plain and smooth on the chancel side. - -In some screens, again, though the upper tracery is not indeed quite -flat at the back, there is yet a marked difference between the degree -of elaboration on the two surfaces. Thus in the tracery of the -rood-screen at Elvaston, the western face, besides being moulded, is -further embellished with crockets and finials, carved in bold relief, -in some compartments handsomely fretted and deeply undercut, and -altogether remarkably rich and varied in character (see illustration -of detail); while the side towards the east is uniformly treated with -simple moulding only. At Chaddesden the contrast between the east -and west faces respectively of the upper part of the rood-screen is -still greater. In this particular case a difference of treatment is -necessarily entailed by the somewhat unusual plan on which the screen -itself is constructed; the overhanging rood-loft (now, of course, no -longer in existence) having been carried upon the naveward side by -groined vaulting, and by a cove, instead of vaulting to correspond, -towards the chancel. The spandrils, therefore, covered by the vaulting -on the west side are exposed on the other, and present a series of -solid triangles, which would have been bare and unsightly without -applied ornament. All of these, then, together with the reverse of -the transom in the two central bays and of the muntin between them, -cut short by the entrance arch, are decorated with low relief carving -entirely unlike the front. Moreover, although the muntins on either -side are buttressed, the buttresses on the west terminate, as is usual -in the case of vaulted screens, with boutels and caps for the springing -of the groins; upon the east side, on the contrary, the buttresses -continue nearly to the top, tapering off as they approach the lintel -into graceful crocketed pinnacles. - -The only recorded instances known to me of the occurrence of painting -or gilding on Derbyshire screenwork (with the exception of the Parwich -beam referred to hereafter), are those of the rood-screens at Ashover -and Norbury, and of a parclose which divided the chancel from the north -chapel at Mugginton, and which had fifteen coats of arms blazoned in -colours upon it. The screen itself has long since vanished, but the -account of it is preserved among the Harleian manuscripts in the report -of Richard St. George’s Heraldic Visitation taken in the year 1611. As -a rule, the sort of ornament to be found upon screenwork (except in -the case of panels decorated with figures, of which Derbyshire, unless -I have been mistaken, furnishes no examples) is of so essentially -abstract, and, so to speak, non-committal a character, that the enemies -of screens are seldom able, with any pretence of reason, to avail -themselves of the pleas put forward by iconoclasts as a matter of -principle. - -[Illustration: Elvaston Church: Detail of Rood-Screen.] - -A small and feathered angel is introduced in the carved work above -the doorway of the rood-screen at Elvaston; and there are some -exceptionally fine half-length figures of angels along the top of one -of the screens at Chesterfield. The particular screen that this carving -rests upon (now turned, though it is, into a parclose between the north -transept and its eastern chapel) is known to have been the ancient -rood-screen in Chesterfield church, and to have stood in its place -until about 1843, not long subsequently to which time it was re-erected -in the position it now occupies. - -That this screen dates from the first half of the fifteenth century, -maybe, perhaps, as early as about 1430, I infer from the character -of its fenestration. The latter, consisting of a single panel of -pierced tracery in each bay, is an exact counterpart of the stone -window-tracery of the period. It differs from the method of timber -screen construction evolved subsequently, in which the muntins run -from top to bottom of the openings, and in which the effect of tracery -in each several bay-head is obtained by a combined series of separate -units of pierced work let into grooves sunk in the upper part of the -muntins. In the Chesterfield rood-screen, on the contrary (as also in -the fourteenth century rood-screen at Kirk Langley, already described), -the upright shafts in each bay merely support from below the tracery -above in the head, instead of holding it in position as between two -sides of a frame. Neither, again, in the Chesterfield example does the -spacing of the batement lights correspond with that of the three lights -at the bottom. The uneven number of the latter is abnormal. It became -far more usual, as timber screen-work developed, for the fenestration -to be divided by a central muntin into two lights (as at Breadsall -and Fenny Bentley), or (as in other parts of England) for the central -muntin, remaining a constant factor, to be supplemented by one pair -or more pairs of muntins, as the case might be, so that the number of -lights comprised in a single bay would, in all events, work out to an -even number. - -And now to describe the sculptured figure work at Chesterfield in -detail, beginning at the north end of it, and proceeding from left to -right. First, then, is an eagle; and next, a composite beast, having -the head and horns of an antelope, the snout of a boar, and a chain -round the neck, clawed feet, and the body and tail of an ox. Although, -therefore, the one represents St. John, it is out of the question that -the other can ever have been intended for an evangelistic symbol, -notwithstanding they are both accompanied by scrolls. Then succeed -six demi-angels, clothed in albs, and issuant from conventional -cloud-wreaths; their wings pointing downwards in an oblique direction, -with the ends of the feathers crossed in saltire, every one’s over his -neighbour’s. Each angel bears one or more emblems or instruments of -the Passion: the first, the crown of thorns; the second, the cross; -the third, the seamless coat, together with the dice; the fourth, a -shield displaying the five sacred wounds; the fifth, the lance and -three nails; the sixth, the scourge and hammer. That this series was -originally longer is evident from the abruptly mutilated feather-tips -of another angel’s wing upon the southern or right hand extremity. He -would, doubtless, have held the ladder and pincers; but even thus, the -usual tale of emblems would scarcely be complete without the reed and -sponge, the thirty pieces of silver, or the cock that crew thrice. -How many, then, altogether of the angel figures are missing it is -impossible to tell. Moreover, it seems probable enough that there would -also have been animals with scrolls to balance those at the opposite -end. A detail of the rood-screen and of the sculpture above it, is -shown in the accompanying illustration. - -[Illustration: Chesterfield Church: Detail of Screen in the North -Transept, formerly the Rood-Screen.] - -The date of the angel ornament appears to be somewhere between 1465 -and 1480. What remains of it now measures in length 14 ft. 6 in. by -one foot in height; the figures being carved out of the solid, and -occupying, in ordered row, the concave space of a band sunk between -two beads. That this is no rood-beam, but a superficial ornament for -the breast-summer, I can vouch, for two reasons; firstly, because the -timber itself is a mere board, not exceeding four inches in thickness -at the top, the thickest part of it; and secondly, because at the back -are unmistakable traces of mortice holes for the joists that were fixed -at right angles to it to carry the rood-loft floor. I know nothing that -so much resembles this admirably appropriate ornament as that in a -corresponding position in the stone pulpitum at Canterbury Cathedral; -and in a wooden parclose at Hitchin, in Hertfordshire. And yet I have -no hesitation in pronouncing that the Chesterfield example surpasses -the others in beauty and variety of design. It is, in a word, a very -model of its kind. - -Now that screens in churches cannot have been, by quite unanimous -consent, regarded as contravening “the principles of the Protestant -Reformation,” whatever is to be understood by that portentous phrase, -is clear from the practice of erecting such fixtures having from time -to time continued long after the demise of Derby’s benefactress, Queen -Mary Tudor. Thus the chapel at Risley, erected in 1593, was furnished -with a chancel-screen of curious design, comprising cherub-heads and -other Renaissance details. Later on, the south aisle at the old parish -church of Wilne having been prolonged eastward to form a memorial -chapel to Sir John Willoughby, who died in 1602, there was set up -across the archway a heavy timber screen, with gates, which bear the -arms of Willoughby and Hawe. The composition as a whole affords a -striking sample of the depraved taste and secular spirit of the age. -Among the elaborate carved ornaments may be identified representations -of Hercules with his club; a Roman lictor with fasces and axe; satyrs -and centaurs; all intermingled with pompous, warlike trophies of -cannons, muskets, and drums! On the back of the screen is the date -of its production, 1624. Later on, a church was built at Foremark in -a spurious Gothic style, and Bishop Hacket consecrated it in 1662. -It contains a characteristic oak chancel-screen of massive build and -lofty elevation, with four glazed openings. To the above, all of them -noteworthy instances of post-Reformation screenwork in Derbyshire, -must be added the screen which separates the chancel from the nave or -ante-chapel in the chapel at Haddon Hall. For, though parts of its -woodwork, particularly the buttressed muntins, must be assigned to an -earlier date, the main portion of it unquestionably was remodelled at -the close of the sixteenth or during the first half of the seventeenth -century. The turned balusters, which in this case supply the place of -fenestration in a Gothic screen, are, like the wainscoting which lines -the chancel walls, obvious products of a later epoch. - -In fact, so persistent altogether was the tradition, and so hard to -kill, that even in Dr. Hutchinson’s debased structure, which took the -place of the demolished All Hallows’, the new chancel was not left -unwarded, but was screened by iron grates. These, though exhibiting in -their design the style of the period, yet reproduced, strange to say, -quite a mediæval scheme of arrangement. A grate divided the chancel -from the nave, and was continued northward and southward right across -the building from wall to wall. And other grates again separated the -chancel from the chancel aisles. These grates, though not altogether -undisturbed, for the most part remained in position until 1873, when -the interior of the building, then barely a century and a half old, -was “restored,” and in the process the chancel grille itself, together -with other fittings hitherto spared, was taken down. Numerous details -of it are figured in the _Chronicles of All Saints’_, issued under the -joint authorship of the Rev. Dr. Cox and Mr. W. H. St. John Hope in -1881, to which volume all who may be interested in a genuinely historic -specimen of eighteenth century wrought ironwork are hereby referred. - -There is one peculiar variety of mediæval screen arrangement which may -be said to belong to a class by itself. It is sufficiently uncommon, -being confined almost exclusively to domestic chapels, of which the -former infirmary chapel of Dale Abbey, and such that now serves the -purpose of parish church of Dale, furnishes an interesting example. A -sketch of the interior, in 1870 or thereabouts, is given on plate xvii. -of the late Rev. Samuel Fox’s _History of St. Matthew’s, Morley_ (1872). - -The chapel consists of chancel, nave, and south aisle, the latter -separated from the nave by a wooden partition, formerly solid; long -since, however, by its panels being sawn out, converted into open -screenwork. But the main point of interest is the screen which divides -the nave from the chancel. Screen and partition alike are of oak, -and rest on a stone plinth. The chancel screen is very quaint in its -severe simplicity. It has no tracery, but the mouldings are of the -fifteenth century, the approximate date assigned to it being 1480. It -consists of seven rectagonal compartments, _i.e._, a central doorway -with three openings on either side; the muntins supporting a flat -ceiling of timber, which, extending back as far as the wall, divides -all that portion of the chapel westward of the screen itself into two -floors. The upper one of these opens, gallery wise, into the chancel. -Traces of a somewhat similar arrangement exist in a ruined oratory at -Godstow Nunnery, on the banks of the upper river, near Oxford; and -another instance has been noted in one of the chapels at Tewkesbury -Abbey church. It is paralleled also in a sort at the private chapel -of Brede Place, Sussex, but the plan of an upper storey, supported -by a partition screen, does not express itself there in nearly so -striking and complete a manner as at Dale. Other instances known are -the chapels at Berkeley Castle and Compton Wynyates respectively. It -may be mentioned that at Dale, since there is no internal communication -between the gallery and the ground floor, the former has to be -approached by an external staircase through a door on the upper level. - -And, next, to consider the subject of the rood-loft. It would, of -course, be situated at a greater height than the screen; as a rule, -immediately above the latter, and connected organically with it, the -structural braces being boxed within a casing of coved panel-work or -of vaulting, with groins and bosses in imitation of stone masonry. As -originally erected, the ancient rood-screens at Ashover, Breadsall, -Chaddesden, and Norbury furnished instances of groined vaulting, -now perished. The only screens, to the best of my knowledge, in -Derbyshire which have not lost their vaulting are the rood-screens at -Fenny Bentley and the parclose of the south transept in Chesterfield -church. The first-named has been a good deal restored, and the latter -has not altogether escaped. Both are examples of screens in which -the irregularly shaped panels between the ribs are enriched with -tracery ornament, a device that enhances the overhanging vaults with a -delightful suggestion of mystery lurking within their shadowy recesses. -I do not think that the Chesterfield parclose was ever surmounted, -in rood-loft fashion, with a parapet, although the upper part of it -expands eastwards and westwards quite far enough to have provided the -accommodation of an average rood-loft had it been required. - -The nearest approach (except the Fenny Bentley example before quoted) -to a rood-loft survives at Wingerworth, a structure in some respects -unique, in Derbyshire at any rate. Of its peculiar character the -photograph conveys a better idea than any verbal description. I do not -think it can have been erected earlier than 1480, nor later than 1520. -Perhaps midway between the two, _i.e._, 1500, _circa_, is the most -correct date to assign to it. - -On the left-hand side may be observed the doorway, twenty inches -wide, through which, pierced in the easternmost spandril of the north -arcade, a rood-stair, now consisting of seven steps, emerges on to the -platform itself. The head of this aperture consists of a stone lintel, -which, being cut on its under side into the form of an obtuse angle, -produces, roughly, the appearance of a four-centred arch. In the south -or left-hand jamb are still fastened two iron hangers for the door, now -no more, which opened navewards upon the loft. - -In the early sixties of the nineteenth century, there remained on -the plaster of the east wall of the nave, above the ancient loft, -considerable traces of colour. In vivid contrast to this painted -background showed up the bare silhouettes of a large cross, and of an -upright figure on either side of it; thus marking clearly the place -where the great rood, with the Mary and John, had stood in former days. -At the present time nothing of these interesting relics is to be seen; -the interior of Wingerworth church having been freshly distempered over -with a smart coat of colour wash, while two immense hatchments, with -pompous black cloth surrounds, occupy the place sacred from of yore to -the memorial of mankind’s Redemption. What could be more unseemly than -selecting this one, of all sites in a church, for the parading of the -worldly distinctions of one’s family? Whether it is too late to save -the remains of the rood-painting by scraping off the distemper which -hides it, I cannot say; but there can be no question whatever but that -the profane hatchments ought to be taken down as quickly as possible, -and placed somewhere—anywhere—else than where I saw them in March, -1907. - -The painting at Wingerworth is not the only instance of its kind known -to have survived in Derbyshire down to the nineteenth century. Thus -at Hayfield, according to a memorandum made on the spot by one of -the brothers Lysons, who visited the old church shortly before its -demolition in 1815, there was to be seen “at the back of the gallery, -facing the nave ... a painting of the Crucifixion, with St. John and -St. Peter ... said to have been painted (in) 1775, but probably from -an ancient one which had remained undisturbed at the time of the -Reformation.” That this work, for the figure of St. Peter to have -been substituted for that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, must have been -retouched by some post-Reformation hand, may readily be believed; but, -in the same connection, the question presents itself as to whether the -gallery noted by the famous topographer could by any manner of means -have been the ancient rood-loft at Hayfield church. - -[Illustration: Wingerworth Church: Base of the Rood-Loft.] - -But to return from speculation to facts and figures. The timber extant -of the rood-loft at Wingerworth reaches from side to side of the nave, -a length of 15 ft. 1 in. The distance from the floor of the nave to the -base of this structure (itself barely an inch above the crown of the -chancel arch) is 8 ft. 8½ in.; from the nave-floor to the platform at -the top of it, 11 ft. 8½ in.; giving it an elevation of exactly three -feet. The width of the platform from back to front is 38 inches. In -the upper surface of the breast-summer, or main beam of the westward -projection, are the remains of fourteen mortice holes (averaging 4 -inches in length each, with a centring of 13½ inches), sunk to receive -the tenons of the upright stiles that framed the front of the loft -parapet, the height of which there is no present means of gauging. The -uppermost front edge is embattled. Below, in a cavetto, at intervals, -are nine square pateras of Gothic leaf ornament. The receding cove -beneath the breast-summer is divided by moulded ribs into eight panels, -the longitudinal ribs centred at 44 inches, and being crossed by a -single latitudinal rib, with carved square bosses and Gothic leaves -in the angles of intersection. This panelling occupies a superficial -breadth of 32 inches between the breast-summer above and the moulded -timber at the base. - -The back of this structure fits close against the wall, and there -is not the slightest trace of any supporting screenwork ever having -touched, still less been attached to, its lower edge. I am disposed to -think that the arrangements at Wingerworth must have been analogous -to those of Sawley church, and that the solution of the problems they -both present is to be arrived at by a comparison of the existing -remains of rood-loft and screenwork in these several churches, the -one supplementing the details which lack in the other, for the -reconstruction of the original scheme. In both cases is a round-headed -arch—that at Wingerworth is not later than the beginning of the twelfth -century, while that at Sawley has been pronounced, on expert authority, -to have been erected still earlier, bearing as it does the evidences -of pre-Norman workmanship—an arch which, were it not for the impost -at the spring on either side, resembles more than anything else (with -its broad, flat soffit, no splays, no orders, no mouldings) a simple -aperture cut in the solid wall. The arch at Wingerworth has an opening -of 6 ft. 7 in. wide, or 7 ft. at the spring, by 8 ft. 8 in. (short -measure) from floor to crown; that at Sawley, 14 ft. 1 in. wide, its -height in proportion. - -Now although at Wingerworth there is nothing of the sort remaining, at -Sawley, on the contrary, the original fittings of the chancel have, -fortunately, been preserved. These, comprising return stalls, with -the rood-screen behind them, stand complete _within_ the chancel. Nor -could the screen, so placed (because of the thickness of the wall, -interposing a bulk of 3 ft. 2 in. between chancel and nave), possibly -have formed one organic structure, with the rood-loft on the other -side, in the nave. I take it that in both cases the chancel was fully -and finally furnished with its stalls and screen at a time when -rood-lofts had not yet become a necessity—the fittings actually are of -a heavy and somewhat primitive type of Perpendicular—and that when, -later on, a rood-loft did require to be provided, circumstances left no -choice open but to treat it as something entirely independent of the -already erected screen. For to have set it up on the top of the latter, -on the chancel side of the arch, would have defeated the primary -object for which the rood-loft, as an adjunct to the performance of -public worship, existed. Without doubt the only place where it could -adequately fulfil the requirements of a rood-loft was against the east -wall of the nave, above the chancel arch. The length, then, of the -rood-loft at Sawley would be the same as the width of the nave, viz., -26 ft. 3 in. - -All this is no idle theory. It is confirmed by the existence, in Sawley -church, of a pair of stone corbels projecting from the masonry at the -east end of the nave above the chancel arch. The level of the corbel -in the north-east corner is 17 ft. 1 in. above the floor; that of the -opposite one in the south-east corner, 17 ft. 3 in. These would have -supported the ancient rood-beam, there being ample wall-surface at -the east end of the nave for the rood, as well as for the rood-loft -(containing, possibly, the “payre of orgyns” named in the inventory of -the sixth year of Edward VI.), to have been situated beneath, either -crossing the opening of, or (as at Wingerworth) crowning the summit of, -the chancel arch. - -Neither are the above-named cases themselves without parallel. It is -recorded that there was in the nave (19 ft. 10 in. wide) of the old -church at Parwich (pulled down in 1872) a sort of rood-loft projection -similar in construction to that at Wingerworth, and that in the course -of demolition the ends of four stout, squared timbers were taken out of -the masonry about two feet above the crown of the Norman chancel-arch, -a low-pitched one like (although, being more richly ornamented, of -later date than) the Wingerworth example itself. - -Owing to the scarcity of wills, churchwardens’ accounts, and such other -documents as might have thrown light on the subject, the exact date -of the introduction of the rood-loft cannot, in the case of the great -majority of churches in Derbyshire, be ascertained. At Elvaston church, -in 1474, the first Lord Mountjoy left instructions for the carrying out -of certain works, which would most likely have included the erection of -a rood-loft there, though the latter is not named in the bequest. In -fact, the earliest and only instance I know of in which the rood-loft -was explicitly provided for, is the will of Sir Henry Vernon, of -Haddon. The date of this document is 18th January, 1514, and the item -in point runs: “I bequethe to the churche of Bakewell and to makying of -the Rode lofte £6.” The will was proved on 5th May of the next year, -1515, not later than which date the testator’s wishes, so I assume, -would be carried into execution. - -I have already indicated how the general absence of aisles from the -chancels of its churches drove chantry-founders in Derbyshire to -occupy the space of the nave or nave aisles. But, more than that, it -effectually checked the expansion of the rood-loft and screen, and -confined them within the nave’s width. For wherever the eastern wall of -an aisle, conterminous with the nave, is pierced by a window (instead -of by an arch leading into a chapel beyond), it does not admit of -either screen or loft being carried across it in continuation of the -screen and loft in the nave. The only sure sign of the alternative plan -having been adopted, _i.e._, of rood-loft having extended to the outer -wall of the aisle, would be a rood-entrance in that outer wall. But -such a sign I have not met with anywhere in Derbyshire. I searched for -it in Chesterfield church, the plan of which, so it seemed to me, might -have admitted the rood-loft being carried right across the building, -including the aisles; but in vain. I cannot point to a single instance -in a Derbyshire church of which it could be positively asserted that -the rood-loft extended beyond the limit of the width of the nave. - -The usual place for the rood-loft door and staircase in this county -would appear to be either in the nave or in the inner corner of an -aisle immediately adjacent to the nave. Such approaches, or traces of -them, exist or are known to have existed at, among other churches, -those of Ashbourne, Ashover, Aston, Bakewell, Barrow-upon-Trent, -Breadsall, Chaddesden, Derby (old St. Michael’s), Kirk Langley, -Monyash, Repton, Spondon, Tideswell, Wilne, North Wingfield, and -Wingerworth. Nevertheless, as compared with other districts of -England, Derbyshire cannot be reckoned among those counties in which -rood-entrances and rood-stairs are of very common occurrence. However, -where either they do survive or traces of them occur, they afford -no exception to the normal dimensions of such structures. Indeed, -in Derbyshire there are to be found rood-entrances as narrow as, if -not even narrower than, anywhere else in the kingdom. Thus those at -Chaddesden and Wingerworth measure each only eighteen inches wide. - -In some cases the ascent starts abruptly at a very awkward height from -the ground. For instance, at Ashover the lowest step of the rood-stair -is 6 feet above the floor level; 6 ft. 3 in. at Wingerworth. Nor -in either case is there any perceptible trace of the steps having -descended lower towards the ground. For them to be reached, then, where -they are, is a feat that could not be accomplished without the help of -a ladder. In the case of Wingerworth, however, it is true that, as to -whether the rood-stair originally terminated at its present distance -from the floor, there is, for the following reasons, much uncertainty. -The mother of one Arthur Mower, of Barlow, dying in 1574, and being -buried in Wingerworth church, her son wrote down minute particulars of -the site of her interment; and the old memorandum book, still extant, -records how she “lyeth in the church in the north alley at the head of -the alley on the north side, and her feet lieth as nigh of the north -side of the grysse” (_i.e._, stair, from the Latin _gressus_) “that -goeth up into the Rood-loft as may be.” Now nobody at the present day -who wanted to be accurate—and the sole _raison d’être_ of a memorandum -like this is to preserve and hand down as trustworthy a record as -possible—would dream of describing the feet of a body lying in the -north-east corner of the north aisle as being close to the ascent of -the rood-stair! To obviate the discrepancy, then, is one not forced -to the conclusion that the rood-stair must have been somehow or other -prolonged downwards in a northerly direction until it reached the -ground at the spot indicated? - -Rood-stairs, being no longer required once the lofts had been -overthrown, have met with shameful neglect, often with violent -maltreatment. In some cases they have been allowed to survive only -through having been turned into cupboards for brooms and ladders, gas -meters, or water cisterns; but, nevertheless, after full allowance -is made for rood-stairs that formerly were and now have perished, -there is still left a large percentage of Derbyshire churches in -which no permanent stone stairs can be supposed to have existed. In -such cases, unless there was a fixed wooden staircase, access must -have been obtained by no better means than a ladder the whole way -from floor to loft. The practical inconvenience of this proceeding, -together with the narrow dimensions of rood-doors and stairs—while -their builders were constructing them, it would in most cases have been -just as easy to make them half a dozen or so inches wider had there -been any occasion—affords corroborative evidence of the impossibility -of parochial rood-lofts having been used, or designed to be used, for -ceremonial purposes by the officiants at divine service. - -In Derbyshire, as elsewhere, ornamental treatment, either of rood-stair -entrance or of rood-door itself, is so abnormal as to call, wherever -such does occur, for notice. Ashbourne church may be said to furnish an -instance in point. There, in the southern transept, the south-east pier -of the central tower contains a staircase, which, though constructed -doubtless contemporaneously with the building of the tower itself, -and, therefore, anterior to the general introduction of rood-lofts, -would certainly have served to give access to the rood-loft as soon -as ever that adjunct was provided at Ashbourne church. The door, then -(see illustration), may not unjustly be ranked among rare examples of -ornamented rood-doors. Under a moulded label, terminating on the left -in a sculptured head that cannot strictly claim to be an authentic -product of the period, stands this handsome oak door of late thirteenth -century workmanship. It is divided vertically into two ogival-headed -panels, and is enriched with wrought-iron bands and hinges, in a very -fair state of preservation, although it is to be regretted that their -elegant contour is partly hidden by a clumsy modern timber lining -inserted into the masonry opening. - -It cannot have escaped the notice of attentive observers how often -the steps of rood-stairs in parish churches have been trodden into -hollows, as though they had been subjected to much wear and tear. -Such must, indeed, have been very constant to have left its mark thus -pronouncedly upon rood-stairs, and that, too, in the comparatively -short period of their use—in many cases, of not above, perhaps, a -hundred years’ duration—between the date of their erection and of the -Reformation changes, which sent them back again into disuse. Some -other explanation, then, more convincing and more in accord with the -evidence of fact than the suggestion of a mere ceremonial function in -the rood-loft on special occasions, must be adduced to account for -the regular employment of the rood-stair. That the lay folk, being -many, rather than the officiant minister and his clerks, being few, -were they who trod the stairs leading into the parochial rood-loft, -is evident. The main function of the rood-loft in parish churches was -to accommodate singers, musicians, and their instruments. Again, it -should be borne in mind that very often (as churches, for example, like -Ashover, Old Brampton, Edensor, Staveley, Tideswell, and Wingerworth -attest) a sacring-bell hung in the eastern gable of the nave, or (as -in cruciform churches like that of Ashbourne) in the central tower, in -either event immediately above the rood-loft. Than the latter, then, -there was no better position that the sacrist could be placed in; the -rood-loft affording him an excellent vantage-ground from which to keep -an eye upon the movements of a priest saying mass at any altar in the -building, and to summon the people at the bidding of the bell when the -right moment came for them to raise their eyes and worship the uplifted -Host. - -[Illustration: Ashbourne Church: Door leading to the Rood-Stair.] - -Incidentally, again, the rood-loft would have been resorted to as a -convenient place from which to reach the rood for its veiling and -unveiling. And it must have been hither, also, that those whose office -it was to tend and light the beam-lights would have had frequent -occasion of coming. - -But these are points which open up the subject of the rood itself, -and of the various devotions and customs that grew up around it in -pre-Reformation days. - -The great crucifix, with the flanking statues which usually accompanied -it, would either rise from the rood-loft direct, being attached to the -top of the parapet, or, in the case of churches which were lofty enough -to admit of it and not to cramp the heads of the figures by the roof -descending too closely upon them, would be carried above the level of -the rood-loft upon a separate beam crossing the eastern extremity of -the nave—always provided that the essential condition was to impart -the utmost dignity to the rood itself, and to insure its becoming the -most conspicuous object in the whole building. Specific mention of a -rood having existed in mediæval days is forthcoming in the case of the -three monastic churches of Dale, Darley, and Repton, already named; in -the collegiate church of All Hallows, Derby; as also in the parochial -churches of Ashbourne, Bakewell, Breadsall, Chesterfield, Morley, and -Repton. - -The figures, to wit, the Christ upon the Cross and the Mary and John -beside it, were usually sculptured and coloured, or, less commonly, -gilded; and sometimes even clothed also. The existence of the -last-named practice is attested in respect of images in general by a -long list of jewels and garments belonging to the statue of the Madonna -and Child in the Bridge Chapel at Derby, and by an item of “2 cootes of -ymagys of lynen cloth and 1 of sylke” at Kirk Ireton; and in respect -of roods in particular, by another item which occurs in the inventory -of the church goods at Ashbourne, drawn up by order in the first year -of Edward VI. The entry in point runs thus: “1 holde cote,” _i.e._, -one old coat, “for the roode.” This garment, being described as “old,” -would imply, not so much that the custom of employing such things had -declined, as that the particular coat in question had become worn -through long using. It is more than likely, indeed, that the rood’s -wardrobe had been replenished through the generosity of some devout -donor with fresh and costlier clothing when required, to take the -place of that which had become worn out—for it was very far from being -in accord with the spirit of our mediæval ancestors to offer to the -Lord and His service that which cost them nothing—but that it had been -forfeit already ere this time. It must be borne in mind that the best -of everything worth looting had been seized by Edward’s predecessor, -and that the catalogues of ecclesiastical ornaments and utensils, -drawn up officially in the boy-King’s reign, represent but the pitiful -remnants, of little value, left over because they had failed to tempt -the rapacity of Henry VIII. And yet, poor and insignificant as they -might be, they were not to be allowed to escape further diminution at -the hands of Edward VI.’s counsellors and ministers, men whose conduct -exhibits a peculiarly revolting blend of avarice and puritanism. -That these foregoing remarks are well-founded is illustrated by the -language of the inventories themselves, wherein frequently occur such -qualifying descriptions as “old,” “outworn,” “torn,” or “broken,” -whereas those items are rare to which the adjective “whole” is appended -for differentiating the good and complete state of such few articles as -happen to be above the average mediocrity of the greater number. - -The great rood, as well as all images and pictures in churches, was -veiled throughout Passiontide until the latter end of Holy Week, as is -exemplified by the mention, in 1466, in a list of the ornaments then -belonging to All Hallows’, Derby, of a “grete clothe that coverethe the -Rode.” But an item in the inventory taken of the goods of Morley church -at the beginning of Edward VI.’s reign, viz., “a shete y^t hanged afor -y^e Rode,” would appear to have been rather a hanging for the front of -the rood-loft, in the presence of or at the foot of the rood itself. -Rood-lofts, as is known from other sources, were often covered with -“stayned” or painted hangings to enhance their ornamental qualities; -or, on the other hand, veiled in white shrouds, like the rood, in Lent, -in churches where the imagery and decoration upon the woodwork of the -loft itself was too gay and garnished in appearance to be consistent -with the solemnity of the penitential season. The past tense in the -case of the hanging at Morley church is evidence that the ancient use, -whichsoever alternative is referred to, had, by the date of the taking -of the inventory, been already discontinued. - -In the parish church at Bakewell was an altar of the Holy Cross, “built -by the said cross,” situated, that is, near to the great rood, at the -eastern end of the south aisle of the building. And in connection with -this altar, in the reign of Edward III., a chantry was founded and -endowed by Sir Godfrey Foljambe, ratification of the same being granted -by royal letters patent in 1345. Further, the deed of confirmation by -the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield is extant, wherein are set forth in -detail the duties of the office of chaplain of the Holy Cross. From -this document it appears that the chantry priest, though celebrating -at the same altar, was to say a different votive mass on every day of -the week in specified rotation, the mass on Friday being always that -of the Holy Cross. Moreover, at every mass, after the _Confiteor_, he -was to turn to the people and say, in his mother tongue: “Pray ye for -the soul of Sir Godfrey Foljambe, and Anne, his wife, and his children, -and brothers of the guild of the Holy Cross, and all the faithful -deceased.” Again, a grant of the date 1405 exists, by which one Dom -John Chepe, chaplain of the chantry of the Holy Cross in Bakewell, -makes over in reversion certain landed property to the service of the -said chantry for ever. Another document, of the year 1535, incidentally -makes mention of “the burgage of the Holy Cross,” by which is to be -understood a piece of land, probably with house property upon it, lying -within the bounds of the town, and forming part of the endowments -either of the chantry or the guild of that title. The last incumbent of -this chantry was William Oldeffeld. On its dissolution, as the pension -roll of 30th October, 1552, shows, he was allowed an annuity of £6 in -lieu of his former stipend; while William Hole, chantry priest of the -holy rood at Wirksworth, is known, from Cardinal Pole’s pension roll, -to have been granted £5 per annum. The “rode chauntrye” at Wirksworth -was founded, in his lifetime, by Sir Henry Vernon, the same whose will, -as already recorded, contained a bequest for the rood-loft at Bakewell. - -In Ashbourne church, until the middle of the sixteenth century -(as scheduled in the chantry roll drawn up for the purposes of -confiscation shortly after the accession of Edward VI.), there stood -near the nave, at the foot of the rood-screen, or as near unto as -might be, in the south aisle, an altar dedicated to the Holy Cross; -to which was attached a chantry, founded in 1392 by the feofees of -Nicholas Kniveton, for the daily celebration of the Holy Sacrifice -in perpetuity. The deed of confirmation of the same by the Bishop, -Dean and Chapter of Lincoln, dated 1404, is extant; as well as an -indenture, dated 15th January in the seventh year of Henry VIII. on the -occasion of the appointment of a new chaplain. By this document the -incoming “rood-priest” covenants to take due care of, and not to waste -nor alienate, the chantry goods committed to his custody; the list -of which, set forth at length, comprises all the requisite ornaments -for the performance of divine service (including “two chests in ye -Roodequere” for the safekeeping of the aforesaid ornaments), and the -domestic furniture and utensils of the chaplain’s residence as well. -At the Reformation, the property and endowments were forfeited to -the Crown; but it is of interest to recall how long and in what wise -the memory of the institution has been kept alive by the people, for -in the ancient garden of the chaplain’s house is a well, which, down -to within the eighteenth century, used, by time-honoured custom, to -be “dressed” or garlanded with flowers every Ascension Day after a -special service in the church, and which, as lately as the last decade -of the nineteenth century, was known among the oldest inhabitants of -the place by the traditional name of “the rood-well.” For similar -reasons a certain parcel of meadow-land in Ashbourne, being another -piece of chantry property secularised, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth -was named “Lampholme”; while certain tenements, as appears from the -negotiations which preceded the endowing of the grammar school in 1585, -were termed “candle-rents.” Again, a curious illustration of analogous -tradition in another part of Derbyshire is furnished by a manuscript -commonplace-book which belonged to one Roger Columbell, of Darley Hall. -As he died in 1565, it cannot have been written later than in the early -years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The entry is to the effect that in -former days the custom prevailed of paying, at Easter, on every house -in a parish a duty of “1 fartheynge called a wax farthinge ... for -lyght of the alter.” - -I have met with no earlier recorded example of a rood-light endowment -in Derbyshire than of that at Breadsall. Its charter is dated 1330, on -the Sunday after the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin -Mary. By this instrument one Geoffrey, “the Reve” (or steward), son -of Ranulph de Breydishale, gives and concedes half an acre of land -in Breadsall to the light of the Holy Cross in the church there, “in -pure and perpetual alms for ever, freely, quietly, well and in peace.” -The charter concludes with, “Warranty to the said light against all -people,” above the signatures of the witnesses. - -Again, in a list of “serges” (wax candles; in French, _cierges_) -“holden up” (maintained) by the bounty of individuals or by the several -craft guilds connected with the church and parish of All Hallows, -Derby, it is recorded that, in 1484, five such lights had been provided -to burn before the rood. For it was not unusual for lay folk to band -themselves into a confraternity under the style of the Holy Cross, -among the chief duties undertaken by them being that of keeping up -the requisite light or lights to burn before the rood in their parish -church. Among their privileges, as in the above case of the chantry in -Bakewell church, would be that of being specially remembered whenever -the chaplain offered the Holy Sacrifice. Chesterfield had its guild of -the Holy Cross, for whose sodality meetings and offices was set apart, -with the same dedication, the east chapel of the north transept—the -very chapel now enclosed by the ancient rood-screen. There was a guild -of the rood at Repton also, towards whose funds, in the year 1520, one -William Bothe, of Barrow, bequeathed 10s. in his will. - -The mediæval custom of burning lights before the rood, and other -images, too, was—if one may so express it—a definite and perfectly -natural reflex of the life and conditions of the time. Previously to -the closing decade of the fifteenth century, the vast continent of -America still remained the dreamland Atlantis it had been to Brendan -and Meldune; the Queens Consort of Spain decked themselves in the -gorgeous bravery of their jewels, and the questing dove fretted -unavailingly against restraining bars, until at length one devoted -woman, King Ferdinand’s wife, Isabella (the same were parents of our -Catherine of Aragon, and grandparents of our own Mary Tudor), offering -up her jewels in pawn, found the wherewithal to equip and send forth -the great navigator on his momentous voyage. Nor even then could it -be otherwise than that several generations must pass away before any -practical result of Columbus’s discovery could affect the great mass -of the European population, and before cane-sugar could supersede the -old-fashioned use of honey for sweetening purposes. Meanwhile, in -Derbyshire, as elsewhere, the ancient traditions lingered long; and -year by year, when the warm weather came on, the bee-keeper of the -Peak would carry his skeps, or wheel them in a hand-barrow (choosing, -if he were a prudent man, the night hours for the transit), out on -to the moors. And there, amid the wild thyme and heather, he would -set the bees down, and leave them all the summer through to gather in -their store as long as the flowers were in bloom, bringing them back -again into shelter at the first approach of winter. The honey, then -an indispensable commodity in every household, would be carefully -strained and separated from the comb; helping to pay landlord’s rent in -kind, while the wax would go in tithes and free-will offerings to the -service of the church. Such, then, since the devotional practices of -our pre-Reformation forefathers were not aloof from their social and -domestic life, but intimately interwoven and bound up with it, not out -of joint nor harmony, but dovetailing and accordant the one with the -other; such is the economic connection between votive candle-burning -and the industry of bee-culture. - -The large share of importance attached to bees, and the widespread -extent of the habit of bee-keeping in former times, has left its -mark upon the face of the country in many a popular place-name and -field-name, whose significance is not perhaps generally appreciated -by others than students of folklore and archæology. Mr. Sydney -Oldall Addy, in his learned work on Hallamshire, entitled _The -Hall of Waltheof_ (1893), enumerates the following instances in -Derbyshire:—_Honey_ Spots, a field of two acres between Hope and -_Pin_dale; _Bean_ Yard, at Ashover; _Poin_ton Cross, at Hucklow; -_Poyn_ton Wood, just outside Dore; and several fields bearing the name -of _Pitcher_ Croft in the immediate neighbourhood; and he shows how -every one of the words, or roots of words, italicised, in some way -or another preserves a directly etymological allusion to the bees or -beehives having been kept from of old in the locality so named. If -Beeley, Beelow, and Beeholme are doubtful instances in point, as being -capable of another interpretation, it is perhaps not wholly unfeasible -that the received derivation of Bentley from Benets’ _lag_, or meadow, -may have to be amended to bee-field. - -But be that as it may, the olden system, in the tangible form of -payments reckoned in honey and wax (itself a computation dating from -at least as far back as the _Domesday Book_, in which two Derbyshire -manors, those of Darley and Parwich, to wit, are valued at so much -current coin of the realm and so many sextaries of honey apiece), -endured without a break all through the catastrophe of the Reformation, -and afterwards almost down to our own times. Thus, in the parish of -Hope, part of the small tithes pertaining to the vicar were paid in -honey and wax. As far back as 1254, tithes of honey formed part of the -emolument of the Vicar of Tideswell. In fact, in the Peak district -generally, it was customary for every tenth swarm of bees to be claimed -by the parson of the parish, a right which continued to be acknowledged -until nearly as late as the middle of the eighteenth century. Thus in -1743, the then Vicar of Castleton records in his journal the receipt -of a swarm of bees by way of tithe. Elsewhere, though actual payment -in kind had become obsolete, a small fixed duty, payable to the parson -in money, long survived. In some parishes, in addition to the ordinary -tithes, Easter dues upon various kinds of stock and produce were -chargeable, under which head the assessment of bee-keepers was fixed -at 2d. per head. In the parish of Twyford, as the _Terrier_ shows, the -like sum was claimed “for every hive of bees in lieu of tithe-honey -and wax”—a claim which did not cease to be recognised until the -nineteenth century, when, in a general re-adjustment and commutation, -it was abolished. So the last lingering tradition of the old order was -changed, and finally perished. - -And here is the place to speak of the fate of the rood and of its -accessory loft. Now, although the destruction of rood-lofts, screens -and roods, in so far as they were involved in the destruction of the -monasteries themselves, may be said to have begun under Henry VIII. in -1536, being followed, two years after, _i.e._, in 1538, by the order -for the demolition of all roods and images alleged to be abused by -superstitious devotions and offerings—the diversion of the latter into -the hands of the King and his myrmidons being, of course, the real -motive of the attack—the general and systematic destruction of roods -did not take place until Edward VI. came to the throne, nor that of -rood-lofts until nearly the end of the third year of Queen Elizabeth. -The precise date of the order is 10th October, 1561. It decreed that -rood-lofts should be taken down in every church and chapel in the land. -It is essential, however, to note that at the same time that rood-lofts -were abolished, the partition of the chancel—such was the term then -used for the rood-screen—was expressly and emphatically ordered to be -maintained. It is a noteworthy fact, also, that in the set of articles -put forth for Archbishop Parker’s first metropolitical visitation -(that of 1560–1), which included the county of Derbyshire as part of -the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, no reference whatever is made -either to roods or rood-lofts. Meanwhile, however, the order of 1561 -was promulgated, and Parker then entered upon the campaign in earnest. -His visitation articles of 1563 contain the inquiry: “Whether your -rood-lofts be pulled down according to order prescribed, and if the -partition between the chancel and church [_i.e._, nave] be kept?” The -same question would naturally go the round of the southern province, -within which, as is well known, Derbyshire lies. In 1565, then, when -Bentham made a visitation of the county, among the instructions issued -for the occasion is found the following:—“That you do take down your -rood-lofts unto the lower beams, and do set a comely crest or vault -upon it, according to the Queen’s Majesty’s Injunctions set forth for -the same.” This shows that Derbyshire enjoyed no exemption from the -general order already mentioned. Two years later, _i.e._, in 1567, -Parker, in his metropolitical visitation, reiterated his previous order -of 1563; evidence as to the standard that was required throughout the -country. Nor did his successor, Edmund Grindall, fail to follow his -example. In the new archbishop’s articles to be inquired of within the -province of Canterbury in the metropolitical visitation of 1576, the -question is asked: “Whether your rood-lofts be taken down and altered, -so that the upper parts thereof with the soller or loft be quite taken -down unto the cross beam” (this, of course, means not the rood-beam -but the transverse beam or breast-summer), “and that the said beam -have some convenient crest put upon the same?” Later on, when, in -1584, Overton visited the Lichfield diocese, he inquired, among other -points: “Whether your rood-lofts be clean defaced and taken away?” It -is unnecessary to pursue this phase of the subject any further; but it -is scarcely to be wondered at if, from such persistent and accumulated -hostility on the part of the authorities, as I have retailed, no -Derbyshire rood-loft has survived to this day in its complete and -original state. - -According to an inventory of the year 1527, there were in All Hallows -church, Derby, a “pair” of great organs, and another small “pair” -beside. Further entries, occurring both under the dates 1569–70 and -1582–3, mention the existence of the leaden weights “which lay upon -the organs” to compress the bellows. Whence it has been inferred that -because the almost invariable place for the organ in pre-Reformation -times was the rood-loft, therefore the latter structure was still -standing in the church down to 1583. But surely the evidence on the -point is negative, and far too slight to warrant any such conclusion! -For the documents which speak of the organs are altogether silent as to -their whereabouts in the building; and even though they may have been -situated originally on the top of the rood-loft in All Saints, in the -face of the notorious fact that rood-lofts throughout the country had -been condemned twelve years previously, the bare mention of an organ -outliving the general wrecking of the rood-loft (which, indeed, it was -fully entitled to do, from the legal point of view) cannot be taken for -proof of the law in force against rood-lofts having been disregarded in -this or in any individual instance, unless there be produced some more -direct and explicit testimony to the contrary. - -If Dr. Pegge is to be credited, the rood-loft was still standing in -Chesterfield church in 1783. At Staveley, it is recorded to have -stood until 1790. At Hayfield, until about 1815, it remained entire, -according to the Lysons; and according to the same authority’s -manuscript notes at the British Museum, though the fact is not recorded -in their published history of the county, the rood-loft still survived -at Taddington in or about the year 1812. Possibly, also, at Tideswell -the rood-loft, although transferred to the west end of the church, -remained until as lately as about 1820. Beside these, there are no -authenticated instances of the survival of the ancient rood-loft in -Derbyshire after the date of the general destruction. - -This measure was as arbitrary as also it proved, within no great space -of time after, to have been shortsighted. It was arbitrary because, -considering the circumstances at the date of the decree being issued, -it was uncalled for and unwarrantable, once roods themselves had -ceased to be. For the ruin of roods accomplished under King Edward -had been so immense, that their restoration in the short space of -Mary’s reign could not but be partial; and already Elizabeth’s puritan -friends, acting upon her injunctions of 1559 against “monuments of -superstition,” had hastened to destroy as many images as were found -standing at the date of her accession—and that, one may be sure, with -the greater energy and thoroughness, since the Queen herself was -really suspected at first of being unsound in this very matter of the -crucifix. The order of 1561 was unreasonable, therefore, because every -one of those customs, such as the burning of lights before the rood, -or hanging up festal branches and garlands about it, clothing it with -holiday robes or Lenten wrappings, the ceremonial stations at its feet, -accompanied by sprinkling with holy water or by censings—these and, -in fine, whatsoever other observances in olden days had had the rood -for centre and object, were necessarily quashed and rendered no longer -practicable thenceforward, the rood itself having been abolished. -That the order was shortsighted, too, is patent from the fact that in -consequence of it there sprang up a fresh crop of difficulties, which -have never been satisfactorily settled nor disposed of to this day. I -refer, of course, to the question of organs and choristers, and of the -most convenient and suitable positions for them relatively to occupy -in a church. The rood itself had indeed vanished, but with it not all -the functions and uses of the rood-loft. That the latter had, from a -practical point of view, enormous advantages, is a fact which, lost -sight of at the time amid the frenzy of bigotry, which insisted on its -being condemned to destruction, very quickly began to be appreciated -after that the ancient rood-loft was no more. - -It is a highly instructive object-lesson, and one not unprofitable -eke for our own times, to note what ensued; nor can I, with the facts -of the case before me, impugn the logic of the extreme reformers, who -were so ill-content with the disappearance of the rood-loft that they -never ceased to agitate for the prohibition of church organs as well. -This, then, happened. The opponents of instrumental music in divine -service were not allowed to have their will; and yet the retention of -an organ after the organ-platform, the rood-loft, to wit, had been -done away with, was very quickly found to be unworkable, unless some -other provision were made for it and for the singers, whose voices -the organ was meant to accompany. The removal of the rood-loft at the -east end of the nave, therefore, was inevitably followed, sooner or -later, by the erection of a gallery at the opposite end of the nave. -In some instances, indeed, portions of the old rood-loft were actually -re-erected, being incorporated in a new organ-gallery at the west end -of the church. Thus, at Parwich, when, in the last quarter of the -nineteenth century, the old west gallery came to be taken down, the -main beam of it was found to have a carefully chamfered edge and to -have been enriched with painting and gilding, thus proving beyond all -question that it must have formed one of the timbers of the ancient -rood-loft, if not the original rood-beam itself. - -Scarcely more than fifty years had elapsed since the demolition of -rood-lofts had been ordained before a gallery was erected at the west -end of All Hallows, Derby, and, what is more remarkable, in 1636 -another, upon which the term, not void of significance, “loft” actually -occurred in the inscription to commemorate the donor’s name and -benefaction. Nor was this the only example on record. Another inscribed -“loft” was erected at the west end of Heanor church in 1633, and -another at Osmaston in 1747, while several more, though not explicitly -so inscribed, were, as contemporary evidence proves, referred to at the -time as “lofts.” Of these, the gallery at Ashover (1722), at Bakewell -(1751), and at Stanley (1765) are examples. At Marston-on-Dove, in -1712, the parish agreed to erect a “loft,” as the recorded proposal for -the scheme shows, “for ye schoolmaster of Hilton and his scholars and -ye singers to sitt in.” At Hayfield, as shown in a plan of the seating -accommodation and scale of charges for the same, under the date 1741, -“every singer upon ye organ loft” paid the modest sum of 4d. a year by -way of pew-rent. Again, at Hayfield a new “loft” was set up at the west -end of the building in 1746. - -If the Osmaston example carries the tradition of the “loft” forward -as far as 1747, on the other hand the Heanor example affords a most -valuable link with the remoter past by carrying back the tradition to -the period of the pre-Reformation rood-loft. Standing until within -living memory, it bore the inscription: “This loft was built at ye -sole cost of John Clarke, of Codnor, gent., in the year 1633, who dyed -An^o. Dn^i. 1641, et Anno Ætatis 88”; on the face of it a dry and -prosaic statement of fact, but yet to all who can read between the -lines, how eloquent a tale of the times does it unfold, for this man, -who at eighty set up a singers’ gallery or loft in his parish church, -would be a child of about eight years of age at the date when the royal -decree went forth for the general destruction of rood-lofts. - -If the coincidence is the more striking in the case of galleries -erected at the east end of the nave, exactly on the site of the ancient -rood-loft, as at Chesterfield and the neighbouring village of Old -Brampton, at Eyam, Mellor, and Tideswell, it must be admitted that the -west end of the nave was the more usually selected position. Western -galleries are known to have been in use in the nineteenth century in -the following churches, amongst others: Allestree, Ashbourne, Beighton, -Brailsford, All Saints’ new church in Derby, Duffield, Eckington, -Etwall, Killamarsh, Kirk Ireton, Long Eaton, Mackworth, Marston -Montgomery, Matlock, Morley, Mugginton, North Wingfield, Parwich -(old church), Smalley, Spondon, Stanley, Taddington, Tickenhall (old -church), Wilne, and Wingerworth. Although at the last-named the base -of the rood-loft remains, the destruction of the parapet had made it -unsafe for use, and necessitated the erection of the newer gallery. -The above list might be very much extended, but there is no need to -multiply instances. - -The renewal of the west gallery at Tideswell church in 1824, and the -erection of that at Sawley in 1838, or that at Beeston as late as -1840 (only, however, to be restored away again in 1871), brings the -tradition of building organ-galleries down almost to the middle of -the nineteenth century. Some, indeed, among those named in the above -list continued in position as late as the seventies of the nineteenth -century, that at Ashbourne even until 1882. - -Between the earliest recorded instance of a gallery being built, in -1614, to the latest, in 1840, represents a lively stream of tradition, -uninterrupted for just 220 years, until the influence of the Tractarian -movement set the tide flowing in the contrary direction, and eventually -succeeded in compassing the doom of the old-fashioned organ-gallery -altogether. The responsibility rests not with Puritans, but with the -opposite party in the Church of England; and it is a sad, if edifying, -commentary on the fallibility of human judgment that, at the very time -when Holman Hunt was painting his mystical pre-Raphaelite picture of -“Christ wounded in the House of His Friends,” the Tractarians—they, -of all people!—were busy, from one end of England to the other, -obliterating the last historic vestiges of the ancient rood-loft in -our churches. If only these well-meaning men (and many others like -them, down to the present time) had been content to restore literally -rather than ostensibly; if, instead of introducing surpliced choirs -into parochial churches where such a thing had never been known before -in the whole course of their history; if, instead of dragging down -the organ from its antique gallery where they found it into the main -body of the building, and thereby displacing table-tombs and other -memorials of the faithful departed; shutting out the glorious light of -windows (as at Ashover), hiding their exquisite tracery, or, worse, -positively thrusting out windows and overthrowing walls, and erecting -externally (as at Ashover, Bolsover, Langwith, Littleover, Mackworth, -South Normanton, and Spondon) counterfeit Gothic organ-chambers -to accommodate this huge and vehement obstruction; if, instead of -perpetrating all these innovations and disfigurements, they had simply -been content to follow loyally the precedent of their forefathers, and -had relegated organs and singers together to a gallery situated in -the ancient place for them, viz., over the entrance to the chancel, -how much heart-burning and division might have been avoided; how many -a venerable church fabric, now irretrievably ruined in contour and -proportions, might have been saved from injury, and have retained both -in the original form in which they had come down to modern days, intact! - -That which follows consists of additional particulars concerning the -present subject, arranged, in alphabetical order, under the names of -the various localities. - -Alkmonton.—At this place, a township of Longford, was a hospital -dedicated under the invocation of St. Leonard. Lord Mountjoy endowed it -by will in 1474, at the same time directing that a quire and parclose -screen should be erected in the chapel attached to the hospital. The -institution was suppressed at the Reformation, and no remains whatever -of the chapel and its screenwork survive. - -Allestree.—The church was entirely rebuilt in 1866–7. The length of the -ancient rood-loft, assuming that it did not exceed the width of the -nave, would have been 19 ft. 3 in., the dimensions of the old church. -For stone screenwork, supposed to have belonged to Allestree church, -see _supra_. - -Ashbourne.—The eastern aisle of the north transept is screened off from -the rest of the transept and from the chancel, to form the Cockayne -chapel. The screen, which runs from north to south, is divided by a -column into two sections. The northern section is 14 ft. 3 in. long, -and comprises eight compartments, including the entrance; the southern -section is 14 ft. 8½ in. long, and comprises nine compartments. The -section of the parclose which runs from west to east is 19 ft. long, -and comprises eleven and a half compartments, including the gates, -which open into the chancel. The total height of the screen is 8 ft. -10 in., the compartments varying in centring from 1 ft. 6 in. to 1 ft. -10½ in. The tracery in the heads (rectagonal in formation) measures 13½ -in. deep at the deepest. The openings in the north to south section -are 65 in. high, the lower part 3 ft. high; the openings in the west -to east section 68 in. high, the lower part 33 in. high. Immediately -below the rail, which is embattled, runs a horizontal panel of pierced -quatrefoil tracery to the depth of 8½ inches. The screen is surmounted -by a moulded cornice, with a cavetto, occupied at intervals by square -pateras. The muntins are buttressed. The whole is of Perpendicular -design of about the middle of the fifteenth century. Each compartment -of the openings is protected by an iron stanchion and saddlebar; the -stanchions being obviously modern, with cast-iron fleur-de-lys finials. -The door which opens into the stair in the south-east pier of the -central tower is 1 ft. 7 in. wide by 5 ft 9 in. high to the crown of -its two centred arch. There is no sign of the door which opened into -the rood-loft, but the stair leads to a passage which runs round all -four sides of the tower at the crossing. - -[Illustration: Ashover Church: Rood-Screen.] - -Ashover.—The rood-screen stands in the hollow order of the chancel -arch, so that its westward face does not project beyond the level of -the east wall of the nave. The screen stands 10 ft. 3 in. high by 13 -ft. 7 in. long. It consists of six bays, of which the two midmost -comprise the doorway, with an opening of 3 ft. 8 in. and a height of 6 -ft. 11 in. to the crown of the depressed arch. The bays have an average -centring of 27½ inches, the fenestration being 5 ft. 5 in. high from -the cill to the crown of the arch, with tracery in the head to the -depth of 20½ inches, that is, 11 inches lower than the level of the -spring of the former vaulting. The cill is ornamented with flamboyant -geometrical tracery. The solid part from the top of the cill to the -ground is 3 ft. 6 in. high, with blind tracery to the depth of 8¾ -inches in the head. The screen is without gates, and is surmounted by -an embattled cresting, beneath which is a band of pierced quatrefoil -ornament. Neither of these can be in its original position, the screen -having formerly been vaulted, although the whole of the groining ribs, -as well as the springing-caps and the bases, are now wanting. The -carved lintel over the doorway is crested along the top, the spandrils -being filled with Tudor roses. These, together with the four-centred -arches of the bays, point to a late phase of Perpendicular. The coat -of arms of Babington, impaling Fitzherbert, in the middle, being only -fastened on where the vaulting ought to be, affords in itself no -criterion as to the date; although the general style of the screen -is entirely consistent with the tradition that it was the gift of -Thomas Babington, who died in 1518. This screen originally was enriched -with painting and gilding, the last traces of which were egregiously -removed in 1843. This was the date, also, of the destruction of the -remains of the handsomely carved parclose-screenwork which surrounded -the Babington chantry in the easternmost bay of the south aisle. The -parclose had a door opening into the nave and another into the aisle; -and the coats of arms now attached to the rood-screen used to be -respectively over these two doorways. The Babington chantry was founded -in 1511, in which year the rood-screen and rood-loft are believed to -have been erected. The rood-stair was blocked up at the “restoration” -of 1843, but has since been reopened. What remains of it consists of -six stone steps, starting in the south-east corner of the north aisle, -and emerging through the easternmost spandril of the north arcade into -the nave at a height of 10 ft. 10 in. from the floor. The rood-door -opened naveward, two iron hangers still remaining in the south jamb of -the doorway, which is 18½ in. wide by 5 ft. 8½ in. high. The door-head -consists of a horizontal lintel. The rood-loft itself cannot have -extended beyond the width of the nave, a length of 20 feet. The rope of -the sacring-bell in the gable immediately above the loft is shown in -the photograph. - -Bakewell.—A spiral staircase in the wall adjoining the north-east pier -of the central tower stood practically undisturbed until the rebuilding -of the piers in 1841. It was entered from the south-east corner of -the north transept, and would in all probability have served for the -rood-stair when the rood-loft came to be introduced. The oak parclose -which shuts off the east aisle of the south transept to form the Vernon -chapel, is divided by the columns of the arcade into three sections. -Each of these is 11 ft. 7 in. long by 8 ft. 5½ in. high (exclusive of -the modern cornice), and consists of eight rectagonal compartments -centring from 1 ft. 4¾ in. to 1 ft. 5½ in. The openings are 4 ft. 3½ -in. high, with Early Perpendicular tracery in the heads to the depth of -1 ft. 0½ in. The cill of each compartment shows traces of having been -guarded by two stanchions, no longer existing. The lower part of the -screen is 4 feet high. The rail is carved with a wave pattern, with a -trefoiled circle in each trough and swell, and a band of quatrefoils -runs along the base. The upper half of the panels below the rail is -perforated with a pattern like a square-headed traceried window of the -period. The greater muntins have shafts, with polygonal bases. The -screen is left, in midland fashion, unfinished at the back. The two -midmost compartments of the southernmost section form the doors. - -Belper.—In 1821 the chancel of St. John Baptist chapel was separated -from the nave “by a plain screen composed of small arches and round -columns of wood.” The screen itself eventually disappeared, but long -afterwards the marks remained in the walls showing where it had been -fixed. - -Bolsover.—A new organ-chamber, built in 1878, was eloquently described -as having “dwarfed the old chancel and spoilt the north aspect of the -church.” The ruin which the “restoration” of the above year began, an -accidental fire in 1897 completed. - -Brackenfield.—The rood-screen from the old, ruined chapel, built -in 1520–30, now stands in the modern church. It has suffered much, -not only from exposure to the weather in the interval between the -dismantling of the chapel and the transfer of the screen itself to -its present position at the west end of the new building, but also -from excessive repair (see illustration). The screen measures 16 ft. -9 in. long by 7 ft. 7 in. high. It is rectagonal in construction, and -consists of a central bay divided into two lights above the lintel -of the doorway; on either hand of the latter being two bays of three -lights each. The head of all the lights is occupied to the depth of -10½ in. by tracery of Decorated design, coarsely executed, with -heavy cusps and crockets. The openings of the bays are 4 ft. 5½ in. -high; the bays centring from 3 ft. to 3 ft. 2½ in. The lesser muntins -are arrested by the cill, the panels beneath which are wanting. The -cornice and principal muntins are rudely moulded. The door has a clear -opening of 3 ft. 1 in., and is 5 ft. 8 in. high to the crown of the -four-centred arch of the lintel. One of the spandrils of the latter is -carved with the arms of Willoughby and Beck impaled. From a drawing -which is hung up, _ad captandum vulgus_, inside the building, it -appears that a project is on foot to adapt this ancient screen to the -chancel entrance of the modern church. And, as though the unfortunate -screen had not suffered cruelly enough already, the scheme involves its -further dismemberment by cutting out the doorway in the centre, and -mounting it on the top of a fresh doorway as a scaffold for a novel and -Christless cross. It is earnestly to be hoped that those in power will -not have the money nor the unwisdom to inflict this last unwarrantable -indignity on the venerable screen of Brackenfield chapel. - -[Illustration: Brackenfield: Detail of Oak Rood-Screen from Dismantled -Chapel.] - -Breadsall.—In 1826 the rood-screen is known to have been standing in -its original place, defining the boundary of nave and chancel. It -was then much dilapidated, “the centre portions of the ornamental -work thereof being entirely gone.” It is not quite clear whether -by the parts referred to as missing, the entrance gates or the -traceried fenestration-heads are meant. At any rate, a drawing made -thirty years later, and published in the Anastatic Drawing Society’s -volume for 1856, howsoever inaccurate in detail, shows what had -then become of the remains of the rood-screen. Though much of the -delicate feathering is omitted from the pierced tracery ornament, -the main outline unmistakably identifies it as having been made -up into communion rails. And it is doubtless to this circumstance -that the beautiful details of the rood-screen, when once taken down -from its proper position, owe their preservation. Such as they were -represented in 1856, they remained at least as late as 1877, when the -church itself was “restored.” The removal, about the year 1360, of the -chancel arch, the structural demarcation between nave and chancel, -had rendered a rood-screen æsthetically indispensable. And so, when -this prominent ornament was broken up—some time between 1830 and -1840, more probably at the former date—it left a blank so unsightly -that at the “restoration” of 1877 a misdirected attempt to remedy the -defect was made by the insertion of a paltry, sham-Gothic arch. At -the same time the ancient levels of the building were falsified by -the improper raising of the chancel floor. In 1877, “many parts of -the base” of the ancient screen could “be detected in the pews of the -body of the church.” Subsequently, all these fragments were collected, -and, together with those portions of the screen that had been turned -into communion rails, carefully stored up with a view to ultimate -reconstruction. Meanwhile, however, a few strips of screen-tracery were -ill-advisedly worked up into a cornice round the brim of the present -pulpit, a situation for which, as anybody can see, they are in no -wise suited. The restoration of the screen itself was contemplated as -far back as 1877, but thirty years were destined to elapse before it -could be realised. The project had long been dear to the heart of Mr. -F. Walker Cox, though he did not live to see it fulfilled; and so, -when he died in 1905, it was decided to restore the rood-screen as a -suitable memorial to him. The work was completed by the end of July, -1907. In this case there were certain well-determined data to serve -as guides for the proposed reconstruction. The width of the nave, 23 -feet, had only to be divided by the unit of the bays (the remaining -tracery of which demonstrated that the average centring was rather -less than 2 ft. 6 in.) to show that there should be ten bays in all; -while the tread of the topmost step of the rood-stair, which pierces -the arcade wall and opens southwards into the nave at a height of -13 ft. 0½ in. above the floor level, indicates the proper height of -the ancient rood-loft floor. Each bay is divided into two lights by -a central muntin. The tracery resembles Decorated design more than -Perpendicular, but certain very late details in the spandril of the -ancient gates, the design of which otherwise corresponds, preclude the -work from being dated earlier than the first quarter of the sixteenth -century. Of the twenty pieces of tracery in the fenestration-heads, ten -are original and untouched, five are old ones repaired, while five had -to be supplied altogether new; the necessary carved work being ably -done by Mr. H. W. Whitaker, son of the rector. There are two variations -in the tracery pattern which runs along the west side of the rail. The -heads of the rectagonal panels are filled with tracery to the depth of -6¾ inches. - -[Illustration: Breadsall Church: Detail of Rood-Screen in Process of -Restoration.] - -[Illustration: Breadsall Church: Showing the Remains of the Rood-Screen -in 1856.] - -Chaddesden.—The church was “restored” in 1859, when, I presume, it was -that the rood-screen came to be surmounted by an embattled cornice. At -the recent “restoration,” by Mr. Bodley, the battlements were removed, -and the upper part of the screen finished more in accordance with the -original design, with vaulting, on the western front The authentic -portion of the screen is 9 ft. 11 in. high by 15 ft. 9 in. long. It -consists of eight bays, of which the two central ones go to form the -entrance, having an opening of 3 ft. 3½ in., the bays centring at 1 -ft. 11½ in. The openings are 5 ft. 7½ in. high, with tracery in the -heads to a depth of 3 feet, _i.e._, 21 inches lower than the level -of the springing. The entrance has a semi-circular arch, cusped on -the under side. The bottom part of the screen is 4 ft. 3½ in. high, -with blind tracery in the panel heads to the depth of 12½ inches. On -the west side the principal muntins are buttressed, the buttresses -square in plan, with moulded bases; out of the top of the buttresses -rise boutel shafts, with polygonal and embattled caps, from which the -groined vaulting springs. The rood-screen stands at the entrance of the -chancel, and the rood-loft must have extended only from side to side of -the nave. The rood-stair entrance, now stopped and bricked up, is in -the north-east corner of the south aisle. The doorway is 18 in. wide -by 6 ft. 7 in. high from the floor to the crown of the arch, or obtuse -angle, which is cut in the underside of the lintel. The exit from the -stair on to the loft, though blocked, is traceable in the wall in the -easternmost spandril of the south arcade of the nave. - -Chesterfield.—The rood-loft is recorded to have been extant as late -as the year 1783. There is not the slightest trace of a rood-stair -entrance visible. In 1841, Sir Stephen Glynne found the nave galleried -completely round, including the eastern part of it. “The gallery,” he -says, “at the eastern extremity contains the organ.... In the gallery -beneath the organ is incorporated a portion of wood screenwork of -rather elegant character,” all which goes to show that the rood-screen -stood at the western crossing, the arch there having a clear opening -of 14 ft. 2½ in. In 1843, the “restoration” of the church was begun; -and the building having first been thoroughly swept of its fittings, -Mr. Gilbert Scott (afterwards knighted) was then called in to do -the garnishing. “I found,” he writes in his _Recollections_, “the -rood-screen to have been pulled down and sold; but we protested, and -it was recovered.” In a footnote he adds, “There is no such screen now -in Chesterfield church.” In this, as happily the event proved, the -architect was mistaken, but his remark would seem to imply that Sir -Gilbert Scott himself is not to be held responsible for the rood-screen -being improperly re-erected in its present position between the north -transept and its eastern chapel. The screen is 14 ft. 6 in. long, and -consists of five bays, centring 2 ft. 10½ in., of which the middle bay, -having a clear opening of 2 ft. 5¼ in., comprises the doorway. It is -fitted with doors, but they are not original. Indeed, the screen as a -whole has been much renovated. The total height of it as it stands is -13 ft. 3½ in. down to the floor. The fenestration openings are 7 ft. -3 in. high, and the pierced tracery in the head extends to a depth of -21½ inches, and contains an embattled transom, which makes a horizontal -line right across the screen from side to side. At a distance of 1 -ft. 11 in. below the base of the tracery a second transom intersects -the screen, not, however, continuously, on account of the doorway in -the middle. The bays, though fashioned in rectagonal compartments, -exhibit a pronouncedly arched formation, which suggests that they -should be vaulted. At the same time the spandrils are traceried and -cusped, a feature inconsistent with vaulting, and such, therefore, that -I am inclined to attribute to the meddling hand of the “restorer.” -It only remains to add that the principal muntins are buttressed -on the westward front, and that the tracery has the usual midland -characteristic of a flat surface at the back. - -[Illustration: Chesterfield Church: Part of Parclose Screen in South -Transept.] - -More complete than the above-named is the imposing parclose which -stands in the south transept, and, extending throughout the entire -length of the transept, divides it for the two chantry chapels to -eastwards. These chapels were dedicated to Our Lady and St George -respectively, while against the westward face of the screen stood the -altar of St Michael on the left, and that of St Mary Magdalene on the -right. The screen consists of ten bays, four-centred; the third bay -from either end forming a doorway to lead into the corresponding chapel -beyond it. The bays vary in centring from 3 ft 4½ in. to 4 ft. 1 in. -The upper part of the screen expands eastwards and westwards with -groined vaults (partly renovated, the interspaces traceried on the -west side but plain on the east) into a wide platform of from 5 to 6 -feet from front to back, and such that was apparently never finished -with a loft. The elevation of the whole (exclusive of a stone plinth -of 4½ inches) is 15 feet in height. The fenestration is strikingly -lofty, the distance from the cill to the summit of the opening being -8 ft. 6 in., with tracery in the head to the depth of 26 inches. The -base of this tracery descends 10 inches below the level of the caps -and the springing of the vaults. The tracery itself is of handsome -Perpendicular design, and is enriched with tall, crocketed pinnacles -running up through the midst of the batement lights. The opening is -sub-divided horizontally, at a distance of 49 inches from the crown -of the arch, by a transom cusped and feathered on its under side. The -solid part of the screen is 4 ft. 7 in. high. The rail is carved with a -waving tracery pattern; the blind panelling is traceried in the head, -and has a band of quatrefoil ornament along the bottom. The principal -muntins are faced with clustered shafts. The more northern of the two -doorways, with Tudor roses in the spandrils and cinquefoil cusping on -the under side, is original, but the other doorway is an unsatisfactory -piece of patch work. - -With regard to the third screen, Sir Gilbert Scott, in the above-quoted -_Recollections_, wrote: “There existed in the church, as I found it, a -curious and beautiful family pew and chapel, enclosed by screenwork, -to the west of one of the piers of the central tower. This was called -the Foljambe chapel, and was a beautiful work of Henry VIII.’s time. -What to do with it I did not know. It was right in the way of the -arrangements, and could not but have been removed. I at last determined -to use its screenwork to form a reredos.” Such is the “restorer’s” -frank and ingenuous confession of his wanton abuse of a grand, -historical monument. The remains of this chantry parclose (its openwork -still disfigured by metal panels painted with the Ten Commandments, -according to the fashion of the day, _circa_ 1843–5) were forced to -migrate once more in 1898, and now (March, 1907) stand against the -west wall of the south transept. The screenwork is rectagonal in plan. -As at present made up it is just under 22 feet long, and consists -of six compartments, centring from 3 ft. 6½ in. to 3 ft. 8 in., of -three lights each. The openings are 3 ft. 7 in. high, with stem-like -tracery in the head to the depth of 9½ inches. The upper part is coved, -projecting 35 inches from back to front. The total height from the -top of the cresting to the ground just exceeds eight feet. The solid -part below the openings has apparently been cut down, since it is only -2 ft. 11 in. high. The rail is carved with a band of quatrefoils and -trefoils in the alternate swell and trough of a wave line, and the -blind panelling is traceried in the head to the depth of 5 inches. The -cornice is elaborately carved with a grape and vine pattern on a wave -basis, with shields introduced; the band itself, however, absurdly -turned upside down. It displays the following seven distinct coats -of arms, which appear by themselves and in various combinations of -impalement:— - - Ashton A mullet. - Breton A chevron between three escallops. - Bussex Barry of six (represented as seven). - Foljambe A bend between six escallops. - Leeke On a saltire (not represented, as it ought to be, - engrailed), nine annulets. - Loudham On a bend, five cross crosslets. - Nevile A saltire ermine. - -That the screens now standing do not represent the full complement of -screenwork with which Chesterfield Church was enriched when the shock -of the Reformation fell upon it, is attested by additional fragments of -tracery, one of them let into the underpart of a communion table in the -south-east chapel, and more in a low rail about the site of the former -high altar. - -Church Broughton.—In 1820, portions of the parcloses that used to -shut off the chantries or side altars at the end of the aisles still -existed; but in 1845–6 the church was “repaired,” with the usual result -that the screens were dismembered. Considerable remains, however, of -the oak tracery are embodied in a modern reredos behind the altar. - -Crich.—The screen which is now in St. Peter’s, Derby, and which was -originally in Crich church, is constructed on a rectagonal principle, -that is to say, it was never vaulted. It consists of six compartments, -each having an average opening of 13 inches and an average centring of -1 ft. 5 in. The height of the fenestration from the cill to the top of -the opening is 58 inches, the head being occupied to the depth of 12½ -inches by pierced tracery of Perpendicular design, with an embattled -transom intersecting it in a straight line from side to side. The -screen itself is divided into two halves, each 4 ft. 4 in. long, and -each having, immediately below the cill, a pierced panel of cusped -tracery of trellis-like design, 3 ft. 10 in. long by 6¾ in. high. For -the rest, seeing that the screen has been made up for its present -position, to give the dimensions of its total height and length would -only be to mislead. - -Denby.—“A rudely carved screen between nave and chancel”—such was -the description given of it in 1825—was swept away in the atrocious -“restoration” of 1838. - -Derby.—It is piteous to recall with what reckless devastation the -mediæval churches of the borough of Derby have been visited. The -fate of All Hallows’ has been already told. Another of the ancient -churches of the place, St. Alkmund’s, was destroyed in 1844. Its -former rood-loft, to judge from the ground plan of the building, must -have extended across the width of the nave only. It has been related -by those who knew the old church, that the tower, together with the -westernmost bay of either aisle of the nave, were divided by screening -from the remainder of the building. What these screens were like -records do not state, but it is probable enough that they may have been -made out of the remains of the rood-screen or parclose screenwork. St. -Michael’s Church, totally demolished in 1856–7, contained a carved -screen of Perpendicular workmanship. The rood-entrance and staircase -led up to the loft from the south aisle. At St. Peter’s tradition -tells that a parclose formerly separated the eastern portion of the -north aisle from the body of the church; and remnants of wooden screen -work were discovered under the flooring of the pews at the re-pewing -in 1859. The screen which now occupies the place of the original -rood-screen, belonging, as it did, to Crich church, has been already -described under that head. - -Doveridge.—In 1877 it was observed that three pieces of carving known -to have come from hence, and suspected to have belonged to the former -screen here, were affixed to the chest in Sudbury church. These pieces -comprised the centrepiece on the front of the chest, and the ornaments -on the two sides of it. - -Elvaston.—The drastic “restoration” of 1904, for all the unstinting -munificence of the vicar, Rev. C. Prodgers, who entrusted the work to -no less eminent an architect than Mr. Bodley, has swept away a number -of landmarks, the removal of which the antiquary must record only -with pain and sorrow. Beside the lengthening of the chancel by eleven -feet eastwards, and the abolition of the east window, a proceeding -alien to the traditions of an English parish church, the rood-screen -itself has been shifted and tampered with in a manner far from -conservative. Previously to the “restoration” the screen consisted of -eight bays (the two midmost bays comprising the doorway), and stood in -the recess of the chancel arch, into which space it exactly fitted. -In the course of the “restoration” the screen (found to have been -patched with common deal in many places, and the whole of it thickly -coated with brown paint) was taken to Cambridge to be pickled, and -to have the decayed and the deal portions replaced in oak. Thus far, -good. But returning renovated and lengthened by a fresh, narrow bay -of blind panelling at each end, so as to ruin its proportions, the -rood-screen, now too long for its former site, was erected anew in -a more westerly position against the east wall of the nave. It was, -moreover, provided with elaborate metal gates, which are too high to -give a satisfactory effect, inasmuch as they break the horizontal -line of the wooden rail to right and left. Another flagrant offence -is that the carved ornaments, integrally joined (as at Chaddesden) to -the east side of the entrance jambs of the screen to form the ends -of the return stalls, have been detached from their proper place and -egregiously misappropriated for the ends of new sedilia. Their sides -are richly panelled with Perpendicular tracery, in the top of which is -a human face, with the hair and beard treated like Gothic leafage. The -upper extremities of these stall-ends represent cherubim, below which -are large carved crockets, models for boldness of outline and vigorous -crispness of execution. The occurrence on the elbows respectively of -a lion and an antelope, chained and collared, both of them seated on -their haunches, confines the production of the work within determinate -historical limits. The lion has been described as “chained,” but -after examining it in search of the chain, I came to the conclusion -that the latter is merely a wavy lock of the lion’s mane. As to whether -there is a chain or not will probably always remain a moot question, -like the heads of the famous lions over the gate of Mycenæ. Assuming, -then, that this particular lion is chainless, it would stand either -for the lion of England or the white lion of the house of March; while -the antelope, gorged and chained, is the familiar cognisance of the -de Bohuns. These two together would be the heraldic supporters of -Edward IV. (1466–1483), and therefore bear out the presumption that -the rood-loft and screen were erected in his time by bequest of Lord -Mountjoy. This nobleman’s will, dated 1474, directs that the parish -church and chancel of Our Lady at Elvaston should be “made up and -finished completely” at the cost of his estate. The “chancel” referred -to can hardly be other than the enclosed chapel, now occupied by -the Earl of Harrington’s family pew, in the south aisle. As long as -the stall ends remained in their original situation attached to the -rood-screen, the heraldry they display afforded a valuable clue to the -date of its execution. But their dislocation and perversion amounts -to the falsification of a historical document. For who that in years -to come shall see them as at present made up into sham sedilia, will -ever be able to identify them for what they truly are? The harm, -done, however, is happily not irremediable, for the stall ends can -yet be restored to their rightful place. To do so without delay is no -more than an act of justice due to the past and the present, as also -to future generations. The dimensions of the Elvaston rood-screen -(exclusive of the modern accretions) are: height, 10 ft. 7 in., and -length, 16 ft. 4 in. The bays centre at two feet, the doorway having -a clear opening of 3 ft. 8 in., with a height of 8 ft. 3 in. from -the floor level to the crown of the door-head arch. The latter is -segmental, and on the under side feathered with rose-tipped cusps. -The shield in the middle is modern, and so also (though doubtless -a reproduction of the old) is much of the encrusted ornament which -surmounts the door-head. The pattern of it is one of inter-twisted -stems, branching into crockets on the upper side. The fenestration on -either side of the doorway has a clear opening of 5 ft. 8½ in. high, -with tracery (forming the outline of an ogival arch) and encrusted -ornament in the heads to the depth of 35½ inches. An embattled transom -runs through the head of the side bays, but is arrested in the two bays -of the doorway. Beneath the fenestration the solid part of the screen -is 4 ft. 3 in. high; each bay with tracery in the head to the depth of -11½ inches. The whole screen is a magnificent specimen of Perpendicular -design. The parclose in the south aisle encloses the easternmost bay -of the nave arcade. It measures 17 feet long from east to west, and -then, turning at a right angle, with a length of 14 feet from north -to south, joins the south wall of the aisle. Its height, exclusive of -the stone platform on which it is mounted, is 8 ft. 10½ in. It has a -doorway of 2 ft. 1½ in. wide on the north, and one of 1 ft. 11½ in. on -the west. The bays or compartments vary from 18½ inches to 21 inches -wide. The height of the fenestration is 54½ inches, with tracery in -the heads to the depth of 25½ inches. The lower part of the screen -is 46 inches high, and it is pierced, parclose fashion, by a band of -pierced tracery, forming long panels 9½ inches high. For the rest, this -parclose is similar in design to the rood-screen, only that the main -shafts of the parclose are more handsomely treated with buttresses and -tall, graceful gables, terminating in crocketed pinnacles. The cavetto -of the lintel contains square Gothic pateras. Neither screen shows any -trace of colour. No rood-entrance nor stair remains, but from the plan -of the building it is evident that the former rood-loft could not have -exceeded in length the width of the nave. - -[Illustration: Elvaston Church: Rood-Screen (restored).] - -Fenny Bentley.—There is no structural division between nave and -chancel, and the rood-screen has been repeatedly shifted backwards -and forwards, but it is now standing approximately in its original -position. Injured, but surviving the many dangers and vicissitudes -through which it had to pass, it remained without repair until about -1848–50, when it underwent complete “restoration” (the vaulting being -practically all renewed), and that very creditably done for the time. -The screen is 18 ft 2 in. long by 9 ft. 4½ in. high. It consists of -eight bays (centring 2 ft. 3¼ in.), whereof the two midmost go to -make the doorway, which is 6 ft. 0¼ in. high to the crown of its -four-centred arch, with a clear opening of 4 ft. 1½ in., protected by -gates. The fenestration openings are four-centred, and measure 5 feet -high from crown to cill, with tracery in the heads to the depth of 1 -ft. 8¾ in., nine inches below the level of the vault-springing. The -door-lintel has the left-hand spandril carved with a fox and a goose in -his mouth; the right-hand spandril with a Gothic flower, not a rose. -The lower part of the screen is 3 ft. high, the rail being ornamented -with geometrical tracery. The ridiculous travesty of metal stanchions -and saddle-bars, carried out in wood, ought to be got rid of as soon -as possible. They may not deceive at the present day, but the danger -is that the longer they are allowed to remain, the more they will tone -down until they have acquired that specious air of antiquity which may -enable them to pass for genuine, until some expert will detect the -fraud, and perhaps be provoked on their account to call in question -the authenticity of the whole screen into which they have become thus -unwarrantably intruders. There is no vaulting at the top of the screen -on the eastern side. The loft floor measures 57 inches from front -to back, exclusive of the modern cresting on the front. There is no -sign of any entrance to the rood-loft, but the stair was probably on -the north side, in the wall which has now been rebuilt and converted -into an arcade. The rood-screen exhibits a fully-matured phase of -Perpendicular. It has been variously dated from 1460 to 1500. One -local tradition declared it to have been erected by Thomas Beresford -(of Agincourt fame) as a thank-offering after the Wars of the Roses. -At any rate, it must have been already _in situ_ before 1512, when a -chantry was founded by James Beresford, LL.D., and there being no aisle -nor chapel to contain the altar, a parclose screen was erected round -it in the south-east corner of the nave. The enclosure had its own -flooring of encaustic tiles. Locally called “the cage,” it stood in -its original place untouched until 1877, when, in the same year of his -appointment to the rectory of Fenny Bentley, Rev. E. J. Hayton, with -the proverbial officiousness of a new broom, nimbly cleared it aside. -The only possible justification for this disturbance of a historic -landmark is that it enables the beautiful rood-screen to be seen to -greater advantage than it could have been while the other screen stood -in front of it. The exact place where the parclose abutted on to the -rood-screen is defined by a missing moulding and a light mark in the -wood of the lower part of the bay immediately to the south of the -entrance gates (see illustration). Subsequently the displaced parclose, -incorporated with much new work, was set up, in one continuous length, -between the modern north aisle of the nave and the modern north chapel. -It now measures 14 ft. 8 in. long by 6 ft. 8 in. high, and consists -of thirteen rectagonal compartments, with two different patterns of -tracery in the head; eight of one pattern and five of the other. - -Hathersage.—A small piece of carved oak tracery of Perpendicular style, -being part of a screen originally in this church, was to be seen -subsequently among the objects in the Lomberdale House Museum. - -Hault Hucknall.—In 1875 there were kept in the vestry two fragments -of oak tracery of Perpendicular design; placed, one upside down, with -their two lower edges contiguous, so that the arched forms were made -to appear like circles. They are thus depicted in the first volume -of Cox’s _Derbyshire Churches_. Beside these, in the eighties of -the nineteenth century, there were in the church tower several more -pieces of tracery and at least one long beam; all of them portions, -presumably, of former screenwork. - -Hope.—The rood-screen, including its gates, complete, is surmised to -have remained standing through all the disasters of the civil wars—at -least until the closing days of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate—because -of an incidental reference under the date 1658. In a list of the -parochial Easter dues discharged in that year, occurs the item of a sum -received from young people “at the chancell gate.” This might, however, -have meant no more than the spot in the alley where chancel and nave -converge, since the common spelling of the word “gate” of the present -day was “yate” until the eighteenth century, the original sense of -“gate” being rather the equivalent of gangway, path, or thoroughfare. -At any rate, all that was left of the screen by 1881 was the oak beam -of the plinth or base, showing that there had been at that point one -step ascending from the nave into the chancel. This historical relic, -however, was not respected, for in 1881–2, the vicar, Rev. Henry -Buckston, following the example of Dr. Hutchinson, the bane of All -Hallows’, in obstinate defiance of remonstrances, subjected the old -chancel to the most drastic and unnecessary treatment. - -Horsley.—In or about the year 1825 it was noted by Rev. R. R. Rawlins -that “a screen of rudely ornamented open-work surrounded a portion of -the north aisle.” - -Kirk Langley.—There were originally three screens in this church, -namely, the rood-screen and two parcloses. All three of them have been -so repeatedly altered and mixed up that it is difficult to follow -their history with certain accuracy. The year of darkest tragedy in -the annals of the fabric was 1839, when a devastating “restoration” -ravaged the ancient wood-fittings. Hitherto the parclose-screen of the -Meynell chantry, standing at the eastern extremity of the north aisle, -and extending as far as the centre of the first arch, had remained; -but it was then removed, and certain portions of it made into a -reredos. These fragments, and whatever else could be found belonging -to the same parclose, were diligently gathered together by Rev. Frank -Meynell, and are now incorporated in a new parclose encompassing the -first bay of the north aisle. The cornice, much repaired, contains a -handsome border, 4¾ inches deep, of vine and grape ornament upon a wave -basis; and there are, in all, fourteen of the old panels, carefully -patched together and mounted on canvas backing to strengthen them. -They comprise seven (or, to count one slight variant as additional, -eight) distinct patterns of late Perpendicular in point of date, but -such that so far from being jaded or commonplace, give the lie to the -“correct” view of the decadence of later mediæval art, and testify -to the inexhaustible vitality and resourcefulness of Gothic fancy to -the end. The other parclose stood between the south aisle and the -south chapel, screening the Twyford chantry. In 1710 Bassano noted the -screen, with the arms of Twyford over its entrance doorway. By 1879 -this parclose had been demolished, and parts of it made up with the -rood-screen, which yet stood _in situ_, presenting an incongruous blend -of Perpendicular and earlier woodwork. Even this, however, has since -given place to a brand-new screen, and whatever still remains of the -ancient screenwork is now embodied in the box-door in the west tower, -as above described. The abolished rood-loft must have been approached -from the south, for, although there are no longer any traces to be seen -of it, in 1879 it was noted that “the squint from the Twyford quire is -within the doorway of the old stairs leading to the rood-loft.” - -[Illustration: Kirk Langley Church: Details from Parcloses of North and -South Aisles.] - -Long Eaton.—“Within the chancel (now used as a vestry),” writes Rev. -Dr. Cox in 1879, “is a piece of old oak carving, which was found, in -1868, used as a joist under the floor. It looks as if it had been part -of the cornice of the rood-screen, and is carved with three four-leaved -flowers and two heads. Its date is _circa_ 1460.” This carving was -probably displaced and abused in the manner described, in 1731, when -the church is known to have undergone re-pewing and other “repairs.” -The ancient rood-loft extended from side to side of the nave, which is -20 ft. 6 in. wide—or rather it should be, if the whole building had not -been tampered with and falsified in 1868. - -Longford.—The eastern extremity of both the aisles was formerly -partitioned off by carved oak parcloses to form chantry chapels, but -in 1826 both these screens were demolished. “From the east wall of -the nave, close to the north side of the chancel archway, projects” a -stone corbel, which must have had some connection with the ancient rood -arrangements, as a support either for the loft or the rood-beam. - -Longstone.—“The east end of the south aisle is” [1877] “shut off by -an old oak screen, so as to form a family pew. It has a finely carved -cornice, and on the north side has the arms of Eyre impaling Stafford -... and over the door which forms the west entrance to the screen is -the well-known crest of the Eyre family—an armed leg.” - -Mackworth.—Some old oak carving, portions, apparently, of ancient -screenwork, were made up into the wainscot at the back of a seat within -the porch. The ancient rood-loft may be assumed not to have exceeded -the width of the nave, _i.e._, 21 ft. 3 in. - -Melbourne.—At the general restoration of the church in 1859–60, the -rood-screen was so unsparingly treated as to make it difficult to tell -what its original design could have been. It is 13 ft. 9 in. long, -and stands at the entrance of the chancel in the eastern crossing. -A drawing, published in the Anastatic Drawing Society’s volume for -1862, represents the church in the process of “restoration.” The -screen, as there depicted, though it cannot have been even then in -its original condition (having lost its vaulting, gates, and solid -part at the bottom), differs considerably from the screen in its -present state. It dated from the Perpendicular period, and consisted -(as in fact it does still) of three bays, the middle one, for the -entrance, being the largest. But the three main arches, which once -constituted its most prominent feature, have since been replaced by -obtuse chevrons, the ungainly massiveness of which is barely relieved -by the ill-designed tracery underneath, or by a recent attempt to -amend the bungling “restoration” of thirty years previously. It was in -1890, or thereabouts, that this unavailing re-restoration took place. -The fact is that nothing can be done with Sir Gilbert Scott’s clumsy -framework. To overlay it with applied ornament is only to emphasise -its defects. There is but one satisfactory remedy, and that is to -remove it altogether, and to replace it by something else fashioned on -the beautiful flowing lines of the old Gothic design. The upper part -contains eight pierced ornaments, 21½ inches in height from the crown -of the two-centred arch to the base of the tracery, and 15 inches in -width. Beyond these there is practically nothing of the original work -left in the whole screen, which not only gives a very poor idea of what -the majestic structure of the fifteenth century must have been, but -also is in every way unworthy of the grandeur of its surroundings. - -Mickleover.—Rev. R. R. Rawlins, in 1825, described the entrance from -the nave as being “through a wooden arch,” near to which were the -remains of a piscina. Whether this wooden arch represents the ancient -rood-screen or not, it is impossible to tell. At any rate, the piscina -shows that an altar must anciently have stood against the front of the -screen. - -Monyash.—Previously to the “restoration” of 1886–8, in the east wall of -the north transept, at a height of about twelve feet from the ground, -there projected a wide stone, which had served as the step of the -doorway that led on to the top of the rood-loft. The outline of the -doorway itself could be traced until the unhappy changes at the above -date caused it to disappear. - -Morley.—This is one of the few Derbyshire instances of which the plan -might have admitted the ancient rood-loft being carried beyond the -width of the nave across the aisles to the outer walls of the church. -At any rate a piscina at the south-east corner of each aisle shows that -there must have been an altar at the end of both aisles, and would also -seem to imply that the aisles themselves were partitioned from the -eastern chapels beyond by screens in a line with the chancel screen. As -to the latter, the tradition in the parish in the time of Rev. S. Fox, -who died in 1870, was that the screen, “rather handsome but decayed,” -had stood in its place until within rather less than 50 or 60 years -of the above date, _i.e._, until as late, perhaps, as 1820, when, not -being thought well of by those in power at the time, it was taken down -and “sold to a farmer in the village for a guinea or so to serve for -a hen-roost or some such agricultural purpose.” However, according -to another account, the rood-screen disappeared when the church was -“repaired and beautified” in or about the year 1800. - -Mugginton.—In addition to the parclose before-mentioned, “a good oak -screen of Perpendicular tracery,” it is written in Cox’s _Churches of -Derbyshire_, in 1877, “in fair preservation, with a door in the centre, -divides the” south “aisle from the chapel. Originally this screen has -been continued across the nave, so as to divide it from the chancel. -Part of the base of this screen can still be seen in the supports -of the pews; and a band of well-carved foliage round the pulpit has -probably formed part of the cornice.” It is believed that this screen -was broken up at the time of the ruthless “renovation,” _circa_ 1845. - -Norbury.—The rood-screen had been fine, but was much mutilated in 1840, -according to Sir Stephen Glynne. This screen has since been cheaply and -very badly “restored.” It was originally vaulted, but is now made up -in a new framework of rectagonal form. The original portions consist -of the misused fenestration tracery. These number eight complete, and, -over the doorway, two incomplete pierced ornaments, 29 inches deep, -and averaging 19 inches wide. Upon some of them are traces of scarlet -colour. They are of Perpendicular workmanship, and are all plain and -smooth at the back. On the east side of the bottom part of the screen -are eight of the original panel-heads of blind tracery, 14¼ inches wide -by 10½ inches deep. There is no sign of the rood-stair. There being no -chancel arch, there must have been ample space for the display of the -rood on a beam across the chancel opening above the rood-loft, which -would have extended across the width of the nave, 19 ft. 6 in. The -eastern part of the chancel is panelled with oak, which might have come -from the former rood-loft. Along the top of this wainscot runs what -looks like a breast-summer, consisting of mouldings and a pierced band -of vine ornament, to the length altogether of somewhat over 25 feet. -The eastern end of the north aisle was formerly screened by a carved -oak parclose, which, however, disappeared in 1841. - -Ockbrook.—The screen having been brought hither from Wigston Hospital, -Leicester, is not to be reckoned among the screens of Derbyshire. - -Osmaston, a chapelry of Brailsford.—In 1834 it was noted that a small, -plain screen of wood stood between nave and chancel. The entire fabric, -however, was swept away in 1844–5, and rebuilt from the ground. - -Radbourne.—A parclose, dating from the fifteenth century, if not -earlier, formerly screened in the eastern portion of the north aisle. - -Repton.—In the parish church, “traces of the stairway to the rood-loft -across the chancel arch can still” (it was written in 1876) “be seen -in the north-east angle of the south aisle, and it is probable that -it was ... removed” in 1792, when the whole church underwent the -ordeal of “beautifying” in accordance with the degraded taste of the -period. It is, however, only just to the “restorers” of that date to -mention that they did abolish the cumbrous blank walls which they found -obstructing the openings between the aisles and the corresponding -eastern chapels—walls that had, at some previous era of barbarism, -been erected, there can be little doubt, in place of the original -carved wood parcloses. It is on record that remains of ecclesiastical -screenwork, with armorial devices, had become dispersed about the -place, and, falling into private hands, were worked up into panelling -for a dining-room, the wainscot of a summer-house, and other such-like -profane uses. - -Sandiacre.—“Up to 1855” (the quotation is from Cox’s _Churches of -Derbyshire_), “there were some parts of the old rood-screen still -remaining across the chancel arch of Decorated date. Some of this -tracery has been used up in the reading-desk, and the pulpit has been -made to correspond.” The length of the vanished rood-loft cannot have -exceeded the width of the nave, namely, 22 ft. 9 in. - -Sawley.—The oak rood-screen extends from side to side of the chancel, -18 ft. 5 in. Its height is 9 ft. 7 in. The heavy lintel is embattled -and moulded. The doorway is a plain, rectagonal opening of 3 ft. 5½ -in. wide, and without gates. On either side of it are five rectagonal -compartments or lights, separated by muntins, and opening 51½ -inches high, centred from 1 ft. 3 in. to 1 ft. 5½ in., with early -Perpendicular tracery in the heads to the depth of 11 inches, smooth -on the eastward surface. The solid part at the bottom consists of a -deep, moulded rail and, below, rectagonal panelling without tracery. -The westward face of each of the doorway jambs is buttressed, the -buttress having a square base. The joinery as a whole is so very coarse -and rude as to suggest the product of a rural workshop. The eastern -portion of each aisle was formerly screened from the rest of the church -by parcloses, which stood intact until 1838. The base of that section -of the southern parclose which ran from east to west between the aisle -and the nave, was removed on the plea of expediency not long ago by the -present rector, who broke it up and caused the soundest parts of it -to be turned into music desks for the choir boys in the chancel. The -only portions, therefore, that now remain are the lower halves of the -western section of either parclose running from north to south. That -in the north aisle (which enclosed the chantry of Our Lady) extends -over a length of 16 ft. 1½ in., with an interval of 2 ft. 8½ in. for -the entrance. It consists of five compartments, and stands 4 ft. 3½ in. -high, the buttressed muntins sawn off to the level of the fenestration -cill. Below the rail is a horizontal panel of pierced tracery, 7 inches -deep; and, below, panels with blind tracery in the heads to the depth -of 7½ inches. What is left of the parclose in the south aisle extends -over a length of 12 ft. 11 in., with an interval of 2 ft. 7¼ in. for -the entrance. It consists of eight rectagonal compartments, and stands -4 ft. 3 in. high, the buttressed muntins being likewise cut off to the -level of the cill. Both these parcloses are Perpendicular, and exhibit -a much more refined standard of execution than does the rood-screen. - -Smalley.—The mediæval church was destroyed in 1722, but in 1855, on the -removal of the gallery in the modern building, there was discovered an -ancient beam “enriched with deep, hollow chamfers,” in which pateras -of Gothic leafage and other ornaments “were carved at intervals of -about eighteen inches.” It was apparently of about the date 1460. This -may have been only an unusually elaborate roof-principal; but, on the -other hand, it might have been the old rood-beam or one of the timbers -from the rood-loft or screen. - -Spondon.—The rood-loft must have been of the same extent as the nave’s -width, 23 ft. 2 in. A disastrous “beautifying” process in 1826–7, -besides other irreparable damage, bodily removed the fifteenth century -oak rood-screen which stood across the chancel arch opening of 15 ft. -2½ in. At the same time the steps of the rood-stair were cut away to -make room for the flue-pipe of a stove. The entrance remains in the -south-east corner of the north aisle. The doorway is 2 feet wide, and -measures 6 ft. 10 in. in height to the apex of the depressed ogee of -the door-head. - -Staveley.—In 1710, Francis Bassano noted at the east end of the -nave, above a family pew, “a large molding, being (the) upper beam -of ye rood-loft, and on (the) wood is cut ye paternal coat armour of -Frecheville (azure, a bend between six escallops, argent) held by an -angel on his breast.” Further details are contained in a letter, dated -October, 1816, which states that “the rood-loft at Staveley, which -remained pretty entire since the Reformation, was taken down about -twenty-five years ago”—which would have been _circa_ 1790—“to let more -light into the church.” - -Sudbury.—Two fragments of carving, from the former rood-screen, were -described in 1877 as having then been recently affixed to the church -chest. - -Tideswell.—In 1845, Sir Stephen Glynne noted that “between the nave -and chancel is a good wood screen of Perpendicular character.” It was -“repaired” in 1882–3, the chisellings in the responds of the chancel -arch furnishing the outline of the original form of the vanished -upper portion. The lower part has been declared to be almost as -ancient as the church itself; but for the rest, it has been so much -altered and renovated that it is doubtful whether the gates or any -considerable portion of the upper half of the screen as now existing -is really authentic. The slender build of the screen has led to the -supposition that it cannot have been designed at the outset to carry -a rood-loft. That such, however, was added subsequently is clear from -the existence of the rood-stair, which, though since removed, was -standing in 1824. Its site was the western side of the north corner of -the chancel arch. It must have been a structure unusually conspicuous -compared with others built for the same purpose. It was of stone, and -occupied a space six feet square. The entrance was from the south, and -gave access to a small newel staircase, the doorway measuring about 4 -ft. 2 in. in height by 22 inches in width. Some remains of it, lying -in the vicarage garden, were identified by the late Rev. Prebendary -Andrew, and described by him in the fifth volume of the _Journal of -the Derbyshire Archæological Society_ (published in 1883). What the -ancient rood-loft was like is not recorded. In the year 1724 a faculty -was obtained by one Samuel Eccles to take down an old loft (whether -the mediæval rood-loft or not it is impossible to tell) then existing -over the chancel, and to transfer it to the tower for the use and -advantage of the singers; and at the same time to erect a loft for -his own use over the entry into the chancel. The transported loft is -believed to have occupied its western position until about 1820, when -it was removed altogether, a new gallery being erected in its room. -Beside the rood-screen itself, wooden parcloses must have divided the -chantry chapels in the transepts from the nave and from the rest of the -church. At any rate a quantity of pieces of ancient wood-carving were -to be seen loose about the church in 1824, and “cart loads” of them are -said to have been removed in 1825 on the occasion of the re-pewing of -the building. A subsequent vicar, Rev. Prebendary Andrew (1864–1900), -set to work to restore as much as he could. Some pieces of woodwork he -rescued from various misuses within the church, others from private -possession in the parish. A length of carving that had been cut in two -and turned into bookstands, as well as two fragments of screenwork, -open tracery of great delicacy and beauty, he set up in the Lady -Chapel; while a third piece of tracery-work he placed in the middle -compartment of the communion table. “The parclose of the De Bower -chapel has recently”—it was written in 1877—“been restored in exactly -the same position that it previously occupied.” - -Weston-on-Trent.—Rev. Dr. Cox in 1879 remarked on “the north aisle -being screened off by a parclose from the rest of the church.” The -length of the ancient rood-loft must have been the same as the width of -the nave, 18 ft. 5 in. - -Wilne.—The rood-screen which occupies the chancel arch is of simple -Perpendicular workmanship. It is 18 ft. 4 in. long by 7 ft. 9 in. high. -There are ten bays, five on either side, arched. The lintel is plain, -without any kind of ornamentation applied, and there are no gates. A -small stone staircase, now walled up, to southwards of the chancel -arch, commemorates the entrance into the ancient rood-loft. - -Youlgreave.—The churchwardens’ accounts, though not dating back earlier -than the beginning of the sixteenth century, contain some interesting -particulars about the rood-screen. In 1604, “the chancel gates were -boarded over,” and later in the same year occurs an item “for making -the partition betwixt the church and the chancell.” In 1661, a small -sum was paid “for 3 hinges for ye chancell gates,” which is evidence -that the rood-screen, howsoever sadly disfigured, with its doors, was -yet in existence at the above date. “There is now”—it was written in -1877—“no screen across the chancel arch, though it is in contemplation -to replace one, modelled on the mutilated remains of the lower part of -the old one, of Perpendicular design, which were removed at the time of -the ‘restoration’ (of 1869–73, by Mr. R. Norman Shaw), but have been -carefully preserved.” At about the end of the eighteenth century, the -fine old parclose erected round the eastern part of the south aisle was -removed. - -Finally, I desire, as in duty bound, to acknowledge my obligations to -the Rev. Dr. Cox, whose monumental work on _The Churches of Derbyshire_ -has been of inestimable service to me; to various writers, from whom I -have borrowed, in _The Reliquary_ and in the _Journal of the Derbyshire -Archæological Society_; to Rev. W. W. M. Kennedy for important -particulars concerning diocesan visitations; to Arthur Cox, Esq., of -Spondon Hall, for valuable introductions; and, lastly, to all those -clergy who have kindly allowed me to take photographs and measurements -in the churches committed to their charge. - - - - -PLANS OF THE PEAK FOREST - -By Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. - - -Derbyshire is fortunate in possessing a considerable number of plans -of the great tract of the Forest of the Peak, one of which is of late -Elizabethan date, and most of the remainder of the days of Charles I. -They are in safe custody in that great national storehouse in Chancery -Lane termed the Public Record Office. So far as we are aware, they have -never hitherto attracted the attention of any students of Derbyshire -history, or of any topographical writers. At all events, nothing has -hitherto been printed about them, although in many ways they are of -superlative interest. - -George, Earl of Shrewsbury, the Lord-Lieutenant of the county, so -celebrated in history as the custodian of Mary Queen of Scots, was -taken again into the favour of Queen Elizabeth in his old age in -1587; he died in 1590. Some time between these two dates the Earl was -permitted to purchase a portion of the Longdendale district of the -Peak Forest, which was formally disafforested for the purpose. In -connection with this purchase, a large quaint map of the whole of the -three great divisions of the forest was prepared, on which are marked -large parallelograms, painted vermilion, where there were pasturage -rights. On the Ashop and Edale section of the forest four contiguous -large patches of vermilion are shown; these are lettered “quenes -farmes in Ashop and Edall.” Immediately to the west of these is another -large parallelogram, divided into five by parallel lines, and by the -side of this is “Edall the Quenes ma^{tes} Farmes are devided into Fyve -vacaries.” To the north of these pasturage grounds there are large -uncoloured spaces marked “Greate Waste,” and the same term is repeated -on a smaller patch to the south-east. - -The section on the north-west of this plan, termed Longdendale, has -“Greate Waste” marked in various places over by far the greater portion -of the area. There is, however, a small vermilion parallelogram between -the towns of Glossop and Hayfield, the herbage of which pertained to -the Earl of Shrewsbury. A larger space in this section of the forest is -marked “The Herbage of Chynley, otherwise called Maidstonfeld. Godfrey -Bradshawe and others farm’s thereof.” - -The third or southern section of the forest, called the Champion -or Champayne, has fully half of its area coloured red in somewhat -irregular patches. The largest space in the centre is lettered “The -Severalles of the Champyon,” and within this is a smaller area termed -“The Inner Severalles.” Attached to the larger space at different -angles are other areas marked “Halsted Harbage,” “Grene,” “Ferfeld -Harbage,” “Tyddeswall Harbage,” and “The Herbage of Boughtedge, -Tenauntes and Fermers thereof, viz.: Thomas Lee, Henry Bagshawe, and -George Thornehill.” There are also two nearly adjacent small patches of -which the names are not clear. - -It thus becomes evident that it was only the townships or hamlets of -the Champayne division of the forest which had any claim to general -pasturage rights. - -The highly interesting feature of this late Elizabethan plan is the -series of little outline pictures illustrative of the buildings of the -chief places within the forest district. Each of these is here given in -exact outline after the original, except that there is a dash of colour -on the roofs of all the buildings, which throws them into better -relief. Interesting as these are from an art point of view, they have -to be accepted with some caution as accurate in a topographical sense. -It is not, for instance, possible to imagine but that the sketch of the -Peak Castle was somewhat imaginary; nor can the sketches of some of -the churches be made to fit with the extant fabrics. It should also be -remarked that this plan is a good deal blemished in places by having -been roughly divided into three parts, with the result that several -fragments are now missing, and the sketches of Castleton and Hayfield -are somewhat mutilated.[77] - -[77] When the list of the Duchy of Lancaster Maps and Plans was -recently drawn up and printed at the Public Record Office, the fact -that these three portions belonged to the same map was not recognised; -they are to be found under the respective numbers 7, 37, and 44. - -[Illustration: No. 1.] - -The view of Glossop may certainly be taken to prove that the old town -had its houses arranged in irregular blocks round the large church -as a centre (1). The parish church of Glossop was completely rebuilt -between 1831 and 1853; it is not, therefore, possible to say how far -the outline in the map is accurate. It is, however, fair to assume, -with regard to the churches as well as the houses, that the artist made -some effort to represent the reality, or otherwise the series of little -pictures would hardly have had so great a variety. - -With regard to Hayfield church, the like difficulty arises, for the -old building was demolished in 1836; and here again it is difficult to -believe that the delineator drew this form of a church out of his own -imagination (2). In this case a portion of the hamlet on the left-hand -side has been torn off. - -[Illustration: No. 2.] - -The third pictured town in this division is Mellor, and in this -instance, too, the church was entirely rebuilt at the beginning of -last century, save for the western tower (3). A proof is here afforded -of some measure of accuracy, for in this case the western tower is -represented in its right place, and not as rising from the centre of -the building, as shown in the cases of Glossop and Hayfield. There -are, also, traces at the top of Mellor tower of its having formerly -supported a small spire, as is here shown. - -[Illustration: No. 3.] - -In the second division of the forest, viz., that of Ashop and Edale, -there are two of these township pictures, viz., Castleton and Hope. -Castleton is, unfortunately, mutilated; the parts to the left hand -of the castle are missing. As to Peak Castle, it is fairly obvious -that some effort, however poor, has been made to reproduce the actual -buildings (4). The old Norman keep of the time of Henry II. is -evidently intended to be shown in the centre of the background. The -fore-part shows the later substantial enclosing of the inner bailey, -probably of Edwardian date, most of which has long ago disappeared. -Perhaps the most interesting detail of this, the oldest picture of -the celebrated fortress, is the building within the bailey which is -surmounted by a cross, and is, therefore, clearly a detached chapel. -There are two or three entries in the record history of the Peak Castle -which have not yet been made public, which refer to this chapel as in -use in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As to the church in the -town below, it is difficult to offer any conjecture as to how the -drawing can coincide with the present remains of the ancient church. -The draftsman seems to have had very exaggerated ideas as to the size -of the south porch. - -With regard to the picture of Hope, little more can be said than that -here again it is very difficult to fit in this outline drawing with the -fabric of the church as it now exists, except that the western tower -still bears a low broached spire (5). - -[Illustration: No. 4.] - -The third, or Champayne, division of the forest has pictures of four -towns, viz., those of Chapel-en-le-Frith, Fairfield, Wormhill, and -Tideswell. - -The various buildings that are grouped round the large church of -Chapel-en-le-Frith are sufficient to show that this old market town was -a place of some importance (6). In this case the church was rebuilt -throughout in the early part of last century, and there is very little -of historical record or other remains to tell us anything as to its -original proportions. There is, however, one gruesome record which -apparently shows that its size was considerably greater than that of -its successor; for in 1648 fifteen hundred prisoners of the Scottish -army defeated at Preston were confined within its walls when being -marched to London. They were kept in the church for over a fortnight, -and it is not surprising to learn that upwards of fifty died within -its walls. The outline drawing seems to suggest that the church was -of cruciform shape, with a tower and spire in the centre. The only -indication of a window is the large circular one of the south transept -over the porch; it is exceedingly unlikely that the draftsman produced -such a window as this from his own imagination. - -[Illustration: No. 5.] - -The destruction of the old churches in the Peak district was sadly -extensive about a hundred years ago. Another of the victims of the -then prevalent idea of running up a snug, cheap building, when the -old fabric had got into a state of dilapidation, was the church of -Fairfield, near Buxton (7). It was rebuilt in the years 1838–9, and -very little is known as to its original condition. - -Wormhill, again, suffered after a like fashion, though at a later date -(8). The present church was rebuilt in 1863–4. - -Tideswell is, perhaps, the most puzzling of all these pictures. Those -who know the singularly fine church of fourteenth century date, with -large chancel, transepts, double-aisled nave, and western tower, will -find it impossible to reconcile the outlined drawing with the church as -it really exists (9). - -[Illustration: No. 6.] - -We now come to the consideration of a considerably later series of -maps, which are done roughly to scale, of various townships within the -Peak forest. Derbyshire is exceptionally fortunate in having such a -series of carefully-preserved early plans. A list of the records of the -Duchy of Lancaster preserved at the Public Record Office was printed -in 1901. One section of this list is headed, “Maps and Plans”; they -consist principally of those made in the elucidation of the claims of -parties in disputes pending in the Court of the Duchy Chamber. The -three to which we have just referred are of the end of Elizabeth’s -reign, but otherwise they are almost entirely of various seventeenth -century dates. There are 116 items calendared as maps and plans at the -Public Record Office, of which Derbyshire has a large share, viz., 32, -or more than a quarter of the whole number. The reason for the making -of all these Derbyshire plans, save the three already mentioned, was -the enclosing or disafforesting of the Peak. - -[Illustration: No. 7.] - -During the reign of Charles I. many unhappy efforts were made to raise -funds for the Crown by re-establishing the almost extinct forest -courts. This was chiefly the work of Noy, the King’s Attorney-General, -styled by Carlyle “that invincible heap of learned rubbish.” -The revival of these courts, with all their costly and obsolete -formalities, accompanied by the imposition of absurdly heavy fines, -created bitter resentment wherever it was carried out, as in Surrey, -Berkshire, and Oxfordshire, and was, beyond doubt, one of the causes -that led to the Commonwealth trouble. In other parts of England where -there were royal forests, after the reimposition of forest law had -been so strenuously resisted, another line of action was adopted. -Attempts were made, occasionally with success, to secure money for -the Crown by the enclosure of forests, the Crown claiming a half, or -thereabouts, of the land, and selling them as soon as a title was -gained. This action led to continuous disturbance in Duffield, in the -south of Derbyshire, where the resistance made to enclosure by the -commoners and tenants was eventually successful. - -[Illustration: No. 8.] - -In the Peak, however, the destruction done to the crops by the small -remnant of the once vast herds of red deer was so persistent that the -commoners and others were only too ready to assent to any just scheme -of disafforesting. In 1635, various of the landowners and commoners of -the Peak petitioned the King, complaining of the severity, trouble, -and rigour of the forest laws, and praying that the deer, which were -still in sufficient numbers to do no small damage to the crops within -the forest and its purlieus, might be destroyed, and asking to be -allowed to compound by enclosing and improving the same. Thereupon a -commission of enquiry was issued, and two juries were empanelled, with -surveyors to assist them. The first jury viewed the whole forest and -its purlieus, and presented that the King might improve and enclose -one moiety in consideration of his rights, and that the other moiety -should be enclosed by the tenants, commoners and freeholders. The -second jury was empanelled to specially consider the case of the towns -within the purlieus, and they presented that the King, in view of the -largeness of the commons belonging to the towns of Chelmorton, Flagg, -Taddington, and Priestcliffe, might reasonably have for improvement and -enclosure one-third, and the remaining two-thirds for the commoners -and freeholders. A like division was to be adopted in several parts -within the forest. After some delay the commons were measured, and -surveys made of the different townships, dividing the land into three -sorts—best, middle, and worst, and the King’s share in each was -staked, and maps showing the results were drafted. The surveys were -not completed until 1640, and when all the preliminaries had been -adjusted, the King caused all the deer to be destroyed or removed, and -from that date onwards red deer were unknown within the High Peak. The -extirpation of the deer was, however, almost immediately followed by -the beginning of those “troublous times” which preceded the outbreak of -the Civil War. The whole of the proceedings towards enclosure fell into -abeyance. Soon after the restoration of the monarchy, much discussion -arose as to the revival of these projects, but it was not until 1674 -that the proposals for disafforesting the open or waste portions of -the Peak Forest, and enclosing the portions that were capable of -cultivation or good for pasture, were completed. The Commissioners -appointed for this purpose were Sir John Gell, Sir John Cassy, and -fifteen others, including such well-known Peak names as Bagshawe, Eyre, -and Shallcross. The third portion assigned absolutely to the Crown was -almost immediately granted by letters patent to Thomas Eyre, of Gray’s -Inn, who speedily entered upon and enclosed the same, notwithstanding -certain futile opposition in the duchy court. - -[Illustration: No. 9.] - -It must have been a great assistance to the labours of these -commissioners to find that the maps of the time of Charles I., showing -the exact measurements and the three sorts of land, were still extant. -These maps, though of rough execution, are of the highest interest.[78] - -[78] The following are the Record Office numbers of the maps of Charles -I.’s time:—13, Taddington and Priestcliffe; 14, 17, 22, 72, Bowden -Middlecale, etc.; 15, Castleton Commons; 18, Wormhill Commons; 19 and -107, Bradwell; 20, Mellor Moor and Commons; 23 and 79, Bowden Chapel; -38, Fairfield; 39, Hope; 40, Monyash; 89, Flagg and Chelmorton. There -are also three of Charles II. date, viz.:—16, Hope, wastes and commons; -75, Taddington; and 83, Bowden Middlecale. - -[Illustration: No. 10.] - -There are small, rudely-drawn and occasionally coloured outlines of -churches and houses on most of these maps. They are of a decidedly -inferior character to those on the large Elizabethan survey, but they -are still of some value. We give here two facsimiles of drawings -of Mellor church, and one of Fairfield (10). Those of Mellor are -sufficient to show that there was an aisled nave and a lower chancel in -addition to the surviving western tower. The tower appears to have lost -its low spire between the days of Elizabeth and Charles I. The drawing -of Fairfield seems to give a certain rough idea of what the old church -was like. - -Occasionally the drawings on these plans, to denote the situation -of the more important halls or manor houses, are sufficient to give -a crude notion of the actual building. This is rather specially -the case with the Ridge Hall; it was a chief seat of the prolific -Bagshawe family, on the higher slopes of the hills to the west of -Chapel-en-le-Frith, which we know they occupied as early as the reign -of Edward II. (11). This hall was rebuilt on a large gabled scale in -the later Tudor or Elizabethan days. The two drawings here reproduced -are from maps of the respective reigns of Charles I. and Charles II.; -in the latter case the artist has made some endeavour to represent the -trees by which the hall was surrounded. - -[Illustration: No. 11.] - -The drawing of Bradshawe Hall, from a plan of 1640, is almost ludicrous -from its lack of resemblance to the real building, but seems to be -worth giving from its quaintness. - -On one of the later maps the houses are drawn with more precision; but, -unfortunately, the names are not attached to some of the best examples -(in Mellor township), of which we here give two reproductions (12). The -very old set of lime-kilns at Dove Holes are most quaintly delineated -on three of the surveys. - -[Illustration: No. 12.] - -By far the most interesting feature of these maps, in the eyes at -least of an antiquary, are the numerous instances in which crosses are -marked. The remains of crosses and cross stumps on these Derbyshire -moors have been casually noticed from time to time by cursory writers. -In a paper contributed to the _Reliquary_ many years ago, when under -the editorship of Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, it was asserted with some -confidence that these crosses marked out the three great divisions or -wards of the Forest of Peak. This was a natural kind of guess to make, -but investigation immediately proved that such a supposition was quite -baseless. With the possible solitary exception of the cross on the old -pack-horse track from the head of Edale into Hayfield, not one of these -crosses has any possible connection with forest bounds. Nor are they, -as has been conjectured by another writer, terminal stones of monastic -lands, for we know with a fair amount of accuracy the directions in -which such lands lay, and in no one case do these crosses correspond -with such limits. It is also quite obvious that for the most part -these Peak crosses cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be described -as mere wayside crosses, either to mark some special incident or -tragedy, or to excite the Christian devotion of the wayfarer; and this -for the simple reason that the majority of the crosses do not appear to -have been on any frequented track of either the remote or nearer past. -Nor is it possible to conceive, by those who have visited any number of -them, that they could have been utilized for the purposes of guiding or -general direction. - -It is, of course, far easier to say what they were not, than to arrive -at any true solution as to what was their general object or design. The -solution that so far seems the most probable has already been elsewhere -succinctly stated without awakening adverse criticism.[79] All those -crosses that have been hitherto identified by myself and friends during -three rambles with the old plans in our hands in three successive -years, have been on important boundary lines. I believe almost the -whole of them are pre-Norman, and I am at present strongly inclined -to believe that they mark the setting out of ecclesiastical divisions -or parishes, or parochial chapelries, soon after the reconversion of -England had become an established fact, and when Christianity, under -the ordering of Theodore and Wilfrid, was becoming definitely organised -and ceasing to be mere scattered groups of missionary stations. There -are reasons which are too long for statement here why such a planning -out was probably accomplished in Derbyshire at an early date. It is -obvious that if ecclesiastical bounds were to be marked out in a -comparatively wild and treeless district, something artificial would be -needed in far greater abundance than in ordinary districts, where large -trees, river banks, ancient roads or lands pertaining to particular -holders, could readily be named and utilized for boundary purposes. - -[79] See articles in the _Athenæum_ for July 9th, 1904; June 24th, -1905; and September 8th, 1906. - -The supposition that these crosses are of a township or parish boundary -character is much strengthened by the frequency of their occurrence in -the exact places where there are proofs of fairly early cultivation, -and where there were rather intricate intersections of such divisions. - -Perhaps the most interesting of these seventeenth century plans is -the one which includes a considerable area, and has at the head the -following descriptive title, written in a straggling hand and signed by -the two surveyors:— - - “The Mappe of the Wastes and Commons in Bowdon le Cappell, Fairefield, - Ferneleigh, Shalcross and Mellor as they are eaqually devided into two - eaqual parts quantity and qualitie considered and meas’^{ed} by us - Thomas Hibbart and Samuel Barton two Survayors being Sworne upon our - Oathes to that purpose by the Commissioners and delivered up unto the - saide Commissioners the eight daye of October 1640 - - “By us Tho: Hibbart - - “Sa: Barton.” - -On another part of the map is written: - - Measured and divided by a Scale of fortie in the Inch. - -The part of this map descriptive of the wastes and commons of Mellor, -which contained 356 acres, and which it was proposed to divide equally -between the King and the tenants, is marked with several crosses. At -the extreme north of the tenants’ portion is a curiously designed -landmark, here termed “Arnfeelde Poule” (13). This outline drawing -has the appearance of a pole or slender shaft affixed to the top of -a somewhat elaborate cross base. In other maps the same boundary is -outlined after different fashions, two of which are here reproduced. -From one of these, having a cross on the summit, it may be concluded -that it originally had that form. The name Arnfield or Armfield is -not now in any way known in the district, but one of the six roads or -lanes which meet at this point is still called Pole Lane. There is -no doubt that it took its name from one Robert Armfield, whose house -and land are figured on another survey. The place is now known as -Jordanwall Nook, and Jordan was the name of another tenant in adjoining -lands. This pole or cross is described in a survey of 1695 as parting -the hamlets of Whittle, Thornsett, and Mellor. At this spot, at the -junction of two of the roads, there is a large piece of boulder stone, -that has been roughly hewn, measuring 37 in. by 25 in., and over the -stone wall is another considerable fragment. These are probably the -remains of the base of Armfield pole or cross when it was broken -up. Other crosses marked on the Mellor section of the 1640 map are -respectively designated “the Birgwerd Crosse,” “the Mislne Crosse,” and -“the Stafforde Crosse,” all of them on boundaries. - -[Illustration: No. 13.] - -[Illustration: No. 14.] - -The extreme north-west angle of the Mellor division has an outline -drawing, here reproduced, lettered “The two standing stones,” which -are elsewhere called “the Maiden Stones” (14). This pair of stones, -still to be seen, stand at an important boundary point, about 1,200 -feet high, where the townships of Ludworth, Chisworth, Mellor, and -Rowarth meet. At the angle of Ludworth Moor, where these remarkable -stones are to be found, there is no road near, but merely an almost -disused track. For more than a century at least these stones have been -known by the name of “Robin Hood Picking Rods”; but such a name was -obviously unknown in the seventeenth century, as it occurs in none of -these old surveys. The title “Maidenstones” is one of peculiar interest -to any antiquary who has given attention to early earthworks, but it -is too intricate a subject to be here discussed. On a 1695 survey, a -boundary mark called “The Whyte Maiden” is marked a short distance -from the Standing Stones. These two circular pillar stones stand in -round socket holes, 12 in. apart, in a great stone about 80 in. long -by 49 in. broad. The taller of the two stands 45 in. above the base, -and has a girth at the bottom of 59½ in.; the shorter one stands only -30 in. high, but has a girth of 67 in. They have been pulled out -of their sockets more than once in the past century, and are both -mutilated. Part of the top of the shorter one (27 in. long) is built -into an adjacent wall (15). Judging from the analogy of the two Bow -Stones, five miles off to the north just across the Cheshire border, -they originally had filleted heads of Saxon workmanship. They may be -compared with a small filleted Saxon pillar in the porch of Bakewell -Church, and another taller one at Clulow, and more especially with the -Saxon shaft in the grounds of a private house at Fernilee which now -supports a sundial. - -[Illustration: No. 15.] - -Various more or less wild theories have been enunciated with regard to -closely adjacent twin pillar stones of this character, of which several -examples survive; they have sometimes been pronounced to be of Roman -origin, whilst others have claimed them as pertaining to Phœnician art -and of Phallic design. It must here suffice to ask our readers, who may -not have given particular attention to the subject, to believe that -they are beyond doubt of Saxon construction and date. When the sites -of all such twin-stones have been carefully investigated, it will -probably be established that they have some particular connection with -intricate boundaries, and possibly with the junction of two separate -ecclesiastical jurisdictions. - -There are two other sites in the Peak district marked on these early -plans where a pair of stones, each surmounted by a cross, is figured, -neither of which have yet been identified. One of these is also on the -northern edge of the Mellor Commons, the Birgwurd cross, the outline of -which is here given. - -Following the track from these Standing Stones due east for exactly -a mile, at the precise spot where the old track crosses the boundary -between Rowarth and Charlesworth townships, is the large fragment -of the base of an old cross which has at a later date been used as -a direction stone. Pursuing the same boundary line for half a mile -further in a south-easterly direction, the stone long known as the -Abbot’s Chair, and thus marked on the ordnance maps, is reached. -Though a wrong and fanciful name, it has been thus described for more -than two and a half centuries. On the 1640 survey it is styled “Abots -Chere” (16). This stone measures 37 in. by 24 in., and stands 24 in. -high; it is hollowed out to a width of about 17 in., with three of the -sides raised 5 in., so as to form a kind of rough chair with a low -back and sides. Closer examination shows that the hollow is really an -old socket, presumably for a large cross, one side of which has been -split off by the action of frost or human violence. The road that -passes near it from the north to Hayfield is called Monks Road. It was -in this division (Longdendale) of the Peak Forest that the Abbot of -Basingwork had considerable rights and a large grange, and possibly -this stone may have been thus mutilated and obtained its present name -in pre-Reformation days. It is significant that the “chair” stands on -the exact spot where the boundary is suddenly deflected at a right -angle; and at a distance of 200 feet from the chair-stone, on the other -side of the Monks Road, on the spot where the boundary resumes a -south-easterly direction, is the perfect stump of another cross. This -is a well-cut base, and obviously mediæval or after the Norman Conquest - -[Illustration: No. 16.] - -On the high ground in Cheshire, very near the Derbyshire boundary, is -a stone that goes by the name of “Pym’s Chair.” This stone, like the -“Abbot’s Chair,” Derbyshire, proved on examination to be the base of -a large early cross; one of the sides of the squared socket having -been broken away, gives it the appearance of a low, rude chair. It -bears the initials P C in large capitals, which were probably cut in -the seventeenth century when some survey was made. An obvious idea, -locally accepted, makes the initials stand for Pym’s Chair. The name -Pym is fairly common both in Cheshire and Derbyshire. It is curious to -note that a few miles off in the latter county, a little beyond Edale -Head Cross, another “Pym’s Chair” is marked on the ordnance map in a -desolate piece of moorland not yet investigated. - -The Edale Head Cross is the best known of those in the Peak district, -for it stands by the old British trackway or pass from Hayfield over -Kinder into the Edale Valley. It stands at the highest point (1,750 -feet) of this once much used pack-horse route. This cross, which now -stands fifty-seven inches out of the ground, has now no base, and seems -to have been moved more than once. The head is a Latin cross, and -incised within it, on the side towards the track, are lines forming -another cross, and within this, “I G 1610.” This refers to a survey of -parts of the Peak Forest begun in 1610, but never completed; John Gell -was one of the commissioners. This particular cross, which is of far -older date than the time of James I., can claim to be a forest as well -as a parochial boundary, for near this spot the three forest wards of -Longdendale, of Ashop and Edale, and of the Campana or Champion, met. -This cross is still sometimes known as the Champion Cross, and those -who have not known that Champion was only an old variant for the -Champagne or open grazing district of the Peak, have been silly enough -to invent would-be knightly legends and ballads in comparatively modern -days to account for the title. - -Lack of space altogether prohibits any complete following up of the -considerable number of crosses on these seventeenth century plans, the -sites of which have been already investigated. It is hoped that in the -course of a few years it may be possible to produce an archæological -map of the whole district, upon which the remains of crosses may be -exactly defined, and then will be the time for coming to more mature -conclusions as to their general object and date. Two others, however, -may be now named. At a point on the verge of Abney Moor, 1,200 feet -above the sea level, about a mile to the south-east of Bradwell, where -the townships of Abney, Hazelbadge, and Bradwell converge, the maps -mark a cross styled Robin’s or Robin Hood’s Cross. After some search -we found the early rough base stone, showing half of a squared socket, -protruding from the bottom of a well-built stone wall, close to a stile -leading into an old roadway. - -“The Martine Syde Crosse” appears on more than one of the old plans, -not far from a large farmstead or hall still known as Martin Side, -at an elevation of 1,100 feet above the valley of Chapel-en-le-Frith -(17). About a quarter of a mile beyond the hall on the roadside towards -Dove Holes, we noted the stump of a cross. The height of this stump -or squared base was 20 in., and it measured at the top 28 in. by 26½ -in. In the centre was an empty shaft socket 11 in. by 9 in., and 8 in. -deep. From the rough character of this base stone, and from the shape -of the socket, it may fairly be assumed that it is of pre-Norman date. -A small channel cut from the edge of the socket to an angle of the base -stone seemed to be original, and may possibly have served as a pointer -to the next boundary stone. - -[Illustration: No. 17.] - -One other point remains to be noted in these somewhat desultory remarks -on the old surveys. In several places occur lines marked “Forest Wall.” -This was the stone wall of a very considerable circuit that enclosed -most of the Campana or Champagne district of the Peak Forest, where -the feeding for the King’s game of deer was the best. It was not a -high park wall to keep the deer in, but a comparatively low one, -with a dyke. Its object was to prevent sheep or cattle that might be -agisted within the forest from trespassing on the parts particularly -serviceable as pasturing ground for the often hardly tried deer; but -it had to be low enough to allow hinds and fawns, as well as harts, -readily to leap it when desirous of roaming further afield. It is quite -possible to trace in certain places the building of this unmortared -forest wall, which is constructed in a decidedly superior fashion to -other and later wall fences. One of the best places in which to note it -is on the lofty ridge that separates Edale from Castleton dale. In the -midst of this there is a pass and gateway in the forest wall, called -Ludgate in the old plans. - -In June, 1561, Queen Elizabeth issued a commission of enquiry as to the -condition of Peak Castle and Forest. The commissioners were instructed, -among other matters: - - “To view the height of one wall erected and made in or about one - parcell of one pasture called the Champion within our saide foreste, - how brode and depe the Dike in and about the same wall is, whether the - same dike be drye or standinge with water for the most parte of the - yere, pasture notwithstandinge the said walle and dike, and whether - the said wall and dyke be noisome or hurtefull to or for our deare and - game there, and to thinderance of the grasse for our said deare, or be - better for the cherisshinge of our said game and deare there or not.” - - - - -OLD COUNTRY LIFE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY - -By Sir George Reresby Sitwell, Bart., F.S.A. - - -The charm of country life, as we know it in England, lies almost as -much in old associations as in scenery and sport. An ancient hall -without its records is a body without a soul, and can never be fully -enjoyed until one has learnt something of the men and women whom it has -sheltered in the past—of their lives and manners, their love affairs, -their wisdom, and their follies; how the oak furniture gave way to -walnut, and the walnut to mahogany; how they laid out the gardens, -raised the terrace, clipped the hedges, and planted the avenue. Such -reflections have committed me to a task which has proved heavier than -I desired or anticipated. Indeed, I should never have persevered with -it had I not early come under the influence which an old house so often -exercises upon those who live under its roof; sometimes for evil, as -when a family inheritance of ill-health depends upon faulty drainage or -a waterlogged soil; sometimes as a spur to ambition, an incentive to -effort, or a liberal education in art. - -My father died when I was two years old, and at the time I first went -to school we used to spend but a few months in the summer at our -old home at Renishaw, in Derbyshire. The building is of great size, -giving an impression of past wealth and power, the “olde richesse” -which Chaucer tells us is the foundation of “genterye,” and the -Jacobean plaster work and stone-tiled roof bear witness to its -antiquity. Most that was interesting within its walls had been swept -away in 1849, when the failure of the Sheffield Bank completed the -wreck of my grandfather’s affairs. The library, a gradual growth of -three hundred years, and the collection of Civil War pamphlets, had -been scattered abroad, and little of the original furniture remained -except the tapestries, pictures and china, and a few old cabinets -of tortoiseshell, rosewood, or ebony. Of family history, absolutely -nothing had come down to us but the tradition that our ancestors had -lived there since the reign of Elizabeth, and a story concerning a -portrait of the “Boy in red” (his name was forgotten), who had died by -drowning, and whose ghost was supposed to haunt the house. Yet there -was enough left to excite interest and to provoke enquiry. I remember -finding, on one of my holiday visits, amongst the old books in the -hall, a Greek grammar of the days when Shakespeare was at school, and -in it my own name, written by an earlier George Sitwell just three -hundred years before. The lumber room, with its Georgian panelling and -arched window looking out upon the staircase, had always excited my -curiosity, and being allowed to poke about in it on rainy days, I came -upon many strange and dusty relics of the past, the flotsam and jetsam -which had stranded there during several generations—old portraits and -brocaded dresses, portfolios of eighteenth century prints, the wreck -of a machine for perpetual motion upon which somebody was said to -have wasted twenty years of his life, a collection of minerals (two -compartments were labelled “Rubies” and “Emeralds,” but the specimens -were not so large as one could have wished), flint lock guns, rapiers -and swords, and a spring gun which must have been a real terror to -poachers, writing desks with letters and little treasures still stowed -away in them, and, most precious of all, a few old chests, heaped up -with manuscripts, parchments, and books. Within these, in the utmost -confusion, lay rentals, subsidy rolls, estate accounts, and household -books of the seventeenth century; bundles of old letters which had -turned yellow with age or were fast falling into dust, inventories -of furniture and linen, quaint little almanacs, bound in brown or -red leather, and fastened with silken strings or clasps of brass; -tradesmen’s bills of Queen Anne’s reign, with printed headlines or -little engravings of shop signs and articles of merchandise; wills of -all dates, from the fifteenth century onwards; and charters, many with -fine seals attached to them, of six or seven hundred years ago, and -preserved in little round or oblong boxes of thin oak, to which the -original covering of black leather still clung in shreds and tatters. - -Curiosity, and the rather wild hope of hitting upon autographs of -Cromwell or Shakespeare, led me to examine these documents, and by the -end of my second year at Eton I had unconsciously learnt to read them. -After that time, my holidays were spent away from Renishaw, but before -I went to Oxford I had occasional opportunities of following up the -search amongst the numerous boxes of old manuscripts in the muniment -room and elsewhere in the house, and thought myself rewarded by finding -at one time impressions of the great seals of Elizabeth and James, -an original grant of arms, or a letter-book of Charles the Second’s -time; at another, King Richard’s charter to the Guild of Eckington, a -“protection” from General Lord Fairfax, a household book begun in the -year of the great plague, and a packet, sealed up two hundred years -ago and never opened since, which proved to contain papers relating -to fines, decimation, and sequestration under the Commonwealth. Still -more interesting were the old letters written by various members of -the family, and these I put carefully on one side, having already -formed the idea of publishing a selection from them. In 1880, the year -before I came of age, I commenced to write them out for the press in -my leisure hours, and nine years later the work of printing my first -volume was begun. - -Amongst the many thousands of letters and papers at Renishaw, it was -not my good fortune to discover any of real historical importance. -This collection is not, of course, to be named in the same breath -with the Paston letters, nor can it be compared, either in bulk or in -interest, with the Rutland, the Talbot, or the Verney manuscripts. Yet -even the correspondence of an undistinguished family may illustrate -the history of earlier times. The letter of 1661 upon the causes of -the Civil War, the account of the Whitehall plot to assassinate Oliver -Cromwell, the printed summonses to appear before the Commonwealth -Commissioners at York and Westminster, the series of Civil War fines, -the Restoration letter-book, and the papers relating to Titus Oates -and Sacheverell, supply some new facts, and are not without value. The -order for the disbandment of the Derbyshire regiments in 1646, the -bargain for supplying the sheriff’s table in 1652, the letter to the -London Post Office authorities in 1664, the amusing description of a -journey to Nottingham in a stage coach, the agreements between the -gentlemen of Derbyshire in 1690 and 1736, the certified extract from -the Hatfield Court Roll of 1337, and the account of a riot at Sheffield -in 1756, have at least a local interest. One is glad to know what the -country gentlemen of the time thought of the hypocrisy of Cromwell -and the indolence of Charles the Second, of the Great Rebellion, the -“Sickness,” the Popish Plot, the Revolution, the South Sea Bubble, and -the invasions of 1715 and 1745; but, as would naturally be expected -from a family correspondence extending over three hundred years, these -letters are valuable rather as illustrating social life than as records -of public events. Concerning housekeeping, education, methods of -travelling, visits to London, and changes of fashion and manners, they -have much to tell us; of battles and sieges, the fall of ministries, -the prosaic virtues of the Georges, and the innate depravity of the -Pretender, not too much. - -Macaulay, in his famous third chapter, writes of the “gross, -uneducated, untravelled country gentleman” of Charles the Second’s -reign; a “man with the deportment, the vocabulary, and the accent of -a carter”; a man whose “ignorance and uncouthness, whose low tastes -and gross phrases would, in our time, be considered as indicating a -nature and a breeding thoroughly plebeian.” It is not easy to reconcile -this description with the accounts given by contemporary observers. -The portrait certainly does not err on the side of flattery, and those -who are familiar with the printed literature and unpublished records -of that age will ask themselves with amazement whether it can be a -likeness. Macaulay asserts that the country squire of that period -never visited London and never opened a book. Contemporary writers -tell us that the latter was always riding post to London, and spending -his substance there when he ought to have been occupied with the care -of his estate, and that there were more private libraries in England -than in any other country in Europe. Now it is possible, of course, -that Macaulay knew more about the manners of that age than did the -people who lived in it; but it is also possible that he wilfully and -maliciously caricatured a class of men which he had political reasons -for disliking. The “gross, uneducated, untravelled country gentleman” -was usually a Tory. - -[Illustration: Country Gentlemen on the London Road.] - -It may readily be admitted that in the seventeenth century country -gentlemen could understand the local dialect, for intercourse with -their tenants and the servants and labourers in their employ would -otherwise have been difficult or impossible, and that the accent of -some Yorkshire squires might betray their origin as surely as that of -some Irish gentlemen to-day. But life in the country is no proof of -rusticity, and everyone who speaks with a brogue is not necessarily -a carter. At the time of which Macaulay writes, civilization was -not confined to London. York and Derby, to the inhabitants of those -counties, were “town” in the same sense that London is to their -descendants. London had not yet gathered to itself all the business, -the fashion, and the culture of the nation, and country gentlemen still -flocked in winter to cities which had once, perhaps, been the capitals -of independent kingdoms, and were even now centres of society, of -learning, and of government. - -Neither in his virtues nor in his failings was the country gentleman -of Charles the Second’s time such as Macaulay has portrayed him. His -chief pleasure did not consist in drinking himself under the table with -strong beer, for excess was the exception and not the rule with the -class to which he belonged, and claret and sack, malago and rhenish, -were the beverages he was accustomed to, both at his own house and -at the taverns. His principal employment was not “handling pigs, and -on market days making bargains over a tankard with drovers and hop -merchants”; on the contrary, though a good judge of horses and oxen, -bullocks and swine, he left the stocking of the home farm and the -sale of produce to the steward who collected his rents. He was better -educated in Greek, Latin, logic, philosophy, divinity, and law, than -the country gentlemen of to-day, and more competent to manage his own -affairs; his taste (at least in building, furniture, gardening, and -dress) was more refined; he was keenly interested in public events, -and willing to make sacrifices for public objects; he took a kindly -and helpful interest in his poorer neighbours; though proud of his -position, was sensible enough to send his younger sons into trade; and -though he could not “shoot flying,” had a proper feeling for sport. He -was not free from the narrowness and want of charity, the aversion to -change and to new ideas so often found in those who have made divinity -and the classics the study of their lives, and religious bigotry was -his besetting sin. - -The letter-book of 1662–6 throws much light on the George Sitwell, of -Renishaw, of that period. In appearance he was somewhat over the middle -height, and, as became one already well advanced in middle age, rather -neat and precise than fashionable in his dress. He wore a long periwig, -scented with orange flower water, a slight moustache and tuft of hair -upon his chin, a grey broad-brimmed beaver hat, large bands of white -linen or cambric, a dark grey cloth coat of simple cut, unbuttoned at -the waist, and with the wristbands turned back to show the soft linen -cuffs underneath, a sword belt and sword, cavalier breeches open at the -knee, riding tops of wrinkled buckskin, and square-toed shoes, with -high heels, and tongues to protect the instep from the stirrup. On -his arm he usually carried a horseman’s cloak.[80] His face, with its -good forehead and eyes, strong and clear-cut nose, and well developed -chin, gave an impression of force of character, tenacity of purpose, -and good reasoning powers; and this impression was strengthened by his -conversation, for even the most casual acquaintance could not fail to -observe that he was a man who had been accustomed to think and act for -himself, a man not only well educated, but gifted with a sound judgment -and a marked talent for business. - -[80] See the effigy upon his tomb in Eckington Church. - -He was an old cavalier who had garrisoned his house for the King, and -had suffered fines and “decimation” under the Commonwealth. In 1653 -he had served as Sheriff, and had brought with him to Derby a chaplain -after his own mind, who preached a dangerously clever Assize sermon on -“Magistracie and Ministery, the State and the Church.” In a remarkable -letter to Lord Frecheville, written in April, 1661, he expresses his -opinion that the “late unhappy warr began about disputes in religion,” -and was the work of “crafty, wicked men,” “proud, insolent, factious, -seditious spirits,” who, finding it “best to fish in troubled waters,” -had made “Godliness their gaine” and “religion the cloake to cover -their intentions.” Such opinions were common enough at the Restoration, -but it is startling to find at such a moment the expression of a belief -that there had been faults on both sides, and that “flatterers of -Soveraignty” were as much to blame as “flatterers of popularity.” “We -have,” he adds, “a good, a gracious, and a prudent King, who, though he -hath not had long, yet hath had grand experience of men, which makes -him delight in and love those who are honest. He knows very well that -those who were the greatest flatterers of his ffather of happy memory, -divisers and promoters of monopolies and revivers of ould obsolete -laws, therby to lay uncoth and strange burdens upon the people, proved -his bitterest and worst enemies.” Justice between man and man the -writer considered to be the “sinews of all Commonwealths,” and the -laws of England the people’s “birthright” and their defence against -“arbitrary power.” At the first outbreak of the Civil War he had signed -two petitions inviting Charles to return from the North to meet his -Parliament; and after the Restoration his chief desire in politics was -to see “an Unity at home which will be a stronge Bullworke against -our advarsaries.” But he was sorely troubled at the King’s neglect of -business and the corruption of the public service. - -Some account of his fortune and surroundings is a necessary prelude to -a study of his manner of life. The Renishaw estates[81] produced at -this time about £800 a year, and from other sources—chiefly from the -iron furnaces and forges[82] upon his property, for like many of the -greater and lesser landowners of that district he was interested in -the iron trade—Mr. Sitwell received an amount at least equal to his -agricultural rents. In order that the meaning of these figures may be -understood, it is necessary to explain that in the seventeenth century -the nation was poorer, manners were simpler and more primitive, and -the value of money was not the same. The purchasing power of money, as -most intelligent schoolboys are aware, was then, according to the usual -estimate, four times what it is at present. - -[81] These estates were considerable in the reign of Elizabeth. In -the Derbyshire subsidy roll of 1596–7 Robert Sytwell is assessed at -£20 a year in lands, John Curzon of Kedleston, the ancestor of Lord -Scarsdale, at £21, William Cavendish, the first Earl of Devonshire, at -£30, and John Manners of Haddon, the ancestor of the Duke of Rutland, -at £40. Robert was sixth in descent from John Sitewell, who had a good -estate at Eckington in the fourteenth century, as may be seen by a -curious entry on the court roll for January, 1386–7. - -[82] In the winter of 1661–2, 1,181 tons of sow iron valued at £6 a -ton were made at these furnaces. This amount may be compared with the -ten thousand tons which, according to Macaulay, represented the total -annual output of iron in England at the close of Charles the Second’s -reign. - -The loyal Duke of Newcastle, who is said to have been the wealthiest -subject in Great Britain at the outbreak of the Civil War, had a rental -of only £22,000 a year. After the Restoration, the greatest estates in -the kingdom hardly exceeded £20,000 a year, and in 1669 the average -income of peers, taken one with another, was estimated at £3,000, of -knights at £800, and of esquires at £400 a year. Mr. Sitwell, with -a revenue of £1,600, was therefore possessed of a fortune above the -common; he pleads guilty, in one of these letters, to having a “good -estate,” and it is clear that in his own country he had the reputation -of being a very wealthy man. - -His house, “the capital messuage called Renishawe”—situated some six -miles from Chesterfield, then a walled town and the “fayrest in all -the Peake Cuntrie”[83]—had been rebuilt out of the savings of his -minority shortly before his marriage in 1627. It stood (and yet stands, -for the old hall is the centre of the new) on the summit of a rocky -hill projecting into the vale of Rother, which here narrows to two or -three hundred yards, and commanding fine views towards the north and -south. On the latter side, a richly cultivated country, cut up into -innumerable inclosures by hedgerows, and scattered with forest trees, -formed a pleasing contrast to the wild and rugged moorland by which -Eckington was approached; and beyond it, to the south and south-east, -rose that beautiful ridge upon which Barlborough, Bolsover Castle, -and Hardwick stand. The turrets and battlements of these three famous -houses, towering up on the hillside above the groves and woodland which -surrounded them, were all visible from Renishaw; and to the south-west -the country rolled on in successive ridges of meadow land and common -towards the faint blue line which marked the edge of the Chesterfield -moors in the far distance. From the north front of the house, -Mosborough Hall could be seen across the green valley through which the -Mosbecke flows to its union with the Rother; on the left, beyond the -church and village, lay the ancient woods and picturesque manor park -of Eckington in a deep cleft between the hills, and to the right the -view down the vale extended for many miles into Yorkshire. East of the -house, the promontory upon which Renishaw stands was bare of planting, -being sheltered by the higher ground beyond the river, and by the woods -of Park Hall and Barlborough, and on the west a plantation of oaks and -ashes protected it from the prevailing winds which sweep down from the -distant moors. - -[83] See the Derbyshire church notes of 1590 in Harleian MS. 6,592. - -The river below the house was crossed by a highway, described in a -letter of 1665 as a “great road from the West parts of Yorkshire -towards London.” Approaching from the London side a traveller would -catch his first glimpse of Renishaw from the point where the manors -of Barlborough and Eckington meet. The building was three-storied and -of stone, with a four-gabled front facing the east, and, towards the -south, a battlemented hall between two projecting wings, of which the -nearer was furnished with a great bow window. It was surrounded with -orchards and walled gardens, and behind it a plantation of ancient -trees formed an impressive background. Below lay the cliffs and rocky -slope known as Broxhill, then unplanted, but deep in fern and gorse; in -the left foreground a line of willows marked the winding course of the -river as it approached the bridge, and to the right the ancient mill -and water meadows beyond were framed in by the wooded steep of Birley -Hill. Proceeding along the causeway (built as a protection against -floods) and across the bridge, the road turned sharply to the right and -to the left again, and so mounting the hill passed within fifty yards -of the house. - -This road, with its wayside oaks and strips of green, was not, as -might be imagined, a quiet country lane, but a highway full of life -and colour and movement. Here, past the court gates, and in full view -from the first-floor windows of the house, flowed by throughout the -summer months a ceaseless stream of traffic. The smocked carriers -cracked their whips as they passed with their covered waggons and -long train of patient packhorses, or shouted to the women passengers -crouching behind them in the straw. Postboys with budgets of letters -cantered by, sounding their horns as they turned down to the village. -Beggars in rags, with their little bundles carried upon staves across -the shoulder, and wandering pipers and fiddlers, turned to look at -the house; Scotch pedlars, with cheap linen cloth in their packs; -and hawkers or chapmen with wallets full of little trifles—gloves of -cordevant and sheep leather, tobacco boxes, ribbons and shoe-strings, -almanacs, horn-books, jocktalegs, and ballads on the Dutch war and -the hearth tax. Gentlemen in long boots, riding suits and cloaks, -and velvet caps, trotted past, followed by mounted servants; or -honest yeomen in coarse cloth and worsted stockings, with their -wives in homespun and steeple hats riding pillion behind them. The -little processions of marketing and fairing folk came and went; brown -barefooted mower-women at hay and corn harvest; labourers in their -loose frocks tied in at the waist, patched breeches and hose, and -tall hats with vast projecting brims; country women riding to market -between baskets of farm produce, with chickens or ducks swinging -from the saddlebow; labourers’ wives trudging it on foot with wicker -trays of vegetables or fruit upon their heads; farmers’ wains drawn -by huge oxen, older and bulkier than any which can be seen to-day; -and, in autumn, droves of swine on their way to the woods. Often Lord -Frecheville’s or Lord Deincourt’s chariot and four passed the gates, -the coach of some neighbouring gentleman bright with heraldry and -gilding, a train of charcoal waggons bringing fuel to the Staveley -ironworks, or of others laden with long saws and brewers’ squares, -cannon shot, fire-backs, or sugar-stoves; and more rarely a ponderous -furnace-hearth drawn by twenty oxen, a company of militia in their -buffcoats faced with crimson plush, a gentleman riding to the poll at -Derby at the head of his tenantry, or the cavalcade of some great -nobleman journeying towards London with three coaches and an armed -escort of thirty or forty attendants on horseback. It was an ever -changing panorama of human life, an endless procession labouring -towards an unknown goal, for in the seventeenth century the nation was -to be studied rather on the roads than in the cities, and for commerce, -for travel, and for news, the roads were all that the railways and -telegraphs are to us, and more. - -[Illustration: Arrival of a Guest at a Country House.] - -From the busy world outside one entered a little haven of peace and -rest within the gates. The main entrance to Renishaw, which was -immediately off the road, led by wooden doors between stone piers into -a close court, the walls being planted round with fruit trees and the -borders with flowers, and so by a broad paved walk between two grass -plats to the steps of the porch. The building itself was of the usual -Jacobean type, with mullioned windows protected by string-courses, -gables and cupola tiled with stone, and battlemented roof over the -hall. In plan, it was a double E, the central member being given by -the porch on the north and by the great hall chimney to the south; on -the former side the projecting wings contained a buttery (to the east) -and a kitchen, on the latter a great and little parlour. Entering the -porch, a second door led into a hall of moderate size (twenty feet by -twenty-four), handsomely paved with grey and yellow stone, and ceiled -with heavy cross beams covered with plaster. Upon the oak panelling, -stags’ heads, escutcheons of arms, and maps of Europe and of Jerusalem -were hung, and the centre of the room was occupied by the long table -at which the family dined. On the opposite wall, between two windows -corresponding to those on either side of the porch, was a great -fireplace of stone, framed in by a mantel of carved oak. There was an -oak cupboard by the kitchen door, and here also hung a buffcoat and -some pistol-holsters. In the window lay the family Bible. - -[Illustration: A Ball at an Assembly Room.] - -On the left hand two doors opened out of the hall, the first into a -paved and arched entry which led past the buttery hatch (on the left) -to the garden entrance; and the second to the “Great Staircase,” finely -wainscotted and carved, and lighted by windows to the east. At the foot -of the stairs was the door into the great parlour, about thirty-four -feet long by twenty broad, by far the finest room in the house. A large -bow window at the further end, and three windows to the east, looked -out upon the flower garden. The ceiling of graceful renaissance plaster -work, light and in low relief, was designed with large quatrefoils and -diamonds, the points of the latter running out into branches of quince, -oak, or vine, or large fleur-de-lis of varying patterns. In the centres -of the spaces between were moulded ornaments of mermaids, dolphins, -squirrels, roses, octofoils, and winged and coronetted lions’ heads. -On the walls, immediately below the ceiling, was a frieze, also in -plaster, which exhibited a running pattern of vine leaves, grapes, and -birds, stopped at intervals by strapwork escutcheons, with renaissance -masks and heraldic lions’ faces upon them. Richly carved panels of -oak, with floral designs of lilies, roses, etc., supported the frieze, -and beneath them was plainer panelling broken up at intervals by flat -pilasters decorated with foliage or fruit. On this panelling a few -family portraits were hung; the furniture here, as elsewhere in the -house, was of carved oak, already a generation old, and there was much -needlework of the kind ladies then occupied themselves in making. The -mantelpieces were also of oak, one which showed in high relief the -sacrifice of Isaac, supported by figures of Samson and Hercules, being -especially noticeable. The fire backs in all the principal rooms had -been cast at Foxbrook furnace, some two miles away, from moulds of a -flower-pot, a phœnix, or the royal arms and supporters. - -On the right of the hall were two doorways corresponding to those on -the left. The further led by double doors into the little parlour, -a small room with two windows to the south opening upon the garden, -and two to the west looking out across a little green court to the -brewhouse and the trees which overhung it. In the centre of the ceiling -a great double rose of plaster, more than two feet in diameter, covered -the junction of the beams. On the walls, maps of the World, France, -Paris, and Ireland were hung, and a few Dutch pictures. The nearer door -on the same side of the hall communicated with the little staircase and -the kitchen, the latter room remarkable for its great three-centred -chimney arch of stone, and for the pewter plates and dishes and brass -stewpans and pudding pans which were ranged upon the wall. A back entry -led into the kitchen court, or “well court,” a large yard built round -with offices, stabling, coach-house, brewhouse, dairy, laundry, ovens, -and barns. This was closed by great gates at night and contained many -bays of building. - -To return to the house; the bedrooms were furnished with curtains -and rugs of green, purple, or “sad colour,” the great oak bedsteads -decorated with hangings of needlework, and the walls covered with -tapestry or wainscot. On the first floor was the “great chamber,” over -the great parlour, and another of smaller size (here, under a sliding -board, a secret receptacle in the floor for money or papers was found -a few years ago) above the buttery. The “hall chamber,” like the hall -below, was panelled with oak and ceiled with cross beams covered with -plaster. This was the owner’s bedroom, and the windows to north and -south, sheltered from sun and wind by the projecting wings, must have -made it the pleasantest in the house. It was entered from the landing -of the great staircase, and a door in the further wall led to Mr. -Sitwell’s study, above the little parlour, and to the little staircase. -In the study Mr. Sitwell wrote up the letter-book, passed the accounts -of his steward, Thomas Starkye (Starkye came up the back stairs), -and interviewed his tenants; on the panelling over the mantelpiece a -carbine and some pistols were hung, and recesses in the thickness of -the wall harboured a small library of books on divinity, law, and the -classics, of which the greater part had been collected by Mr. Sitwell, -though a few had been brought from the older house at the head of the -village. Above the kitchen was another large bedchamber, given over, I -suppose, to Mr. Sitwell’s youngest son, the only one of his children -who was still under his care. The plan of the third story was similar -to that of the second, the chamber over the hall chamber being again -the only means of communication between the two staircases. This was -occupied by Mrs. Heays, the housekeeper, who probably had one or two of -the younger maidservants to sleep with her; and here in the long winter -afternoons they wove and spun by the light of tallow dips, and talked -over the gossip of the village. The two rooms to the east had formerly -been used as nurseries, but were now guest chambers; and on this side -also was a store-closet over the stairs. On the west, the study chamber -was occupied by the cook and kitchenmaid, and that over the kitchen by -the maids. The men-servants and grooms probably slept over the stables. -At the Sacheverells’ house at Barton, an inventory of 1691 shows a -“maids’ chamber,” a “men’s chamber,” and a “grooms’ chamber,” and this -no doubt was the usual arrangement at the time. - -The house was surrounded by a number of gardens,[84] courts, and -orchards, the walls of which were full of pears, apples, plums, -peaches, cherries, and nectarines. From the garden door one went out -into a corner of the south garden, somewhat wider than the house, which -projected into it. This was laid out in gravel, with borders against -the walls, broad walks round and across the square, and designs of -flower beds disposed in Jacobean knots, edged with box, and relieved -by pyramids of yew. Out of this to the left you went into the bowling -green and several courts and gardens, with green and gravel walks, -walled in and full of flowers and fruit. Beyond them lay the little -orchard, at the further extremity of which was an ancient dovecot of -stone, perched on the very edge of the cliff, and overlooking the wild -and tangled slopes of Broxhill and the flowery banks and winding course -of the river below. Returning to the south garden, a door opposite -the house led into the great orchard, some four and a half acres in -extent, in which were a pair of butts for archery,[85] and side alleys -bordered with flowers. From these sheltered paths, the further wall of -the orchard being below the slope of the hill, pretty glimpses could -be obtained of moorland and river, and distant spires and seats; and -here also, at the south-west corner of the garden, was one of those -square stone-tiled buildings without which no garden in the seventeenth -century was supposed to be complete. This garden-house was set against -a grove of ancient oaks and ashes, which protected it from the rays of -the afternoon sun; to the north, both wind and view were cut off by -the house, with its broken roof-line of battlements and gables, and -tall central chimney thrown into shadow by the projecting wings; but -towards the other points of the compass, a wide panorama of country -was spread out to view. Mounting the steps which led to the little -oak-panelled room above, one could see, over the tops of the apple -trees and the Gothic coping of the green-clad garden walls, Killamarsh -Moor, and the little village of Wales, in Yorkshire, from which the -Hewitts took their rise; the wooded hillside just across the river; -and high above the common, the ancient woods and manor houses of Park -Hall and Barlborough; the Mansfield road, which skirted past the forest -towards Nottingham and Derby; Emmett Carr, Barlborough Common, and -Marsden Moor; the splendid cliff and keep of Bolsover, famous for the -Earl of Newcastle’s prodigal entertainment to King Charles; Scarcliffe -and Palterton, once with Eckington a part of the _Domesday_ Barony of -Ralph Fitz-Hubert; the old and new halls of Hardwick, where the Earls -of Devonshire had their seat, standing out like twin towers above the -trees which surrounded them; and beyond the horizon, the spire of -Tibshelf Church on the Nottinghamshire border. Nearer, between Renishaw -and Hardwick, stood the little hall of Netherthorpe, in which Robert -Sytwell had lived in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and -the grammar school hard by he had helped to found; Lord Deincourt’s -woods at Sutton Scarsdale; and Owlcotes, another of Bess of Hardwick’s -houses; and to the right, the Chesterfield road mounting up a green -spur two miles away towards Lord Frecheville’s ancient house and -park and the iron furnaces of Staveley. Beyond Staveley, which, like -Bolsover, Sutton, and Renishaw, had been garrisoned for the King in -the Civil War, the spire of Brimington could be seen; and above the -hollow in which Chesterfield lies, the distant hills which lead up to -Clay Cross, Ogston, Ashover, and the Derbyshire moors. To the west of -the garden house, a close walk between hedges led down the hill to -the low meadows and the river, and from this side also was a footpath -across the demesne to Foxton Wood, some two miles away, where the -bluebells were a sight to see in spring, and the bracken in autumn, and -good fishing and shooting were to be had. The hedgerows in the demesne -contained many oaks and ashes, but there was no ornamental planting -of any kind; in the woods, swine were still turned out in autumn, and -another relic of mediæval agriculture was the continued use of oxen for -ploughing. - -[84] All these courts and gardens are shown in a map of 1756, which -gives also a small sketch of the house. - -[85] The practice of archery was still considered a useful physical -exercise for boys. In July, 1665, Starkye paid a shilling for a bow and -arrows for Timothy Treeton, the orphan son of a substantial Eckington -yeoman and then fourteen years of age. - -Houses and gardens such as those which I have just described can hardly -have been the work of coarse and illiterate men. Their beauty and -appropriateness, to which Lord Macaulay was blind, are recognised by -the better taste of to-day. One can see that they were planned with -infinite care and contrivance, every natural peculiarity of site, -climate, and outlook being turned to account, and that the country -squires who built them were thinking not merely of their own selfish -enjoyment, but of future ages. In the marriage indenture of Mr. -Sitwell’s eldest son in 1656, one of the considerations mentioned is -that the said messuage and lands “may be settled and established in the -name and blood of the said George Sitwell the ffather, soe long as it -shall please God to continue the same.” From such phrases one learns -not only the old builders’ pride in their houses, but the spirit which -animated them, and which alone can inspire good work in building and -laying out. - -Renishaw was a quieter place than it had been ten years before, when -Mrs. Sitwell was alive, and the house full of young people; but -its owner, though he “hated ill-husbandry,” still kept a plentiful -house. He was constantly visited by various relations and friends, -and throughout the summer neighbouring gentlemen would occasionally -ride over to dinner and bowls, and Yorkshire acquaintances call and -drink at the gates, or rest their horses for an hour or two on the -way to London. Mr. Sitwell’s eldest son, and his daughters and -sons-in-law, were often with him, and Christmas especially, when -the hall was decorated with holly and ivy, and the Chesterfield and -Staveley fiddlers came over, and there was dancing in the great and -card playing in the little parlours, was a time of entertainment and -family reunion.[86] The preparations for Christmas and the New Year -began early in November with the brewing of a couple of hogsheads of -“Christmas beer” and the manufacture of “a brawne”—a mighty dish, for -it is valued in the household book at £2, the price of four muttons or -forty turkeys. When that season had arrived, the fat hogs were killed, -gifts were made to the servants, and money distributed among the poor -of the parish; turkeys, fowls, and rolls of brawn were sent as “tokens” -to absent friends; the tenants came with their rent capons,[87] were -regaled in the hall with beer, beef, mince pie, and plum porridge, -and spent the evening in boisterous games; and a doe was usually sent -over from Sheffield Park as a present from the Duke of Norfolk. It -appears by one of these letters that Francis Sitwell and his wife and -children were always expected from Gainsborough at Christmas, and no -doubt the Wigfalls came across in the evenings from their house a -few hundred yards away, the Burtons and Stones from Mosborough, and -Dr. Gardiner,[88] whom Mr. Sitwell had presented to the living of -Eckington eight years before, brought his children from the rectory. -Indeed, friends and tenants were entertained with so much conviviality -that the example proved dangerous to the younger members of the -family. In the last week of 1662, John, the London apprentice, was in -trouble with his master, and exactly a year later, Mr. Sitwell, while -protesting that he had “ever been wary to encourage” his son in such -courses, had to express a hope that in future he would “nether thinke -Christmas nor any other time lawless to play the foole in,” but when -he recreated himself among friends would “make choyce of sober, civell -company, and keepe good howers.” - -[86] Letters from Mr. Sitwell’s sons at Aleppo and Seville always -reached him at Christmas. The business of keeping Christmas seems to -have ended with Twelfth Night. On December 22nd, 1662, Mr. Sitwell -arranges to meet a former steward, Robert Haigh, “on Munday next after -the Twelfth day.” - -[87] The last mention I have found of rent capons is in a lease of -6th April, 1713, whereby Mr. Sitwell’s grandson and namesake lets to -Thomas Staniforth a small farm at the Ford. Staniforth, in addition to -the rent, was to pay “one good Rent Capon every Christmas.” Before the -middle of the eighteenth century the practice of entertaining tenants -at Renishaw had gone out, and on the 17th January, 1746–7, Francis -Sitwell pays to Isaiah Dixon, who kept an ale-house at Eckington, his -“Bill for entertaining my tenants last Christmas.”—See _Fam. Min. -Gent._, ii., 841. - -[88] He had been Proctor of Cambridge University in 1649, and after -the Restoration was a chaplain to the King. Dr. Gardiner was a fine -preacher, as may be seen from his sermon in praise of Derbyshire, -quoted in the _History of Ashbourne_, 1839, page 204. A copy of his -Assize sermon, entitled “Moses and Aaron brethren,” and dedicated to -George Sitwell, Esquire, High Sheriff of the County of Darbie, may -be seen in Sir Henry Bemrose’s library. Francis Sitwell had been his -pupil at Corpus Christi. See also Master’s _History of Corpus Christi -College_ and the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for April, 1776. - -The owner of the letter-book mentions on one occasion an engagement -to be at the Wigfalls’ house for a christening, and no doubt he -celebrated the baptism of his own grandchildren, born at Renishaw in -July, 1661, and October, 1662, by entertaining his neighbours with -music and card playing, according to the hospitable custom of the time. -On the 14th of February there was dancing and drawing of valentines, -and the Chesterfield Sessions in April, the fairs at Chesterfield, -Sheffield, and Rotherham, races and bull-baitings for those who cared -for such frivolities, bowling parties at Renishaw and other houses in -the neighbourhood, the village wake and the “hare-getting supper”[89] -to the harvesters on the demesne, helped to enliven the monotony of -rural existence. But during much of the year when Mr. Sitwell and -his youngest son were alone, life at Renishaw was quiet and orderly -enough, and one day passed very much the same as another. At about -seven o’clock they breakfasted upon beer, cold meat, Westphalia -ham or neat’s tongue, oatcakes, and white bread and butter. After -breakfast, William walked down to pursue his studies at the rectory, -and his father rode out with Starkye to inspect his farms and iron -furnaces, or to attend to the parochial and county business in which -he interested himself. At eleven o’clock,[90] the servants, headed -by the housekeeper, Mrs. Heays, filed in to family prayers in the -hall; and immediately prayers were over the butler laid the table, -with its cloth of homespun linen, pewter plates and dishes, beer and -wine glasses, silver salts and spoons, porringers and tankards, for -the noonday dinner,[91] and put out the silver bottles and stoneware -jugs, edged with silver, upon the oak cupboard by the kitchen door. -Mr. Sitwell sat at the head of the table, with his back to the map of -Europe and the great staircase; and his son, in a grey cloth suit, fine -worsted under-stockings, scarlet silk over-stockings, and riding shoes, -at his left hand; and together they conversed about William’s studies -and the big trout in the Rother, the flower garden and the home farm, -John’s last letters from plague-stricken London, Robert’s adventures -at Aleppo, and George’s prospects of making a fortune in Spain. The -meal, plain but substantial—it consisted usually of broth served in -porringers and eaten with oat cakes, a joint with vegetables, poultry -or game, a pudding or tart, cheese and fruit; but on Fridays of fresh -and salt fish alone—was washed down by a glass or two of tent or malago -and a tankard of ale, and followed by a pipe of tobacco in the little -parlour or the garden-house. After dinner, Mr. Sitwell wrote letters -in his study, and read the gazettes and newsletters which his cousin -forwarded by every post from London; a little later in the afternoon, -he played bowls on the green, walked through the folds, looked at the -horses, foals, and oxen, and strolled across the demesne to watch the -mowers or harvest folk at work. Supper, the second “state meal”[92] -of the day, must have been early too; and after a pipe of tobacco, -a tankard of ale, and a game of cards or shovel-board in the great -parlour, the evening finished with family prayer. On Sundays, the -old coach, with its two bay mares, took Mr. Sitwell and his son down -to church at Eckington; there, in the large square family pew by the -second pillar on the right of the nave, with the servants ranged behind -them, they listened to the village fiddlers and Dr. Gardiner’s learned -but lengthy sermon; and when service was over, they carried the doctor -and his wife back to dinner at the hall. Mr. Sitwell was a good judge -of horses (in 1666 he was buying horses for Lord Ogle’s troop), and -took some trouble in the breeding of them;[93] his peace-offering of -four pheasants to the Duke of Newcastle in January, 1664–5, shows -that he shot with a fowling-piece; the use of two coursing similes -in the letter-book suggests that he may have kept greyhounds; and it -is likely enough that he occasionally rode with Lord Frecheville’s -staghounds,[94] for the pale of Staveley Park bordered upon his -demesne. He was certainly an active man in spite of his years, and fond -of an outdoor life. - -[89] So harvest suppers were called in Derbyshire. The labourers at -Renishaw were sometimes entertained earlier in the year:— - - £ s. d. - “30 June, 1666. For 20 men’s Dinners att Stones att - 8d. _per man_ 0 13 4 - ”For ale then 0 6 8.” - -Ellen Stones (her husband was a blackmith) kept an alehouse in -Eckington. At these dinners or suppers John Hunt, who was the oldest -labourer in Mr. Sitwell’s employment, took the chair. - -[90] Lyson’s _Derbyshire_, 257. - -[91] It was the common practice at this time to dine in the parlour, -but at some houses meals were still served in the hall. Henry Hastings -in Charles the First’s time certainly used his parlour for this purpose -(see Lord Shaftesbury’s Autobiography), and the Sacheverells at Barton -did so in 1680. In an inventory of Furniture at Renishaw, taken in -1698, “the long table” appears in the hall and not in the Great -Parlour, and in the latter room was an old harpsichord. Mr. Sitwell -and his son may sometimes have dined in the Little Parlour in cold -weather when they were alone, but undoubtedly the hall was the proper -dining-room of the house. - -[92] Lyson’s _Derbyshire_, v. - -[93] A payment of £1 in February, 1666–7, “about a horse’s leaping,” is -recorded in Starkye’s account-book. - -[94] In 1687, the old dog-kennels belonging to Staveley Hall were -converted into cottages. See a deed at Hardwick from Conyers Lord Darcy -to Thomas Frith, dated 24th September of that year. Country gentlemen -in Derbyshire took at this time much pleasure in field sports. In -Leonard Wheatcroft’s _Elegy upon the death of all the greatest Gentry -in Darley Dale who loved Huntinge and Hawkinge_, written in 1672, he -refers to the cry— - - “Of great mouth’d doggs who did not feare to kill - Which was their master’s pleesure word and will,” - - * * * * * - - “ffarewell you Huntsmen that did hunt the Hare, - ffarewell you hounds that tired both horse and mare, - ffarewell you gallant Falkners every one.” - -In these verses he especially mentions Mr. Sitwell’s son-in-law, -William Revell of Ogston; in other pieces, written a few years later, -he speaks of fox-hunting and horse-racing. - -[Illustration: Stag Hunting.] - -Amongst the relations and friends already mentioned as visiting -Renishaw in 1662–6, the names of several occur in the letter-book. -Mr. Sitwell’s cousins, William and Roger Allestry (Roger represented -Derby in Parliament as his brother had previously done, and the -features of both, set out in all the glory of Restoration periwigs, -are known from engraved portraits), came at intervals to stay with -him; and another kinsman, John Spateman, of Roadnook Hall, in Ashover, -formerly a Justice of the Peace under the Commonwealth, was there in -June, 1666, on his way to plague-stricken London. Captain Mazine, the -“great horseman,” so good natured in supplying Mr. Sitwell with the -latest news of the Dutch war, was expected from London in July, 1665. -“I suppose,” the latter writes, “I shall have the happiness to kis -yo^r hand in the Country shortly, w^{ch} I desire the more y^t you may -be out of the Danger of the sickness.” In June of the previous year, -the Captain had been staying at Welbeck, and had apparently ridden -over more than once to dinner and a game of bowls at Renishaw. Mr. -Sitwell meditated calling upon him in return, and in reply to a message -confessed that he was behindhand with him, but when occasion offered -would endeavour to come over. William Revell, of Ogston, one of the -“Lovers of Huntinge and Hawkinge” in Darley Dale, upon whose lives and -deaths (he died in 1669) the Ashover poet wrote his “Elegy”: - - “Then I to Ogston, there to break my fast - They all in mourning stood at me aghast, - To think my friend and lover was departed; - And so I left them, all most heavie hearted: - What shall I doe (thought I) to hide my head, - Seeing so many Gallants now are dead?” - -—was often with his father-in-law at Renishaw; and William Sacheverell, -who afterwards distinguished himself so highly in Parliament, and -served as a Lord of the Admiralty under King William, rode over -occasionally from Morley to see his sister, Mrs. Sitwell. William -Simpson, a city lawyer, came down in October, 1662, January, 1662–3, -and again, bringing with him a copy of the King’s Speech to the -Parliament, in June of the same year; and in the following September, -“Cozen Franceys,”[95] as appears by a gap in the correspondence, -followed by the expression of a hope that he was “well got home,” -enjoyed the country air for two or three weeks in Derbyshire. There -are casual references also in the letter-book to country neighbours -who called and dined at Renishaw, as, for instance, John Bradshaw, of -Brampton Hall, a cousin of the regicide, in September, 1662; Lionel -Copley, of Rotherham, in July, 1665; and John Magson, of Worksop, a -rich merchant, whose fortune is estimated in one of these letters -at twenty-five or twenty-six thousand pounds in January, 1662–3, -and November, 1664. The last was probably a Quaker, as Mr. Sitwell -addresses him without ceremony by his Christian name and surname. - -[95] Ralph Franceys of Friday Street, London, a descendant of the -Foremark family. He, or his father, had served as Bailiff or Mayor -of Derby in 1624 and 1632, and his mother was nearly related to the -Sitwells. - -The household to be provided for was not a large one, and in many -respects it was self-sufficing. The finer German table linen, damasked -with hunting scenes, which came in soon after the Restoration, -had hardly yet found its way into the midland counties, and rough -table-cloths were still made in the house. Flaxen and hempen sheets, -pillowbears and window curtains, and woollen blankets, were woven by -the maid-servants; and I notice that in 1678–80, two stone of flax, -two of hemp, and two of wool, were purchased every year for use at -Renishaw. By the maids also the mattresses of the heavy four-poster -beds were stuffed with feathers from the fold. Cloth sufficient to -provide two suits of livery apiece for five or six men was bought at -about four shillings a yard at Mr. Newton’s shop in Chesterfield, and -made up in the house by John Staynrod, the village tailor. Wheat for -bread, and oats for the oatcakes, so much favoured in Derbyshire, -were grown on the farm, and ground with querns in the house as flour -was needed; and ryebread was also eaten, probably by the servants. -Pickling, preserving, and salting,[96] and the concoction of currant -and gooseberry wines, were carried on under the supervision of the -housekeeper; and baking, churning, and cheese-making at the ovens and -dairy in the kitchen court. Ale in the cask or bottled, and November -ale, and beer of various denominations—strong beer, small beer, stale -beer, bottled beer, March beer, and Christmas beer—were brewed in -large quantities, and about sixty-eight hogsheads represent the annual -consumption.[97] The practice of laying in large quantities of salt -beef and mutton at the commencement of November had already been -abandoned by the richer classes, and fresh meat was eaten all the year -round. From the home farm, orchards, and river, meat, fish, eggs, milk, -cream, vegetables, and fruit were supplied; turkeys and fowls were -bred there, and game could be obtained in any quantity from the woods, -and pigeons from the dovecote. Salt fish from Scarborough or Hull was -bought in Chesterfield for the Friday dinners. Wax candles for the -hall and parlours were procured from George Hattersley, a chandler in -the village, at the cost of four or five shillings a dozen; and tallow -candles for the bedrooms were made in the house. Soap, in the form of -“washing balls,” was manufactured at the farm at the cost of a shilling -a dozen, and about fifty-two dozens represent the annual consumption. -Pit coals were obtained from Eckington Marsh at half-a-crown a load, -the carting being done upon “boon days” by Mr. Sitwell’s tenants. -Groceries were bought in Chesterfield, a groom or footman being sent -over on horseback, or a commission given either to the carrier or -to one of the little company of “market folks” who trudged over from -the village on each succeeding Saturday. At the last-named town -there was an apothecary (Wood), a furniture shop (Shentall), and a -bookseller (Crofts). Cases of knives for the table could be bought at -six shillings in Sheffield from James Stainforth, who in 1662 served -as Master Cutler. A chirurgeon (John Fleming) resided at Eckington, -but on one occasion a poor boy, in whom Mr. Sitwell had interested -himself, was sent over with the carrier to Nottingham for the great Dr. -Thoroton’s advice. - -[96] In February, 1665–6, Mr. Sitwell ordered from London a -hundredweight of good white sugar, the Muscovados sugar consigned to -him from Barbadoes having proved unfit for his use. For preserving, -the whitest powdered sugar was necessary. (See _Verney Letters_, iii., -278.) In a pocket almanac of 1699 which belonged to Mr. Sitwell’s -grandson and namesake, there is a note that the latter has lent to Mrs. -Stringer his “wife’s two Receipts Bookes.” These have unfortunately -been lost, but the receipt-book of a neighbour, Mrs. Colepeper, amongst -the Colepeper MSS. in the British Museum, enables one to form some idea -of their contents. - -[97] In the last six months of 1665 (leaving out one doubtful entry of -£1 5s.), £10 0s. 9d. was spent upon malt for brewing at Renishaw. Malt -in that year cost £1 3s. to £1 3s. 6d. a quarter, and these payments -will therefore indicate a yearly use of something over 17 quarters, -which, according to Markham’s _English Husbandman_ of 1613, would give -51 hogsheads of ordinary beer and afterwards 17 hogsheads of small -beer. Seventy hogsheads would allow nearly three quarts a day _per_ -head to Mr. Sitwell and his son and a household of four men servants, -two footboys, and six women servants. They could not, of course, have -drunk so much, but the calculation makes no allowance for visitors. At -Barton, the seat of the Sacheverells, £16 was paid during the year 1685 -for twenty quarters of barley for malting. - -But though a country house, at least in regard to the common -necessaries of life, was supplied from the demesne, and did not as -now depend upon shops in the village and neighbouring town, it is -surprising to find how many small luxuries were ordered in London or -even imported from the Continent. The packhorses of Hemingway, the -Sheffield carrier, were constantly burdened with Westphalia hams at -tenpence the pound, capers at the same price, and currants for the -daily pudding; with newspapers and books, writing paper, French hats -for Mr. Sitwell’s grandchildren, bottles of cinnamon water, orange -flower water, strong water, and Rosa solis, and runlets of various -wines. From London Mr. Sitwell procured also his own dress and that of -his son, tobacco at eighteen shillings and sixpence a box, and silver -plate. As might have been expected from one of the older generation, -he was fond of good sack, which he ordered in London or on occasion -from the “Angel” Inn at Chesterfield; but he supplied himself also with -barrels of tent wine and malago from Spain, where one of his sons was -a merchant. From that country also chests of oranges and lemons, and -barrels of olives and of raisins, were forwarded to him. Sugar, on one -occasion, he imported from Barbadoes, but it proved to be too coarse -for his use. Chests and barrels too heavy for one horse to carry were -sent by Nottingham wagon, or by way of the Humber and Trent to Bawtry, -and thence by road to Renishaw. Letters from London to Renishaw were -posted on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and arrived in time to be answered -on Fridays and Tuesdays. The charge was threepence for postage, and -fourpence to the “foot-post” from Chesterfield, and if carried to the -posthouse they seldom failed. - -I must not pass away from the subject of housekeeping without saying -something about the extraordinary cheapness of meat, and especially of -game, at this period. In the Renishaw “house-book” for 1671, a price -is set against all the articles supplied from the farm or bought in -the village. A veal is valued at ten to twelve shillings, a mutton -at six to ten, a lamb at five to six, a beef at £3 15s. to £4 4s., a -porket at ten to eleven shillings, and pigs at from 1s. 3d. to 1s. -6d. each. Chickens could be had for threepence and fourpence, pullets -at sixpence, ducks at fourpence to eightpence, geese, capons, and -turkeys at a shilling, pigeons at elevenpence or one shilling a dozen, -and rabbits at sixpence to 1s. 2d. a couple. Partridges and teal were -eightpence a brace, woodcock eightpence to a shilling, wild ducks a -shilling, plovers fourpence to sixpence, and snipe fourpence. Cheeses -were eightpence to tenpence each, and butter was fourpence a pound. -Household loaves, not of white bread, were a shilling each, and flour -for manchet or for the kitchen 1s. 3d. a peck. - -[Illustration: Acquaintances Meeting in London.] - -According to Macaulay, not one gentleman in a hundred travelled once -in seven years beyond the nearest market town; but the truth is that -the country squires were often upon the road, and few who lived within -five days’ journey of London failed to visit it occasionally. In -Derbyshire, from the end of November until the beginning of April, the -highways were impassable for wheels and very unpleasant for horsemen, -and even April is said in one of these letters to be “too soon, for -the ways will be bad.” Mr. Sitwell rode up to London every spring, -usually in the last-named month or in May, and he sometimes visited -it a second time in August. His plans were laid a month or six weeks -in advance, and a week or ten days before starting a box or trunk of -clothes was sent on by carrier. He left Renishaw at seven o’clock in -the morning, attired in a riding suit, top boots, a horseman’s cloak, -and a “mounteroe,” or Spanish travelling cap, of velvet. Pistols were -borne in the holsters, for Sherwood was a noted haunt of highwaymen, -and behind him rode a footman in livery, carrying his portmantle (it -contained clean linen, a nightdress, nightcap, and change of clothes) -and hatcase upon the saddle. The first night was spent at Nottingham, -after a ride of thirty miles through the forest; the second at -Harborough (twenty-eight miles); the third at Dunstable (thirty-five -miles); the fourth in London (thirty miles). The charges incurred by -himself, his man and horses, in riding up, amounted on one occasion to -£1 13s. 6d., and in returning to £1 1s. 6d., and one horse was killed -in the journey. In London, Mr. Sitwell frequented the “Greyhound” Inn -in Holborn, next door to “Furnival’s” Inn, and there he paid about -eight shillings and fourpence a week for chamber rent and washing, and -eighteen shillings and eightpence for hay and corn for his horses. Food -and minor expenses came to about £1 6s. 8d. a week. While in town, he -met his friends at the Royal Exchange, and dined with them at one of -the many taverns near it; strolled about in Gray’s Inn Walks; went -by water to Westminster—his cousin, Roger Allestry, was a Member of -Parliament; supplied himself with clothes, books, silver plate and -tobacco from the various shops; visited his son, the scapegrace John, -who was in the silk trade, being apprenticed to Nicholas Delves, -Esquire;[98] and on Sundays attended divine service at St. Andrew’s, -Holborn, or St. Paul’s. He had business also to attend to, for on one -occasion I find him paying a sum of £200 “att the Southe Porche of St. -Paule’s, London.” Sometimes, I suppose, he walked in Hyde Park, or -visited Whitehall, where the King and Queen dined in public; but there -is no evidence that he had any taste for the theatre, the cockpit, -or the coffee-houses. His stay in the “Metropolitan City” usually -lasted for a fortnight or three weeks, and the total cost of the visit -was about twelve pounds, though as much more was often laid out upon -various purchases. - -[98] This Nicholas Delves is the person who put Titus Oates to school -as a free scholar at Merchant Taylors’ in 1664. See William Smith’s -_Intrigues of the Plot_, 1685, page 25. - -Upon the ignorance and illiterateness of the country squires, Lord -Macaulay is never tired of dwelling. He tells us that their language -and pronunciation were “such as we should now expect to hear only from -the most ignorant clowns,” and that a gentleman “passed among his -neighbours for a great scholar if _Hudibras_ and _Baker’s Chronicle_, -_Tarlton’s Jests_, and the _Seven Champions of Christendom_ lay in his -hall window among the fishing rods and fowling pieces.” - -Equally ill-founded, as far as I can judge, is the historian’s attack -upon the “gross uneducated country gentleman,” and his assertion that -in Charles the Second’s time a knight of the shire had seldom a library -as good as may now be found in a servants’ hall or a tradesman’s back -parlour. For the class of which he writes was at least well schooled, -and few country houses were without a little collection of books upon -the classics, divinity, law, and current politics. Mr. Sitwell had -received an excellent education, as is evidenced by a Latin manuscript -in his handwriting upon the art of logic, and several Greek and Latin -schoolbooks still preserved at Renishaw. In his will, he thought his -“printed books” equally worthy of mention with the pictures and maps, -the wainscot, ceiling, and glass in his house at Renishaw. From the -books still remaining there, and from an old catalogue taken in 1753, -it is possible to reconstruct his library, and to form an opinion upon -his tastes and the extent and limits of his reading. Upon the shelves -in the study cupboards, Homer and Aristotle, and most, if not all, of -the greater Latin writers, were represented. For divinity, there were -Fox’s _Acts and Monuments_; Usher’s _Chronology_, _Annals_, and _Body -of Divinity_; the Works of Tertullian, Polycarp, Eusebius, Ignatius, -Chrysostom, Justin Martyr, and St. Augustine; Leigh’s _Critica Sacra_; -Corneille’s _Livre de l’imitation de Jesus Christ_; _Meditationes -de vita Christi_, by Vincentius Brunus; the _Methoda Theologiæ_ of -Andreas Hyperius; Justus’ _Lipsius De Cruce_; Crellius’ _Of one God_; -Culverwell _On the Light of Nature_; Hakewell’s _Apology_; Jewel’s -_Apologia Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ_; Durell’s _View of the Reformed Church_; -_A Defence of the Catholic Faith_, by Grotius; Dr. Fenton’s _Six -Sermons against the Church of Rome_; Spencer _On Prodigies_; Hammond’s -_Fundamentals_, and his volume on _God’s Grace and Decrees_; a _History -of the Inquisition_; Whittaker’s _Controversial Tracts of 1588_; -Bilson’s _Anti-Christian Rebellion of 1585_; Wigand’s _Jack of both -Sides_, published in 1591; and Fuller’s _History of the Holy War_. -Law was represented by Coke’s _Institutes_; Pulton’s _Statutes_, and -his works on the _King’s Peace_ and on _Offences and Misdemeanours_; -Scobell’s _Acts of Parliament_; Rastell’s _Statutes_; the _Institutes -of Justinian_; an _Explicatio Juris inter Gentes_, and the _Civiles -Doctrinæ_ of Lipsius; History by Daniel’s _Wars of York and Lancaster_; -Rushworth’s _Historical Collections_; Sleidan’s _History of the Four -Empires of Antiquity_; and a _Historia Universale_, published at -Venice in 1605. Literature by Bacon’s _Essays_ and his _Latin Works_; -the _Colloquies_ and _Praise of Folly_ of Erasmus; the _Princeps -of Machiavelli_; Milton’s _Defensio Populi Anglicani_; and King -Charles’ _Works_. Other books worth mentioning were Boquet’s _Discours -execrable des Sorciers_, and his _Histoire de Faust_; a _Life of -Tycho Brahe_; Galen’s _Medicine_; Descartes’ _Philosophy_; Galileo’s -_Systema Cosmicum_; Harvey’s _De Generatione Animalium_ and _De Cordis -et Sanguinis Motu_; Burgersdijck’s _Philosophia Moralis_; Gassend’s -_Astronomy_; Alsted’s _Physica Harmonia_; Baker’s _Arithmetic of -1607_; Tacquet’s _Mathematics_; Oughtred’s _Trigonometry_; Butler’s -_Rethorick_; Keckerman’s _Logic_, and the _Logic of Molinæus_; Wright’s -_Theory of Navigation_; Bosse’s _L’Art de Perspective_; Mendez Pinto’s -_Voyages_, translated by Cogan; _Hornus de Originibus Americanis_; -Corderio’s _Colloquies_; an _Introduction to Geography_; a book on -the Art of Speaking, and another, published in 1639, on the Actions -of Gunnery. Tied up in parcels were a number of pamphlets relating to -the Civil War and Restoration, and including the Bishop of Worcester’s -_Sermon on the Coronation of Charles II._, Cotton’s _Panegyrick on -the King_, _A Noble Salutation to Charles Stewart_, and _A Plea for a -Limited Monarchy_, published in the same year. Dr. Gardiner’s _Assize -Sermon_ of 1653 must not be forgotten, in which he speaks of his -“honoured friend and patron,” Mr. Sitwell, as a “cordial friend to -Religion and Learning, Piety and Sobriety”; nor Evelyn’s _Sylva_, in -which the owner of Renishaw is once mentioned, for he had supplied the -author with information concerning the giant oaks of the Rivelin and -Sherwood. The library as a whole is that of a practical man who wished -to make the best of both worlds, and to whom the classics, divinity, -law, politics and science were the only subjects worthy of serious -attention. Milton had not yet published his _Paradise Lost_, and to the -country squire of that day literature meant the classics, and English -poetry and prose were a world unknown. - -Though “noe politition nor statesman,” Mr. Sitwell took a keen -interest in home and foreign affairs. News books, papers of news, -letters diurnal, gazettes, royal declarations and speeches, and Acts -of Parliament, were constantly forwarded to him by his cousin, Ralph -Franceys, who resided in London. Franceys frequented the Exchange, -and the taverns and coffee-houses about it, and kept him informed of -“what is said in the City”; and, in addition to the items of news thus -supplied, Captain Mazine (well known by sight to all who have studied -the engravings in the Duke of Newcastle’s book on horsemanship), Peter -Pett, the naval commissioner, and other correspondents in London told -him what they heard, and he had occasionally a “particular relation” of -some important occurrence, a confirmation “by one who lives neare the -Court,” or a copy of “a letter to the Mayor of Hull which a friend of -myne saw.” He was thus better acquainted than most of his neighbours -with what was going on in the world, and it is curious to find that -in February, 1660–1, the loyal Marquess of Newcastle owed to him the -first intimation of the date of the elections. “His Excellency,” writes -Sir Francis Topp, the secretary, “hath commanded me to let you know -that he will not expect you until your own occasions may give you the -opportunity, and then you shall be very welcome. We presume you writt -about the choosinge of Knights and bourgesses, which we conceave is by -some directions of the Councell, for we have noe newes got here of y^e -writts.” - -[Illustration: Guest Arriving on Horseback.] - -The owner of the letter-book describes himself as “one of those fooles -of the world who love to be busie,” and, in spite of his age, led an -active and in many respects a useful life. His duty as a commissioner -for the royal subsidies took him frequently to Chesterfield and Derby, -and at the latter town, as became one who had served as Sheriff, he -attended the Assizes, and sometimes served upon the Grand Jury. He -often “waited,” either upon public or private business, or merely to -“tender his service,” upon the famous Duke of Newcastle at Welbeck, -the Earl of Devonshire at Hardwick, and Lord Scarsdale at Sutton, and -more rarely upon Lords Deincourt, Frecheville, and Byron. On Tuesdays, -when Sheffield market drew in the neighbouring gentry, he sometimes -met his acquaintances at the “Angel” Inn, near the Irish Cross; and on -Saturdays, as already explained, he dined at the eightpenny ordinary -at Chesterfield on fish, mutton, chicken, and ale, and when dinner was -over, joined his friends, Cornelius Clarke, of Norton Hall, Samuel -Clarke, of Ashgate, and Mr. Watkinson, of Brampton, in the enjoyment -of a game of shovel-board and a bottle of sack. He visited the fairs -at Sheffield, Rotherham, and Chesterfield; rode up to London at -least once a year; and at intervals paid visits of a few days to his -“son Revell,” at Ogston Hall; to Doncaster, where he stayed with his -daughter at Nether Hall, or with his wife’s brother, Mr. Childers, of -Carr House; and to Nottingham, whence I have no doubt he ran over to -see his “brother Sacheverell” at Barton. All these excursions were -on horseback, and a start was made from Renishaw as early as seven -o’clock in summer and eight in winter, as is shown by appointments to -be at Chesterfield “before eight oth’ clock” in June, and at Whitwell -“between eight and nine oth’ clock” in February. This hour, however, -was not too early for letters to be written before mounting, as may be -seen by one which concludes—“So breifly, for I am just putting foot -into stirrop, I remaine your freind to serve you.” - -There was also much local business to be attended to in Eckington -and the neighbourhood. In April, 1661, just after the elections were -over, Mr. Sitwell was intrusted with the proceeds of the subsidy which -had been imposed upon the township for the buying of trophies, in -order that he might convey it to the Sessions. A little later, being -commanded upon the news of Lambert’s rising to march to Derby with -whatever force could be raised, he advanced money to honest poor men -his neighbours, who walked as far as Chesterfield before they learnt -that their services would not be required. At another time we find him -endeavouring to procure men and horses for Lord Ogle’s troop. In 1665, -the bridge at Renishaw being so decayed with age that any little flood -made it impassable, Mr. Sitwell applied to the Court at the Sessions -for money, as it was required for the work of repair. The bridge was -of stone, and approached at either end by a causeway supported upon -small arches; and he supervised the rebuilding of it from the very -foundations, and, partly at his own expense, made it “soe that for many -generations the country will not need to be att further charge.” There -is a letter to the jury in a local lawsuit, and two others, requesting -the Justices to discharge or bail prisoners before trial. In January, -1663–4, when a doubt has arisen as to the proper manner of collecting -hearth money in the parish, he writes to Sir Simon Degg, asking the -latter to direct the constable what he is to do therein; and in -December, 1665, a pauper who had been sent by warrant of two Justices -from Eckington to Treeton having been returned by Sir Francis Fane, a -letter is carried to Treeton by several persons who are ready to swear -that the unfortunate man had no settlement in Eckington. - -The owner of the letter-book had a warm and somewhat arbitrary temper, -and when roused could “speak plaine English” (not, indeed, as Macaulay -would have led one to expect, in oaths, coarse jests, and scurrilous -terms of abuse, uttered in the broadest accent of his province, but -pure, nervous, incisive English) with force and directness. In other -respects, he was a good Christian, who believed that it was the “duty -of every man to be careful in the service of God,” but abhorred the -cloak and the mask of pretentious piety; supported the institution of -Bishops and the “decent, harmless ceremonies” of the Church of England, -but “meddled not with controverted points of faith.” - -In disposition, the writer was a kind-hearted man, and in spite of -a great deal of public and private business, he found time to help -other people in their troubles. He twice redeems a debtor out of the -House of Correction at Chesterfield, and endeavours to assist him when -imprisoned there for the third time. He writes on behalf of “Whittles’ -boy”—“a poore ffatherless and Motherless boy, an object of pitty to -move one, if not to releeve him, yet to helpe him to right from those -who would doe him wrong”—to the Rector of Aston and Sir Francis Fane, -begging them to hear and determine the differences between the lad and -his “knavish uncles”; provides him with clothes and other necessaries, -and finds money to release him from a cruel master and to keep him from -starving. He sets himself to help Mr. Leigh, of Coldwell Hall, who had -lately fallen into a sad condition of poverty; pays £4 in order to have -a son, Joseph Leigh, apprenticed to a tailor in Sheffield, and urges -another son in London to “write by the next post after this comes to -you, to hould up the hartt of the ould man.” Later on, he drafts a -petition on behalf of the father applying for a place in the Duke of -Norfolk’s Hospital or Almshouse, at Sheffield. He urges a spendthrift -husband to make a settlement of his property upon his wife, who had -brought him a little fortune in marriage, and was willing upon such -terms to free him from his debts and to maintain his children. He -endeavours to incline to mercy the creditors of a former maidservant -at Renishaw, who had married a man already deeply in debt, seeing that -she was willing, in her own phrase, “to part with all they had, quick -and dead, to pay theire debts, soe that they might have the freedome -to beginn the world new and to live by theire labor.” It was a common -practice at this time for litigants to avoid the cost and delay of a -lawsuit by referring their quarrel to some neighbouring gentleman for -his “doom and award,” and Mr. Sitwell, believing arbitration in such -cases to be a “very charitable good worke,” both rendered such services -himself, and made arrangements also on behalf of others. He was “shy -of his reputation” in Derbyshire, where he was “well known in his -country”; anxious to do his duty by his children, and not, as he puts -it, “to bringe trouble on those I leave behinde me”; and considered -the possession of a good estate carried with it “an ingagement thereby -to be regardfull of the welfare of one’s Country.” It may be inferred -from the use of certain phrases in the letter-book that then, as now, -public spirit, truthfulness, and courtesy were considered to be the -distinguishing marks of the class to which he belonged. - -Such, in real life, were the Tory squires upon whose memory Lord -Macaulay has heaped the coarsest epithets of a not very refined -vocabulary, the falsest coin of a not very sterling rhetoric; for -I have no reason to believe that the owner of the letter-book was -otherwise than an average specimen of the class to which he belonged, -neither better nor worse than his neighbours who sat next him at the -market ordinary, discussed the Dutch War with him over a quart of sack -and a pipe of tobacco at the “Redd Lyon,” or rode over to a mid-day -dinner and a game of bowls at Renishaw. The impression left upon the -mind by such documents as the letter-book is not one of rudeness, but -rather of comfort, education, and refinement. Of the ignorance and -uncouthness, the drunkenness, the pig-handling, the low habits and -gross phrases, the oaths, coarse jests, and scurrilous terms of abuse, -the vulgar taste which aimed at ornament, but could produce nothing -but deformity, there is not a trace; and instead of meeting with “the -deportment, the vocabulary, and the accent of a carter,” and the -manners of “rustic millers or alehouse keepers,” we find a class of men -useful in their generation, public-spirited and intellectual, courteous -in their dealings with each other and compassionate towards the poor, -and better judges of taste in architecture and gardening than at least -one of their critics. - -[Illustration: A Gentleman and his Servant on the Road.] - - - - -DERBYSHIRE FOLK-LORE - -By S. O. Addy, M.A. - - -Every English county, one might almost say every English village, -has preserved some fragments of a vast body of traditional lore -which, before the age of printing, was common to the whole people. -Such fragments may still, like coins on the sites of Roman towns, be -picked up, some in better condition than others. Unfortunately, those -who have written on this subject have preferred for the most part -to limit their researches to old books. For instance, Brand, in his -_Observations on Popular Antiquities_, first published in 1777, has -given us a collection of scraps drawn from a thousand authors. It was -very entertaining, no doubt, but the work would have been more valuable -had its author collected from the lips of the people the ballads, -legends, tales, and other portions of belief and custom which in the -eighteenth century were far more abundant than they are to-day. It was -a great opportunity neglected. But in the eighteenth century there -was excuse for such neglect, because the value of such things was not -then understood. Nor was their importance seen until the publication -of such works as Scott’s _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_ in 1802, -and an English translation of Grimm’s _Popular Stories_ in 1823. Even -then English students did not begin to collect traditional remains -systematically. - -Although in these days the word folk-lore has become part of the -common speech, and the subject is in some degree familiar to everybody, -little original research is done. Even the Folk-lore Society, instead -of collecting fresh material—and there is plenty to be had—has been -printing, under the name of _County Folk-lore_, a farrago of material -from local histories and guide-books, of which not one item in twenty -was worth reproducing. Far different is the work of such men as -Kristensen, whose labours in Denmark should have been taken as a model -of what should be done in England. Not every day could a man be found -to dine on potatoes or sleep on the table of a workman’s cottage, as -Kristensen has done, in order to secure a ballad or a tradition. But -at least it should be possible to make some effort to collect the lore -which is passing away from us for ever. The old books are not likely to -perish; the men and women who know the old tales are dying every year. -But where you have one man ready and willing to collect folk-lore or -dialect, you find a hundred who want to advance theories or to write -little grammars. The armchair of the study is so much more comfortable -than a rush-bottomed chair in a cottage. - -In Derbyshire we have folk-lore which is common to other parts of Great -Britain, just as Great Britain has folk-lore which is common to other -parts of Europe. But every country has preserved items which are to -be found in no other, or which, if found elsewhere, appear in such -a modified shape that they contain much that is new. For folk-lore -has been compared to a mosaic which has been broken and scattered, -some fragments lying here and others there. In Derbyshire we have the -garland or ceremony of the May King, which is performed at Castleton -on the 29th of May—an ancient rite which seems to have survived in no -other part of Great Britain.[99] And then we have the Derby Ram or -Old Tup, which may occur in other counties, but which, at all events, -is so much associated with Derby as to have taken its name from that -town. It is remarkable that these ceremonies are connected with ancient -boroughs, for there were burgage tenements both in Castleton and Hope -in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.[100] In Castleton there was -Peak Castle, older than the Norman Conquest; in Hope there was the -Roman town of Burgh or Brough. - -[99] First mentioned in literature by Dr. Cox, _Churches of -Derbyshire_, ii., 132; see _Folk-lore_, xii., p. 394 _seq._ - -[100] Jeayes, _Derbyshire Charters_, Nos. 560, 1429. - -In giving the title “Hugh of Lincoln” to the Derbyshire version of -the ballad which follows, regard has been had to the precedent set by -others, for the ballad is usually so entitled. The Derbyshire version, -here first printed, is valuable not only for the literary beauty which -two or three of its lines display, but for the association of the story -of the Golden Ball with that of the Maid saved from the Gallows. I have -added the words “Or the Rain Charm” to the title, because I believe -that such is the subject of the ballad. But the reader will be able -to distinguish tradition from inference, and to form his own opinion. -I would add that a better version of the ballad may yet exist at -Wirksworth or in some other part of the county. We may regret that in -its present form it is corrupt; indeed, no two versions are alike. But -it is the duty of the collector to write down such things as he finds -them, without altering a syllable. He may conjecture, if he likes, that -such a phrase as “playing at ice and ball” requires emendation, but he -is not at liberty to alter the spoken words. - - -Hugh of Lincoln; or the Rain Charm - -In the summer of 1901 the following fragment of a ballad was dictated -to me by Mrs. Johnston, then aged 55, the wife of the landlord of the -“Peak” Hotel at Castleton, in Derbyshire. Mrs. Johnston says that she -learnt it from her mother, Mrs. Fletcher, who resided at Wirksworth, -in the same county, when she was young, and died in 1904. Mrs. Johnston -does not remember that the ballad had any title, or was sung to any -tune:— - - It rains, it rains in merry Scotland, - It rains both thick and small: - There were three little playfellows - Playing at ice and ball. - They threw it high, they threw it low, - They threw it rather too high, - They threw it into the Jew’s garden, - And there the ball must lie. - “Come in, come in, thou little palarp,[101] - And thou shalt have thy ball.” - “I won’t come in, I daren’t come in, - Without my playmates all.” - They showed him apples as green as grass, - They gave him sugar so sweet, - - [101] My informant did not know the meaning of this word. It is -accented on the final syllable. - - * * * * * - - They put him on a dresser ta’ - To stab him like a sheep. - - * * * * * - - “O hangman, hangman, stay thy hand, - A little before I die, - I think I see my father coming, - Hastening through yonder sty [path]. - O father hast thou brought my ball, - Or hast thou bought me free, - Or art thou come to see me hung - Upon the gallows-tree?” - “I have not brought thy ball, my dear, - I have not bought thee free, - But I have come to see thee hung - Upon the gallows-tree.” - - [The father and the mother then appear upon the “sty,” when the same - request is made to the hangman in respect of each of them, and when - they both declare that they have not brought the ball, etc. At last - comes the sweetheart, who says:—] - - “I have brought thy ball, my dear, - And I have bought thee free, - And I have brought a coach and six - To take thee away with me.” - -During the same summer, I heard in Castleton this fragment of a story:— - - Once upon a time a little girl had a golden ball bought her. One day - her parents had gone away, and before going they told her if she lost - her ball the _magician_ who gave it her would hang her. After they had - gone she began playing with the ball, and, as it happened, it went - into a brook at the back of the _magician’s_ house. She cried till she - thought she would tell her father she had lost her golden ball. When - she met him she began saying:— - - Father, father, have you brought my golden ball - Or have you come to _set me free_, - Or have you come to see me hung - Upon that gallant tree?” - - [The same question is repeated to the mother, brother, and sister, - and cousins, and last of all to the sweetheart, who says that he has - not come to see her hung, and stoops down and kisses her. They were - married and happy ever after.][102] - -[102] Told to me by Sarah Ellen Potter, aged 14, the daughter of Mr. -George Potter, of Castleton. - -No fewer than eighteen other versions of the ballad here printed have -been published.[103] With one exception, these other versions omit the -lines about the hangman and the child’s escape from the gallows. But in -other respects they substantially agree in the story which they tell. A -number of children are playing at ball, when one of them accidentally -throws it into a Jew’s garden. The Jew’s daughter entices the boy to -come in and fetch the ball. He is then laid on a dressing-board, and -stabbed to the heart with a penknife, “like a swine,” or, as four of -the versions have it, “like a sheep.” His body is then encased in lead, -or in “a quire of tin,” and thrown into a draw-well. His mother goes -forth to seek him, when he answers from the well, and bids her make -his winding-sheet. The scene is variously laid in “merry Scotland,” in -the city of Lincoln, in “Mirryland town,” in “Maitland town,” and in -“Merrycock land.”[104] In version F of Prof. Child’s collection the -time is “a summer’s morning,” and in version N we are told that the -deed was done “on a May, on a Midsummer’s day.” - -[103] In Prof. Child’s _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_, part v., -p. 233 _seq._ - -[104] As regards “Mirryland town,” it appears that the soil of the -Morayland, in North-East Scotland, is gravelly, and much improved by -summer rains. Hence the distich:— - - A misty May and a dropping June - Brings the bonny land of Moray aboon. - -—Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, new ed., p. 269. - -In a story called “The Three Golden Balls,” reported from Romsey, in -Hampshire,[105] three girls called Pepper, Salt, and Mustard have each -of them a golden ball. They play with the balls, and Pepper loses hers. -Her mother is angry, and Pepper is hung on the gallows-tree. Next day -her father goes to her, and she says:— - -[105] _Folk-lore_, vol. vi., p. 306. - - “Oh, father have you found my ball, - Or have you _paid my fee_, - Or have you come to take me down - From this old gallows tree?” - -This Hampshire version is much degraded, but it mentions _three -girls_, and is also important as showing that the one who was chosen -for sacrifice might be ransomed, as in the Derbyshire version, and so -escape death, if her father or her sisters would pay the proper fee. -They refuse, however, and the girl is redeemed by her sweetheart. In -this respect the Hampshire story resembles the Derbyshire metrical -version, in which the child is at last “bought free.” I shall refer to -the subject of redemption further on. - -The concluding part of the Derbyshire version appears at first sight -to be inconsistent with the first part, inasmuch as the child’s -death seems to have been caused both by stabbing with a knife and by -suspension on a gallows. The version, however, is quite consistent with -itself, for the child was first stabbed and then suspended with the -head downwards. - -At the present day an English butcher who is about to kill a sheep -lays it on a trestle. He then sticks a knife into the jugular vein, -and leaves the sheep for a short time on the trestle until it is quite -dead. Afterwards he skins and dresses it, and then he passes a piece -of wood through the sinews of the hind legs. From this piece of wood -it is hung, by means of a hook, head downwards from a transverse bar. -In former times a transverse wooden bar appears to have been used -instead of an iron bar, and to have been called the “gallows-tree” -(the gallows being the two upright posts), just as the transverse bar -from which the cauldron was hung in the kitchens of old houses was -called the “galley-balk.” On turning to the word “gallows” in the _New -English Dictionary_, I find three quotations from modern books, in -which slaughtered sheep or cattle are described as being hung on the -gallows. The first is from Lady Barker’s _Station Life in New Zealand_, -1866 (x. 64), in which the gallows is described as “a high wooden frame -from which the carcasses of the butchered sheep dangle.” The third -is from Boldrewood’s _Colonial Reformer_, 1891, p. 350, where the -“gallows” of the colonists is described as “a rough, rude contrivance -consisting of two uprights and a cross-piece for elevating slaughtered -cattle.” One can hardly doubt that these colonists were adopting a -practice once followed in the mother country, and, accordingly, the -apparent inconsistency between the concluding part of the Derbyshire -version and the first part of that version disappears. The child was -first stabbed “like a sheep,” and then hung, as a sheep was, on a -gallows-tree or transverse piece of wood. This suspension was identical -with crucifixion on a Tau-cross, or _crux commissa_. - -Amongst the versions of the ballad given by Prof. Child is a fragment, -numbered L, which was supplied to him by the late Canon Venables, -Precentor of Lincoln, and which came from Buckinghamshire. It was told -to Canon Venables about the year 1825. On this, Prof. Child remarks, -in a note, that “the singer tagged on to this fragment version C of -the Maid freed from the Gallows given at II., 352.” The portion of -the story which Prof. Child calls “the Maid freed from the Gallows” -can hardly have been “tagged on.” It is found in Derbyshire and -Buckinghamshire, and the metre of both portions is the same. And the -lost ball occurs in both. - -It remains to show for what reason the child was sacrificed. Ten of -the versions published by Prof. Child begin by mentioning the falling -rain—a thing which at first sight appears to have nothing to do with -the matter. Thus in the Shropshire version we have:— - - “It rains, it rains, in Merry-Cock land, - It hails, it rains both great and small.”[106] - -[106] Child, _ut supra_, referring to Miss Burne’s _Shropshire -Folk-lore_, p. 539. - -And in the copy taken by Prof. Child from Brydges’s _Restituta_, we -have:— - - “It rains, it rains in merry Scotland, - It rains both great and small.” - -The Derbyshire version, as we have seen, begins by saying that the rain -is falling “both thick and small.” - -Now it is remarkable that seven of the versions given by Prof. Child -refer to the victim’s blood, as it flowed from the wound, as being both -thick and thin. Thus in the version taken from Percy’s _Reliques_, we -have:— - - “And out and cam the thick, thick bluid, - And out and cam the thin.” - -Obviously the falling rain, which seems at first sight to enter so -needlessly into numerous versions of the story, would have a great -deal to do with the matter if the shedding of the child’s blood -were intended to be an act of imitative magic simulating, and hence -producing, rain. In Central Australia men are bled with a sharp flint, -and “the blood is thought to represent rain.” And “in Java, when rain -is wanted, two men will sometimes thrash each other with supple rods -till the blood flows down their backs; the streaming blood represents -the rain, and no doubt is supposed to make it fall on the ground.”[107] - -[107] Frazer’s _Golden Bough_, i., pp. 86, 88, and the authorities -there cited. - -We know from other traditions that children were sacrificed, if not -in Great Britain, at least elsewhere, with the intention of once more -filling the dry beds of rivers. The Rev. Joseph Hunter (1783–1861) has -recorded these lines about the English river Dun, or Don:— - - “The shelving, slimy, river Dun, - Each year a daughter or a son.”[108] - -[108] Hunter’s MSS. in the British Museum. - -The Rev. W. Gregor has told us that the Scottish river Spey “is spoken -of as ‘she,’ and bears the character of being ‘bloodthirsty.’ The -common belief is that ‘she’ must have at least one victim yearly. - -“The rhyme about the [Scottish] rivers Dee and Don and their victims -is:— - - “‘Bloodthirsty Dee, - Each year needs three; - But bonny Don, - She needs none.’”[109] - -[109] _Folk-lore_, iii., 72. - -There were German rivers which required their victim on Midsummer -Day,[110] and this, as we have seen, is the very day mentioned in -one of the versions of our ballad. In nine of the versions given by -Prof. Child, the body of the little victim is thrown into a draw-well, -after having been rolled, as some of the versions say, in a “case,” or -“cake,” of lead. The throwing of the body into a well was doubtless -intended as a further rain-charm, just as, to give a single example, -the man who gave the last stroke at threshing in the Tyrol was flung -into the river.[111] It appears from the _Annals of Waverley_,[112] -that the body of Hugh of Lincoln was first thrown into a running -stream, and ejected by the stream. It was afterwards thrown into a -drinking well. - -[110] Frazer’s _Golden Bough_, 2nd edit., i., pp. 86, 88. - -[111] Frazer’s _Golden Bough_, iii., 318. See also Hartland, _Legend of -Perseus_, iii., 73 _seq._ Mr. Hartland shows how widely spread was the -custom of offering sacrifice to water. As late as the beginning of the -nineteenth century firstborn children, according to Mr. Crooke, were -offered to the Ganges. - -[112] Child, _ut supra_, citing _Annales Monastici_, ed. Luard, ii., -346 _seq._ - -A few words must be said about the Jew, or Jew’s daughter, mentioned in -the different versions of the ballad and in the chronicles. We ought -not to overlook the fact that the Jews at an early period of their -history sacrificed, and at a later period redeemed, their first-born -children, as many passages in Exodus and Numbers plainly indicate. -But to say, as Matthew Paris does, that the Jews of Lincoln stole a -boy named Hugh, and scourged, crowned, and crucified him, as a parody -of the crucifixion of Jesus, is to make a very large demand on our -credulity. The Jews of Lincoln were not at all likely to have risked -their lives and property by such an act of wanton and hideous cruelty. -Nor is the evidence afforded by the different versions of the ballad -sufficient to establish the fact that the Jews sacrificed children in -Great Britain for any purpose or in any way. These different versions -seem to have all sprung from the same original, and the thing to be -tested is the credibility of that original. Its value as evidence -against the Jews in Britain is impaired by the different places in -which the deed is alleged to have been done, and, moreover, we have -seen that the prose version from Castleton speaks of a “magician,” not -a Jew. Still more is the evidence vitiated by the existence of that -well-known popular hatred of the Jews, which gave rise to all sorts of -libels and slanders. A good example of this hatred appeared in London -as late as 1758, when a man— - - “published a sensational account of a cruel murder committed by - certain Jews said to have lately arrived from Portugal, and then - living near Broad Street. They were said to have burnt a woman and a - new-born babe, because its father was a Christian. Certain Jews who - had arrived from Portugal, and who then lived in Broad Street, were - attacked by the mob, barbarously treated, and their lives endangered. - A criminal information was granted, although it was objected that - it did not appear precisely who were the persons accused of the - murder.”[113] - -[113] Odgers on _Libel_, 1896, p. 445. - -What the evidence does suggest is the former existence of a custom of -sacrificing children to make rain. It is not even alleged that the Jews -sacrificed children to the Spey, the Dee, or the Don. - -There is, however, a document of much greater evidential value than -ballads and chronicles, which declares that a boy was crucified by Jews -at Lincoln. In the _Hundred Rolls_ for 3 Edward I. (1274), a sworn jury -found that “certain land in the parish of St. Martin [in Lincoln], -which belonged to Leo the Jew, who was condemned for the death of a -crucified boy, and which land was then in the tenure of William Badde, -was forfeited to the King as from the year 1256.”[114] - -[114] “Item dicunt quod quædam terra quæ fuit Leonis judei dampnati pro -morte pueri crucefixi quam Willelmus Badde tenet in parochia Sancti -Martini est eschaeta domini Regis ab anno regni R.R.R. xljo, et valet -xx_s_ per annum.—_Rotuli Hundredorum_, i., 322. There is a similar -entry a few lines below. - -That Leo the Jew was condemned for the crucifixion of a boy will hardly -be doubted. That the sentence was just and founded on sufficient -evidence is quite another matter. There may have been as little -evidence against the Jews of Lincoln in 1256 as there was against the -Portuguese Jews in London in 1758. - -Although the evidence against the Jews with reference to the subject -which we are considering cannot be admitted as valid, we must not -conceal the fact that this people at an early period of their history -sacrificed their firstborn children. The story of Abraham’s intended -sacrifice of his son Isaac should lead us to suspect the early -existence of this custom. Dr. Frazer says that “the god of the Hebrews -plainly regarded the firstborn of men and the firstlings of animals as -his own,” the firstborn of men being generally redeemed.[115] And he -asks the question: “If the firstborn of men and cattle were ransomed by -a money payment, has not this last provision the appearance of being a -later mitigation of an older and harsher custom which doomed firstborn -children to the altar or the fire?” He then discusses the Passover, -and suggests that “the slaughter of firstborn children was formerly -what the slaughter of firstborn cattle always continued to be, not an -isolated butchery, but a regular custom, which, with the growth of more -humane sentiments, was afterwards softened into the vicarious sacrifice -of a lamb and the payment of a ransom for each child.” - -[115] See _Golden Bough_, ii., 45 _seq._, and especially the citations -from Numbers and Exodus on p. 46. - -The evidence which we have been examining does not mention the -firstborn. But it tells us that the child devoted to sacrifice could be -redeemed on payment of a “fee.” It is probable that those versions of -our ballad which end by the throwing of the body into a well, represent -the actual custom of early times when no redemption was possible. The -father and mother may have regarded it as a duty that their child -should become a victim, on the ground that it was better that he should -die than that a whole tribe should perish of drought and famine. - -No tale has been more popular among English children than that which is -usually called “The Golden Ball.” In some form or other every collector -has heard it.[116] However much this tale may have been worn down in -the course of ages, it is still repeated with emphasis. If ever there -was a time when the blood of little children was shed, or when their -dripping bodies hung from a gallows-tree, to make the rain fall, how -could the memory of such a horror, and of deliverance from such a -death, fail to be preserved in ballad or in story? - -[116] A Yorkshire version, much debased, is given in the first edition -of Henderson’s _Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of -England_, p. 333. It was collected by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. - - -The Glass House[117] - -[117] Told to me by Sarah Ellen Potter, aged 14, the daughter of Mr. -George Potter, of Castleton, Derbyshire, in 1901. Compare Grimm’s -_Kinder-und Haus Märchen_, No. 47, and Addy’s _Household Tales_, No. 10. - -There was a little girl selling oranges, and she went to a lady’s -house, which was made of glass. It had glass doors, and everything was -glass. The girl asked her if she would purchase of her oranges, and -the lady said she would have them all if her mother would let her come -and be her little servant. So her mother let her go. One day she was -cleaning the glass window, when it broke. Then she broke the floor, and -when her mistress went to change her dress the little girl ran outside -to the gooseberry tree, and she said:— - - “Gooseberry tree, gooseberry tree, hide me - For fear my mistress should find me, - For if she does she’ll break my bones, - And bury me under the marble stones.” - -And the gooseberry tree said, “Go to the butcher’s.” And when she got -to the butcher’s, she said:— - - “Butcher, butcher, hide me,” etc. - -But the butcher said, “Go to the baker.” And when she got there, she -said:— - - “Baker, baker, hide me,” etc. - -And the baker said, “Get into this bread box.” And she got in, and he -nailed it up. While she was at the baker’s, her mistress had been to -the gooseberry tree, and it told her it had sent the little girl to -the butcher. When her mistress got to the butcher’s, he said he had -sent her to the baker’s. So she went to the baker’s, and he told her -to go away; but she said she would let his house be searched, and she -commenced. But when she came to the box that was nailed she shivered, -and she made him undo the nails, and out came the girl. So her mistress -took her with her, and as they were crossing a river the girl’s -mistress was leaning over a bridge, when the girl gave her a push, and -she fell over and was drowned. And the little girl went singing merrily -till she got to the glass house, and kept it as her own. - - -Peggy with the Wooden Leggy[118] - -[118] Told to me by Florence Cooper, of the Peak Hotel, Castleton, -Derbyshire, in 1901. A much inferior version called “The Golden -Arm” was collected by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould in Devonshire. It is -printed in the first edition of Henderson’s _Folk-lore of the Northern -Counties_. - -Once upon a time there lived together a very rich gentleman and his -wife, and they had a young and beautiful child—one of the fairest earth -had seen. She had bright golden hair. Her eyes were blue, and her -teeth like pearls from the ocean. Her parents loved her very dearly, -and if in their power would grant her every wish that she asked. But -Peggy fell down and broke her leg, and her father bought her a wooden -one. And with Peggy having a wooden leg, the children called her Peggy -Wooden Leg, and her father didn’t like that name. And at last, thinking -that something was wrong with her, he bought her a cork one, and then -they called her Peggy Cork Leg. And going into a shop one day, she -asked the shopman if he could change her leg for a golden one. At last -she was taken ill, and died, and the butler of her father’s house, -thinking it was a sin to let her be buried in her golden leg, stole it, -and hid it in his box. He was asleep one night, and he thought he heard -a knock, knock, knocking at the door. He said, “Now, bother me, what’s -that? No ghosts here.” On turning the bedclothes down he lay aghast, -for there at the foot of the bed stood the ghost of beautiful Peggy, -not as he had seen her the day before, beautiful as marble, but with -features without flesh, sockets without eyes, head without hair, and -mouth without teeth. He was terrified, but he thought he would speak to -her, and he says, “Peggy, is that you?” And she replied, “Yes; ’tis I.” -Then he says, “Peggy, where are those beautiful blue eyes of yours?” - -She said, “They are worm-eaten and gone.” - -And he said, “Where are those beautiful pearl teeth of yours?” - -She said, “Worm-eaten and gone.” - -And he said, “Where are those beautiful golden locks?” - -And she said, “Worm-eaten and gone.” - -Then he said, “Where is that beautiful golden leg of yours?” - -And she said, “You—have—got it!!!” and vanished through the floor.[119] - -[119] _Cf._ Pythagoras and his golden leg, referred to by Frazer, -_Golden Bough_, ii., 418; also the story about Isis, who, when she -collected the scattered limbs of Osiris, replaced the missing member -with one of wood.—Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 18. - - -MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE - - -A Skull as the Protector of a House - -At Tunstead, between Chapel-en-le-Frith and Whaley Bridge, a skull in -three pieces has long been kept inside the window of a house. It is -known as Dicky Tunstead. If the skull is taken away, things will go -wrong in the house and on the land. When the house was being rebuilt -and new windows put in, they set Dicky on a couple beam in the barn, -and thought they had done with him, and would hear no more of him; but -at the rearing supper he made such a disturbance that they had to bring -him back into the house. Dicky appears in all kinds of shapes—sometimes -as a dog, and sometimes as a young lady in a silk dress. In whatever -form he appears, he will point to something amiss if you will follow -him. One of the “quarrels” of glass in the window where Dicky is is -always out, and if it is put in it is always found taken out again next -morning.[120] - -[120] See _Laxdæla Saga_, 17 and 24. For another version of this story -see Mr. Le Blanc Smith’s article in the _Reliquary_ (new series), vol -xi., p. 228. - - * * * * * - -I was told that at Dunscar, a farmhouse in the parish of Castleton, -there is a human skull on the outside of a window sill. If it is -removed, the crops fare badly. I went to the farmhouse myself, and -found no skull there, and the tenant who had lived there many years had -never heard of such a thing. - - -Christmas Eve - -In Bradwell Christmas Eve is known as Mischief Night. On that evening -gates are pulled off and hung in trees, and farmers’ carts are taken -away. They sometimes find them in the morning in a brook at the bottom -of the hill. On a certain Mischief Night a farmer was pushing a cart -down a steep hill into the brook with great eagerness, not knowing that -it was his own cart. He said to his companions, “layt it choiz,”[121] -_i.e._, let it down gently. - -[121] I do not understand this word. - - -New Year - -If you see the first new moon in the New Year through a glass there -will be a death in the family. - -At Great Hucklow they say that if you put clothes out on New Year’s Day -there will be a death in the family before the end of the year. - - -Easter Observances - -At Castleton and Bradwell, and in other villages of the High Peak, -Easter Monday is known as Unlousing Day, _i.e._, releasing day. When a -young woman came out of a house on the morning of that day the young -men used to say “kiss or cuck.” If the girls refused the kiss the young -men came in the evening and “cucked” them, _i.e._, tossed them up. -The young women at Castleton used to “cuck” the young men on Easter -Tuesday, and a tale is told there about a young man who was “cucked” -so often on Easter Tuesday that he fell on his knees and implored an -old woman who was driving a cow home not to “cuck” him. If the girl -accepted the proffered kiss she was released, _i.e._, she escaped being -tossed. - -At Castleton the boys also kissed the girls on Valentine’s Day, and the -schoolmaster had to let the girls go home before the boys to prevent -the boys from kissing them. - -“Cucking” was a very rough practice, and it sometimes led to charges -of assault being made before the magistrates. At Castleton it was -sometimes done by putting a “fork stale” or fork handle under the -girl’s legs and lifting her up. It required two young men to do this. -More frequently two men seized a girl by the arms and shoulders, tossed -her up, and caught her as she fell. It is said at Bradwell that more -girls were seen out on Unlousing Day than on any other day. The day is -sometimes known as Cucking Day. - -At Bradwell and Castleton parents tell their children to put pins -into wells on Palm Sunday, or if they fail to do so they will break -their bottles on the following Easter Monday. The pins must be new and -straight, not crooked. I have talked to children who have done this, -and one of them, a girl about fourteen years old, said the children go -in great numbers on the afternoon of Palm Sunday to a well in Bradwell, -“behind Micklow.” She took me to the well herself in October, 1901. It -is divided into two parts by the boundary wall of a field, and is so -small that I should never have found it alone. The Bradwell children -used also to drop pins on this day into a well in Charlotte Lane, and -also into a pond between Bradwell and Brough. Mr. Robert Bradwell, of -Bradwell, aged 88, told me that on Palm Sunday “the children used to -put new pins into lady wells, and the lady of the well would not let -them have clean water unless they did that.” There is a lady well at -the back of the castle at Castleton, from which the children used to -fill their bottles at Easter, and there is another at Great Hucklow, -or Big Hucklow, as some call it, from which they filled their bottles. -Mr. Bradwell said the object of the children was “to get clean water -by the lady’s influence. They had to do what the lady required. It was -a fairy, or else an insect. On Easter Monday, a father or mother would -say to a child, ‘If tha’s put no new pin in, there’ll be no clean water -for thee.’” Mrs. Harriet Middleton, aged 83, once lost her slippers in -the snow when she was going to put a pin in the well near Micklow. She -and other young girls would have gone through snow or any weather to -put them in. - -[Illustration: The Keep: Peverel Castle.] - -[Illustration: Little Hucklow: Folk-Collector’s Summer House.] - -At Castleton, Bradwell, and other places in the neighbourhood, Easter -Monday is known as Shakking Monday. At Bradwell the children get glass -bottles, such as medicine bottles, and fill them with water. They then -put in pieces of peppermint cakes of various colours, but generally -pink. These peppermint cakes are quite different from ordinary -peppermint lozenges. They are big things, two or three inches wide, -and are square or oblong in shape. The children break them up, put the -broken pieces into the bottles, shake the mixture, and drink it. Some -of the children tie the bottles round their necks. The sweetened water -lasts for many days, and they take a drink of it from time to time. At -Castleton and Aston the children put Spanish juice or “pink musks” into -the water. - -They say at Bradwell that unless you wear something new on Easter -Sunday the birds will drop their excrement on you. - -On Good Friday the lead-miners of Bradwell would on no account go into -the mines. They would do any other kind of work on that day. - - -Shrove Tuesday Custom - -About Whaley, near Chapel-en-le-Frith, they used to bake pancakes -(which are eaten as soon as they are ready) on Pancake Day, _i.e._, -Shrove Tuesday. If a girl could not eat a pancake between the time when -the last pancake was done and a fresh pancake was ready, she was thrown -into a gooseberry bush or upon the ash midden. At Abney on this day -they called the one who was last in bed the “bed-churl” or “bed-churn,” -and they threw him or her on the ash-midden. It was a common thing in -the village to ask who had been the “bed-churl” that day. - - -Yule Loaf, Posset, and Candle - -On Christmas Eve at Bradwell they have a large candle on the table and -a large bowl of posset, which is made of ale and milk. They all sit -round the table whilst the candle is burning, put their spoons into -the bowl, and sup from them. The grocers still give candles to their -regular customers for this purpose. - -Mrs. George Middleton, of Smalldale, told me that the posset bowl used -on Christmas Eve in that hamlet is a pancheon or milk bowl. They sit -round the table, and put their spoons into the bowl. Any stranger who -happens to come in can also put his spoon in. Posset is made of milk, -which is warmed and spiced with nutmeg, ale being poured in until it -“breaks” or curds. The Yule loaf was baked all in one piece. It was -“like a round loaf put on the top of a four pound loaf.” - -Robert Bradwell, of Bradwell, aged 88, said that the posset pot went -round the table from one to another. There was a bit of a figure on the -top of the Yule loaf to please the eye. The Yule candle was much longer -than an ordinary candle. - - -The last of the Cave-dwellers - -Two old women, called Betty Blewit and Sall Waugh, lived in a hut -within the opening of the great cave at Castleton. It was one storey -high; it had a mud roof, and “a bit of a lead window in front.” The bed -was in one corner. These old women used to say that they “lived in a -house on which the sun never shone, or the rain ever fell.” They begged -of gentle people in the summer.[122] Writing of the cavern in 1720–31, -the Rev. Thomas Cox says: “Within the arch are several small buildings, -where the poorer sort of people inhabit, who are ready at all times -with lanterns and candles to attend such travellers as are curious to -enquire into these territories of Satan. These people resemble the -Troglydites, or cunicular men, who, as Dr. Brown describes them, lived -under the ground like rabbits.”[123] - -[122] Information by Samuel Marrison, of Castleton, aged 88, in 1901. - -[123] _Magna Britannia_ (Derbyshire), p. 442. - - -First Foot - -At Castleton a dark-haired man “takes the New Year in” immediately -after twelve o’clock on New Year’s Eve. He must be a dark man, _i.e._, -“a man with a black head or black hair.” The parish clerk who had very -black hair took the New Year in to some houses in Castleton. When -the dark-haired man comes in “a glass of something good is given to -him.” I was told that young dark-haired lads “get a ruck o’ money” in -Castleton for taking the New Year in. Black or dark hair is obligatory -in the High Peak. Miss Barber, of Castleton, aged 76, said that the -black-haired man ought to be a stranger, and not a member of the family -visited. In Bradwell, as in Castleton, the New Year is brought in by a -dark-haired man.[124] The term “first foot” seems to be unknown in the -High Peak. - -[124] Near Sheffield the man who brings the New Year in brings with him -a mince pie, a bit of coal, and something to drink, to cause good luck -to the house. At Bradwell they have what they call “lucky bags,” things -being put into them for good luck. - - -Curfew - -At Castleton the curfew bell is known as the “curfer” bell, the accent -falling on the first syllable. It is said to have been rung as a -warning to people coming over the moors. It begins to ring on the 29th -of September, and ends on Shrove Tuesday. On the 29th of September it -rings at seven in the evening, and on the following nights at eight -o’clock. It does not ring on Sundays, or between Shrove Tuesday and -September 29th. Mr. Samuel Marrison, of Castleton, aged 88, said to -me that “people found their way across the hills by the sound of the -bells. There were no walls, and the sound of the bells was a guide.” -An old man in Castleton told me that “they ring curfer because a man -was lost on the hills. The parish clerk rings it on one bell.” I was -surprised to find how many people in Castleton knew the exact times at -which this bell is rung. - - -Good Times - -In Bradwell they speak of “a good time as a wakes time.” One of the -lead-miner’s customary rules declared “that the bar-master, by the -consent of the jury, shall make a lawful dish between the buyers and -the sellers of lead ore; and against a good time (or festival) as -Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, etc., shall give to the poor two -dishes, if need require.”[125] - -[125] Hardy’s _Miner’s Guide_, Sheffield, 1748, p. 28. - - -Vows under the Shadow of a Hill - -If lovers make vows to each other under the shadow of the castle hill -at Castleton, those vows must never be broken. If broken, their love -affairs will never prosper. - - -Thar-Cake Joinings - -At Bradwell, on the fifth of November, they make a quantity of -thar-cake (in South Yorkshire called tharf-cake), and divide it among -the different members of the family, as the father, mother, brothers, -and sisters. This is called a thar-cake joining. One Bradwell man will -say to another, “Have you joined yet?” meaning “Have you made your -thar-cake?” - -Another informant told me that a “thar-cake join” was a kind of -feast among children, and it used to be very common in Bradwell on -the fifth of November. The children asked somebody to make the cake, -and each of them paid his or her proportion towards the cost of the -ingredients—meal, treacle, etc. They had coffee, etc., with the -cake. The Primitive Methodists in Bradwell have now what they call a -“thar-cake supper.” It is held on the Saturday which is nearest to the -fifth of November. - - -Burial Customs - -At Castleton burying cakes and warm ale were handed round at funerals. -Burying cakes, said one of my informants, were three-cornered, and -big enough to be carried under the arm. But another informant said -they were round, and seven or eight inches across. They cut them into -slices, and handed them round with warm ale. - -At Castleton the funerals of poor people were known as “pay-buryings.” -The guests used to give something towards the expenses, and an old -woman with a white cap on used to sit in a chair in the corner, or in -an armchair by the fire, and receive the money. - -At Bradwell an old farmer called Jacob Eyre was expected to attend all -funerals. A basket like a butter basket hung on one of his arms, and -with the other arm he used to “deal out” pieces of bread to children -standing round the door. Plenty of children gathered together at the -funerals for the sake of the bread. The pieces of bread were three or -four inches square, and they were either got from a bakehouse, or the -relatives made it themselves. The old man was “very complimentary” to -the children. He pleased them, joked, and made them laugh. What he said -was very pleasant and nice. It was a regular custom in Bradwell, but it -was not continued after Jacob Eyre’s death. He died many years ago.[126] - -[126] Information by Robert Bradwell, of Bradwell, formerly a lead-mine -owner, aged 88, and given by him to me in 1901. Among the directions -which William Percy gave to his executors in 1344 was one which obliged -his executors, on peril of their souls, not to let a poor man depart -from his funeral without receiving a penny, or the equivalent of a -penny in bread.—_Testamenta Ebor._ (Surtees Society), i. p. 6. - -Mrs. George Middleton, of Smalldale, widow, aged 45, said that her -mother used to dress coffins with flowers at Abney, where she lived. -But she did not put thyme on them, for she said “they had nothing to -do with time.” But she said that whenever one of the Twelve Oddfellows -at Bradwell dies, the survivors march before his coffin and sing, each -surviving oddfellow carrying a sprig of thyme in his hand, which he -drops on the coffin. Mrs. Middleton thought that one of their printed -rules provided for this being done, but I did not find it in them. Mrs. -Middleton said that her mother was present at all births and laying out -of corpses at Abney, not as part of her duty, but because she liked to -be there. “Funeral bread,” she said, “was made in a peculiar way.” Mrs. -Middleton said it was the custom at Abney to put thyme in a house after -a death and before the funeral, and also southern wood, old man, or -lad’s love, these being names for the same plant. - -In Eyam there was a “custom of anointing deceased children with -May-dew.”[127] - -[127] Bagshaw’s _History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Derbyshire_, -1846, p. 497. - - -Wakes - -At Thornhill near Hope they have two barrels of ale at the wakes, and -they feast in a barn. They dance and sing. - -Mr. Robert Bradwell, of Bradwell, aged 88, told me in 1901 that “every -day weakened the wake time. A few old women used to stand across the -road at Castleton at the end of the wake week with a rope to keep the -wakes in. There is only one road in Castleton—that leading from Hope.” -Mr. Bradwell said he had never seen a rope tied across the road to keep -the wakes in, and that it was a superstition by which they intended to -prolong the wakes. I put questions to many people in Castleton about -this, but found nobody who had heard of it. - -At Bradwell wakes, which begin on the second Sunday in July, children -got their new clothes, and all sorts of cleaning and whitewashing were -done against that time. At Castleton also the children had new clothes, -and the houses were whitewashed. They “fettled and cleaned for the -wakes.”[128] - -[128] Mrs. Johnston, of the Peak Hotel, Castleton, told me that at -Morley, near Leeds, any neighbour could come into a house on the Sunday -morning when the feast began and take a sop out of the pan. They walked -straight in and helped themselves. English wakes seem to correspond -to the festival of new fruits in other countries. On this subject see -Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii., 326 _seq._ - -At Castleton on wakes even, _i.e._, on the Saturday night before the -feast begins, they pulled trees up in gardens, hung gates in trees, hid -the farmers’ carts, and took them anywhere. - - -Offerings to the Fairies - -A Derbyshire man, aged about 55, said that his grandmother used to -tell him that if you made the hearth very tidy before you went to bed, -and put a little food on it, you would find the room swept and tidy -next morning. He remembers trying this experiment when a boy, and the -disappointment he felt when the desired result was not produced. - - -“Sweeping the Girl” on St. Valentine’s Day - - “If the lass is not kissed, or does not get a visit from her - sweetheart on St. Valentine’s Day, she is said to be dusty, and the - villagers sweep her with a broom, or a wisp of straw. She is bound, - subsequently, to cast lots with other girls, and finally, if she has - good luck, draws the name of her future husband out of an old top - hat.”[129] - -[129] From an article on “Superstitions in the Peak,” in the _Sheffield -Daily Telegraph_, 14th August, 1906. It was written by Mr. John -Pendleton, of Manchester, who has kindly allowed me to mention his name. - -Mr. Pendleton tells me in a letter that the custom was observed on the -morning of St. Valentine’s Day in the middle of the last century. - - - - -JEDEDIAH STRUTT - -By the Hon. Frederick Strutt - - -Jedediah Strutt, the second of three sons of William Strutt, a farmer -at South Normanton, Derbyshire, was born on July 26th, 1726. His mother -was Martha Statham, of Shottie, a hamlet in the parish of Duffield, at -which church she and William Strutt were married on February 11th, 1724. - -Of his elder brother Joseph little is known, except that he went to -London, where he started in some commercial business, and that he -married a Miss Scott.[130] - -[130] Joseph Strutt went to London early in life, and we believe -ultimately kept a shop there. He married in the year 1755 a Miss Scott, -and from this marriage the Strutts known as the Strutts of Tutbury -are descended. His two daughters married in succession Mr. Joseph -Chamberlain. From the second of these marriages is descended the Right -Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, late Secretary of State for the Colonies, etc. - -Jedediah’s education can have been only that of a country school of -those days, though it is but fair to surmise that his father must have -been a man superior to the farmers and yeomen of his day, otherwise his -sons, Jedediah in particular, could not have been so successful in the -respective occupations of their after life. - -Mr. Felkin[131] tells us that in very early years Jedediah’s thoughts -took an eminently practical turn, and that as a boy he occupied himself -in making toy water-mills on a small brook, in endeavouring even to -improve his father’s plough, and in other ingenious pastimes. The -writer of this memoir is unaware from what source Mr. Felkin obtained -his information as to the early tastes and occupations of Jedediah, but -as he (Mr. Felkin) was a friend of the first Lord Belper, the grandson -of Jedediah, the writer feels confident that nothing was inserted in -Mr. Felkin’s account that had not Lord Belper’s full knowledge and -approval. - -[131] _A History of Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufacture_, by -W. Felkin, 1867. - -It is at all events clear that at fourteen years of age Jedediah had -shown a greater taste for mechanics than for husbandry, for he was -then apprenticed by his father to a Mr. Ralph Massey, a wheelwright of -Findern, a village about five miles from Derby, and twenty miles from -his paternal home. It was to this apprenticeship, and to this life at -Findern, that Jedediah Strutt owed a great part of his success in after -life, and it is interesting to know that the document of the original -indenture, of which a _facsimile_ is given, is in the hands of and -prized by his great-grandson, the second Lord Belper. - -At Findern, Jedediah was put to lodge with a family of the name -of Woollatt, who were what were called hosiers (_i.e._, hosiery -manufacturers in a small way); it was, as we shall see, from his -intimacy with this family that a great deal of his success in after -life emanated. - -It may be presumed that William Strutt’s family were not members of -the Church of England, but belonged to the Presbyterian, or, as it was -called in later years, Unitarian persuasion. Whether that was so or -not, the Woollatts at all events belonged to that sect, and sat under a -Dr. Ebenezer Latham, who was a scholar of some repute, and had chapels -both at Findern and at Caldwell. - -Jedediah Strutt, we know, served the full time of his apprenticeship at -Findern, and after that was in service or employment at Leicester, or -at Belgrave, near that town, for a period of about seven years. - -[Illustration: Apprenticeship Indenture of Jedediah Strutt, 1740.] - -It must have been about the year 1754, when he was twenty-eight -years of age, that an uncle, who was a farmer at Blackwell, the -parish next to South Normanton, died; he left his stock on the farm -to Jedediah, with the idea, we suppose, that he would succeed him as -tenant. This legacy seems to have been sufficient to induce Jedediah -to give up his employment, whatever it was, near Leicester, and return -to the land or to husbandry. It served also as a reason for thinking -he was in a position to marry. We find him, therefore, almost at once, -after settling at Blackwell, writing to Elizabeth Woollatt, with whom -he had been ever since his residence at Findern, now more than eight -years before, on terms of intimacy if not of affection. Miss Woollatt -had during that time been very little at home, but had been out in -service, and at the time of Jedediah’s proposal was acting as servant -or housekeeper to a Dr. Benson, an eminent Presbyterian divine in the -east of London, who had written several works on divinity, and who has -in more recent days been deemed worthy of a place in the _Dictionary of -National Biography_. - -The characteristic letter containing Jedediah’s proposal to Elizabeth -Woollatt, which we are about to give, is a long one, but it is rather -typical of the writer, and is also worth inserting as a proof of how -well he, who was little above a working man in position, had managed to -educate himself. - - “J. Strutt to Elizabeth Woollatt. - “Blackwell - “Feby 3^{rd} 1755 - - “Dear Betty, - - “Since our first acquaintance, which is now many years ago, I have - often wrote to you but never in a strain like this; nor did I think I - ever should for though we were then more intimately acquainted than - since and though then I thought you had some degree of kindness for - me, yet as my conduct and behaviour to you has been such as could - neither raise nor continnue your regard, together with the years that - have passed since then, (for time often puts a period to love as well - as all other events) I did not think you could remember me with the - least pleasure or satisfaction but rather the contrary; but when I - was at London and had the opportunity of seeing you something or - other told me (though perhaps nothing more than the last glance of - your eye when I bade you farewell) that you looked on me with an eye - of tenderness nay, one is so apt to speak as they wish I had liked - to have said love; and if so that one generous instance of truth and - constancey has made a greater and more lasting impression on my mind - than all the united claims of beauty wit and fortune of your sex so - far as I have had opportunity of conversing, were ever able to make; - therefore it is upon this foundation I promise to tell you that from a - wandering inconstant and roving swain I am become entirely yours! - - “I am ready to become all that you could wish me to be if you loved me - and which is all I wish your husband. But suppose I should have gone - too far in this declaration, and my fond observation prove a mistake, - how will you wish, nay rather how impossible would it then be for you - to wish even to call me by that tender name. But let me still suppose - it is not so.... Yet what argument can I use to induce you to leave - London with all the delights it affords, or how persuade you to leave - so good a master who I know values you and whom you both esteem and - love. Here I am at a loss and if you should be indifferent with regard - to me it will be impossible to say anything that will be sufficient. - And indeed I am not inclined to flatter nor to fill your imagination - with fine words only; and this is one of all the realities I can think - of, that it is not impossible but that you may be happy here even tho’ - it is true you cannot behold the splendour and the gaiety of a great - city nor the noise and hurry of its inhabitants; yet the London air - is not half so sweet, nor the pleasures half so lasting and sincere. - Here inocense and health more frequently reside; here the beauties - of nature are ever presenting themselves both to our senses and - imaganations; here you may view the rising and the setting sun which - many in London are strangers to; here it is that you may have the - morning and the evening song of many warbling larks and linnets and as - Milton expresses it ‘The shrill matin song of birds on everry bough.’ - As to myself fortune has not placed me among the number of the rich - and great and so not subjected me to the many temptations and follies - that attend great men some of which perhaps I should not have been - able to withstand, and others that I should have been loth to bear; - yet by the blessing of heaven I have more then enough for happiness, - and by that means at this season of the year I enjoy many leisure - hours (and all the blessings of leisure and retirement) some of which - I spend in reading and meditation, the rest I dedicate to love and you. - - “But I shall forget myself and learn to do a thing I never loved that - is to write long letters, and yet methinks I have a thousand things to - say; but as I had rather you wished I had said more than less nay if - I could have told you all my heart in one word, I should not now have - troubled you with so many; but I have no apology to make, only my - sincerity, and if you read with candour and with the same simplicity - with which I write you will certainly find it sincere. I hope that - will recomment it to your kind reception and obtain if possible an - answer of kindness. - - “I saw your brother as I passed through Derby but I did not take - him the books you desired me. I heard from my brother last week and - rejoyce to hear he has been abroad (i e out of the house). - - “My father often talks of the Doctor and you and withall knows that I - love you, nay he himself loves you and will be glad to see you here; - and now if ever you had any kindness for me, if ever I did or said - anything to give you either delight or pleasure, let it not be in vain - that I now ask, nor torture me with silence and suspense; by so doing - you will lay the highest obligations on one who is in every sense of - the word - - “Your sincere lover - “J Strutt.” - -This proposal elicited the following equally characteristic reply:— - - “Elizabeth Woollatt to Jedediah Strutt. - “addressed to - “M^r Jedediah Strutt at Blackwell - “to be left at the Bull Inn, Mansfield - - “London Feby 15^{th} - “1755 - - “Yours of the third came safe, which I would have answered before - but had not presence of mind enough for some time to lay it before - my master; at length a favourable opportunity offering itself, my - resolution got the better of my fear, and, after a short introduction - gave him your letter which he said showed you to be a man of sense - and he thought of honour and honesty; but as to himself he was so - surprised, disconcerted and uneasy as I never saw him, and for some - time would say nothing more to me. At length he became able to talk - freely on that head, bid me consult my own happiness and not think - what he suffered. He then offered to make me independent, that so - after his death, I might live where I pleased, not at all intending - that as a dissuasive from accepting your generous offer, but as a - means to prevent my being influenced by any other motive than that - alone which is essential to the most lasting, most perfect happiness. - - “Such, such is the behaviour of this god-like man; may he meet all the - reward that such beneficence deserves in both worlds. - - “As to myself was I possessed of any desirable qualification, and had - I enjoyed the greatest affluence, I should not then hesitate a moment, - but comply with whatever you will desire; but my consciousness of my - own inferiority in points of fortune as well as anything else, makes - me extremely fearful that you should find cause to repent, when it is - too late; if this should be the case, what I must suffer from what in - me is the least occasion of pain to you, is not for me to say; but be - this as it will, you are and ever will be entitled to the best wishes - of your most humble servant - - “E. Woollat. - - “My service to your father I wish I better deserved his good opinion.” - -Many letters afterwards pass between the happy pair; but their course -of true love runs very smoothly until all is made ready. At the -beginning of September, we find Miss Woollatt coming down from London -to Blackwell to be married. It would certainly have seemed more natural -that she should be married from her father’s house, but that did not -seem to be either possible or advisable under changed circumstances, -as her father had married again, and the step-mother, as is often the -case, seemed to stand rather in the way of the children being at home. - -We now, therefore, see Jedediah Strutt happily settled at Blackwell, -apparently ready to remain steadfast to farming, and married to the -excellent and most industrious woman of his affections. It must have -been, however, about the time his first child, William, was born, that -a change came over the scene, and that Jedediah’s strong taste for -mechanics obliged him to think of other things besides his farm. - -His brother-in-law, William Woollatt, who had been assisting his father -in the hosiery trade, and till the second marriage had been living at -Findern, knowing Strutt’s bent for mechanics, desired his assistance in -connection with an object which he had at heart, viz., the invention of -a machine for making ribbed hose. - -It will be best and most fitting here to give Mr. Felkin’s account of -this invention.[132] - -[132] _History of Machine-wrought Hosiery_, by W. Felkin, p. 88. - - “Mr. William Woollatt was at that time, 1750, a hosier in Derby. - His attention was directed to the question of how these ribbed hose - could be made, and he brought under the special attention of his - brother-in-law, Mr. Jedediah Strutt, who, though an agriculturist, - had he knew been from his youth engaged in mechanical pursuits as - an occupation of his mind and hands during his leisure time. The - reference thus made proved to be a most successful one. The important - results could not have been at first anticipated, nor even during the - lifetime of Mr. Strutt were they fully understood. But they have been - such as to have given him a just prominence amongst the inventors of - that age, and to require the more extended personal account about to - be given. The very simplicity of the plan he devised and of the mode - of its application to the machine of Lee 170 years after its invention - added to the fact that no historian of the trade wrote during the - next fifty years preclude any very minute details of the obstacles - he encountered. Such an account now would be very interesting, if it - had been forthcoming. Great difficulties there must have been, for - the constructive powers of mechanics in the stocking trade had not a - hundred years ago been employed as they have been since; mainly as - the effect of this effort of Strutt’s genius.... It was now that he, - by Mr. Woollatt’s representations of the difficulty and importance of - the matter then occupying the frame-work knitting world, was induced - to make himself practically acquainted with the principles and the - movements of a stocking frame; probably the most if not the only very - complex machine he had ever seen; and this with the idea no doubt at - first but a remote one of so dealing with it as to cause it to produce - what had hitherto been thought to be beyond its powers. A clergyman - had invented it, why should not a farmer increase its capacity for - usefulness? After much labour, time, and expense, he succeeded - admirably in this by making an addition to it, or rather placing in - front of it so as to work in unison and harmony with it a distinct - apparatus or machine; thus between them to produce the ribbed web of - looped fabric; and not as popularly stated by finding out the defects - of Lee’s frame and devoting himself to its improvement. - - ... The principle of Strutt’s Derby rib machine remains unaltered; - its operation has been simplified, however, by its subordination to - automatic movement, as will be at once seen on examination of power - hosiery frames lately constructed.” - -From this time, though he did not leave his farm at Blackwell at once, -Strutt’s mind was evidently entirely occupied with his invention, and -with the consideration of the best way of making use of it. Strutt’s -means were, we can imagine, very small, and therefore his only plan -was to try and get some other manufacturer of hosiery to take him as a -partner, and share the advantage of his mechanical skill and invention. -We believe there are no letters of Strutt’s to be found relating to -his invention of the Derby rib machine, but in 1757 he was evidently -making great efforts to start in a hosiery business. - -Early in that year, Mrs. Strutt went up to London to see her kind old -master, and to inquire whether he could be persuaded to advance them or -lend them some of the necessary capital for starting in business. She -was, we believe, successful in this object, and we know that the next -child was christened George _Benson_. The account of her journey up to -town gives a rather good idea of the difficulty of travelling in those -days, especially for the humbler classes, who could not afford the -coach, but had to go by the waggon. - -Jedediah Strutt took his wife to Derby, evidently on a pillion behind -him on horseback, and from there she proceeded in the stage waggon. In -this their progress must have been very slow, as she writes about the -journey that at Glyn, six miles from Leicester, “I was so sick I was -not able to travel further, but staid behind the waggon more than an -hour, and then walked five miles before I came up with it.” - -In this and the following year the necessary patents were taken -out, and a great many of the leading hosiery manufacturers in the -neighbourhood of Nottingham were approached, and several visits to -London had to be paid. The first business Jedediah Strutt started was -with hosiers of the name of Bloodworth and Herford. This arrangement, -though terminated happily by all parties, did not last long, and the -two brothers-in-law ultimately persuaded Mr. Need, a most respectable -hosier, to join them, the firm being styled Need, Strutt and Woollatt. -They had works both at Derby and Nottingham. It can be readily -understood that immersed as he was in this business, Strutt had found -it impossible to continue to reside on the farm at Blackwell, which -place he must have left about 1759, when he took his family to reside -in Derby. - -Before we leave the village of Blackwell, it ought to be mentioned that -the farmhouse where Strutt resided is still known, and that when one -of his great-grandsons visited the place only a few years ago, he was -at once taken up to a long, low garret in the roof, where it is the -current tradition of the place his great-grandfather had 150 years ago -worked his hosiery frame and invented the Derby rib machine. - -It may also be of a little interest to some of our readers to be told -that one of the Strutt family was able to acquire quite recently a -cradle made by Jedediah for his first child, William. This cradle, it -appears, had been acquired or bought when Strutt left Blackwell by his -friend Haslam, the blacksmith at Tibshelf (a neighbouring village), who -had probably assisted Strutt in making his machine. It has since that -time rocked four generations of the Haslam family. The cradle is of -oak, and it is needless to say, like many other works of Strutt’s, of -very strong and solid construction. - -The hosiery manufacture of Need, Strutt and Woollatt must have been -very successful, or they would not in such a few years have been able -to gain the position they did. Strutt must have been the manager or -moving spirit of the establishments both in Derby and Nottingham. It -is interesting to learn that in the latter town, in which we believe -he never resided, he received in the year 1762 the compliment of being -made a freeman. - -It was, we believe, in or about the year 1770 that Richard Arkwright, -knowing, of course, what the demand for cotton yarn was for hosiery -making in Derby and Nottingham, came to Nottingham in the hope of -finding someone to help him in starting cotton mills, by which he -could reap the fruits of his recent invention, the Spinning Jenny. -Messrs. Wright, the bankers, not being prepared to find all the -necessary capital, advised Arkwright to apply to the successful hosiery -manufacturers, Messrs. Need, Strutt and Woollatt. This advice was at -once acted on, and in a very short time the firm of Messrs. Arkwright, -Strutt and Need was formed. - -Cotton mills, driven by horse power, were at once started at -Nottingham, and a few years later mills were built at Cromford, where -advantage was taken of the fine water power of the river Derwent. - -Strutt was now a very busy man, as he was not only part proprietor of -large hosiery works and of large cotton spinning works, but he was also -starting in Derby calico or weaving works. It was he, we are told, who -was the first person to start the manufacture of calico all of cotton, -that is to say, not of linen warp and cotton weft. This change, though -it may seem to us a small one, created a revolution in the calico -trade, and all the Lancashire manufacturers were up in arms against it. -In the end an Act of Parliament, after much trouble had been taken, was -passed, by which certain prohibitions and discriminating duties were -repealed, and the new process declared to be both lawful and laudable. - -The following letter from Lord Howe,[133] the celebrated admiral, who -had no doubt been helping to steer this measure through the House of -Commons, is perhaps of sufficient interest to insert:— - -[133] Lord Howe was not created an English peer until after this date. - - “Grafton Street - “August 16th 1785 - - “Lord Howe presents his compliments with many thanks for the piece of - the new manufacture he has received from Messrs. Need & Strutt. He is - very much flattered by that instance of their gallantry to Lady Howe - who accepts it with equal acknowledgment, as he deems it an evidence - of their obliging prejudice in his favour, tho’ conscious at the same - time that the success of their application to Parliament was solely - ascribable to the reasonableness and justice of their pretensions. - Lady Howe will have a particular satisfaction in making the - circumstances known, hoping that the elegance of the pattern and the - perfection of the work will incite all her acquaintance to encourage - so great an improvement in the British manufactures.” - -In the year 1780, Strutt and Arkwright severed their business -connection, Arkwright retaining the works at Cromford, and Strutt -building works at Belper and at Milford on land that had been recently -acquired. These works, as well as those at Cromford, continue to be -carried on as cotton mills in spite of the enormous development of the -cotton trade in Lancashire. - -It is interesting, too, to know that Samuel Sclater, known in America -as the “father” of the cotton spinning industry in that country, came -from Belper, and was actually apprenticed for seven years to Jedediah -Strutt while he was living at Milford. Samuel Sclater’s life was -written in America nearly eighty years ago, and contains a view of -the Belper mills, and the portrait and one or two interesting little -anecdotes of his old master, Jedediah Strutt. - -We must now say a few words about Strutt’s domestic and family life in -the latter part of his career. In 1773 he had the misfortune to lose -his wife, a loss that was irreparable to him, as she had been not only -a devoted helpmate and companion to him, but a most excellent mother to -their children. She died while with him on one of his many journeys to -London which he made about this time. She is buried in Bunhill Fields. - -We give here an extract from one of Jedediah’s letters to his children -after their mother’s death:— - - “At present I feel so bewildered and so lost so wanting, some how or - other so but half myself that I can scarce believe things to be in - the manner they are indeed it is impossible for me to describe or - you to imagine how I feel. I doubt not every repetition of this kind - will affect you but it will wear off especially in minds young as - yours are. Other objects will make their impressions but you I trust - will never forget your dear mother who loved you so well I hope you - will always retain much of her goodness of temper disposition and - affection; that you will imitate the example she has set you of virtue - of goodness of benevolence and kindness for they are most amiable - virtues and that you will study the same sentiments of sobriety - temperance diligence frugality industry and economy that you observed - in her. Your own recollection will bring to your minds so many things - that were to be found in her worth your attention that I need not here - enumerate them.” - -The bereaved husband, owing to his business in London, and perhaps -also to his own feelings, did not return to his family till November. -The children, of whom William, the eldest, was only seventeen years of -age, by their letters at any rate show how well they had been brought -up. Having only one servant, a great deal of the work in the house had -to be done by them, and we have proof also that both William and his -sisters were making themselves of use in some of the office work of -their father’s business. It is interesting, too, to find how careful -their parents were in impressing upon them the importance of learning -French, and to note even in their letters what trouble they took to -obtain proficiency in that language. - -In the letter to his son, from which we are about to make a few -extracts, we can see how Jedediah felt the disadvantage of the rather -humble and imperfect education and of the illiterate society he had -had in early life, and was determined if possible to do his utmost to -prevent his children suffering in the way he had suffered. - - “London August 4th 1774 - - “My dear Billy - - “Some time ago I happened to see some of the letters wrote by the Earl - of Chesterfield to his son which pleased me so much that I determined - to buy the book and on perusing it find it so full of good sense, - good language and just observations that I am charmed with it. The - late Lord Chesterfield was a nobleman of the first rank, had all the - advantages of a learned and polite education joined to a ready wit and - good understanding. He had seen and conversed and been employed in - most of the countries in Europe; indeed he had spent a life of many - years in the most polished and refined company that were anywhere - to be met with; to all of which great advantages he added the most - diligent the most careful and most just observation.” - -[Illustration: Jedediah Strutt. - -(_From Original Painting by Joseph Wright, c. 1785._)] - -After explaining Lord Chesterfield’s and his son’s position in the -world, Jedediah Strutt continues:— - - “I need not tell you that you are not to be a nobleman, nor prime - minister, but you may possibly be a tradesman of some eminence and - as such you will necessarily have connection with mankind and with - the world and that will make it absolutely necessary to know them - both and you may be assured if you add to the little learning and - improvement you have hitherto had, the manners, the air, the genteel - address and polite behaviour of a gentleman you will abundantly find - your account in it in all and every transaction of your future - life when you come to do business in the world.... You may believe - me in this for I now feel the want of them (accomplishments) by dear - experience. If I would I could describe the awkward figure one makes, - the confusion and the embarrassment one is thrown into on certain - occasions from the want of not knowing how to behave and the want of - assurance to put what one does know into practice. I look on it now - as a real misfortune that in the beginning of my life I had not sense - nor judgment enough of my own nor any friend that was able or kind - enough to point out to me the necessity of an easy agreeable or polite - behaviour. Indeed so foolish was I that I looked on dancing and dress - the knowing how to sit or attend or move gracefully and properly as - trifles not worthy the least expense of time or money and much below - the notice of a wise man. I observe in you a good deal of the same - temper and disposition with regard to these things that I myself had - when I was your age but if you will believe me as the best friend you - have in the world they are wrong notions and must be eradicated and - changed for those of a different nature if ever you mean to shine in - any character in life whatever.” - -After reading this letter of advice of the father to his son, it is -interesting to know that the son, if he did not occupy any public -position, did shine as an eminent scientific man, who numbered amongst -his friends all the greatest scientists and philanthropists of his day, -and was himself a member of the Royal Society. - -Very little more remains to be told of Jedediah Strutt’s life. He -married a second time about the year 1780 or 1781, Anne, the widow -of George Daniels, of Belper, and daughter of George Cantrell, of -Kniveton. This marriage, we learn from one or two letters, did not give -satisfaction to his daughters and other members of his family, nearly -all of whom were, however, married about that time or a little later. - -Jedediah Strutt passed the end of his life at Milford House, which he -had himself built. He did not die there, but at Exeter House, Derby, in -the year 1797. He lies buried in the Unitarian Chapel at Belper. - -We may perhaps be excused here for quoting what Mr. Felkin says about -Mr. Strutt:— - - “An intellect singularly clear and cool was combined in him with the - faculty of devising inventions and improvements which he carried - into effect with unwearied energy of mind and purpose, impressing - themselves on the entire conduct of his establishments as they - increased in magnitude. His tenacity of principle and moral fortitude - resulted from his confidence that his determinations were founded upon - truth. His convictions in regard to general views of society were - equally strong. His political and religious opinions were adopted - because he thought them sound and conclusive to the happiness of - mankind.” - -Mr. Strutt seems to have been singularly void of ambition for worldly -distinction; he was only ambitious of the blessing that follows duty -done. - -Although the practice of writing your own epitaph cannot be exactly -commended, the writer of this brief memoir may perhaps be excused -for inserting in it the words found a few years ago amongst Jedediah -Strutt’s papers, and in his own handwriting:— - - “Here rests in peace J. S—— who without fortune family or friends - raised to himself a fortune family and name in the world; without - having wit, had a good share of plain common sense; without - much genius, enjoyed the more substantial blessing of a sound - understanding; with but little personal pride, despised a mean or base - action; with no ostentation for religious tenets and ceremonies, he - led a life of honesty and virtue, not knowing what would befall him - after death, he died resigned in full confidence that if there be a - future state of retribution it will be to reward the virtuous and the - good. - - “This I think my true character. - - “J. Strutt.” - - - - -INDEX - - - _Abbey Square Sketch Book, The_, 212 - - Abbot’s Chair, The, 301 - - Abney Common, 197 - - —— James, 30 - - —— Manor, 183, 199 - - —— Moor, 50, 80, 304 - - Addy, S. O., 242 - - —— on Derbyshire Folk-Lore, 346–70 - - —— on Offerton Hall, 192–9 - - Addy’s _Household Tales_, 358 - - Ælfritha, 115 - - Æthelbald, 114, 115 - - Agincourt, Battle of, 14, 103 - - Aldulph, 116 - - Aldwark, 113 - - Alfred the Great, 5, 76, 117. - - Algar, Earl of Mercia, 121 - - Alkmonton Hospital Chapel, 212, 251 - - Allestree, 214, 215, 249, 251 - - Allestry, Roger, 330, 337; - William, 330 - - Almayne Rivettes, 18 - - Alselin, Ralph, 7 - - _Anastatic Drawing Society’s Volume_, 256, 271 - - Andrew, W. J., 70 - - —— Prebendary, 214, 278, 279 - - _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 4, 114 - - _Annals of Hyde_, 174 - - Anne of Denmark, 180 - - Arbor Low Stone Circle, 74, 75–8, 79, 80, 81, 86, 87 - - _Archæological Journal, The_, 119 - - Archers, 13 - - Archery, 323 - - Arkwright, Richard, 379, 380 - - —— Strutt and Need, Messrs., 379 - - Armada, The, 21 - - Armfield, 297, 298 - - Armfield, Robert, 297 - - Arrows, 18 - - Arrow-heads, 46, 47 - - Ash, Edward, 190 - - Ashbourne, 11, 34–5, 208–9, 210, 212, 232, 234–9, 249, 251–2 - - _Ashbourne, History of_, 326 - - Ashmole, Elias, 106 - - Ashover, 219–20, 226, 232, 248, 250, 252–3 - - Ashton, Isabella, 171; - Peter, 171 - - Assize of Arms, 18 - - Aston, 232 - - Athelstan, 6 - - _Athenæum, The_, 296 - - Auby, Thomas, 169 - - Avebury, 87 - - - Babington, Anthony, 20, 152, 154; - Roland, 17; - Thomas, 253 - - Badow, 122 - - Bagshawe, Henry, 282 - - Bagshaw’s _Gazetteer of Derbyshire_, 368 - - Baine, Ralph, Bishop of Lichfield, 126 - - Bakelow Barrow, 59 - - Bakewell, 6, 97, 101, 104–7, 208, 210, 212, 215–16, 231–2, 236–8, 248, - 253–4, 299 - - Ballidon Moor, 60 - - Balliol, John, 12 - - Bamford Moor, 80 - - Bar Brook, The, 80, 82 - - Barber, Miss, 365 - - —— Mr., 175 - - Bardolf, William de, 12 - - Baring-Gould, Rev. S., 357, 359 - - Barlborough, 139, 141–2, 316, 317, 324 - - Barley, Robert, 16 - - Barnack, 118 - - Barons, Rising of the, 8, 9 - - Barrows, 41 - - Barrow-upon-Trent, 232 - - Basingwork, The Abbot of, 301 - - Baslow Moor, 50, 82 - - Bassano, Francis, 120, 211, 270, 277 - - Bateman, Thomas, 44–5, 54, 59, 78, 109, 216 - - Beamont, Edward, 94 - - Beauchief Abbey, 16, 202 - - “Bed-churl,” 364 - - Bede, 4, 77 - - Beeston, 249 - - Beighton, 249 - - Belers, Thomas, 147 - - Belper, 254, 380, 381 - - Belvoir MSS., 22 - - Bemrose, Sir Henry, 327 - - Bennett, Gervase, 129; - Robert, 129 - - Beresford, James, 268; - Thomas, 15, 268 - - Berfurt, 116 - - Bernake, Gervase de, 100 - - Bertulph, 116 - - Bess of Hardwick, 23 - - Bigsby’s _History of Repton_, 122 - - Bills, 18 - - Birch, Walter de Gray, 116 - - Birgwurd Cross, The, 301 - - Birley Hill, 317 - - Black Edge, The, 165 - - Blackwell, 373, 376, 377 - - Blanc-Smith, G. le, 360 - - —— Wingfield Manor House, 146–63 - - Blore, Mr., 104, 105, 149, 161 - - Bodley, Mr., 257, 263 - - _Boldon Buke_, 193 - - Bolehill, 45 - - Bolsover, 250, 254, 324; - Castle, 8, 25, 27, 133, 136–9, 316 - - Bonnell, Mrs., 178 - - Bothe, William, 241 - - Bourbon, John, Duke of, 15 - - Bow Stone, 299 - - Bowden, 167, 168 - - Bower, Margaret de, 103; - Sir Thurston de, 103 - - Bowles, C. E. B., Bradshaw and the Bradshawes, 164–91 - - Boyleston, 29 - - Brackenfield, 254–5 - - Bradbourne, Humphrey, 19 - - Bradburne, John, 16 - - Bradshaw and the Bradshawes, 164–91 - - Bradshaw Hall, 133, 164–91, 294; - John, 332; - the Regicide, 31, 174 - - Bradshaw Family, 164–91 - - Bradwell, 361, 362, 365–369 - - —— Mr. Robert, 362–364, 368, 369 - - Brailsford, 7, 249 - - —— Henry de, 11 - - Brampton, York, 190 - - Brandreth, James, 36 - - Brand’s _Observations on Popular Antiquities_, 346 - - Brassington Moor Stone Circle, 80 - - Breadsall, 218, 219, 226, 232, 236, 240, 256–7 - - Brede Place, Sussex, 226 - - Bretby, 121, 122 - - Bretton, 182 - - Brewster, Thomas, 127 - - Brigstock, 118 - - _British Barrows_, 54, 55, 69 - - Brixworth Crypt, 119 - - Broad Marshes, The, 166 - - Bronze Age, The, 42 - - —— Barrows, 48–64 - - Bronze Implements, 56–8 - - Brough, 2 - - Brounker, Sir Henry, 23 - - Broxhill, 317, 323 - - Brydges’ _Restituta_, 353 - - Buckingham, Duke of, 23 - - Bull Ring Stone Circle, The, 75, 78–80, 88 - - Bullock, William, 129 - - Bunhill Fields, 381 - - Bupton Manor, 6 - - Burdett, Sir Francis, 30, 129; - Sir Robert, 130 - - Burgh, The Roman Town, 348 - - Burial Customs, 367–8 - - —— Mounds, 39, 41, 42 - - “Buries, The,” 117 - - Burton Bridge, 90, 94 - - Burton-on-Trent, Abbot of, 6 - - Butler, Humphrey, 16 - - Buxton, 1, 2, 20 - - - Cadster Stone Circle, 82, 85 - - Cairns, 40, 41, 49 - - Calke, 121, 122, 144 - - —— Canons of, 121 - - Camps, 39 - - “Candle-rents,” 239 - - Cantrell, George, 383 - - Canute, 116 - - Carnarvon, Earl, 126 - - Cassy, Sir John, 292 - - Castleton, 2, 8, 243, 283, 285, 347, 348, 350, 362–3, 365, 367, 369 - - Cattermole, George, 211 - - Cave-dwellers, 364 - - Cave-remains, 39 - - Cavendish Family, 31–3, 137, 138, 199, 315 - - Chaddesden, 205, 206, 226, 232, 257–8 - - Chamberlain, The Right Hon. Joseph, 371 - - Chambers’s _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, 351 - - Champion Cross, The, 303 - - Chapel-en-le-Frith, 82, 286–7 - - Charles I., 24–26, 289 - - Charles, Invasion of Derbyshire in 1745 by Prince, 31, 33–5 - - Charlesworth, 301 - - Charnells, Thomas, 129 - - Chatsworth, 6, 20, 27, 32, 133, 139, 150 - - Chaworth, Sir Thomas de, 202; - Sir William, 15 - - Chelmorton, 45, 205, 212, 213, 215, 291 - - Cheshire, John, 33 - - Chester, 4 - - Chesterfield, 2, 9, 21, 27, 97, 208, 210, 212, 218, 221, 222, 223, - 231, 236, 240, 245, 249, 258–62 - - —— Lord, 30 - - —— Philipp, Earl of, 129, 131 - - Childers, of Carr House, 341 - - Child’s _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_, 350–4 - - Chinley, 181 - - “Christmas Eve,” 361 - - _Chronicon Abbatiæ de Evesham_, 116 - - _Chronicles of All Saints’_, 225 - - Church Broughton, 212, 262 - - _Church Notes_, 120 - - Cinerary Urns, 52, 55–6, 61, 62, 64 - - Civil War, The, 26–31 - - Clarke, Lettice, 189, 190 - - Clayton, Margaret, 173 - - Clulow, 299 - - Cock and Pynot, The, 33 - - Codnor Castle, 12 - - Cokayne Chapel, The, 251 - - Cokayne, Francis, 17; - John, 15; - Robert, 16; - Sir Aston, 30; - Sir Thomas, 16 - - Coke, Sir Edward, 30 - - Cold Eaton Barrow, 68 - - Coldwell Hall, 343 - - Colepeper MSS., 332 - - Colepepper, Colonel, 32 - - Columbell, Roger, 240 - - Commissioners of Array, 13 - - Cooper, Florence, 359 - - Cooper, Roger, 166 - - Copley, Lionel, 332 - - Cornere, John de la, 11 - - _Corpus Christi College, History of_, 327 - - Corselets, 18 - - _Country Folk-Lore_, 347 - - Cox, Arthur, 280 - - —— F. Walker, 257 - - —— Rev. Thomas, 365 - - —— Rev. Dr., on _Derbyshire Churches_, 97, 102, 105, 178, 269, 273, - 275, 280, 347 - - —— Derbyshire Monuments to the Family of Foljambe, 97–113 - - —— Historic Derbyshire, 1–38 - - —— Plans of the Peak Forest, 281–306 - - —— _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_, 97, 112, 183, 193 - - Crawford, Major-General, 156 - - Crecy, Battle of, 13 - - Creswell Caves, 1 - - —— Manor, 12 - - Crich, 205, 210, 211, 262 - - Cromford, 380 - - Cromwell, Oliver, 158; - Ralph, Lord, 137, 146, 147–8; - Thomas, 122, 123 - - Crosslow, 53 - - Croxall, 122 - - “Crucks,” 192, 193 - - “Cucking,” 361–2 - - Cumberford, Edward, 16 - - Curfew, 366 - - Curzon Family, 15; - John, 16, 26, 180, 315; - Francis, 19; - Richard, 9; - Sir Nathaniel, 34 - - - Dacre, Leonard, 152 - - Dalby, Colonel, 157 - - Dale Abbey, 16, 121, 201–2, 225, 236 - - Danes, Invasion of the, 4–6 - - Daniels, Anne, 383 - - Darley Abbey, 16, 202, 236, 242 - - —— Dale, 212, 214–15 - - Davenport, Barbara, 183; - Sir John, 183 - - Davy, Thomas, 91 - - De Bower Chapel, 279 - - Deepdale, 121 - - Degg, Sir Simon, 342 - - Deincourt, Edward, 12; - Lord, 30, 318 - - Delves, Nicholas, 337 - - Demi-lances, 18 - - Denby, 263 - - Denman, The Hon. George, 131 - - Derby, 5, 6, 8, 12, 14, 23, 26, 27, 33–35 - - —— All Hallows’, 207, 212, 236, 237, 240, 245, 248 - - —— All Saints’, 35, 94, 207, 245, 249 - - —— St. Alkmund’s, 212, 263 - - —— St. Michael’s, 232, 263 - - —— St. Peter’s, 210, 211, 262, 263 - - “Derby Ram, The,” 347 - - _Derbyshire Charters_, 197-9, 348 - - —— _Churches_, 97, 102, 105, 178, 269, 273, 275, 280, 347 - - —— _Folk-Lore_, 346–70 - - —— Lyson’s, 328 - - Derwent Moor Barrow, 45, 46 - - Dethick, 152, 154 - - —— Robert, 11 - - Dickson, Nicholas, 169 - - _Dictionary of National Biography_, 373 - - Dilke, Sir Thomas, 189 - - Diuma, Bishop, 115 - - _Domesday Survey_, 6, 114, 117, 324 - - Dove Holes, 78, 295, 304 - - Dover, 23 - - Doveridge, 263 - - “Drinking Cups,” 55–6, 61–63 - - “Druidical” Circles, 50 - - Duffield, 175, 178, 249; - Fortress, 8, 9; - Forest, 100; - Frith, 12, 175 - - Dugdale’s _Monasticon_, 115, 122 - - Dunscar, Castleton, 361 - - Durdent, Walter, 122 - - - Eadburgh, 116 - - _Early Renaissance Architecture in England_, 111 - - Earthen Vessels, 55–6 - - “Easter Observances,” 361–3 - - Ecclesbourne Valley, 5 - - Eccles Pike, 164, 167, 184 - - —— Samuel, 278 - - Edale, 281, 282, 285 - - —— Head Cross, 303 - - Edensor, 235 - - Edgar the Peaceable, 117 - - Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, 9 - - Edward I., 11, 12 - - —— II., 6, 12 - - —— III., 12 - - —— the Confessor, 6 - - —— the Elder, 5 - - Edwin, King, 77 - - Elfleda, 116 - - Elizabeth, Death of Queen, 22–3 - - Elvaston, 205–6, 209, 212, 219, 221, 231, 263–6 - - Emmett Carr, 324 - - _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_, 350, 351 - - Ethelbald, 4 - - Ethelfleda, 5 - - Ethelfrith, 4 - - Etwall, 126–7, 205, 249 - - Evans’ _Bronze Implements_, 69 - - Every, Sir Henry, 30 - - Evesham Abbey, 116 - - Exeter House, Derby, 383 - - Eyam, 6, 50, 78, 133, 144, 182–3, 190, 199, 249, 368 - - Eyre Family, 18; - Anthony, 190; - Arthur, 16; - Colonel, 29; - Dorothy, 190; - George, 30; - Jacob, 367; - Robert, 30; - Rowland, 30; - Thomas, 16, 292; - William, 101 - - - Fairfax, General, 155, 309 - - Fairfield, 286, 288 - - “Fairy Offerings,” 369 - - Farr Over Close, 194 - - Fea, Allan, 185 - - Felix of Croyland, 115, 116 - - Felkin’s _History of Hosiery and Lace Manufacture_, 371–2, 376, 383 - - Fenny Bentley, 15, 209, 212, 219, 226, 267–8 - - Fernilee, 299 - - Ferrers Family, 9–12; - Henry, 7–8; - Sir Humphrey, 21; - John, 30; - Robert, 7, 9–11; - William, 9–12 - - Findern, 372, 376 - - “First Foot,” 365 - - Fitzherbert Family, 15, 18; - Sir Anthony, 126; - Dorothy, 126; - Henry, 11; - Sir John, 24, 155; - Nicholas, 16; - William, 30 - - FitzHubert, Ralph, 324 - - Fitzwilliam, Alice, 110; - Thomas, 110 - - Five Burghs, The, 5, 6 - - —— Wells, 43–6, 48, 60 - - Flagg, 291 - - Fletcher, J. M. J., _Tideswell Church_, 103 - - —— Richard, 180 - - Flint Arrow-heads, 46–7 - - —— Implements, 56 - - Foljambe, Monuments to Family, 97–113; - Anne, 238; - Chapel, 261; - Cicely, 168; - Sir Edward, 15; - Sir Godfrey, 17, 238; - Thomas, 11, 168 - - _Folk-Lore Society, The_, 347 - - Food-vases, 55–6, 61–2, 64 - - Foolow, 182 - - Ford, Stone Circle, 74, 80, 82–3 - - Foremark, 120, 122, 144 - - Forster’s _Alumni Oxonienses_, 175 - - Fox, Rev. Samuel, 225, 273 - - Foxbrook Furnace, 321 - - Foxton Wood, 325 - - Frances, John, 19 - - Franceys, Ralph, 331, 340 - - Francis, Sir Robert, 122 - - Frazer’s _Golden Bough_, 354, 356, 360, 369 - - Frecheville, Anker de, 13, 101; - Lord, 314, 318, 324, 330; - Robert de, 11 - - Friar’s Heel, The, 72, 73, 84, 86 - - Froggatt Edge, 80, 82 - - Furnival, Gerard de, 101 - - - “Galley-balk,” The, 352 - - Gardiner, Dr., 326, 329 - - Garner House, 194 - - Gaveston, Piers, 12 - - Gell, Sir John, 26, 28, 30, 94, 155–7, 163, 292, 303 - - _Gentleman’s Magazine_, 111, 327 - - “George Inn,” Derby, 34 - - Gerard, Lord, 126; - Sir John, 131; - Sir Thomas, 126 - - Gernon Manor, 103 - - —— William de, 101 - - Gib Hill, 74–5, 78, 86–7 - - Giffard, Sir Thomas, 126–7 - - Gilbert, Henry, 30 - - Gill, John, 194 - - Glass House, The, 358–9 - - Glossop, 6, 282–3 - - —— John, 197; - Ralph, 195; - Robert, 197 - - Glynne, Sir Stephen, 258, 274, 277 - - Godstow Nunnery, 225 - - Golden Ball, The, 357 - - _Golden Bough_, 354, 356, 360, 369 - - Gorsey Close Barrow, 65 - - Gotch, J. A., The Old Homes of the County, 133–45 - - —— _Early Renaissance Architecture in England_, 111 - - Gowland, Professor, 86 - - Grave, William, 91 - - Gray Cop Barrow, 59 - - Great Hucklow, 361, 363 - - “Greavy Croft, The,” 165, 170 - - Greenhill, 202 - - Greenlow, 45–6 - - Greenwell, Rev. Dr., 53, 55 - - Grendon, Serlo de, 121 - - Gresley, Sir George, 27; - John, 16; - Sir William, 16 - - Grey, Henry de, 12; - Mr. St. George, 78; - Richard, 12, 14; - Sir John, 15 - - Grimm’s _Popular Stories_, 346 - - Grindall, Edmund, 244 - - Grinlow Barrow, 49 - - Gunson, Mr., 184 - - - Haddon Hall, 133, 134–6, 138–9, 144, 146, 211, 224 - - Hadrian, 3 - - _Hall of Waltheof_, The, 242 - - Halton Family, 158, 160, 163; - Imanuel, 157 - - Hamilton, Duke of, 28 - - Harborough Rocks, 43–8 - - Hardwick, Bess of, 137, 139–41, 150; - Hall, 139–41, 324 - - Hardy’s _Miners’ Guide_, 366 - - Harpur, Sir John, 25, 30; - Richard, 127 - - Harrington, Earl of, 265 - - Hartington Manor, 11 - - Hartle Moor, 52, 59, 77 - - Haslam Family, 379 - - Hastings, George, Earl of Huntingdon, 126, 131 - - Hathersage, 268 - - Hault Hucknall, 268–9 - - Haverfield, Dr., 3 - - Hayfield, 228, 245, 248, 282–4 - - Hayton, Rev. E. J., 268 - - Heanor, 248 - - Heays, Mrs., 328 - - Henderson’s _Northern Folk-lore_, 357, 359 - - Henry II., 7, 18 - - —— III., 8, 9, 11 - - —— IV., 13 - - —— V., 14 - - —— VI., 131 - - Heriz, Mathilda de, 147 - - High Lane, 194 - - Highlow Hall, 133, 143 - - Hipkins, Rev. F. C., Repton: Its Abbey, Church, Priory, and School, - 114–32 - - Historic Derbyshire, 1–38 - - Hob Hollin, 165 - - —— Hurst’s House, 50 - - —— Marsh, 165 - - Hofnerton, Eustace de, 198 - - Hole, William, 238 - - Hollington Manor, 12 - - Holman Hunt, 250 - - “Honey Spots,” 242 - - Hope, 242, 269, 285–6 - - —— Rev. W., 210–11 - - —— W. H. St. John, 123, 127, 203, 225 - - Horsley, 212, 269; - Castle, 8 - - Horton, Christopher, 30 - - Howe, Earl, 131, 380; - Margaret, 180; - Roger, 180 - - Hugh of Lincoln, or the Rain Charm, 348–57 - - Hunloke, Sir Henry, 30 - - Hunter, Rev. Joseph, 354 - - Hutchinson, Rev. Michael, 208, 224, 269 - - —— Colonel, 155 - - - Ilkeston, 212, 215 - - Incense Cups, 55–6, 61, 68 - - Ingleby, 93, 122 - - Ingram, Sir Arthur, 113 - - Ireton, John, 16, 31 - - Isherwood, Bradshawe, 173 - - - Jackson, John, 191 - - James I., 23 - - —— II., 31, 32 - - Jeayes’ _Derbyshire Charters_, 97, 197–99, 348 - - Jewitt, Llewellynn, 295 - - John, King, 8 - - Jordanwall Nook, 298 - - _Journal of Derbyshire Archæological Society_, 44, 121, 123, 127, - 164–5, 175, 181–2, 184, 186–188, 195, 197, 199, 203, 278, 280 - - - Kalc, Canons of, 121 - - Kedleston House, 144 - - Kerry, Rev. C., 175 - - Killamarsh, 249 - - Kinder Scout, 145 - - King’s Sterndale, 52 - - King Stone, The, 82 - - Kirk Ireton, 189, 236, 249 - - —— Langley, 210, 212, 216, 217, 221, 232, 269–70 - - Kniveton, Henry, 11; - Matthew, 17; - Nicholas, 239 - - - Lambert’s Rising, 342 - - “Lampholme,” 239 - - Langwith, 250 - - “Lantern Chimney,” 197 - - Latham, Dr. Ebenezer, 372 - - Layton, Richard, 123 - - Leach, Sir Edward, 30; - Philip, 15; - Ralph, 16 - - Lead Mining, 2–3, 5, 9 - - Lea Hurst, 37 - - Lee, Thomas, 282 - - Leeke, Sir John, 16; - John, 109; - Nicholas, 30; - Thomas, 16, 30 - - Leigh, Dr. Thomas, 123 - - —— Family, 343–4 - - Leland’s _Collectania_, 115 - - Leo, the Jew, 356 - - Leofric of Mercia, Earl, 6 - - Lewes, Battle of, 10, 11 - - Lichfield, 28, 125–6, 169, 245 - - Lidlow, 59 - - Little Chester, 2 - - Littleover, 250 - - Liverpool, Earl of, 97, 102–3, 108, 110, 113 - - Locko Gardens, 145 - - Lockyer, Sir Norman, 84, 86 - - Lomas, Nicholas, 190 - - Longbows, 18 - - Longdendale, 281, 282 - - Long Eaton, 6, 193, 249, 270–1 - - Longford, 212, 271 - - —— Nicholas de, 13 - - Longstone, 212, 271 - - Loudham Arms, 108–9; - Margaret, 106–7; - Sir John, 106 - - Loudoun, Earl, 126 - - “Lovers’ Vows,” 366 - - “Low,” A, 42 - - Lowe, John, 190; - Robert, 191 - - Ludlam, Isaac, 36 - - Ludworth Moor, 298 - - Lund, Dr. Troels, 195 - - Lynaker, Robert, 16 - - Lysons’ _Derbyshire_, 328 - - - Macaulay, 311–12, 335, 337, 344 - - Machell, Colonel, 158 - - Mackworth, 249–50, 271 - - “Maiden Stones, The,” 298 - - Maidstonfeld, 282 - - Makeney, Ralph de, 11 - - Malcolm, King, of Scotland, 7 - - Manners, John, 20 - - Marleberge, Thomas de, 116 - - Marple Hall Estate, 172–4 - - Marston Montgomery, 249 - - Marston-on-Dove, 248 - - Martin Side, 304 - - Mary, Queen of Scots, 20, 140–1, 149–55, 161 - - Massey, Mr. Ralph, 372 - - Matilda, 121 - - Matlock, 249 - - “May King, The,” 347 - - Measham, 122 - - Melandra Castle, 2 - - Melbourne, 8, 15, 91, 133, 145, 151, 208, 271–2 - - —— Adam de, 92; - John de, 92 - - Mellor, 249, 284, 285, 293, 298 - - _Memorials of St. Guthlac, The_, 116 - - Meynell, Chantrey, 270; - Rev. Frank, 270; - Giles de, 11 - - Mickleover, 6, 205, 272 - - Micklethwaite, Mr., 119 - - Middleton, Mrs. George, 364, 368; - Thomas, 174 - - Milford, 381 - - —— House, 383 - - Militia, The, 18, 23 - - Milton, 122 - - Mininglow, 43–6, 48, 60, 67 - - “Mischief Night,” 361 - - Molineux, Colonel Roger, 157 - - Monasteries, Suppression of, 16, 17 - - Monksbridge, 2 - - Monks Dale, 214, 215 - - Montgomery, Nicholas, 15 - - Monyash, 232, 273 - - Morewood, Anthony, 30 - - Morions, 18 - - Morley, 208, 236, 237, 249, 273 - - Mosborough Hall, 316 - - Mountjoy, Lord, 231, 251, 265 - - Mower, Arthur, 232 - - Mugginton, 212, 220, 249, 273–4 - - Mundy, John, 30 - - Musard, John de, 12 - - Musca, Thomas de, 121 - - - Need, Strutt & Woollatt, Messrs., 379 - - Neolithic Barrows, 43–8 - - Nether Offerton, 198 - - Netherthorpe Hall, 324 - - Newark, 28, 93, 217 - - Newcastle, Duke of, 315, 324, 330, 341 - - Newton, Robert, 198 - - —— Solney, 122 - - Nichols’ _Collect. Topogr. et Geneal._, 97 - - Nightingale, Florence, 37–8; - William, 37 - - Nine Ladies, The, 80, 82 - - Norbury, 205, 206, 208, 212, 220, 226, 274 - - North Lees, 133, 143 - - North Wingfield, 133, 141, 232, 249 - - Northworthy, 5 - - Norton, 208 - - Nottingham Bridge, 94 - - - Oates, Titus, 337 - - Ockbrook, 274 - - Offerton Hall, 133, 143, 192–9 - - —— Moor Stone Circle, 74 - - Oldcotes House, 139 - - Old Country Life in the Seventeenth Century, 307–45 - - Oldeffeld, William, 238 - - “Old Tup, The,” 347 - - Osmaston, 7, 248, 274 - - Oswin, 115 - - Over Haddon, 198 - - Over Offerton, 198 - - Overton, Prior, 131 - - Owlcotes, 324 - - Oxford, Brasenose College, 126 - - - Palmer, George, 16 - - Pancakes, 364 - - Parcelly Hay, 59 - - Park Hall, 324 - - Parker, Archbishop, 244; - John, 16 - - Park Gate Stone Circle, 74, 80, 82 - - Parwich, 220, 230–1, 242, 247, 249 - - Peak Castle, 7, 8, 11, 133–4, 283, 285, 348 - - —— Forest, 9–11, 98 - - Peak Forest, Plans of the, 281–306 - - Pears, Dr., 131 - - Peasants, Revolt of the, 13 - - Pedlars, 317 - - Pegge, Dr., 245 - - Peggy with the Wooden Leggy, 359–60 - - Pendleton, Mr., 370 - - Pentrich, Insurrection of 1817, 31, 35–37 - - Percy’s _Reliques_, 353 - - Percys, Revolt of the, 14 - - Pett, Peter, 340 - - Peverel, William, 7 - - Pierpoint, Sir Henry, 147 - - _Pipe Rolls_, 7, 8, 100 - - Plotting Parlour, The, 33 - - Pole, Francis, 202; - Jervase, 30; - Peter, 170; - Richard, 19 - - Pontefract, 28 - - _Popular Antiquities_, 346 - - Porte, Henry, 126; - Sir John, 126–8 - - Posset, 364 - - Postage in Charles II.’s Time, 335 - - Potsherds, 66–7 - - Potter, Sarah Ellen, 350, 358 - - Prehistoric Barrows, Late, 64–9 - - Prehistoric Burials in Derbyshire, 39–69 - - Prehistoric Stone Circles, 70–88 - - Priestcliffe, 291 - - Prior, Dr., 120, 130 - - Pulpitum, The, 200–1, 205 - - “Pym’s Chair,” 303 - - - Querns, 67 - - - Radbourne Church, 202, 212, 275 - - Randulph, 121 - - Ravensdale Forest Lodge, 12, 14 - - Rawlins, Rev. R. R., 269, 272 - - Rayner, S., 211 - - Redfern, Emmott, 166 - - —— Will, 166 - - _Reliquary, The_, 59, 97, 175–6, 180, 182, 280, 295, 360 - - Renishaw, 307–345 - - Repton, 4, 6, 16, 91–3, 114–132, 203–5, 232, 236, 275 - - Repton: Its Abbey, Church, Priory, and School, 114–132 - - Revell, Will., 330, 331, 341 - - Revolution Inn, 33 - - —— of 1688, 31–3 - - Reynolds, J., 211 - - Richard I., 8 - - —— II., 13 - - Ridge Hall, The, 293–4 - - Ringhamlow, 45, 46 - - Risley, 223 - - Roadnook Hall, 330 - - Robin Hood’s Cross, 304 - - Robin Hood Picking Rods, 299 - - Rocester, 2 - - Rodes, Sir Francis, 26, 30, 142 - - Rodmarton, 47 - - Rolleston, Roger, 16; - Thomas, 16 - - Roman Roads and Stations, 2 - - Roods, Screens, and Lofts in Derbyshire Churches, 200–280 - - Ryknield Street, 2 - - - Sacheverell, Sir Henry, 16, 17; - William, 331 - - Sadleir, Sir Ralph, 151–3 - - St. Guthlac, 115–16, 123 - - St. Valentine’s Day, 370 - - St. Wilfred’s Needle, Ripon, 76 - - St. Wystan, 116–17, 121–2 - - Salt, Mr., 43, 60 - - Sandiacre, 275 - - Saunders, Major, 29 - - Sawley, 6, 205, 209, 212, 229–30, 249, 275–6 - - _Saxon Chronicle_, 117 - - Sclater, Samuel, 381 - - Scott’s _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, 346 - - Scott, Sir Gilbert, 259, 272 - - Seckington, 114 - - _Secret Chambers and Hiding places_, 185 - - Segrave, Nicholas de, 12 - - “Shakking Monday,” 363 - - Shallcrosse, Leonard, 182 - - Shaw, R. Norman, 280 - - Shawcross, Anthony, 181; - Emma, 181 - - Shawe, H. Cunliffe, 198 - - Ship-writs, 25 - - Shirley, Sir Ralph, 15 - - Shottle, 371 - - Shrewsbury, Battle of, 14 - - —— Countess of (Bess of Hardwick), 23 - - —— Earls of: George, 15, 281; - Gilbert, 138 - - _Shropshire Folk-Lore_, 353 - - Shrove Tuesday Custom, 364 - - Shuttlestone, 52 - - Simpson, William, 331 - - Sitwell, Francis, 326, 327; - George, 30, 313–15, 322, 325–6, 328, 338–9; - Robert, 324 - - —— Sir George Reresby, Old Country Life in the Seventeenth Century, - 307–45 - - Skeat, Professor, 114 - - Skulls, 54–5 - - Sleath, Dr., 120 - - Sleigh, Sir Samuel, 30, 129 - - Smalley, 249, 276–7 - - Smerrill, 45 - - Smithard, William, Swarkeston Bridge, 89 - - Smith’s _Intrigues of the Plot_, 337 - - Smisby, 122 - - _Snitterton Hall_, 133, 143 - - Solney, Alured de, 122 - - “Solomon’s Temple,” 50 - - Somersal Herbert Hall, 133 - - South Normanton, 250, 371 - - Spateman, John, 330 - - Spinning Jenny, The, 379 - - Spondon, 205, 208, 249, 277 - - Stadon Stone Circle, 74, 80––1 - - Stafford, 5 - - —— Anne, 182; - Humphrey, 182 - - Stag-hunting, 329, 330 - - Standard, Battle of the, 7 - - “Standing Stones, The,” 301 - - Stanhope, Sir John, 25, 30, 188; - Sir Thomas, 126 - - Stanley, 248–9 - - Stanton, 90 - - —— Moor Stone Circle, 52, 58, 82, 87 - - —— Robert de, 91 - - Statham, Martha, 371 - - _Station Life in New Zealand_, 352 - - Staveley, 27, 235, 245, 277, 318, 324, 330 - - —— Elys, 172; - Katherine, 172 - - Stebbing Shaw, 114, 120, 122 - - Stennis Stone Circle, 76 - - Steveton, 113 - - Stonehenge, 70–3, 76, 84, 86–7 - - Stoneylow, 45–6 - - Stony Middleton, 6 - - Strelley, 217 - - —— Family, 15 - - Stretton, Robert de, 122 - - Strutt, The Hon. Frederick, on Jedediah Strutt, 371–84 - - —— Joseph, 371; - William, 371 - - Strype _Memorials_, 126 - - Stuart, Lady Arabella, 23 - - Sudbury, 139, 263, 277 - - Sutton, 27 - - Swarkeston Bridge, 35, 89–96 - - —— House, 139 - - —— Richard de, 91 - - Swillington, Margaret de, 147 - - - Taddington, 205, 246, 249, 291 - - Talbot, Francis, Earl of Shrewsbury, 148–9; - Sir Gylbert, 16; - George, Earl of Shrewsbury, 149–55; - John, Earl of Shrewsbury, 148 - - Tamworth, 5 - - Tanner’s _Notitia_, 115 - - Tau-cross, 352 - - _Ten Years’ Diggings_, 44–5, 50, 52, 59–60, 67 - - Thacker, Gilbert, 19, 124, 128–30, 203; - Thomas, 124, 202–3 - - Thirkelow Barrow, 50 - - Thornehill, George, 282 - - Thornhill, 368 - - Thornsett, 298 - - _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_, 97, 112, 183, 193 - - “Three Golden Balls, The,” 351 - - Throckmorton, Sir Nicholas, 149 - - Throwley Barrow, 67 - - Thurnam, Dr., 49 - - Tibshelf Church, 324 - - Tickenhall, 122, 249 - - Tideswell, 11, 14, 97–113, 212, 214, 232, 235, 243, 246, 249, 277–9, - 286, 288 - - _Tideswell Church_, 103 - - Tisbury, 197 - - Tissington, 27, 133 - - _Topographer, The_, 114, 120, 122, 158 - - Topp, Sir Francis, 340 - - Treeton, 343 - - Trustram, Mr., 74, 79 - - Tumuli, 41 - - Tunstead, 360 - - —— Dicky, 360 - - “Turncrofts, The,” 165–6, 168 - - Turner, William, 36 - - Tutbury, 7, 23–4, 27–8, 150, 154 - - Twyford, 243, 270 - - —— John de, 13; - Thomas, 16 - - Tyrwhitt, Troth, 110 - - - “Unlousing Day,” 361 - - Urn, The, 52 - - - Vallance, Aymer, on Roods, Screens, and Lofts in Derbyshire Churches, - 200–80 - - Vaughan, Dr., 131 - - Venables, Canon, 352 - - _Verney Letters_, 332 - - Vernon, Chapel, 253; - Dorothy, 136, 139; - Sir Edward, 24; - George, 19; - Sir George, 138; - Henry, 19; - Sir Henry, 231, 238; - William, 16 - - _Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire_, 44, 46, 52–3, 59, 65 - - _Victoria History of Derbyshire_, 2, 3, 6, 98 - - - Wakebridge, William de, 210 - - Wakes, 368–9 - - Walpole, Horace, 135 - - Walsyngham, Sir Francis, 151, 154 - - Walton, 6, 106, 107, 113 - - Ward, Dr. Jeremy, 195 - - —— John, F.S.A., Prehistoric Burials in Derbyshire, 39–69 - - —— Thomas, 180 - - Wardlow Barrow, 45, 46 - - Watson, Daniel, 129 - - Waverley, Annals of, 354 - - Welbeck, 23, 27 - - Weston Museum, Sheffield, 216 - - Weston-on-Trent, 212, 279 - - Wet Withens, Stone Circle, 74, 75, 78–80 - - Wetton, 47 - - Whaley Bridge, 82 - - Whitaker’s _Craven_, 197 - - Whitaker, Mr. H. W., 257 - - Whitehall Field, 167 - - Whittington Moor, 33 - - Whittle, 298 - - “Whyte Maiden, The,” 299 - - Wigfall Family, 326, 327 - - Wiglaf, 116 - - Wigstone, Mr. Thomas, 190 - - Wilfrid, 296 - - William of Orange, 31–3 - - William the Conqueror, 6 - - Willington, 122 - - Willoughby, Battle of, 28 - - Willoughby, Sir John, 223; - Richard, 15 - - Wilmot, Dr. Edward, 26; - Robert, 30 - - Wilne, 223, 232, 249, 279 - - Wimund, 116 - - Wing Crypt, 119 - - Wingerworth, 226-8, 232, 235, 249 - - Wingfield Manor House, 20, 27, 29, 133, 137–8, 146–63 - - Winwadfield Battle, 115 - - Wirksworth, 1, 2, 8, 27, 238 - - Wistanstowe, 116 - - Wolves, 100 - - Woollatt Family, 372; - Elizabeth, 373–6; - William, 376 - - Wormhill, 98–113, 286 - - Wormleighton, 217, 218 - - Wright, Thomas, 190 - - Wulphere, 115 - - Wybersley, 174 - - Wyston, _see_ St. Wystan - - - Yonge, Prior John, 123 - - _Yorkshire Coiners, The_, 193 - - Youlgreave, 212, 279–80 - - Yule-loaf, 364 - - - Zouch, Dave and Sir John, 16 - - -Bemrose & Sons Limited, Derby and London. - - - - -Selected from the Catalogue of BEMROSE & SONS Ltd. - - -_Memorials of the Counties of England._ - -_Beautifully Illustrated. Demy 8vo, cloth extra, gilt top._ - -_Price_ =15/-= _each net._ - - -MEMORIALS OF OLD OXFORDSHIRE. - -Edited by the Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A. Dedicated by kind -permission to the Right Hon. the Earl of Jersey, G.C.B., G.C.M.G. - - “This beautiful book contains an exhaustive history of ‘the wondrous - Oxford,’ to which so many distinguished scholars and politicians look - back with affection. We must refer the reader to the volume itself ... - and only wish that we had space to quote extracts from its interesting - pages.”—_Spectator._ - - -MEMORIALS OF OLD DEVONSHIRE. - -Edited by F. J. Snell, M.A. Dedicated by kind permission to the Right -Hon. Viscount Ebrington, Lord-Lieutenant of the County. - - “A fascinating volume, which will be prized by thoughtful Devonians - wherever they may be found ... richly illustrated, some rare - engravings being represented.”—_North Devon Journal._ - - -MEMORIALS OF OLD HEREFORDSHIRE. - -Edited by Rev. Compton Reade, M.A. Dedicated by kind permission to Sir -John G. Cotterell, Bart., Lord-Lieutenant of the County. - -“Another of these interesting volumes like the ‘Memorials of Old -Devonshire,’ which we noted a week or two ago, containing miscellaneous -papers on the history, topography, and families of the county by -competent writers, with photographs and other illustrations.”—_Times._ - - -MEMORIALS OF OLD HERTFORDSHIRE. - -Edited by Percy Cross Standing. Dedicated by kind permission to the -Right Hon. the Earl of Clarendon, G.C.B., Lord Chamberlain. - - “... The book, which contains some magnificent illustrations, will - be warmly welcomed by all lovers of our county and its entertaining - history.”—_West Herts and Watford Observer._ - - “... 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Lord Northbourne, F.S.A. - - “A very delightful addition to a delightful series. Kent, rich in - honour and tradition as in beauty, is a fruitful subject of which - the various contributors have taken full advantage, archæology, - topography, and gossip being pleasantly combined to produce a volume - both attractive and valuable.”—_Standard._ - - -MEMORIALS OF OLD DERBYSHIRE. - -Edited by Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. Dedicated by kind -permission to His Grace the Duke of Devonshire, K.G., Lord-Lieutenant -of Derbyshire. The contributors to the volume are: Rev. J. Charles Cox, -LL.D., F.S.A., John Ward, F.S.A., W. J. Andrew, F.S.A., W. Smithard, -The late Earl of Liverpool, Rev. F. C. Hipkins, M.A., F.S.A., J. Alfred -Gotch, F.S.A., Guy le Blanc-Smith, C. E. B. Bowles, M.A., S. O. Addy, -M.A., Aymer Vallance, F.S.A., Sir George R. Sitwell, Bart., F.S.A., The -Hon. F. Strutt. - - -MEMORIALS OF OLD DORSET. - -Edited by Thomas Perkins, M.A., and Herbert Pentin, M.A. Dedicated by -kind permission to the Right Hon. Lord Eustace Cecil, F.R.G.S., Past -President of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club. -The contributors to the volume are: Rev. Thomas Perkins, M.A., C. S. -Prideaux, Captain J. E. Acland, W. de C. Prideaux, W. B. Wildman, M.A., -Rev. Herbert Pentin, M.A., Sidney Heath, The Lord Bishop of Durham, -D.D., Mrs. King Warry, A. D. Moullin, Albert Bankes, W. K. Gill, Rev. -R. Grosvenor Bartelot, M.A., Miss Wood Homer, Miss Jourdain, Hermann -Lea. - - -MEMORIALS OF OLD WARWICKSHIRE. - -Edited by Alice Dryden. The contributors to the volume are: M. Dormer -Harris, Lady Leigh, M. Jourdain, Jethro A. Cossins, R. O. D., Albert -Hartshorne, F.S.A., S. S. Stanley, M.B.N.S., F. A. Newdegate, Alice -Dryden, Howard S. Pearson, W. F. S. Dugdale, Oliver Baker, R.E., W. -Salt Brassington, F.S.A., Dom Gilbert Dolan, O.S.B., A. E. Treen, F. B. -Andrews, F.R.I.B.A. - - -MEMORIALS OF OLD NORFOLK. - -Edited by H. J. Dukinfield Astley, M.A., Litt.D., F.R.Hist.S. Dedicated -by kind permission to the Right Hon. Viscount Coke, C.M.G., C.V.O., -Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk. The contributors to the volume are: H. J. -Dukinfield Astley, M.A., Rev. W. Hudson, F.S.A., Dr. Bensly, F.S.A., -E. Alfred Jones, Rev. R. Nightingale, Philip Sidney, F.R.Hist.S., H. -J. Hillen, Rev. Dr. Cox, F.S.A., R. J. E. Ferrier, W. G. Clarke, C. -E. Keyser, F.S.A., Rev. G. W. Minns, F.S.A., Jas. Hooper, Rev. E. C. -Hopper, R. J. W. Purdy, Miss Longe. - - -_The following volumes are in preparation_:— -Price to subscribers before publication, =10/6= each net. - -=MEMORIALS OF OLD ESSEX.= Edited by A. Clifton Kelway. - -=MEMORIALS OF OLD YORKSHIRE.= Edited by T. M. Fallow, M.A., F.S.A. - -=MEMORIALS OF OLD LONDON.= Two vols. Edited by P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., -F.S.A. - -=MEMORIALS OF OLD GLOUCESTERSHIRE.= Edited by P. W. P. 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The edition is limited to 400 -copies. - - “We have now a complete account of the subject in this very handsome - volume, which Manx patriotism, assisted by the appreciation of the - public in general, will, we hope, make a success.”—_Spectator._ - - -DERBYSHIRE CHARTERS IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIBRARIES AND MUNIMENT ROOMS. - -Compiled, with Preface and Indexes, for Sir Henry Howe Bemrose, Kt., -by Isaac Herbert Jeayes, Assistant Keeper in the Department of MSS., -British Museum. Royal 8vo, cloth, gilt top. Price =42/-= net. - - “The book must always prove of high value to investigators in its own - recondite field of research, and would form a suitable addition to any - historical library.”—_Scotsman._ - - -SOME DORSET MANOR HOUSES, WITH THEIR LITERARY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. - -By Sidney Heath, with a fore-word by R. Bosworth Smith, of Bingham’s -Melcombe. Illustrated with forty drawings by the Author, in addition -to numerous rubbings of Sepulchral Brasses by W. de C. 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Davison, illustrated with 12 plates and two maps. Crown 8vo, -cloth. Price =5/-=. - - “A volume with which Derby and its people should be well - satisfied.”—_Scotsman._ - - -THE CORPORATION PLATE AND INSIGNIA OF OFFICE OF THE CITIES AND TOWNS OF -ENGLAND AND WALES. - -By the late Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A. Edited and completed with large -additions by W. H. St. John Hope, M.A. Fully illustrated, 2 vols., -Crown 4to, buckram, =84/-= net. Large paper, 2 vols., Royal 4to, -=105/-= net. - - “It is difficult to praise too highly the careful research - and accurate information throughout these two handsome - quartos.”—_Athenæum._ - - -THE RELIQUARY: AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE FOR ANTIQUARIES, ARTISTS, AND -COLLECTORS. - -A Quarterly Journal and Review devoted to the study of primitive -industries, mediæval handicrafts, the evolution of ornament, religious -symbolism, survival of the past in the present, and ancient art -generally. Edited by the Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. New Series. -Vols. 1 to 13. Super Royal 8vo, buckram, price =12/-= each net. Special -terms for sets. - - “Of permanent interest to all who take an interest in the many and - wide branches of which it furnishes not only information and research, - but also illumination in pictorial form.”—_Scotsman._ - - -London: Bemrose & Sons Ltd., 4 Snow Hill, E.C.; and Derby. - - -Transcriber’s notes: - -In the text version, italics are represented by _underscores_, and bold -and black letter text by =equals= symbols. Inconsistent hyphenation -and spellings have been left as printed except as noted below. Small -punctuation errors have been silently corrected. - -Superscripts are represented by ^{} and subscripts by _{} -[=a]represents a with a line above and [~p] represents p with a tilde -above - -In the majority of cases, spelling has been left as printed but a small -number of errors which obscure the meaning for the reader have been -corrected. - -Both uncorrected and corrected spellings are noted below. - -Some incorrect puntuation has been silently corrected - - p14 acordance left as printed. - p70 betwen left as printed. - p165,166 The variable spellings of Bradshaw(e) have been left - as printed. - p170 The footnote on this page has no anchor, so it is assumed - that it refers to preceding paragraph. - p180 A very wide genealogie chart has been rewritten with keys - to fit in page width restrictions. The original may be seem - as an illustration. - The following notes relate to this. - Willm. The l's have crossbars - Humph. T H's have crossbars. - fftafford. ff represent long s's. - co-heires left as printed. - p196 Jahrhunderts (footnote 65)left as printed. - p258 -- added after Chesterfield section title. - p265 stall-ends changed to stall ends. - p330 blackmith (footnote 89) left as printed. - p373 continnue left as printed. - p374 everry left as printed. - p391 Secret Chambers and Hiding places, hyphenation removed to - match text. - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIALS OF OLD -DERBYSHIRE *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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