enclosure (here shown) formed of ten rough limestones, and consisted of "a female in the very prime of life and a child of about four years of age; the former had been placed on the floor of the grave on her left side, with the knees drawn up; the child was placed above her, and rather behind her shoulders; they were surrounded and covered with innumerable bones of the water-vole, or rat, and near the woman was a cow's tooth, an article uniformly found with the more ancient interments." Round her neck was the necklace engraved above. It was formed of variously shaped beads and three ornaments of jet and bone, curiously ornamented. The various pieces of this elaborate necklace count 420 in number-348 being thin laminæ, 54 of cylindrical form, and the remaining 18 being conical studs and perforated plates, some of which are ornamented with punctures. The skull of the woman was so perfect in condition, and was so excellent an example in every respect, that it was chosen as the type of the ancient British female, for figuring in that magnificent work (from which our engraving is taken) by Drs. J. Barnard Davis and Thurnam, the "Crania Britannica," a work which is invaluable to ethnologists, and to archæologists in general. Of Jet studs, the example here given from Gospel Hillock will convey a good idea of the most usual type. It was found along with the flint celt already described. The implements of BONE found in the Celtic grave-mounds of Derbyshire, consist chiefly of modelling tools, (supposed to be used in the manufacture of pottery), pins, studs, and other personal ornaments, lance-heads, spear-heads, whistles, (?) mesh-rules, hammers and beads. In BRONZE the articles found are celts, daggers, awls, pins, etc. Celts are, however, but seldom met with in barrows, although frequently ploughed up in the course of agricultural operations. Palstaves and socketed celts, etc., are also occasionally picked up. The ordinary form of celt, will be best understood by the engraving here given from an excellent example found in Moot-Low near Dove Dale. One of these celts, of precisely similar form to this one, found in a barrow at Shuttlestone, has been the means of throwing considerable 66 light on the mode of interment adopted. The barrow contained the skeleton of a man in the prime of life and of fine proportions apparently the sole occupant of the mound, who had been interred whilst enveloped in a skin, of dark red colour, the hairy surface of which had left many traces both upon the surrounding earth and upon the verdigris or patina coating, of a bronze axe shaped celt and dagger, deposited with the skeleton. On the former weapon, there are also beautifully distinct impressions of fern leaves, handsful of which, in a compressed and half-decayed state, surrounded the bones from head to foot. From these leaves being discernible on one side of the celt only, whilst the other side presents traces of leather alone, it is certain that the leaves were placed first as a couch for the reception of the corpse with its accompaniments, and after these had been deposited, were then further added in quantity sufficient to protect the body from the earth."* With the skeleton, besides the celt, were a fine bronze dagger, with two rivets for attachments to the handle which had been of horn-the impression of the grain being quite distinctly perceptible; a small jet bead; and a circular flint. The celt had been, as was evident from the grain of wood still remaining, driven vertically into a wooden handle for about two inches of its length. The bronze daggers which the barrows of Derbyshire have afforded, vary in length from three to five and a half inches; the larger ones being about two and a half inches in breadth, "Ten Years' Diggings." at their broadest part, where the handle has been attached, from whence they taper gradually down to the point. They are sometimes ribbed or fluted. In most instances, the handle has been attached by three rivets; in some cases, however, only two have been used, and occasionally there is evidence of the attachment being effected by thong or other ligature. The handles were of horn or wood, and were usually semi-lunar, where attached to the blade; in one instance, however, the blade has a "tang" or "shank" which has fitted into the square-ended handle, to which it has been fastened by a single peg. The blades occasionally present contestible evidence of long use, having been worn down by repeated sharpenings. In the instance of the dagger found at Stanshope, which had been fastened to the handle by a couple of rivets as well as by ligatures, evidence existed of its having been enclosed in a sheath of leather, and this example also presented the somewhat curious feature of impressions of maggots, which had probably made their way from the decaying body into the inside of the sheath, between it and the blade, and had there remained, and thus gradually become marked upon the corrugated surface of the bronze. It is worthy of careful remark, that in no Celtic barrow as yet opened in Derbyshire, of which any record is preserved, has a single article of gold been found. A torc and one or two articles of gold have been turned up by the plough, but none have been exhumed in barrows. It is also worthy of particular note that not a single ancient British coin has yet been known to have been found in the county. One of the principal features of the Celtic grave-mounds of Derbyshire is the POTTERY, and of this I will now proceed to speak. The pottery of the ancient British period may be safely arranged in four classes,* viz.; 1. Cinerary Urns or Sepulchral Urns, which have contained, or been inverted over, calcined human bones. 2. Food Vessels (so called) which are supposed to have contained an offering of food, and which are more usually found with unburnt bodies than along with interments by cremation. 3. Drinking Cups, which are usually highly ornamented. 4. Incense Cups (erroneously so called, for want of more knowledge of their use), which are very small vessels found only with burnt bones (and usually containing them) within the large cinerary urns. The pottery was, without doubt, made on, or near to, the spot where found. It was, there is every probability, the handiwork of the females of the tribe and occasionally exibits no little elegance of form and no small degree of delicate *For articles upon this subject see the "Reliquary, Quarterly Archeological Journal and Review," vol. ii. pages 61 to 70; and Mr. Bateman's "Ten Years' Diggings." ornamentation. The urns, of whatever kind they may be, are formed of the coarse common clay of the district where made, occasionally mixed with small pebbles and gravel; they are entirely wrought by hand, without the assistance of the wheel, and are, the larger vessels especially, extremely thick. From their imperfect firing, the vessels of this period are usually called "sun-baked" or "sun-dried" but this is a grave error, as any one conversant with examples cannot fail, on careful examination, to see. If the vessels were "sun-baked " only, their burial in the earth-in the tumuli wherein, some two thousand years ago, they were deposited, and where they have all that time remained-would soon soften them, and they would, ages ago, have returned to their old clayey consistency. As it is, the urns have remained of their original form, and although from imperfect baking, they are sometimes found softened, they still retain their form, and soon regain their usual hardness. They bear abundant evidence of the action of fire and are, indeed, sometimes sufficiently burned for the clay to have attained a red colour-a result which no "sun-baking" could produce. They are mostly of an earthy brown colour outside, and almost black in fracture, and many of the cinerary urns bear internal and unmistakeable evidence of having been filled with the burnt bones and ashes of the deceased, while those ashes were of a glowing and intense heat. They were, most probably, fashioned by the females of the tribe, on the death of their relative, from the clay to be found nearest to the spot, and baked on or by the funeral pyre. The glowing ashes and bones were then collected together, and placed in the urn, and the flint implements and occasionally other relics belonging to the deceased, deposited along with them. The Cinerary, or Sepulchral, Urns vary very considerably both in size, in form, in ornamentation, and in material-the latter, naturally, depending on the locality where the urns were made-and, as a general rule, they differ also from those of most other districts. Those which are supposed to be the most ancient, from the fact of their frequently containing flint instruments along with the calcined bones, are of large size, ranging from nine or ten, to sixteen or eighteen inches in height. Those which are supposed to belong to a somewhat later period, when cremation had again become general, are of a smaller size, and of a somewhat finer texture. With them objects of flint are rarely found, but articles of bronze are occasionally discovered. The general form of the cinerary urns of the Derbyshire barrows, will be best understood from the annexed engravings. Their principal characteristic is a deep overlapping border or rim, and their ornamentation, always produced by indent |