YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

BYGONE DERBYSHIRE

Of this book 750 copies have been printed,
and this is

No.

BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.

EDITED BY
WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S.

AUTHOR OF

'OLD CHURCH LORE," "CURIOSITIE.S OF THE CHURCH,''
" OI.D-TIME I'UNISHMENTS," ETC.

DERBY :
FRANK MURRAY.
HULL :
WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.
LONDON :
SIMrKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO., LIMITED.
1892.

2-

Ipreface.
nPHE editing of this volume has been a labour
of love, recalling happy memories of the
past. It is more than twenty-five years since I
resided in Derbyshire, and made myself familiar
with its historic byways and highways. I have
continued my studies of its old-time lore since
1 left the county, never missing an opportunity
of obtaining a local work, and making a note of
matters I deemed of interest and importance.
In the following pages will be found the result
of some of my gleanings.
In conclusion, I desire to tender my thanks
to my contributors for assisting me to produce
a book which I hope will not be regarded
as an unwelcome addition to the literature of
Derbyshire. William Andrews.
Hull Literary Club,
June loth, i8<)2.

Contents.

PAGE

Historic Derbyshire. By Thomas Frost .... i
On an Early Christian Tomb at Wirkswortii. By Rev.
J. Charles Co.\, ll.d., f.s.a. ... ig
Curious Derbyshire Lead-Mining Customs. By William
Andrews, F.R.H.S. . . . '33
The Place-Name Derby. By Frederick Davis, f.s.a. , 38
DuFFiELD Castle. By Jno. Ward ... 54
H addon Hall . . . . .92
The Ro.mance of Haddon Hall . . . 106
The Ordeal of Touch . . . . . iii
The Monumental Brasses at Tideswell. By James L.
\ Thornely . . . . . . : 115
BOLSOVER Castle. By Enid A. M. Co.k . . . 133
The Lamp of St. Helen. By T. Tindall Wildridge . . 143
Peveril Castle, By James L. Thornely 155
Samuel Slater, the Father of the American Cotton
Manufacture. By William E. A. Axon . . 170
The Bakewell Witches. By T. Tindall Wildridge . . iSo
Mary Queen of Scots in Derbyshire .... 185'
The Babington Conspiracy  193
Eyam and its Sad Memories. By W. G. Fretton, f.s.a. . 199
Well-Dressing. By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, b.a. . 208
Old-Time Football. By Theo. Arthur . . . 216
After Thirty Years : An Incident ok the Civil War.
By Edward Lamplough  224
Derbyshire and the '45. By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, b.a. 228
Bess of Hardwick. By Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s. . . 235
Shadows of Ro.mance . . ... 244
Index . . . . 255

BY(;ONE DERBYSHIRE.

Ibistoi'ic 2)erb\)0bire.
By Thomas I'Vo.si'
Till", eiirlicst records of the county of D<;rby
have to be ^iiLliei'etl from writers of th(;
period of the Kom.ni oecup.Llion, and lliey arc;
c.vceedinL;ly scaiUy. When tht; Roman emperors
formed the central i)ortion of I[nL,dand into the
province; of I'Mavia Ca-sarit;iisis, Derbyshire was
inhabiti;cl liy a tribe called the; Coritani, who also
occiipi(;d the counties of Notts, Leic(;st(;r,
Lincohi, Rutland, and Northampton. The; county
was then v(;ry thinly ])opulated, ami reinaiiu;d .so
for s(;veral ceiituri(;s. The towns, or rather
villages, w(;r(; lew and fu' a[)art. Lead mint;s
were work(;d, however, and ph^s of th(; metal
have; b(;(;n found in the; nei^-hbourhood of Matlock,
one; bt;arinL;- tlu; inscription, " Socio Roma; "
(" To my [)arLner at Rome.") One; of th(;s(; is

2 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
now in the British Museum. Roman coins have
been found near Chesterfield, and at Alfreton,
Crich, Pleasley, and Burton Wood, near Ash
bourne ; and an altar was, in the last century, dug
up in the grounds of Haddon Hall, near Bake-
well, with the imperfect inscription, " Deo Marti
brasiacse ositius Caicilian pref. ... J. Aquitano,
V.S." One of the excellent roads made by the
Romans entered the county from the south, and
antiquaries have found traces of it at Egginton ;
but it is now almost entirely obliterated by the
present road, which it follows to Littleover, near
Derby, there diverging in the direction of that
town, and being continued over Nun's Green to
Little Chester. Glover, in his history of the
county, notes that in 1829, traces of this road
still existed near Breadsall, and on Morley Moor,
a hundred yards eastward of Brackley-gate. It
could also be traced close to Horsley Park,
whence it was continued through the fields, cross
ing the road from Wirksworth to Nottingham, to
a bye-road leading from Heage to Ripley.
Vestiges of its course were also discoverable near
Pakerthorpe, along the road to Clay Cross ; but
no traces of it could be found beyond Egstow.

HISTORIC DERB YSHIRE. 3
There was another Roman road from Brough
to Braxton, which could be traced on the Brough
side of Bathom Edge, and thence to a stone wall
dividing the Bradwell and Tideswell Moors,
"sweeping," says Whittaker, " in a long straight
streak of vivid green over the purple surface of
the heath." A third road of the Roman period
entered the county from Cheshire, and joined that
just described ; while traces of a fourth, from
Buxton to Ashbourne, were formerly visible on
Brassington Moor. Penny Long Lane is also
believed to have been a Roman road, entering
the county on the Staffordshire side. It seems
to have crossed the Dove a little below Rocester,
and the road from Ashbourne to Derby between
the second and third mile-stones, from which spot
it was continued to Little Chester, where traces
of Roman buildings were found by Stukely, in
1721. When the tide of Anglo-Saxon conquest
rolled over the country, Derbyshire and the
adjoining counties were formed into the Kingdom
ofMercia,thelargest and most powerful of the seven
petty monarchies known as the Saxon Heptarchy.
The county was still sparsely inhabited, there being,
according to Bede, only seven thousand families

4 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
in Derbyshire and Notts. It was the scene of
many internecine wars before the seven kingdoms
were united under Egbert. Repton appears to
have been the Mercian capital, and several of the
kings were buried in the abbey church there, in-
cludingf Ethelbald, killed in battle with the West
Saxons, in 753, at Sekinton, in Warwickshire, and
W'ithlaffe, who died there shortly after the final
defeat of the Mercians by Egbert. The abbey
was demolished by the Danes in one of their
irruptions, during the reign of Alfred. The
invaders were allowed to hold that part of the
county on the condition of acknowledging Alfred
as king. But in 912, in the reign of Edward
the Elder, they rebelled, threw off their allegiance,
and invited the W^elsh to aid them in maintaining
that position. The invaders were defeated, how
ever, and took refuge in Derby, then a very small
town, though, according to Camden, it existed in
the time of the Roman occupation, when it was
called Derventio. Edward's sister, the widowed
Countess of Mercia, marched against the town,
and took it by assault. The Welsh Prince was
killed, the Danish leader fled northward, and the
castle was entirely destroyed. This fortress, of
which no trace now remains, appears to have been

HISTORIC DERBYSHIRE. 5
situated in what was then the south-eastern
quarter of the town, and has given its name to
one of the municipal divisions of the borough.
Under the Saxon kings, Derby had the
privilege of a mint, and coins struck there in the
reigns of Athelstan and Edgar have at various
times been discovered. Yet there were only one
hundred and forty-three burgesses in the town in
the reign of Edward the Confessor, and this
number had diminished to one hundred when the
Domesday Book was compiled. We learn from
that record of the Conqueror's survey that these
were under an obligation to pay to the King
twelve thraves of corn annually on the feast of
St. Martin. The county was thriving as badly at
this time as its principal towns, and the aborti\e
revolts of the Derbyshire men against the Nor
man rule were not conducive to its prosperity.
The possessions of most of the landowners
became forfeited to the King, and were conferred
by him upon the nobles and knights who had
followed him from Normandy. Twenty Derby
shire manors rewarded his illegitimate son,
William de Peveril, who wielded almost as much
power in the county as the Earls of Mercia had
done under the old order of things. Twenty

6 BYG ONE DERB YSHIRE.
manors were given to Ralph Fitzherbert, and one
hundred and twelve others, with the town of
Derby, were reserved by William for himself
Few events of importance occurred during the
century following the Norman conquest. Henry I.
bestowed upon Derby its first charter, and from
this circumstance it may be inferred that the town
was then growing and prospering more than it
had done during the three preceding reigns. The
county did not, however, pass unscathed through
the turmoil and strife of the civil wars which, at a
later period, arose out of the resolve of the barons
to curb the arbitrary power of the monarchs of
the Plantagenet dynasty. When Henry III.
threw off the restraints which had been imposed
upon the Crown by the Great Charter of the
preceding reign, and the nobles resorted to the
arbitration of the sword in defence of their rights,
Robert Ferrers, Earl of Derby, joined the
baronial league. Prince Henry, a nephew of the
King, marched into Derbyshire at the head of a
large force of foreign mercenaries, and devastated
the estates of all the opponents of absolutism in
the southern portion of the county. After
destroying Tutbury Castle, which belonged to
the Earl of Derby, he marched across the lower

HISTORIC DERB YSHIRE. 7
ridges of the Peak district, in order to intercept
Baron D'Ayville, who had hastened from
Yorkshire to support Ferrers, and had reached
Dronfield. The Earl, who appears to have
suffered a reverse at the outset, had, in the mean
time rallied his followers at Duffield, levied
contributions from Derby and other places in
that neighbourhood, and marched in the same
direction. His forces experienced some difficulty
in crossing the river Amber, which was then much
swollen, but he succeeded in effecting a junction
with D'Ayville at Chesterfield.
Prince Henry was there before the Earl, how
ever, and had fallen with fury upon the Yorkshire
insurgents, who, upon seeing their leader thrown
from his horse, immediately retreated. Ferrers
entered Chesterfield with his troops exhausted by
their forced march over the hills, and was attacked
the same night by Prince Henry, whose followers,
after burning some houses, forced their way into
the town. A fierce conflict ensued in the market
place and the adjacent streets, and Ferrers, seeing
his men overpowered and driven back, took
refuge, with a few of his followers, in the church.
Escape being impracticable, he at length
surrendered, and was sent under escort to

8 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Windsor. His estates were confiscated to the
Crown, and conferred, with the earldom of Derby,
upon Prince Edmund, the King's second son.
He remained three years in prison, and eventually,
through the intercession of influential friends,
obtained the restitution of his estate at Holbrook,
a small portion only of his former extensive
possessions. After the intestinal divisions and commo
tions of this period, the course of events
in this county flowed smoothly on for
many generations, so far as affairs of
historical importance are concerned. During
the troublous reign of Edward II., the
royal and baronial forces marched through the
neighbouring counties, but Derbyshire escaped
the scourge of war that time, and was equally
fortunate during the disturbed period when the
country was harassed by the contentions of the
descendents of Edward III. The religious
persecutions which followed in the wake of the
Reformation also passed lightly over this favoured
county, the only victim whose name and fate have
been recorded being a blind ropemaker of Derby,
named Wast, who, being accused of heresy before
Dr. Bane, then Bishop of Lichfield, and con-

HISTORIC DERB YSHIRE. 9
demned to -the stake, suffered at a place called
Windmill Pit, near his native town.
Derby comes more prominently under the notice
of the historian towards the middle of the
seventeenth century. In 1641, that wrong-
headed and unfortunate monarch, Charles I.,
passed through the town on his way northward,
and paused there to raise Sir Francis Rodes, of
Barlborough, and Sir John Curzon, of Kedleston,
from the rank of knighthood to that of baronetcy.
On the outbreak of civil war in the following year,
he was again in Derby, passing through the town
on his way to Shrewsbury, and stopping to borrow
three hundred pounds from the Corporation, and
as many arms and implements of war as could be
found. Most of the burgesses and the gentry of
the county were loyal, and their loyalty entailed
the natural result of drawing upon them the
attention of the Constitutional party in an un
pleasant manner. Shortly after the visit of the
King, Sir John Gell was commissioned by the
Earl of Essex to raise a regiment in Derbyshire
for the Parliament, and he came to Derby for that
purpose, which he seems to have effected with
out the difficulty which might, have been
anticipated from the recent attitude of the

lo BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
burgesses and the gentry of the neigh
bourhood. In 1643, Sir Thomas Fairfax entered the town
with a troop of Parliamentarian cavalry, and
remained there three days, his object being to
detach a portion of Sir John Cell's infantry for
service in Yorkshire. There were, however, at
that time Royalist forces at Ashby-de-la-Zouch,
Tutbury, and Lichfield, the commanders of which
were awaiting an opportunity to attack Derby,
from which, therefore, none of the defending force
could be spared. Sir John Gell placed at the
disposal of his brother officer the Winfield,
Wingerworth, and Chatsworth companies of the
Derbyshire regiment, however, and with these
and his cavalry Fairfax proceeded to Chesterfield,
and from there marched into Yorkshire. In the
following year, the Marquis of Newcastle crossed
the northern parts of the county into Cheshire,
and incited the Royalists there to attack Derby,
which barred the progress of the King's forces in
every direction. The blow that had been so long
suspended was at length struck, but without any
advantage to the cause of the King. The
Royalists were defeated at Tissington, and
forced to retire ; and the battle of Naseby, which

HISTORIC DERB YSHIRE. 1 1
was fought soon afterwards, gave the death-blow
to the monarch's fortunes.
Derby displayed another flash of loyalty to the
cause of the monarchy and the Stuart dynasty in
1659, when the unstable government of Richard
Cromwell had fallen, and the constitution hung in
suspense between the House of Commons and
the army. The tendency to a reaction of the
public mind against the stern measures of the
Puritans for the suppression of every form of
amusement disposed a large section of the
population to listen with interest and approval to
the rumours which from time to time reached the
town of movements for the restoration of the late
royal family, and the effervescence thus produced
increased until it reached the explosive point. A
tumultuous demonstration was made in the
market-place at Derby, and threatened to become
so formidable that General Lambert, who com
manded in the district, sent a force of 250
dragoons, under Major Groves, to suppress it.
Bloodshed for a time seemed probable, but the
country was so well known to the leading men of
all parties to be in a state of transition that no
one was disposed to push matters to an extremity.
Colonel Sanders, who held a position of consider-

I 2 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
able influence in the town, prevailed upon the
disturbers of the peace to withdraw to Nuns
Green, and time was thus gained for reflection
upon the unwisdom of precipitancy. On the
following day, a troop of cavalry arrived from
Uttoxeter, and by that time the would-be
insurgents were prepared to return to their homes,
and there await the issue of events.
As might have been expected from the
character of the Stuarts, of which the nation had
had dire experience in the past, the placing of
Charles II. on the throne from which his father
had been deposed was not attended with the good
results that had been so fondly anticipated when
the men of Derby shouted for him in the market
place. That generation had not passed away
when they were as willing to be rid of the Stuarts
once for all as they had then been to welcome
them. The Prince of Orange had not landed on
the shore of his future kingdom when the Earl of
Devonshire — soon to become a duke — entered
Derby at the head of 500 men, and declared
against James and in favour of his Dutch son-in-
law. The burgesses acted with exceeding caution
on this occasion. They were unwilling to com-
laromise themselves until they were sure that there

HISTORIC DERBYSHIRE. 13
was no danger in doing so. They received the
Earl's manifesto coldly, and even when Devon
shire was joined by a Dutch regiment, the mayor
was afraid to billet the foreigners. The situation
was becoming awkward, when a courageous
constable named Cooke took upon himself the
responsibility of the necessary measures for the
accommodation of this addition to the military
force in the town.
The Earl of Devonshire had his reward for his
bold support of the Revolution on this occasion
when, in 1694, he was raised by William III. to
the highest rank in the peerage. He was
descended from the Gernon family of the eastern
counties, a younger branch of which settled at
Cavendish, in Suffolk, and took their name from
that place. Sir William Cavendish, of this
family, acquired possession of large estates in
Derbyshire and other counties, and commenced
the building of the noble mansion at Chatsworth,
near Bakewell, which has long been one of the
most notable show-houses in the kingdom. Dying
while the work was in progress, it was completed
by his widow, who subsequently became the wife
of the Earl of Salisbury.
The people of Derbyshire accepted the

1 4 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
Revolution with tolerable equanimity when it was
found to be inevitable, but their sympathies con
tinued to be more generally with the Tory and
High Church party than with the W^higs and
religious toleration. The prosecution of Dr.
Sacheverel aroused a most violent excitement,
and the news of the unexpectedly mild sentence
that was passed upon that hot-headed divine was
received in Derby with the most extravagant
demonstrations of triumphant rejoicing. Bonfires
were lighted, the bells of the churches rang
jubilant peals, and more congratulations could not
have been exchanged if the most vital principles
of Christianity had been at stake. The memory
of the event is still preserved in the name of one
of the streets of Derby.
Derby was at this time in a commercially
prosperous condition. The silk manufacture had
been introduced in 1702, but had made little pro
gress, owing to the imperfection of the machinery
employed. The failure prompted Thomas
Lombe, an enterprising member of the trade, to
go to Italy, and there study the jealously-guarded
secrets of the manufacturers of that country. He
obtained employment in a silk-mill there, and by
the exercise of great caution and perseverance,

HISTORIC DERB i 'SHIRE. 1 5
succeeded in learning all that he desired to know.
Returning to England in 1717, after a residence
of two years in Italy, he built a silk-mill at Derby,
on a small island in the river Derwent, and there
carried on the business of silk-throwing with
great success until 1722, when he was poisoned
by an Italian woman, at the instigation of some
of her compatriots, rivals of Lombe, whose
success they regarded with envy and resentment.
The business continued to be carried on by
Lombe's brother for some years, and on his death
passed into other hands. Silk-throwing was for
more than a century the chief industry of Derby,
but, in common with the silk manufactures of this
country generally, it declined with the removal of
the duty on foreign silks, and Lombe's mill, after
a long period of disuse, is now (December, 1891)
about to be demolished.
Though the Tory and High Church party were
in the ascendant in Derbyshire during the reigns
of Anne and the first and second Georges, and
the leaders of that party regarded with sympathy
the claims of the Stuart family, in favour of which
some of them were secretly intriguing, the
Jacobite rebellion of 1745 created great excite
ment and dismay when it became known that

1 6 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Charles Edward, with an army composed chiefly
of Highlanders, was advancing from Manchester,
and intended to march through the county on his
way to Birmingham and London. This had not
been his original intention, but on reaching
Congleton, he learned that the Duke of Cumber
land, with an army composed largely of veterans
who had seen service on the continent, was
advancing northward with long strides, he
diverged from his intended line of march, and
pushed across to Ashbourne, where he remained
a few days, staying at Ashbourne Hall.
In the meantime, a public meeting was held at
the George Inn, Derby, to concert measures for
the defence of the town, at which the dreaded
Highlanders, who were regarded as little better
than savages, were shortly to be expected.
Another gathering was held at the King's Head
Inn, which occupied in those days the site on
which the St. James's Hotel now stands, and at
this it was determined to raise two regiments for
the defence of the town, the command of these
hasty levies being given to the Marquis of Har-
tington and Sir Nathaniel Curzon. The alarm
which prevailed showed that the inhabitants had
little confidence in the ability of these imperfectly

HISTORIC DERB YSHIRE. 1 7
armed and wholly untrained forces to withstand
the attack of the invaders, who were not long
in reaching Derby from Ashbourne, and, having
arrived, entered the town without encountering
any resistance. The advanced guard was pushed
on to Swarkestone Bridge, and scouts rode on to
^Melbourne to ascertain the amount of accommoda
tion that could be provided there for men and
horses. There seems no doubt that Charles Edward
Stuart, if he had been an able general, and
supported by officers as experienced as they were
loyal and courageous, might have eluded the Duke
of Cumberland, and by a rapid march southward,
have succeeded in reaching London. But he had
by this time discovered that unity of counsel and
action was unattainable by the Highland chiefs,
whose clans formed the largest portion of his
army. They were at variance among them
selves, and their undisciplined followers would
receive orders from no one else. Time had been
lost in consequence at Ashbourne, and now more
was likely to be lost at Derby. .Meanwhile, the
Duke of Cumberland was rapidly advancing to
meet the rebels. If an advance was to be made,
it had to be made at once. Jealousies and

1 8 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
divergent views prevented such a decision being
arrived at, and the moment soon came when
retreat was the only practicable course. The
unfortunate Prince reluctantly gave the order for
the retreat ; the vanguard fell back upon Derby,
and, to the great relief of the inhabitants, the un
welcome visitors marched out by the Friar-gate,
and returned hastily to Ashbourne, en route for
the north.
From this last notable event, the course of
Derbyshire history has run mainly in the same
channel as that of the kingdom generally. Its
agriculture and its manufactures have steadily
progressed, and, though the silk trade of Derby
no longer holds its former prominent position
among the local industries, the porcelain still
flourishes there, and the collieries and iron works
of the cQunty, the cotton mills of the northern
part, and the lace works of the south, employ- a
very considerable portion of the population.

®n an jSavI^ Cbristian ^omb at
Mirliewortb.
By Rev. J. Charles Cox, ll.d., f.s.a.
THE lead-mines of Wirksworth, in Derby
shire, were well-known, and worked by the
conquerors during the time of the Roman
occupation of Britain. The manor of Wirks
worth, with its valuable lead mines, was a royal
gift to the anciently-established monastery of
Repton, when it was first founded in the latter
half of the seventh century. In 714, Eadburga,
Abbess of Repton, sent a leaden coffin for the
burial of St. Guthlac of Croyland (a neophyte of
Repton), which was doubtless obtained from the
Wirksworth mines. In 835, the Abbess Kare-
wara granted the estate at Wirksworth to Humbert,
on condition that he gave, as annual rent to
Archbishop Ceolnuth, lead to the value of three
hundred shillings for the use of the cathedral
church of Canterbury. It is impossible to con
ceive, in the fervour of those early days of the
conversion of the Mid-Angles, that Wirksworth

20 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
would be without a Christian church. It would
be just as impossible to imagine Wirksworth
churchless and priestless at that early period, as to
conceive certain African villages, populous through
some local industry, left without a missionary and
a place of worship, if the said villages had been
given say to the Universities Mission to Central
Africa by the Sultan of Zanzibar, or by some
native chieftain of the mainland. We take it,
then, that a Christian church of some size was
certainly erected at Wirksworth, as the centre of
an active industry, as early as the end of the
seventh century. Nor are we left merely to pious
and well-based imaginings. Evidence, both
documentary and monumental, is forthcoming to
support an otherwise well-assured conjecture.
Not only does the Domesday Survey name at
Wirksworth a priest and church with sixteen
tenants, and nine cottage holders having four
ploughs, but the Lincoln charters, that we
have consulted in the upper room of the beautiful
Galilee porch of the minster, show that there was
a wealthy and well-established prebendal church
here in the days of Edward the Confessor, as
recited by Henry I. when he gave the church to
Lincoln early in his reign. Wirksworth, from

AN EARL Y CHRISTIAN TOMB. 2 1
having been one of the first centres of Christian
teaching to the pagan Mercians, became naturally
one of the minsters or mother churches of Derby
shire in the later Anglo-Saxon days, such as were
also the churches of Derby (All Saints'), Ash
bourne, Chesterfield, and Bakewell. So late even
as the end of the twelfth century, the rectory
churches of Bonsall, Carsington, Kirk Ireton,
and Matlock, were in the position of parochial
chapelries, dependent on Wirksworth.
With regard to the monumental evidence, the
fabric of the ancient church of Wirksworth,
dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin, has
suffered most terribly during the present century ;
but the very roughest of the treatment at the
hands of the " restorer " has brought about certain
revelations as to the past which might otherwise
have been concealed. In 1 820-1, the most
barbarous innovations and alterations were made
that nearly destroyed the transepts. In 1855, a
shocking mess was made of the chancel. In 1870,
an elaborate restoration, carried out for the most
part on good lines by the late Sir Gilbert Scott,
was begun, but was not completed satisfactorily
owing to the more important parts of the fabric being
in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners

22 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
and their architect. These various upheavals of
the building have resulted in numerous fragments
of the old Norman church being brought to light,
many of which are now built into the interior
walls. These fragments, in conjunction with
foundations revealed during the 1870-2 restora
tion, show that a large cruciform and lavishly
ornamented Norman church was erected here in
the style that was in vogue between 11 25-1 150.
This seems to prove that the church was rebuilt
soon after it came into the hands of the great
cathedral church of Lincoln.
But what of the Anglo-Saxon church that
preceded it ? There are (or were) at least three
fragments of carved stone that are clearly pre-
Norman, and that did not probably pertain to any
sepulchral cioss. Others might have been
preserved, and other traces not undefaced, had
it not been for carelessness and divided
authority at the time of the last restoration.
Careful inspection, made since our " Notes " on
this church were written and published (1876),
shows that not a few of the plain stones of this
church are of pre- Norman date, as well as very
possibly certain small portions of the walls as
they now stand.

AN EARL Y CHRISTIAN TOMB. 23
Of the shocking havoc made in this church in
1 820- 1, the MS. notes by the Rev. R. R.
Rawlins, that diligent collector of Derbyshire
church lore, who was on the spot at the time, bear
sad testimony. More than one standing tomb of
alabaster, with effigies thereon, were carted away
never more to be seen ; but amidst all this
upheaval of the fabrics and monuments of
the church, one good accrued in the unearthing of
one of the most remarkable memorials of pre-
Xorman date that England possesses. When
removing the pavement in front of the altar, the
workmen found, face downwards, two feet below
the surface, a most curiously sculptured stone.
[See plate.] It was over a stone built vault grave
containing a large perfect human skeleton, and
this slab, which covered it, had evidently been
placed in the position it occupied with some
degree of care. The slab measures five feet in
length, by two feet ten inches in breadth. After
its discovery, it was fixed against the north wall
of the chancel, and suffered somewhat in the
process. It is now to be found against the
north wall of the north aisle of the nave.
Below it is affixed a small brass plate thus
inscribed : —

24 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
" This ancient piece of sculpture was discovered underneath
the chancel when the interior of the church was newly
arranged in the year 1821. Vide Gentleman's Magazine,
November, 182 1.''
Mr. Rawlins made the drawing, and wrote the
description which appeared in the Gentleman s
Magazine. It will be best to give his sufficiently
ingenious and fairly correct explanation of the
curious details of this elaborate and crowded piece
of sculpture : —
" First, there is a representation of Christ washing the
disciples' feet, of whom three appear ; near the Basin hes the
towel ; secondly, the cross, on which is the lamb, emblematical
of our Saviour. The figures above the cross are supposed to
be intended for St. John and St. Peter ; St. John on the left,
from the head leaning towards the cross ; that disciple, being
the beloved one, is always represented reclining on Christ ;
beneath the cross are two birds, apparently cocks. The third
scene represents the entombing of Christ, wherein He is
iigured lying on a bier, as in the act of being carried by
Joseph of Arimathea and his attendants to the sepulchre.
The figure beneath, in a recumbent posture, is significant of
the victory obtained over Death and the grave by Christ's
passion ; the foot of the bier seems to retain Satan captive by
being placed through his body, and thus pinning him to the
earth. The faces in the centre, over the body of Christ, are
intended for the guard placed by the Chief Priests and
Pharisees at the sepulchre, to prevent the abduction of the
body by the disciples ; fourthly, we see the presentation in the
temple. The figure with the palm-branch in its hand denotes
the Christian's joy at being rescued from sin and misery by the
appearance of Christ upon earth.

2 6 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
"The first group of the lower range of figures is intended to
show the Xadvit}-. The buses beneath and the person pointing
towards the Infant signify the wise men from the East. The
next group exhibiting the Ascension, where our Saviour, bearing
the cross, in token of ha-ving fulfilled His Father's will, is
bome triumphant by angels to His heavenly home.
" The subject of the last diNision appears to be the return of
the disciples to Jerusalem after the Ascension."
With regard to ]Mr. Rawlins' explanations of
this sculpture, a few corrections must be made.
The first scene is undoubtedly the washing of the
feet. It is a subject that was not infrequently
treated in early Christian art. It occurs on a
fifth century sarcophagus at Aries, in which case
the group consists of Christ and two disciples,
instead of three, as shown in the Wirksworth
example. The seventh century Gospels of
Corpus Christi College have a like scene, in
which ten disciples are shown. \'arious instances
occur of tenth and eleventh century date.
The second scene is remarkable as showing,
with restrained reverence, the Agnus Dei on the
cross instead ot the Divine \ ictim ; in this
the Wirksworth stone follows the example of more
than one of the sculptured sarcophagi at Rome of
fifth and sixth century date, as well as a few later
instances. This is probably the earliest example

AN EARL Y CHRISTIAN TOMB. 2 7
of a sculptured Agnus Dei in England. It is in
itself a strong proof of the age of the carving, for
the substitution of the actual figure of the Saviour
for the symbolical lamb was decreed by the
Ouinisext Council, held at Constantinople, a.d.
603 ; — ¦' We pronounce that the form of Him who
taketh away the sin of the world, the Lamb of
Christ one Lord, be set up in human shape on
images henceforth, instead of the Lamb formerly
used." Mr. Rawlins is quite at sea with regard to the
four figures at the arms of the cross. They are
undoubtedly meant for the symbols of the four
Evangelists — Man, Lion, Ox, Eagle. Early
sculptors showed much caprice in the arrangement
of these symbols, the order of the \Mrksworth
slab, though they are somewhat defaced, seems to
be Ox, jNIan, Lion, Eagle.
For the third scene, Mr. Rawlins' ingenious
description may for the most part stand as it is,
for the group undoubtedly represent the Carrying
to the Tomb ; but we cannot agree with the
notion that the last part of this line of carrying
represents a new scene, and least of all that it is
the Presentation, which would be altogether out
of place in a series like this. It is our belief that

28 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
the whole of these latter figures are connected
with the procession to the tomb ; that the figure
immediately before the first corner of the bier
has the fine linen over one arm ; that the next
figure is carrying spices in a vase ; and that the
mutilated figure with outstretched hands repre
sents the first of the procession, who has reached
the sepulchre and turns round to take the spices
from the next one or to help them in.
The first group of the next range cannot surely
be the Nativity, which would here be so
incongruous. Is not this the Resurrection ? Here
again the figures are rather blurred, but much more
nearly coincide with such a suggestion than with
the Birth of our Saviour.
The Ascension is a remarkable scene, and from
the arrangement and number of the angels has
more of art in it than the rest of this rude
sculpture. The two angels that are extended
horizontally bear no small resemblance to the two
angels over the chancel arch of the early church
of St. Lawrence, Bradford-on-Avon, which such an
authority as Professor Freeman believes to be the
very church founded by St. Aldhelm, in a.d. 705.
We can offer no improvement on Mr. Rawlins'
interpretation of the last scene, and believe with

AN EARL Y CHRISTIAN TOMB. 29
him that the last six figures are intended to
represent the disciples returning to Jerusalem
after the Ascension.
Mr. Bateman and other Derbyshire antiquaries
considered that this stone was an altar-piece or
reredos of the ancient church. It was not until
the second volume of " Notes on the Churches of
Derbyshire " was issued that the obviously right
view was put forth — namely, that the stone had
served as the cover of a slightly coped tomb, as it
slopes down on each side from the ridge in the
centre. This idea has been since accepted by
such authorities as Mr. J. Romilly Allen and
Rev. Canon Browne, and, as they are our two best
writers on early sculptured stone, it may be taken
to be a fact.
From the dimensions of this coped tomb-cover,
though slightly mutilated at the ends, it is to be
inferred that it may have stood originally upon a
large, flat stone, and did not .seemingly form the
immediate lid of the coffin. The tomb was
probably raised some little height above the floor
of the church ; a custom that we know prevailed
in the Anglo-Saxon church with those it was
wished to exceptionally honour, as is shown in the
pre-Norman miniature of the tomb of St, Oswald.

30 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
It is our belief that the date of this carving is
exceptionally early. Mr. J. Romilly Allen, in his
invaluable work, "Early Christian Symbolism in
Great Britain and Ireland." refers several times to
the Wirksworth stone, and gives a drawing of it.
Unfortunately, the drawing seems to be a repro
duction of ^Ir. Rawlins' rather rude sketch for
the Gentleman's Magazine, which exaggerates the
quaintness of the figures, and is inaccurate in
some particulars. ]\Ir. Romilly A.llen thinks it
Saxon, but apparently not early. ^^'hen, how-
e\"er,the various facts of the crowded and undivided
character of the groups, of the Agnus Dei on the
cross, of the details of the angels round the
Ascension, and of the very absence of anv
indication of Hiberno-Saxon knot work are all
taken into consideration, it is our irresistible
impression that we ha\-e here a monument that
was designed by some Christian disciple of
continental experience early in the eighth, or quite
possibly in the seventh centurv.
It was about the middle of the seventh centur)-
that the conversion of Mercia or the Mid Angles
began, and in 653, four priests took up their
residence to instruct and baptize the people.
Their names were Diuma, a Scotchman, and

AN EARL Y CHRISTIAN TOMB. 31
Cedd, Adda, and Betti, all Englishmen. Diuma
became first bishop of ]Mercia, took up his abode
at Repton, where he died, and was buried in 659.
Cedd became first bishop of the East Angles, and
was buried at Lastingham ; Adda became abbot
of the monastery of Gateshead, where he
probably obtained sepulchre. It is not, we think,
too much to suppose that possibly this slab may
have covered the saintly remains of Betti, of
whose death and burial nothing is known ; or, if
this should not be the case, that at all events it
was the pious memorial erected over the mission
ary priest who first built a church at Wirksworth,
and whose name history has failed to embalm.
The story told by the sculptures seems to
confirm this surmise, for on an ordinary slab they
would surely be meaningless or out of place.
The stone speaks graphically of the tale of the
Saviour's Crucifixion, Burial, Resurrection, and
Ascension. This tale is preceded by the marvell
ous instance of His humility, a humility in
absolute contrast to pagan self-assertion, and
perhaps strikingly exhibited in His missionary
of Wirksworth. It is followed by a repre
sentation of the Waiting Church, and so
would their first teacher have the Wirksworth

32 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
converts wait for the Second Coming of
their Lord.
Why was this once dearly-prized stone found in
such a position in 1S21 ? It was the habit of the
conquering Norman to do all in their power to
disassociate the name and memories of revered
Saxons from the minds of the people whom they
had subdued — and what more likely than that the
builders of the proud Norman church of the days
of the first Henry should reverse this slab and
bury it beneath the pavement that they raised.
We know that the objection to the Norman rule
and influence was long and fiercely resisted in this
part of Derbyshire, for it was at the lower end of
this short AMrksworth valley that the great
Robert Ferrers, himself mentioned in the o-ift-deed
of Wirksworth church, built the powerful and
over-awing fortress of Duffield Castle in the self
same reign.

Curious Derb^5bire Xeab^flDining
Custome.
By William Andrews, f.r.h.s.
T^ERBYSHIRE has been celebrated from
^-^ time immemorial for its lead-mines.
Several pigs of lead bearing Latin inscriptions
have been found, which go to prove that during
the Roman occupation of England lead-mining
operations were carried on in this county. Our
Saxon ancestors have also left numerous traces of
their activity in this industry. It is recorded
that in the year 714, a lead coffin was sent from
Wirksworth to contain the remains of St. Guthlac,
Prior of Croyland Abbey. In 835, Humbert the
Alderman obtained from Kenewara, abbess of
Repton, an estate at Wir'ksworth in return for
lead, to the value of three hundred shillings, to
be used at Christ's Church, Canterbury. The
Derbyshire mines were largely worked after the
Norman invasion.
The mineral laws and customs of the county
are extremely curious, and are of great antiquity.

D

34 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Edward Manlove, for some time a steward of the
ancient Barmote Court, holden at \A'irksworth, to
conduct the affairs connected with lead-mining,
put into rhyme the regulations, so that the miners
might commit them to memory, and thus be able
to maintain their rights. This book was printed
in London during the Commonwealth, and issued
in 1653. It was reprinted, with a glossary and
other important additions, in 1851, by Mr.
Thomas Tapping, of the Middle Temple,
Barrister-at-Law. In 1S7 i, he published, through
the English Dialect Societv, a third and revised
edition. The poem opens as follows : —
'' By custom old in Wirksworth Wapentake,
If any of this nation find a rake
Or sign, or leading to the same, [he] may set
In any ground, and there lead ore may get.
They may make crosses, holes, and set their stowes.
Sink shafts, build lodges, cottages and coes.
But churches, houses, gardens, all are free
From this strange custom of the minery."
It is clearly set forth that any person under the
Crown might, without asking permission or
paying any money, " dig and delve " in search of
lead ore, excepting in certain places that are
indicated. In the glossary we find the somewhat
singular terms in the poem explained. "Rake"

LEADMINING CUSTOMS. 35
is the name given to a vein, "stowe" the old
machine for drawing up in tubs the ore out of the
mine, "coe" the small house miners erect in
which to keep their ore and tools. The miners
have to give to the Crown certain dues, or, rather,
to the holder of the royalty, as the dues have
been let on lease since the days of Edward IV.,
and perhaps were so even at an earlier period.
Respecting these dues, we find it stated in an
able paper by Dr. William Webb, that " the
working miners and the mineral proprietors in
the Wapentake pay dues, which are known by
the terms of 'lot' and 'cope.' 'Lot' signifies
every thirteenth dish of ore, and ' cope ' 4d. or
6d. (according to the locality for every lode), or
nine dishes of ore. Moreover, all mines in the
parish of Wirksworth pay to the vicar every
fortieth dish as a tithe. This was in former days
as one in ten ; but as litigation was of frequent
occurrence, the tithe was commuted, in 1778, to
one in forty, by agreement made between the
Rev. Richard Tillard, vicar of Wirksworth, of
the one part, and the miners and maintainers of
the other part. When a miner has searched and
found ore in any land, he gives a dish to the lord
to free the mine, but to get title and possession

36 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
he applies to the barmaster, who, with at least
two of the jury, marks out two meers of ground,
each containing twenty-nine yards."
Twice in each year a Barmote Court is held at
the Moot Hall, Wirksworth, and is presided over
by a steward, and amongst those taking part in
the proceedings are a barmaster, a deputy-
barmaster, and jurymen. At this court the lead-
mining business is transacted. Here is the miners'

THE MINERS DISH KEPT IN THE MOOT HALL, WIRKSWORTH,
Standard dish, made of brass, for testing all the
other dishes used for measuring lead ore. It
bears the following inscription : —
" This dishe was made the iiij day of Octobr., the
iiij yere of the reigne of Kyng Henry the viii.
before George Erie of Shrowesbury, Steward of
ye Kyng's most honourable household, and also
Steward of all the honour of Tutbery, by the
assent and consent as well of all the Mynours, as
of all the Brenners, within and adjoyning the

LEAD-MINING CUSTOMS. 37
lordship of Wyrkysworth, percell of the said
honour. This dishe to remayne in the Moote
Hall at Wyrksworth, hanging by a cheyne, so as
the Merchantes or Mynours may have resorte to
the same at all tymes to make the tru mesur aft.
the same."
Formerly, in cases of sudden death in the
mines, the barmaster officiated as coroner. Man
love adverts to this in his poem : —
" If perchance a miner damped be.
Or on the mine be slain by chance medley,
The Bergmaster or else his Deputie
Must view the corpse before it buried be.
And take inquest by jury who shall try
By what mischance the miner there did die."
In the olden days, persons found guilty of steal
ing ore were severely punished. A man was
fined for the first and second offence, but if
caught a third time, says Manlove,
" Shall have a knife struck through his hand to the Haft
Into the Stow, and there till death shall stand,
Or loose himself by cutting loose his hand ;
And shall forswear the franchise of the mine.
And always lose his freedom from that time."
The student of English history will find much
that is curious, entertaining, and informing in
Manlove's poem. ' It throws a good deal of light
on the laws and customs of our forefathers.

Zbc place*=mame 2)erb^.
By Frederick Davis, f.s.a.
A SUBJECT like the present need not, in
these days, be introduced with an apology,
the time, fortunately, having passed in which
antiquarian research was regarded as only " the
frivolous work of polished idleness."
The derivation and devolution of place-names
yield much information relating to the ethnology
and chronology of the name-givers, their national
and tribal immigrations, their patronymics, their
customs and institutions, their traditions and
mode of worship, of which history preserves no
trace. Frequently the local nomenclature of a
country is all that remains to tell the tale of early
settlement. " Time which antiquates antiquities " and
makes dust of all things, has yet spared our
philological fossils, — monuments which neither
the winds nor the waves nor a succession of
centuries have demolished.

THE PLACE-NAME DERBY. 39
" The pyramids themselves, doting with age,
have forgotten the names of their founders ; " but
in their place-names, the ancient Britons — whose
" very tombs now vanish'd like their dead " —
still speak, in silent eloquence, of their remote
parentage. The several names acquired, with successive
change of environment, by the town now known
as Derby, and by its suburb, now known as Little
Chester, tell us of the nationality of the early
settlers, of subsequent invasions and colonization,
of Roman occupation, and something of the
ancient physical conditions of the site.
By the Anglo-Saxons — -prior to the first Danish
occupation — Derby was known as Northweorthig,
but at some period subsequent to the Danish
conquest, the town acquired the name of Deoraby,
of which the present name is a corruption. In
the Chronicle of Fabius Ethelwerd, it is stated
that in a battle fought in 871 between the army
of Ethelred and the Danes, duke Ethelwulf fell,
and that his body was carried into the province
of the Mercians, "to a place called Northweorthig,
but Deoraby in the language of the Danes." In
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Derby is found only
as Deoraby.

40 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
The name is a compound of the Anglo-Saxon
deor — an animal, a wild beast, a deer, and the
Scandinavian by — an abode, a habitation (and
ultimately a village), the signification of the name
being, the abode of wild animals or deer.
As the postfix by is a distinctively Danish word,
and as the name-givers were Danes, it is ex
tremely probable that the entire word had
originally the Danish form — Dyrby or Dyreby —
and that Deoraby is the Saxonised form of the
Danish appellation, acquired during one of the
intermittent occupations by the Saxons, between
the earliest Danish conquests and the expulsion
of the Danes by Edmund, a.d. 941.
That the component deor did not originate
with the Saxons, and that it is the Saxonised form
only of a vocable introduced by the Danes, is in
some degree corroborated by the circumstance
that Derby had an Anglo-Saxon name prior to
the advent of the Danes, which circumstance
renders a second and altogether dissimilar Anglo-
Saxon name an improbability ; but it is extremely
likely that the Saxons finding the place re-named
by the Danes, adopted the Danish appellation,
making only a slight change to reconcile the new
name to their ears.

THE PLACE-NAME DERBY. 41
Derby was one of the Five Danish Burgs
or Femborgene. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
— A.D. 941 — are found the following lines :
" Here Edmund King,
ruler of Angles,
protector of men,
^vlercia obtained,
dear deed-doer,
as the Dor flows,
course of the white-well,
and Humber's river,
broad sea-stream.
Five towns
Leicester,
and Lincoln,
and Nottingham,
so Stamford eke,
and Derby,
to Danes were erewhile,
under North-men,
by need constrained,
of heathen men
in captive chains,
a long time ;
until again redeemed them,
for his worthiness,
the bulwark of warriors,
offspring of Edward,
Edmund King."
The Anglo-Saxon name Northweorthig, by

42 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
which Derby was known prior to Danish conquest,
is from the Anglo-Saxon word north — north and
weorthig — land, a portion of land, a croft, a home
stead, an estate, also meaning a street or public
way. Northweorthig, therefore, indicated the
north land or homestead, or the north street or
public way.
Had the Danes not provided a succedaneum,
the original Anglo-Saxon name would have sur
vived, though probably in an abbreviated form, the
initial syllable of Northweorthig becoming Nor,
as in the Derbyshire names Norton, Norwood,
Norbriggs, Norbury, and Normanton ; the postfix
becoming worth, as in the Derbyshire names
Chatsworth, Ludworth, Wirksworth, Chisworth,
Charlesworth, and Mackworth.
Derby would thus have been known now as
Norworth. " In tanta inconstantia turbaque reruni nihil
nisi quod preteriit certitm est."
It is noteworthy that Derby is not singular in
having borne an Anglo-Saxon name which, after
Danish occupation, was lost and replaced by a
name from the language of the new settlers.
Streaneshalch was the Anglo-Saxon name of
Whitby, the present and later name having been

THE PLACE-NAME DERBY. 43
bestowed by the Danes. In " Bede's Ecclesiastical
Histor)%" Whitby is found only under its Anglo-
Saxon name.
The postfix by of Derby is not only a dis
tinctively Scandinavian word, but as a component
in place-names, is an unequivocal indication of
Danish or Norwegian colonization. The Wash
was the principal landing-place of the Northern
invaders, and from that etymological focus
Scandinavian nomenclature radiates with curious
regularity. Largely represented throughout the
whole area of the Dajielagh, Scandinavian names in
Lincolnshire greatly predominate. In this one
county, the significant postfix by enters into the
composition of two hundred place-names ; where
as south of W'atling-street — a Roman road
crossing the country diagonally from Richborough,
on the coast of Kent, to Holyhead — this Scan
dinavian foot-print is seldom found. By enters
into the composition of the place-names of the
following counties as noted below :
Essex 2, W^arwickshire 2, Suffolk 3, Derby
shire 6, Cheshire 6, Durham 7, Lancashire 9,
Nottinghamshire 1 5, Norfolk 1 7, Westmoreland 20,
Northamptonshire 26, \\'est Riding of Yorkshire
32, East Riding 35, Cumberland 43, Leicester-

44 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
shire 66, North Riding of Yorkshire lOO, and
Lincolnshire 200.
During the Danish occupation, Derby was also
known as Dfriccntby — the by or village on the
Derwent. Manv have been the orthographical vicissitudes
of the name Derby as disclosed by Anglo-Saxon
coins, by Domesday Book, by charters, grants,
deeds, writs, seals, brasses, incised slabs, maps,
and tradesmen's tokens; e.g., Doribi, Deorabui,
Deoraby, Deorabye, Deorby, Deorbe, Derbi, Dirbi,
Dereby, Derbie, Darbye, Darby, Derby, etc.
Darby is not — as is frequently imagined — a
form of the name older than Derby, the latter
spelling having been in use some hundreds of
years earlier than Darby.
Doribi appears on a coin of King Ethelwulf
(S37-S57) and Deorabui on coins of King
Athelstane (924-940). The appearance of
the Danish name of an Anglo-Saxon town
on the coins of Anglo-Saxon Kings of
the ninth century is a significant circum
stance, testifying to the stability and influence ot
the Scandinavian element at that early date, and
the probability of Danish settlement, of more or
less stability, at an even earlier period.

THE PLACE-NAME DERBY. 45
It is to be observed that the earliest settlements
of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes were not
accomplished by the sudden and almost dramatic
exploits narrated by the Chroniclers, but, on the
contrary by predatory and intermittent incursions
extending over a long course of years antecedent
to the dates given in the Chronicles. Under
the date 7S7 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
states " This year King Bertric took to wife
Eadburga, King Offa's daughter ; and in his days
first came three ships of Northmen, out of
Hseretha-land [Denmark]. And then the reve
rode to the place, and would have driven them to
the King-'s town, because he knew not who thev
were : and they there slew him. These were
the first ships of Danishmen which sought the
land of the English nation." This was
an early, but probably far from the earliest
Danish descent, and the advent of the
Anglo-Sa.xons in this country, under Hengist
and Horsa, is now regarded as little more than
fable. The word shij'c — as in Derbyshire — meaning a
county or territorial division, is from the Anglo-
Saxon scir, and is related to the word share, from
Ancjlo-Saxon scearii.

46 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Land-scearu=^. share of land.
Derby is situated on the direct line of the
Ryknield-street, a Roman road traversing the
island from St. David's in Wales, through
Gloucester, Tewksbury, Birmingham, Burton,
Eggington, Little Chester (Derby), Alfreton,
Stretton {i.e.. Street-town) and Chesterfield, to
the north of England, — terminating near the
mouth of the river Tyne, in Northumberland.
Derventio, the name of the Roman Station that
occupied the site of that part of the town of Derby
known as Little Chester, is formed from the name
of the Derwent, on the east bank of which river
the Camp stood.
England is full of the shadows of Roman
occupation, and Derbyshire has its own abundant
share but, alas ! shadows only.
With the exception of their city and defensive
walls, all the remains of the Romans have dis
appeared from view, — buried by the unremitting
labours of earth worms. For fourteen
hundred years and more, worms have been
covering with fine earth, brought from
deep below the surface of the ground, the remains
of Roman villa, of tessellated pavement, of
hypocaust, of basilica, forum, amphitheatre and

THE PLACE-NAME DERBY. 47
bath, of pottery, tools, weapons and ornaments ;
all of which would have perished had not the
creature usually regarded as a destroyer, preserved
them to us.
Although Little Chester — a suburb of Derby
— was an important Roman Station, Roman
place-names are not to be found in the county
of Derby, nor, indeed, in any part of the
country. But the vitality and vigour of the place-names
of other races are marvellous — as stable as the
rocks, and as enduring.
In the local topography of some districts of
England, nomenclature earlier than the Roman —
that of the Celts — still survives, often uncorrupted :
the Anglo-Saxons, whose early conquests were
contemporaneous with the departure of the
Romans, have indelibly stamped their place-names
throughout the length and breadth of the land
and in every corner of the island ; and the Danes
and Norwegians, who followed the Saxons, have
left us a rich legacy of Scandinavian terminology
in their bys, thorpes, tofts, thwaites, garths, becks,
scars, and holms, "as plenty as blackberries"
throughout that part of the country which they
colonized — lasting landmarks of the fierce in-

48 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
vaders — but not a single Romati place-name has
endured. The greatest of all empires— -a nation that
dominated Britain for four hundred years and
more, and during that period intersected the
island with roads, constructed military earthworks
and a mighty wall of masonry reaching from coast
to coast, studded the whole country with fortified
cities and towns with their stately piles for the
administration of justice, spacious enclosures for
the transaction of business, temples for the wor
ship of their gods and palatial abodes, — that
nation is indebted to the worms for all which, in
this country, remains to tell the tale of Roman
rule, of the pomp and power, of the glory and
majesty, of the arts and luxuries of imperial
Rome. " How are the mighty fallen."
But the remains the worms have preserved to
us still speak with suggestive eloquence.
It is to be observed that place-names formed
from words related to, or even derived from, the
Latin, are not necessarily nor probably derivatives
of the Roman name, i.e., of the place-name
bestowed by the Romans.
The initial syllable of the Derbyshire place-

THE PLACE-NAME DERBY. 49
names Streetly and Stretton is the Anglo-Saxon
word street — a street or way, and although derived
from the Latin strata, is an Anglo-Saxon word,
— Streetly and Stretton being appellations given
to the places now bearing those names by the
Anglo-Saxons, to indicate a ley, i.e., a field, and a
ton, i.e., an enclosure or village, on the street, road,
or way.
Likewise the Chester of the Derbyshire
Chesterfield and Little Chester, is derived from
the Anglo-Saxon word ceaster-^a. camp or fortified
place — and although related to the Latin castra,
is nevertheless an Anglo-Saxon word. The
Anglo-Saxons, finding at Chesterfield a fortified
field and at Little Chester a little fortified place,
the camps were defined by them in terms consenta
neous with the language of the name-givers, and
although those terms are related to Latin words,
and connote Roman occupation, they cannot be
regarded as Roman place-names nor, in any
sense, as derivatives of Roman place-names.
Indeed, the two Derbyshire ceasters were, by the
Romans, called by names quite unrelated to those
bestowed by the Anglo-Saxons ; Chesterfield
was the Latudarum of the Romans and Little
Chester, Derventio. E

50 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
The local nomenclature of England furnishes
abundant illustrations of place-names, having
for components street and chester, that are
not derivatives of the earlier Roman names : —
Stratford was the Roman Ad Ansam ;
Colchester — Camulodtmum ; Chester — Deva :
Lancaster — Ad Alauna ; Stony Stratford —
Magiovintum ; Leicester — Ratoe ; Winchester —
Venta Belgariim; Chichester — Ad Decimum;
Tadcaster — Calcaria ; Chester-le- Street — Con-
durcum, ; Rochester — Dtirobrivce.
And this record might be extended ad
infinitum. Reference has been made to the " bestowal of
place-names " and to " name-givers," but it must
not be inferred from these and similar phrases that
names were- invented for, and given to, places ;
the process of naming was incogitant and
unconscious — a natural growth — but yet neither
irrational nor illogical. Places came to be spoken
of, described and known by some mere demotic
expression in the language of the settlers, usually
a term, or terms, defining a notable physical
feature of the site, position, ownership or boundary,
or having reference to a local industry, encamp
ment, battle, or other event, place of worship.

THE PLACE-NAME DERBY. 51
abode or other building, the fauna, flora, nature
of the soil, or other nature of environment, and
although strange to our ears ; such terms were,
in the mouths of those by whom they were
employed, quite ordinary colloquial expressions,
as ordinary as, to us, are such designations as
windmill hill, watermill dale, barnyard, home farm,
rabbit warren, oak grove, fernbank, marshland,
stonefield, or claypit.
As at the present time a farm established north
of another farm might be called the North Farm ;
in Anglo-Saxon times, a farm similarly situated
was called Northweorthig ; and later, the village
or town growing up around, came to be known
by the name of the farm. Or, as premises occupied
by one named Brown might now be called Brown's
place ; " Domesday Book " records that : " In
Osmvndestvne (Osmaston) Osmund had three
ox-gangs of land for geld," and \h.&fons et origo
of this place illustrates the genesis of much of
our local nomenclature.
A large field might now be spoken of as the
broad field ; in Anglo-Saxon times such a field
was called Bradley, which designation, later,
became the name of the village that grew up
around the field. Or, as at the present time.

52 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
the site of a new church might be called Church-
place, and the vicarage the Church-house ; so the
many Kirkbys and Kirbys and the villages of
Kirkhaugh, Kirkland, and Kirkthwaite furnish
an illustration of the natural growth of Scandi
navian place-names.
In the course of ages, terms thus unconsciously
employed to define, describe or identify things,
places, or events, became the universally accepted
designations of populous towns and cities.
Frequently, however, territorial terminology has
acquired a signification very different from the
primary meaning, and this transition is well
illustrated by "town." Perhaps not another
word in the English language has suffered less
from corruption and phonetic mutation, but yet
in a greater degree in signification, than this
word. The Anglo-Saxon t1in — of which town
is a derivative — primarily signified a hedge or
fence. Later, tlin came to mean that which was
enclosed with the hedge or fence — a plot of
ground, a close or field ; and, still later, the house
or farm buildings within the enclosure — the
homestead. The bar-tun was the tun or enclosure
for the bear, i.e., the produce or yield of the land
— a term synonymous with the modern "rick-yard,"

THE PLACE-NAME DERBY. 53
— and, as a place-name, common throughout the
Anglo-Saxon districts of England. Tun-incle was a
small possession, a little farm ; tun-lic signified rustic ;
tun-cerse, garden cress ; ttm-minte, garden mint.
As a district became more populous, and as
civilization advanced, the once isolated homestead
developed into a group of homesteads with
cottages and houses, but the designation of a
t^l.n or ton was still retained. The group of
homesteads became a village — a village a borough,
which now — to the exclusion of earlier and rightful
heritors — has appropriated the name of "Town."
This restless word is still in a state of transition,
being frequently employed exclusively in reference
to the town par excellence — the metropolis.
Thus, from its primary meaning of a hedge or
fence, tlin has grown into a synonym for a vast
and populous city; and tun-lic, i.e., town-like, which
originally signified rustic, has now come to denote
the precise converse — the correlative— -of rustic.
The Danish by had originally the restricted
meaning of one house only — an abode, but later,
as with the Anglo-Saxon tun, it came to mean a
group of houses — a village, and now is the
substantival component of the name of the large
and populous town of Derby.

BufSelb Caetle.
By Jno. Ward.
FOR centuries previous to the close of 1885,
the exact site of this stronghold was a crux.
A field at this flourishing Derbyshire village had
time out of mind borne the name of Castle Field,
and another to the east of it, that of Castle
Orchard, — these indicated the approximate
position ; but of visible remnants there were none,
save a small exposure of the rubble of the east
wall of the keep, which the writer, the year before,
mistook for an outcrop of the parent rock. Not
even could it be said with another Derbyshire
"ancestral home," —
" Time, Time, his withering hand hath laid
On battlement and tower ;
And where rich banners were displayed
Now only waves a flower."
This ancient fortress of the De Ferrers lived
only in declining tradition, and in the vague
allusions of time-stained records to its baronial
builders. Even the hill on which it stood was, by

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 55
reason of its comparative insignificance, unfriendly
to its memory : passengers by the road or railway
at its foot might pass its steep tree-clad eastern
face a hundred times without suspecting that it
was once crowned with a feudal fortress, still less
that this fortress was the largest in Derbyshire, and
one of the largest in England. The decree of
unyielding Fate might have gone forth against it
and all its belongings : " I care for nothing, all shall
go," — and all seemed ready to go. So long time had
the castle been levelled to the ground, that
Anthony Bradshaw, a near relative of the famous
president of the trial of Charles I., and whose
quaint monument is one of the sights of Duffield
Church, could write thus (Pray pardon the
doggerel !) —
" At Duffield Placehead, placed was a statlye Castly
& Cortyard
Whereof the seyte yet beareth name now called
Castly Orchard.
The Duke there had great royalties of fforest p'ks of
warren
And wards and pleines of waters store, of grounds
not very barren."
And a careful Derbyshire antiquary, Mr.
Reynolds, a native of Crich, could write in 1769
that " no visible ruins are now left,"

56 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
The credit of discovering the vestiges of this
castle belongs to Mr. H. T. Harvey, the son
of the late owner of Castle Field. Suspecting
that if anywhere the foundations would be in
this field, this young gentleman dug a few holes
in the highest part of it on December 26th, 1885,
and had the felicity to find old masonry. He,
however, had no time to prosecute the search ;
and in all probability the circumstance would soon
have been forgotten, except for the wakeful
interest of Mr. Bland, a well-known gentleman of
Duffield, who speedily obtained permission to
continue the excavation. After several weeks
of careful trenching, Mr. Bland laid bare the
outline of a huge rectangular building nearly
one hundred feet square, and with walls of the
extraordinary thickness of fifteen feet ; and no
doubt remained that it was the keep of the long
lost Norman castle of Duffield.
The discovery came as a surprise to the district.
How came so apparently unimportant a village as
Duffield, and one with so few visible signs of
antiquity, to be possessed of so great a stronghold ?
How came the stronghold to become so utterly
demolished ? But perhaps the most puzzling
question of all to the lay-mind was the seemingly

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 57
unhappy choice of the site for a district so wealthy
in rugged heights, being a low knoll barely
eighty feet above the river (the Derwent) it
overlooks, commanded on three sides by loftier
hills, and with a clear outlook only to the south,
down the valley towards Derby. The latter
objection, however, has no real weight when it is
considered that the projectiles of the most
powerful trebuchets planted on these hills by a
besieging force in the days before cannon, would
fail to reach the castle. Bearing this in mind,
it must be allowed that the site was by no means
ill-chosen. In general configuration, the knoll
bears a remote likeness to Gibraltar : it is connected
with the mainland of high ground on the west
by a neck of less high ground, hence the approach
from that quarter is gentle ; but to the north,
east, and south it presents a more or less steep
declivity, which must have rendered any attack
'from these points a difficult task. The eastern
slope, however, is steeper than it originally was,
having been cut back to allow of a slight
deflection of the highway at the foot when the
railway was constructed in 1838. To render the
position less accessible from the west, a ditch
(G.G. on the accompanying plan) was cut across

3

8 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.

the neck at its lowest point, which, to judge from
the remaining indications, must have been of
considerable breadth and depth, but it is difficult
to say how far the hollow is natural, for without
doubt it is so to some extent. This ditch
probably originally surrounded the knoll, C.C.
being a less distinct portion of it.
But the demerit, if there is any, of the selection
of the position for defensive purposes can hardly
be said to rest with the Norman builders. There
is good reason (as will be seen later) for believing
that they found it already a fortification, and
simply adopted the even-then-ancient earthworks
for their stronghold as more expedient than
raising new ones elsewhere ; and besides, it was
the policy of the conquerors to conciliate, as far
as possible, the English, — to pose as the successors,
rather than the supplanters, of their nobility, and
to this end the Norman keep was usually planted
on the site of the English aula.
To return to the work of exploration — The
importance of the discovery being now established,
the complete excavation of the site was called for.
The interest and aid of the Derby Archaeological
and Natural History Society were enlisted; a
committee was formed ; funds raised ; and under

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6o BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
the able supervision of Mr. Bland, and the
antiquarian research of the Rev. Dr. Cox, the
well-known founder of this socic'ty, the work was
brought to a successful issue in the autumn of
1886, at a cost of ^160. Both these gentlemen
have left on record the results of this work, c;ach
account having points of view, details, and
excellencies not shared in by the other. That of
the former consists of a published lecture dcUvcrc^cl
at Wirksworth in this county, on January iith,
1887 ; and that of the latter is a masterly and
well-illustrated paper of 60 pages, in the ninth
volume of the above socii;ty's Journal, The
present account draws, of necessity, considc;rably
from these:, but, wherever |iossibl(', the wriliu-
(who took a personal interest in the work on the
spot) depends upon his own observations, and
draws his own conclusions.
The facts of the excavation were of a somewhat
unexpected character. To use the words of the
honorary secretary's general report in that volume
of l\-ie. Journal : — " The result has been the laying
bare of the foundations of the walls of a Norman
keep, larger than any known example save the
Tower of London, . . . and the unearthing of
' finds ' so numerous, so varied in character, and

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 6i
in the period of history to which they belong, as
to defy description." The spade revealed the
fact that the Romano-Briton and the Saxon had
both preceded the Norman at Duffield, and had
left abundant traces of their residence there ; and
— so the excavators alleged — there were indica
tions that the spot was occupied in pre- Roman
times. Thus the village is an interesting example
of continuity of habitation from early times, in
spite of successive waves of invasion, — perhaps
not so unusual a circumstance as is popularly
supposed. The "finds" attributed to pre- Roman times
were very few and meagre. They consisted of
"a few small pieces of cinerary urns, or other
pottery of the peculiar and almost unmistakable
hue and texture of this date " (these were
evidently plain) ; a fragment of the same sort of
pottery with a " dotted and thumb-nail pattern ; "
and half-a-dozen " stone implements, often known
by the generic term of ' elts.' " * The pot
sherds were found in several places, the
decorated piece being associated with others of
Romano- British origin in the infilling of the foss
(C.C.) on the north-west side of Castle Field.
* Quoted from the above Report of Dr. Cox.

62 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Dr. Cox regards this as indicating "that the
Romans when making their camp, probably
disturbed a Celtic interment." Unfortunately,
none of these potsherds can now be found ; there
is, however, no reason to dissent from his conclusion
of their British manufacture. But to argue from
their British manufacture that they were of pre-
Roman date is unwise : as well argue that the
earthenware exposed for sale in a present crock-
shop was made before the introduction of porce
lain, simply because it is a well-known fact that the
former kind of ware was made centuries before
the latter. The fallacy is self-evident : despite
the superiority of porcelain, earthenware is still
made in much larger quantities than ever. Force
of habit ; ease of manufacture — necessitating only
clay, fire, and a pair of hands ; and the then cost
liness of the plant for making wheel-made ware,
must have all conduced to the survival of the
manufacture of hand-made pottery long after the
Roman invasion. But we can appeal to facts ;
in numerous cases (several being notable Derby
shire ones), the two kinds have been found
associated together upon Romano- British sites in
such a way as to indicate their contemporaneity ;
and there is no apparent reason why the inter-

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 63
mixture at Duffield should be otherwise
interpreted. In these cases the ruder ware
appears to have always been of domestic rather
than sepulchral character. If it could be
satisfactorily proved that the Duffield specimens
were truly sepulchral (as Dr. Cox intimates), it
would go far to prove their pre-Roman date.
But in the case of plain potsherds, unless large
enough to indicate the shape of the vessel of
which they once formed part, it is quite
impossible to say whether they have a domestic
or sepulchral origin, — perhaps the former rather
than the latter, as vessels of the latter variety were
usually highly decorated. To judge from the
sketch in the above Journal, the decorated
fragment was equally uncertain. All that can be
said of it, is that it belonged to a slightly
ornamented vessel of unknown use. Several
years ago the writer found many similarly
decorated pieces of rude hand-made domestic
ware on a Romano-British site, at Harborough
Rocks, near Wirksworth.
The stone implements, of which six were found
in various trenches, are of a very indeterminate
character, as to both use and age. They are
all of close-grained stone, but not flint. Only one

64 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
approximates to a celt-form, but it is so obviously
of natural formation, that it is difficult to say
whether it was ever used as an implement at all.
The rest are more decided, and might better
be termed knives, as each is more or less ground
to form a longitudinal edge, but so unsatisfactory
are they as cutting implements, that Mr. Franks
of the British Museum surmised they might have
been used for fashioning pottery instead ; nothing,
however, transpired in the excavations to suggest
that pottery had ever been manufactured on this
Duffield hill. The fact is, these implements are
very vague, — they do not accord to the prevailing
forms of any age ; their use. is obscure ; and it is
impossible to say whether they were contem
poraneous in origin or no. Even if it could be
said for certain that " they pertain to the latter
days of Celtic inhabitants, when stone implements
were sparingly used," they would as little prove
that the site was originally occupied with " one
of their communistic camps," as the fragment of
decorated pottery proves that " near by they
interred their dead." Stone implements are found
everywhere, and these camps almost invariably
crowned the highest hills.
The passage from British Duffield to that of

DUFFIELD CASTLE, 65
the Roman occupation of Britain, is as from
darkness to light. It is true that no traces of
buildings of this era were found in situ, but this
will not be wondered at when it comes to be seen
how very much the hill was disturbed in after
times. Nevertheless, the footprints of this era
were strongly marked in the soil, in the abounding
potsherds, — no less than nine-tenths of the whole
being Roman and Romano-British according to
the excavators. This may have been an over
estimate, as it is always difficult to distinguish
the fragments of the coarser ware of this date
from those of the twelfth and succeeding centuries ;
but the fact remains that a very large number of
typical specimens of all the comm-oner Roman
varieties, including the beautiful coral-red Samian
ware, were generally diffused throughout the
diggings. They were, however, most plentiful
in a small trench (L.) cut across the nearly-filled
north-west foss, where also were found fragments
of the characteristic tile-like bricks of the period.
This interesting little trench represents all that
was done towards the exploration of these moats,
— sadly too little, as further excavation would
probably have thrown much more light on this
branch of our subject. From the presence of

66 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
these remains. Dr. Cox concluded that the moat
formed part of the Roman defences of the hill.
Its rectangular disposition with the south-west
moat, goes far (as he hints) to support this con
clusion ; and it is reasonable to think that they
formerly quite engirdled the hill, the neighbouring
highway and houses having long since obliterated
all traces on the eastern side.
Roman camps, villas, and other sites were
usually in the vicinity of the wonderful "streets"
of the time ; and Duffield is no exception of the
rule. Years before the discovery of the castle.
Dr. Cox's keen eye had detected in field-names
and straight lanes, indications of a Roman road
crossing the Chevin (a lofty hill immediately
north of the castle) and pointing in one direction
to Wirksworth, and in the other to the Derwent
in the vicinity of the castle. Whether it actually
crossed the river is uncertain ; but at a likely spot
for a ford, the Doctor found some indications on
the west bank of what might have been a pave
ment, between the large stones of which he dug
out fragments of Roman tile and pottery. There
can be no doubt that the goal of this ancient
" street " was the important station of Derventio
(now Little Chester near Derby) ; and its former

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 67
great value becomes plain when it is considered
that even then, as in later times, Wirksworth was
one of the headquarters of lead-mining. The
products of the mines would be conveyed by this
branch-road to Derventio, and thence by the
great Roman highway, the Rykneld Street, to
some south-western port ; or by another branch-
road and the Foss- Way to some eastern or south
eastern one. Derventio lay on the opposite bank
to our castle and about four miles lower down the
river, so that the lead would have to be carried
across the stream somewhere in order to reach the
station. But as it was spanned by a bridge at
the latter point, it seems hardly likely that the
bearers would go to the trouble of fording at
Duffield, when a simple continuation of the
ancient Wirksworth "street" along the east bank
would land them at the foot of the bridge. As
much of the present highway between Derby and
Duffield is in a line with that ancient "street,"
it may represent this continuation ; and the
Doctor's ford may simply mark a short cut to
the Rykneld Street north of the station.
Both this gentleman and Mr. Bland assume
that the castle site was necessarily a Roman camp
to protect the ford. Was the ford of sufficient

68 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
importance to need or to warrant the expense of
protection ? The numerous Romano-British
remains prove that the site was too long occupied
for it to have been a transitory expeditory work ;
and, add to these its great size, they render it
impossible to have been a mere campus csstivus.
The alternative is that it was a station. But
laying aside the unsuitability of the site for this
purpose, where are the remains of the substantial
masonry with which the Romans gloried to
construct these elaborate permanent works, and
their various offices ? And why should
one have been erected so near to Derventio ?
A more feasible theory is that it was a villa.
Let the reader disillude his mind of any
idea that a Roman villa had anything akin to the
modern "eligible" residence that goes by the
name. It was, strictly speaking, an estate in
land, — the parent (thanks to the researches of
Seebohm) of the mediatval manor, with which it
had much in common. Its exact constitution is
hazy ; doubtless it varied with the times. But
this much is clear, — around the residence of the
dominus were the enclosed cohortes, from which
has sprung our "court," a word by which the
mediaeval manor-house itself was often desig-

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 6g
nated. In these courts were the stables and stalls
of the horses and cattle of the dominus, and the
huts ot his scrvi. Stretching awav on all sides
were the arable land, meadows, woods, etc., that
formed the vicns of the villa. Here and there in
the \-icus were little groups of cottages of the
half-scr\-ile coloni (the future vill.Tni') holding of
the dominus plots of land and rights by various
customary tenures, and joining in the common
culti\ation. From such groups of cottages,
perhaps, arose the dependent villages of the
manor oi Duffield at the time of the Domesdav
Book, Bradelei, Holebruc, i\Iuleford, Machenie,
and Herdebi. Such, perhaps, is as true a picture as
we can draw of Roman Duffield.
We pass by the troubles that followed the with
drawal of the bronzed legionaries of Rome,
simph" because we know nothing of what trans
pired in our district. Our next halting-point in
historv is in settled English times. The sun
shines upon Duffield as of old, but how changed
is it ? The lord oi a new race reigns there,
speaking a new tongue, and whose tastes and
habits are widely different from those of his
predecessors, for Britain is now England. Our
hardv Ensflish ancestors did not find much that

70 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
was congenial in Roman civilization. City-life
and commerce they cared little for ; the stations
were forsaken ; the great roads neglected. But,
in settling themselves in the country, they had the
same prime necessity their predecessors had —
the cultivation of the land. So far from finding a
wild and uncultivated waste, they found ready to
hand on every side a settled and perfected
agriculture, and a rural population trained to it.
To use a homely simile, they had but to step into
their predecessors' shoes. The English lords
enstalled themselves in their villas ; the surviv
ing Britons on the estates became their theows,
and by means of them the agriculture proceeded
on the old lines. That the domus of Duffield
should become the aula of some English chieftain,
is just what might be expected, and it is well
borne out by facts. There is considerable
uncertainty as to what the residences of the
smaller lords were like, but there is plenty of
evidence in respect to those of the greater.
Duffield, to judge from Domesday indications,
belonged, in the reign of the Confessor, to one of
the chief English landowners of Derbyshire —
Siward. This was certainly a common name, and
it is just possible that it there refers to se\"eral

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 71
different holders. Indeed, there were at least two
of the name, one being the great Earl of North-
umbria, who held one manor in this county. But
he alone of the Si wards is entered as Earl. In
every entry of plain Siward — of course we are
dealing only with Derbyshire — the land referred
to as thus held, was afterwards given by the
Conqueror to the great Henry de Ferrers, a
name closely entwined with the subsequent
history of Duffield ; and in no instance is it other
wise. This is a good presumptive evidence that
these Siward-holders were one and the same. If
so, he must have been one of the most locally
influential gentlemen of the time, owning no less
than nine important manors in the county.
Beyond this, we know nothing of him ; but as
Duffield was the chief seat of his Norman
successor, we may reasonably surmise that it
likewise was his. And being a great landowner,
this seat would be fortified, which, indeed, was the
fact ; the evidence of the excavation clearly
showing that an English castle preceded the
Norman one.
A pre-Norman castle, be it remembered, had
little in common with those of later date, whose
ruins lend interest to many an English landscape.

7 2 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
A few extracts from Clark's masterly " Mediaeval
Military Architecture," will better explain the
peculiarities of these castles than any words of
the writer : — " These works, thrown up in England
in the ninth and tenth centuries, are seldom, if
ever, rectangular, nor are they governed
to any great extent by the character
of the ground. First was cast up a truncated
cone of earth, standing at its natural slope, from
twelve to even fifty or sixty feet in height. This
mound, ' motte,' or 'burh,' the 'mota' of our
records, was formed from the contents of a broad
and deep circumscribing ditch. This ditch,
proper to the mound,' is now sometimes wholly
or partially filled up, but it seems always to have
been present, being in fact the parent of the
mound." Mr. Clark then gives examples not
only of these, but of others consisting of natural
eminences shaped by art. " Connected with the
mound is usually a base court or enclosure, some
times circular, more commonly oval or horse-shoe
shaped, but if of the age of the mound, always
more or less rounded. This enclosure had also
its bank and ditch on its outward faces, its rear
resting on the ditch of the mound, and the area
was often further strengthened by a bank along

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 73
the crest of the scarp of the ditch. . . . The
mound and base court, though principal parts,
were not always the whole work. Often there
was on the outside of the court, and applied to it,
a second enclosure, also with a bank and ditch,
frequently of larger area than the main court,
though not so strongly defended. It was
intended to shelter the flocks and herds of the
tenants in case of an attack. These mounds,
where they have descended to us, and have
undergone no change at the hands of the Norman
architects, are mere green hillocks, clear indeed
in their simplicity, though having lost by time the
sharpness of their profile, and more or less of
their height and of the depth of their ditches. No
masonry has ever been observed upon them
which could by any possibility be attributed to
their founders, or which could be supposed to be
part of their original design. It is evident,
however, that the earthwork was only the support
of some additional defence. On the mound was
certainly a residence, and both its crest and base,
as well as the appended courts, must have been
encircled by some sort of barrier besides the
earth-bank. . . . Upon a burh, or upon an
artificial earthwork of any height, masonry of any

74 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
kind was obviously out of the question. Timber,
and timber alone, would have been the proper
material." Mr. Clark then gives a series of
proofs that this was the material used ; and that
even long after the introduction of castles of
masonry, it was largely relied upon. He then
presents a short word-picture of one of these
ancient fortresses. " In viewing one of these
moated mounds we have only to imagine a central
timber house (the ' aula ' of records) on the top,
built of half trunks of trees set upright between
two waling pieces at the top and bottom, like the
old church at Greensted, with a close paling
around it along the edge of the table top, perhaps
a second line at its base, and a third along the
outer edge of the ditch, and others not so strong
upon the edges of the outer courts, with bridges
and planks across the ditches, and huts of
' wattle-and-dab ' or of timber within the
enclosures, and we shall have a very fair idea of a
fortified dwelling of a thane or franklin in
England, or of the corresponding classes in
Normandy from the eighth or ninth centuries
down to the date of the Norman Conquest."
Of special interest, from their bearing upon our
subject, are the cases wherein "the English lord

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 75
took up his abode within a Roman camp or
station." In these " he often turned the Roman
works, whether of earth or of masonry, to
account, and threw up his mound in one corner,
altering the contiguous banks and ditches to suit
his new arrangements." Something of the sort
has taken place at Duffield, with this difference,
— the natural eminence within the Roman site
determined the position of the mound (A. A.), and
left the English lord but little to do beyond to
bring it into the requisite shape. Although not
very conspicuous, its general configuration is still
plainly marked, especially when looked at from
the north-west. There is no doubt that it was
originally loftier, the evidence of the excavation
showing that the summit had been planed off to
the natural rock for the foundations of the
Norman keep. Beyond the shaping of this
mound, it is impossible to say how far the general
site was modified in other respects. Each of the
small trenches cut near the inner edge of the
south west foss (G.G.) disclosed charcoal at about
two feet below the surface. This almost certainly
indicated the line of a burnt stockade, which
possibly related to this period. A seam of iron
refuse was attributed to a smithy of the same

76 BYG ONE DERB YSHIRE.
period, as also certain rude potsherds. But the
most definite " find " was a portion of a large
bronze cruciform fibula, associated with an amber
bead and some human bones which proved to
relate to a young woman, all found near the outer
north-west angle of the keep. These fibulae
(which were usually in pairs, one for each shoulder
to fasten the mantle) are frequently found in the
graves of ladies of distinction of the 7th, 8th, and
9th centuries ; and from the fact that the Duffield
bones were not in anatomical relation to one
another, it was inferred that the Norman builders,
in laying the foundations of their keep, disturbed
the remains of the wife or daughter of a former
lord of the burh.
We now pass to another era of English history,
— that of the Norman domination. The English
had too much in common with the new-comers
and their more advanced culture, for the rude
shock that they sustained on the fateful field of
Senlac to be of more than a temporary character.
In little more than a century, the foreign
aristocrats and the native masses were fused into
one solid nation, and the king and his barons
loved to call themselves Englishmen. One of
the first cares of the Conqueror was naturally to

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 77
Strengthen his hold on the country, and in order to
do this, he developed the land system that he
found already established here. Many of the
English thanes had been killed in the recent
wars ; man\- more had been evicted from their
estates for their real or supposed complicity in
the numerous conspiracies that marked the early
years of the conquest. Into their vacant seats
William placed his followers, creating at the same
time many new over-lordships or baronies. He
thus placed between himself and the English
masses, a Norman aristocracy charged with the
administration of their respective territories. To
effectually carry out this policy, he repaired and
impro\-ed the already existing castles of the old
crown lands, and, where necessary, constructed
new ones, and the great barons had a similar
charge in respect to their holdings. Masonry
was now largely used in castle building ; and the
gaunt, rectangular, and circular keeps of the
period, stern in their passive strength, were of
all forms of fortification the best adapted tor small
garrisons to keep at bay the populace of their
surrounding districts until help from a distance
arrived, for it was the case of the few holding the
many in subjection.

7 S B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
Among the Conqueror's followers was a certain
Henry de Ferrers, lord of Ferrieres-St.-Hilaire,
a small village in the Department of Eure,
Normandy, now devoted to agriculture and cotton-
spinning, but for time out of mind until recendy,
to the working of iron. The latter industry was
of such antiquity that it had alread)' given name
to the place, * and the place to the owners,
decades before the conquest of England. But the
family were identified with iron not merely in
name : the first member with whom we are
acquainted — Vauquelin de Ferrers, the father
of the Henry who accompanied the army to
England, who fell in the battle of Vimoutiers
against Hugues de Montfort in 1039 — possessed
iron pits and works in the vicinity of his Normandy
village, and doubtless drew therefrom great wealth.
The son Henry, with whom we are now con
cerned, must have been a man of great ability
and trustworthiness, for he was an especial
favourite of the Conqueror, who rewarded him with
Chambrais in Normandy and vast possessions
in England. He was one of the commissioners
who drew up the Domesday Book, and from
this survey we learn that he possessed no less
* Lat. Ferrum. Compare our word "farrier."

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 79
than 114 manors in Derbyshire, thirty-five in
Leicestershire, twenty in Berkshire, and forty-one
distributed through Staffordshire, Oxfordshire,
Essex, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire,
Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Herefordshire,
Buckinghamshire, and Gloucestershire. As his
chief possessions lay in and around Derbyshire, it
was necessary that his authority .should be focussed
in this district. Conformable to this, we find
that he had two great strongholds therein, — one,
the ancient burh of Tutbury, and the other that
of Siward at Duffield, in each of which he erected
a keep. It is difficult to say which was the more
important. Duffield was central, and its keep was
huge : Tutbury was naturally strong, and this
must in some measure have made up for strength
of keep ; and the beautiful priory that this De
Ferrers founded there and in which he was buried,
seems to show that he delighted more in that
picturesque place than in Duffield. Perhaps the
former was designed more as a residence ; the
latter as a fortress. That Duffield was regarded in
some sense as secondary to Tutbury, is also borne
out by the fact that it was the residence of
his eldest son, Engenulph. This corroborates the
tradition that he, and no later De Ferrers, was

8o B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
the original builder of our keep, for if the strong
hold was of such importance as to be entrusted
to his eldest son, it is hardly likely that he
would be satisfied with the mound and palisades
of an English burh. Still the excavation disclosed
fair evidence that the keep underwent great
alterations at a later period. Henry de Ferrers
died in 1088, and his death was preceded by
those of his two sons. His vast possessions
descended to his third son, Robert, a staunch
supporter of Stephen, who, in consequence of
this and his prowess at the famous battle of the
Standard, created him Earl of Derby. We now
leave the owners, to consider their great central
stronghold. On entering the iron fence which now encloses
the site, the visitor's eye takes in at a glance the
outline of the rectangular keep, which measures
ninety-three feet one way and ninety-nine the other,
exclusive of the projecting masses of masonry
which formed the foundation of the forebuilding
on the west side. The massive foundations and
lower courses of the outer walls average fifteen
feet in thickness, — the thickest Norman walls of
England, Dover only excepted. They consist of
consolidated rubble faced with ashlar. The internal

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 8i
space is, as usually was the case with keeps of
this period, divided into two great apartments, a
north one and a larger south one, by a cross wall
about four feet six inches thick. The south
apartment contains the massive square base of a
circular pillar ( H ) ; a puzzling stone trench or gutter
crossing the space from west to east, and passing
en route through the base of the pillar ; and a deep
well (E) in the south-west corner. In the
substance of the masonry of the south-east and
north-west angles of the keep, are clear indications
of spiral staircases, each opening into one of these
large apartments. The well is about eighty feet
deep, or several feet lower than the Derwent.
For the first ten or twelve feet, it is irregularly
square, and is now lined with railway sleepers.
Below this, it takes the form of a nicely cut
circular shaft of about four feet six inches in
diameter. Although it passes through shale it is
not, nor has it been, in any way lined. Amongst
the rubbish with which it was filled, were some of
the most interesting relics of the Norman castle.
Thus much for the structural remains.
Norman rectangular keeps had so much in
common, that it is not difficult to rebuild in
imagination that of Duffield from its existing G

8 2 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
remains. Soaring from a common plinth, the
keep, "four square to every wind that blew,"
raised its giant head to a height of probably 150
feet, — most keeps of this period being from one and
a half to two diameters high. Its expanse of flat
walls would be relieved by broad but shallow
pilasters. String-courses or set-offs would mark the
levels of the various floors. The narrow loops of
the basement would be exchanged for the character
istic small round-headed windows of the time, as
the summit was approached. The whole would
be crested by a formidable embattled parapet.
On the western side was the elaborate fore-
building with its external portcullis through which
alone entrance could be made to the interior.
Now the interior — The basement, as already
intimated, was divided into two rooms, and with
but little doubt the wall of intersection was carried
upwards to the roof About fifteen feet high and
gloomy — aired rather than lighted, by a few narrow
loops — these rooms would be used chiefly for
stores. All the upper floors were of substantial
oak. Ascending to that immediately above by
one of the well-stairs, the somewhat loftier and
better lighted storey devoted to the garrison
would be entered. The well probably opened to

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 83
this floor, its shaft being carried through the
basement in a square mass of masonry, which had
its foundation in the expanded upper portion
already described. There must have been some
contrivance for supplying the well water to the
rooms below, and the curious trench crossing the
larger of these rooms had probably to do with it.
In the external wall at the eastern extremity of
this trench, there are some indications of the shaft
of a garderobe : it is just possible that one use of
this trench was to allow of the latter being flushed
occasionally. The rooms above the barrack con
stituting the state apartments would be the
loftiest, best lighted, and most lavishly furnished
and embellished of any in the building. If the
intervening wall was pierced with arches, the whole
storey could be converted into one spacious hall on
special occasions. It was usual (and probably it
was so at Duffield) for this and the storey above
to have small intra-mural chambers entered by
doors in the broad jambs of the windows, and used
as sleeping-rooms, oratories, garderobes, etc.
The upper storey would be divided by wooden
partitions into chambers for private occupation.
The roofs of the earlier keeps were rather steep
and covered with shingles ; but as mediaeval

84 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
warfare developed, it was necessary to replace
these by comparatively flat lead-covered ones,
so as to admit of military engines being used from
the summit. This change seems to have come
about rather late in the Norman period, and as
there are many indications that our keep
underwent considerable alterations subsequent to
its erection, there is little doubt that it possessed
such a roof The two well-stairs had no
connection whatsoever with the outside : they
simply served as means of communication from
floor to floor. The external entrance was through
a cunningly devised forebuilding, — a sort of
extension of the western side of the keep, about
two-thirds its height. The site is indicated by a
shapeless mass of concreted rubble (B.B.) dis
closing but little of the original structure. The
straight entrance steps were clearly at the south
west angle, where a well-defined rectangular recess
is clearly marked (D). Reaching the summit
of these steps — to do which a powerful portcullis
and perhaps several strong doors would have to
be burst open — the invader would find himself on
the brink of a deep pit, the drawbridge being drawn
up as a screen to the doorway into the vestibule.
The latter roomy and arched chamber would

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 85
contain the actual door-way to the keep, opening
into the first or even the second floor. Doubtless
it was well covered by loops for archers, and
other means of defence. In the foundations
below the site of the steps the outline of a small
chamber can be traced, which, to judge from the
analogy of some other keeps of the period, was a
prison. The keep was always the crowning feature of
Norman castles. It stood free within, or was
attached to the curtain wall of a court or "ward,'"
which had a well defended gateway. It was also
usual for there to be an outer ward similarly
protected. The Norman curtains of castles of
pre-Norman date usually followed the lines of the
older earthworks. But it is curious that although
no effort was spared to discover the foundations
of these walls at Duffield, not a solitary trace was
found. This goes far, as Dr. Cox remarks, to
prove that stone curtains never existed there,
the older stockades being perhaps retained
instead. Does not this explain the huge size and
strength of the keep ; the Norman builders finding
the site not naturally adapted for defensive
purposes, directing all their energies to the keep ?
Of all the odds-and-ends relating to the Norman

86 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
occupants that were found during the excavation,
the old bucket drew the most attention. It was
found at the bottom of the well in a state of
general collapse, as might be expected after its
burial of six centuries. It was just such a bucket
as may be seen in almost any farmhouse to-day —
oak staves, iron hoops and handle, and nine inches
deep and eleven in diameter (internal measure
ments). Associated with it were the blade, minus
its iron protecting edge, of a wooden spade, and
the fragments of a coarse earthenware bowl or
globular jar. Among the debris, were also many
carved stones, all of coarse Norman workman
ship, — -engaged capitals and shafts of window-
jambs, vousoirs with chevron moulding, fragments
of string-courses, etc. Some of these have been
axed into shape, others, apparently for inside
work, chiselled ; and they do not all seem to be
of the same date. Many of these, besides other
stones, have been discoloured by heat ; and the
large quantity of charred wood found, not only in
the well (among which was a portion of a huge
beam of oak), but generally over the site,
sometimes as a solid seam several inches in
thickness, corroborates their testimony, that
Duffield Castle ended its days by fire. Among

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 8/
the smaller items must be noticed a prick spur,
table knives of singularly modern shape and look
except for their thick rust, a bridle bit, and a
window fastener, all of iron. The numerous
bones were, with few exceptions, kitchen refuse.
From their relative quantities, we learn that beef
and pork were the favourite dishes of the castle
occupants ; less so were those of mutton and
venison ; while hare, rabbit, goose, and fowl, were
only occasionally indulged in.
For the demolition of Duffield Castle, we must
return to the great Earls of Derby, for castle and
family fell together. After an exceptionally
brilliant career for nearly two centuries, marked
at every step by royal favour, the sixth Earl, by
his wayward fickleness, reversed the family
fortune. So impetuous and violent was he, that
Matthew Paris summed him up as "fidus nee
Regi nee Baronibus." From the first, he threw
in his lot with the disaffected barons. In 1263,
at the early age of twenty-four, he marched his
Derbyshire men-at-arms to Worcester, sacking
the city and working havoc with the neigh
bouring royal parks. The king hearing of it, sent
a force under his son. Prince Edward, to lay waste
his Derbyshire territories. Tutbury Castle was

88 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
destroyed, but Duffield seems to have escaped ;
perhaps the royalists gave the formidable keep a
wide berth. The Earl was present at the great
battle of Lewes. At the conclusion of the war,
the rebellious barons were treated with great
clemency by the king, but two were exempted by
name from the royal pardon, the great leader,
Simon de Montfort, and our youthful Earl. The
latter, on October 23, 1265, was formally charged
with high crimes and misdemeanours ; knowing,
however, the certainty of conviction, he, a few
months later, threw himself on the king's mercy.
Whereupon the king, in consideration of a beau
tiful golden cup set with precious stones and a
further fine of 1500 marks, granted him full
pardon and the restitution of his lands, and
undertook to secure him against all whom he had
wronged ; but with the condition that if he again
rebelled, he should be disinherited without hope
of favour.
Notwithstanding all this, the infatuated Earl,
whose perfidy seems to have been boundless, was
no sooner back among his Derbyshire tenantry
than he began to arm them, and in conjunction
with several other turbulent barons, to work
mischief again. The king immediately dispatched

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 89
his nephew Henry with troops to chastise him.
Hearing of the royalist approach, he thought
to make Duffield his base ; but the prince,
instead of attacking him there, made a bold
dash round by Wirksworth, in the direction
of Chesterfield, to intercept a Yorkshire
contingent of rebels. This caused the Earl to
hurry with troops to their support, and he arrived
at Chesterfield just as the Prince was attacking
them. Then followed a fiercely fought battle,
which ended in the complete defeat of the
combined rebel forces. The Earl with many
of his followers took refuge within the walls of
the town ; but the inhabitants, being favourably
inclined toward the King, gave admission to the
royal troops. The Earl hid himself among some
bags of wool deposited in the nave of the church
by the traders of the Whitsuntide fair, but his
hiding-place was revealed by a girl whose lover
had been compelled to join the rebels and was
killed in the battle. He was conveyed to London,
and after a few weeks, was formally attainted of
high treason. His life was spared, but his lands
were confiscated and bestowed upon Prince
Edmund, who was afterwards created Earl of
Lancaster. Thus closed the Ferrers' ownership

90 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
of Duffield, and commenced its long and eventful
connection with the Earldom, and afterwards
Duchy, of Lancaster.
There is no order extant for the de
molition of the castle, but the constant
testimony of tradition has been that it was
destroyed by the king's forces immediately after
the battle of Chesterfield. We know how
thoroughly the work of castle-razing was
accomplished by the forces of Henry III. when
resolved upon, and there is no reason to suppose
that Duffield was any exception to the rule. The
keep was obviously first of all fired. The great
heat to which the masonry was subjected, would
render its overthrow much easier. That it was
levelled to the ground, we may be sure, if only to
impress the tenantry with the complete subversion
of their rebel lord. We can picture the heaps of
debris. For centuries they must have served as a
convenient quarry for the district : the old bridge
of Duffield was probably to a great extent built
of their stone ; here and there in the fences and
cottages of the neighbourhood may still be seen
stones bearing undoubted Norman axeing ; and
as recently as 1838, when the eastern face of
Castle Hill was cut away, much ashlar was

DUFFIELD CASTLE. 91
uncovered and used in the construction of the
neighbouring railway bridge.
Thus concludes this most interesting glimpse of
Bygone Derbyshire. The full history of the large
and important parish of Duffield is not yet
written : its famous Frith, with its wealth of old-
world customs and traditions, has received nothiHg
more than passing notices. If some patient and
gifted pen took up the task, and, commencing
with the Roman dawn, rolled on the story through
Saxon Ferrers, and Lancastrian Duffield, to the
Arkwrights and Strutts of the last century, what
a picture would it present of the successive steps
by which the England of to-day has mounted
from the England of the past !

Ibabbou Iball.
HADDON Hall is situated midway between
Rowsley and Bakewell, crowning a gentle
eminence with its lordly pile of grey stone battle
ments and towers, around which the ivy wreathes
its dark green festoons in graceful profusion.
The building presents an especially picturesque
appearance from the highway, lifting its towers
and battlements from the luxuriant foliage of the
embowering trees.
Thus the appreciative Bradbury : — " The
Autumn-time is, perhaps, the best of all periods
of the year to see Haddon Hall. The colour
of the woods is now in harmony with the pensive
graystone of the baronial battlements. The foliage,
no longer an uniform monotonous green, is a
study of intense tints. The tresses of the lady-
birch are spangled with yellow. Bronzes and
russets and coppery reds are mixed up with the
dark green of the solemn yews. The beech-trees
gleam with rose-colour. The brilliant beads of
the mountain-ash burn amid the soft brown of

HADDON HALL. 93
ripening nuts and the dark hues of wild berries.
The woods are silent. A solitary robin's note
on the terrace intensifies the stillness. Faded
leaves fall at our feet with a musical sigh. The
river is running away with argosies of yellow
leaves. The Autumnal sadness suits the deserted
old towers of Haddon. The castle itself is
almost as perfect now as in the feudal days of
chivalry, when its walls echoed the noisy revelry
of retainers, and the wassail-cup went its merry
round." Such is the beautiful natural setting of this
fine old English hall. To trace the history of
the estate is to trace the history of the building,
and this has been divided into five periods by
Mr. Duesbury : " To that extending from a.d. 1070
to 1250, he assigns the south aisle of the chapel,
the walls of the north-east tower, and a portion
of the walls in the south front; 1300 to 1380,
the great hall and offices, the hall porch, lower
west window of the Chapel, and the re-building
of north-east tower; 1380 to 1470, the eastern
portion of the Chapel, repairs at west-end, and
buildings on the east side of the upper court ;
1470 to 1550, fittings and finishings of the dining
room, and the western range of buildings ; 1550

94 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
to 1624, et seq., the long gallery, the gardens
and terrace, pulpit and desk, and pews in Chapel."
When Norman William conquered the land,
Haddon passed into the possession of Henry
de Ferrars. In the course of time it passed to
the Avenells of Haddon, and with them remained
until the end of the 12th century, when two sisters
divided the estates, and Haddon passed by
marriage to the Vernons, with whom it remained
for a period of about three hundred years. Then
the male line of the Vernons failed, and two
sisters again inherited the estates, and Haddon
passed, with fair mistress Dorothy Vernon, into
the possession of that handsome and accomplished
gentleman. Master John Manners, son of the first
Earl of Rudand.
The changeful centuries that swept away the
ancient owners of Haddon, and passed it from
the Avenells to the Vernons, and afterwards to
the noble house of Manners, dealt not ungently
with its towers and battlements, for they bear
to-day no trace of fire, no breach made by the
battering ram or by the cannon of the 17th
century. Other ancient holds have been dis
mantled and reduced to ruins, but Haddon
remains in all its pride and dignity, a monument

HADDON HALL. 95
of the old baronial times, and of the princely
state that was maintained by the ancient gentry,
before they grew into the fashion of wasting their
substance and frittering away their years at the
court of the Stuarts.
The old hall has, however, lost the warmth of
its ancient hospitality, the glow of its ancient
gaiety ; for although it is kept in repair, and is open to
the antiquary and student, it is no longer the
home of the Rutlands, and it is now but an
historical memory that the first duke kept open
house for twelve days at Christmas, with 140
servants to wait upon his guests.
The mansion, which, as we have seen, was
completed early in the seventeenth century, consists
of various suites of apartments disposed around two
irregular courts. Perhaps one of the best views
of the exterior of the building, as well as of the
beautiful surrounding scenery, is obtained by
ascending the outside steps which give access to
the summit of the Eagle, or Peveril's Tower.
The chapel may well claim first attention, but
in passing through the so-called chaplain's room,
a few moments may be devoted to its most
unclerical furnishings, consisting of a number of
immense pewter plates, and some ancient

96 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
accoutrements, as an old matchlock, a leather
doublet, a few jack boots, old spurs, and the first
Duke of Rutland's cradle, appropriately enough
wrought out of oak. The variations in the
architecture of the chapel are interesting ; the
nave, its pillars, and the font, belonging to the
later Norman period, while the building is com
pleted in the Gothic style, prevalent early in the
fifteenth century. Two family pews, high-railed
and ancient, are located in the chancel ; and the
rood-loft or gallery, reached by a worm-eaten
staircase, is an object of interest to the prying
antiquary. The chapel was originally rich in
stained glass, and the principal window in the
east end represents the pathetic story of the
Cross, with some mutilated remains of saints and
angels. It also bears an inscription to Sir
Richard Vernon, "Treasurer of Calais, Captain
of Rouen, and Speaker of the Parliament of
Leicester in 1426." The windows were once
rich in stained glass, but some years ago it was
sacriligeously carried off, and the efforts made
for its recovery were not attended with success.
The building is roofed in open timber-work, of
plain construction, one of the beams bearing
the probable date of the repairs, 1624.

HADDON HA LL. 9 7
From the chapel, so solemn and tranquil, with
its silent lessons of the mutability of earthly
things, the attention is attracted to the great centre
of activity — the great hall. Sculptured over the
gateway are the arms of Vernon and Pembrugge.
At the upper end of the hall the floor is raised to
form the dais, bearing the long oak table, where,
in the old times, the lord of the hall sate in state,
with his guests around him, and the boar's head,
the swan, and the peacock were served up on state
occasions, the wine passed around, and beards
wagged merrily in the hall.
Perchance in this old hall the youthful chivalry
of Derbyshire may have recorded their vows of
achievement, let us hope less extravagant vows
than those that Praed puts into the mouth of Don
Pedro :— " He vowed a vow, that noble knight.
Before he went to table,
To make his only sport the fight.
His only couch the stable,
Till he had dragged, as he was bid.
Five scores of Turks to Cadiz, —
And this that gallant Spaniard did
For me, and for the ladies. "
And while the Vernon feasted, from the
opposite end of the hall the minstrels sang ballad
H

98 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
and stirring lay from the music gallery, with its
panelled and carved front. The hall-screeh,
panelled and carved, is also remarkable for a
peculiar iron hook intended for the punishment of
the unlucky wight who could not drink his fair
share of the good liquor that went round so freely
at the festive seasons. His hand was attached to
the hook, and while his arm was at full stretch,
the liquor was poured down his sleeve. Beyond
the screen are four doors, which give communica
tion to the principal domestic offices. The first
door leads to the buttery, furnished with chest,
cupboard, and shelves for bread, cheese, and butter.
The buttery communicates with a beer-cellar, a
brew-house, and a bakehouse, with rooms for the
storage of corn and malt. The second door leads
to the great kitchen, the sloping passage to which
was divided by a broad-topped hatch, on which
the servitors received the dishes from the cooks.
The kitchen is furnished in right old English
style, with two huge fireplaces, furnished with
fittings for numerous spits, and with dressers and
chopping-blocks of substantial frame. The table
is a massive wooden affair, cut into basins or
kneading-troughs, a meet servitor for the ancient
oaken dining table in the banquet-hall, which

HADDON HALL. 99
roused the enthusiasm of Mr. Jewitt: — "This
table is one of the finest examples of its kind yet
remaining anywhere in existence. It is now
worm-eaten and decayed, like those who once
feasted around it ; but still it stands a proud
monument of those ancient times so long gone
by." The kitchen is amply supported by its
proper larders, pantries, and store-rooms. The
third doorway communicates with a small vaulted
room, believed to have been the wine-cellar.
The fourth door gives access to a steep staircase
leading to many small apartments, the lodgings of
guests or retainers.
The time came when an advanced civilization
separated the lord from his vassals, and the hall
has its handsome dining room, well-lighted,
oak-panelled, and enriched with carven shields of
arms and the boar-head crest of the Vernons. A
panel over the fireplace bears the royal arms with
the motto : —
" Dre&e (Bob anb bonor tbe Ik^ng."
Two panels on one side of the fireplace bear
the initials, in cypher, of Sir George Vernon and
his lady, between them, a shield, with arms
quartered. Above them appears the date, 1545,
probably indicating the completion of the room.

I GO BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Five beams divide the ceiling into bays, upon
the moulding of which still lingers a faint trace of
the gold and colours which once enriched them.
The recess at the lower end of the room is
especially interesting, being lighted by an oriel
window, with heavy stone mullions, and con
taining, among its quaint carving, the head,
presumably, of Will Somers, Henry VIII.'s Court
fool ; and also the heads of Elizabeth of York,
and her husband, Henry VIL, whose poor claim
to the throne her own clearer title bolstered up.
The drawing room is situated over the dining
room, and is approached by the grand staircase at
the upper end of the great hall. It also has its
recess, lighted by a fine oriel window, and
remarkable for its panelled walls and ornamental
ceiling. The room is hung with tapestry, above
which runs a series of stucco cornices, but
the omission of this species of ornamentation from
the side opposite the fireplace gives the impression
that paintings were hung there.
The long-gallery is one of the glories of
Haddon Hall, and runs along the south front
for the space of one hundred and nine feet nine
inches, by sixteen feet ten inches in width, with
a height of fifteen feet. It has a square recess

HADDON HALL. loi
in the centre of the south side. Three bow
windows, and one in the recess, light it, and are
enriched with the arms of England, and those of
the Earl of Shrewsbury and the houses of Vernon
and Manners. The room is panelled in oak,
and elaborately carved in arches springing from
Corinthian pillars, with a frieze and cornice above.
Between the pilasters are carven shields of arms,
and the frieze is enriched with roses and thistles,
the boar heads of the Vernons and the peacock
of the Manners. The ceiling is decorated with
armorial bearings, quatrefoils, etc., in stucco. It
is said that the oaken flooring of the room was
furnished by a single tree, which had long
flourished in the garden. Two hundred couples
have danced in the gallery within the present
century. From the upper end of the gallery a few steps
lead to a private apartment, tapestried, and
furnished with folding doors communicating with
a flight of steps giving access to the upper garden
terrace. The state bed-room adjoins this private apart
ment, generally styled the ante-room. It is
ornamented with arms, crests, boar heads, and
peacocks, and is hung with Gobelin tapestry.

102 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
illustrating ^sop's fables. The • state bed is
interesting for the great antiquity of its hangings,
said to have been embroidered by Eleanor, wife
of Sir Robert Manners, in the reign of Henry VI.
The Earl of Rutland's bed chamber is hung
with tapestry, and decorated with a frieze and
cornice. The frieze consists of four bands of
leaves and flowers, and is very deep. Com
munication with the great court is obtained by
means of a steep flight of steps opening near the
arched entrance to the chapel.
It only remains to mention the small apartment
situate in the north-west tower, and which was
evidently intended as a place of confinement for
any suspicious persons or unruly servants, whose
crimes or faults might require a course of enforced
solitude and hard fare, assisted by a salutary
apprehension of more stringent remedial measures
in the not very far off future. It is not a very
dreadful place when compared with the diabolical
dungeons of most mediaeval strongholds. It is
lighted by a narrow window, and is furnished
with primitive simplicity, containing only a stone
seat. Before passing out of the courtyard, the visitor
will probably pause to inspect a Roman altar.

HADDON HALL. 103
of Stone, with an inscription said to run as follows,
although it cannot now be deciphered, —
Deo
Marti
Braciacae Os(i)tivs
Caccilia (nos)
Praef, Coh. I. Aqvi Taro
V.S.
If the visitor is not an antiquary of profound
attainments he will probably pay a simple but
genuine tribute of respect to this memorial of a
great people, whose iron strength girdled the
world, while their spirits peered anxiously
forward into that profound silence and darkness
into which they strove to project life, unity,
purpose, even as men strive to-day, although the
east is radiant with its dayspring, and a brighter
hope soothes their souls amid the mutations of
time. So the visitor passes from Haddon, from
the solemn, almost funereal stillness of the
deserted courtyard, placing his foot on that
time-worn portal stone, the deep hollow in which is
eloquent of the transit of departed generations ;
and so passing out by the tower in the north-west
angle of the wall, adorned with the time-scourged
and rudely carven shields displaying the arms of

104 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
the Vernons and the distinguished families with
which they were allied by marriage.
The magnificence of Haddon, the princely
hospitality of the Vernons, is without dispute, but
it may be questioned if the occupants enjoyed all
the comfort which they might justly claim, for
" Haddon, like many other magnificent abodes,
appears, on close examination, evidently built
when comfort was not a peculiarity of art in house
hold construction. The doors are very rudely
contrived, except when picturesque effect is the
object ; few fit at all close, and their fastenings
are nothing better than wooden bolts, clumsy
bars, and iron hasps. To conceal these defects,
and exclude draughts of air, tapestry was put up,
which had to be lifted in order to pass in or out ;
and when it was necessary to hold back these
hangings, there were great iron hooks fixed for
the purpose. All the principal rooms, except the
gallery, were hung with loose arras, and their
doors were concealed behind."
Through green pasturage, unto the margin of
the river Wye, and over its bridge, the visitor
approaches Haddon Hall, to probably smile over
the two ancient yews that ornament the garden,
and are cut to the shape of a boar's head and a

HADDON HALL. 105
peacock. Before he leaves he will surely contrive
to spare a little time to the beauties of the ancient
gardens ; four terraces stretching along the
southern side of the hall, with the fresh greenery
of lawns shaded by avenues of noble trees, and
the margin of free woodland that embowers the
grand old pile where the king of the peak reigned
when our lady Elizabeth held sceptre and sword
in picturesque England.

I

^be IRomance of IbabDon Iball.
N the chequered but not inglorious days
when our Lady Elizabeth ruled the broad
realm of England, Sir George Vernon, a gallant
gentleman of the old faith, reigned at Haddon
Hall, where two fair daughters, Margaret and
Dorothy, contributed to the happiness, perchance
also to the anxieties, of the good knight.
Sorrow had entered deeply into the strong
man's life, and the bond of gentle years had been
severed by the angel of death, when his dear
girls were deprived of the tender care and guiding
wisdom of a mother. Time healed the wounded
spirit, and Sir George, prompted by love or
ambition, took to himself a second wife, the
proud and ambitious Dame Maude.
The lady bore him several fair sons, but none
reached the careless, happy age of boyhood, to
cheer the worthy knight's heart as he rode forth
with hawk and hound by mere and wood. Proud
hopes rose high, only to wither and pass away ;
but the two fair girls throve, and grew up into

THE ROMANCE OF HADDON HALL. 107
gentle womanhood. Then lovers came, as lovers
ever did and will, while girls are fair and life is
young ; but, alas for true love's errant course,
sweet Mistress Dorothy, gentlest and fairest of
the sisters, attracted the attention of handsome
and courtly John Manners. Very soon there was
trouble in Haddon Hall.
A younger son of the Earl of Rutland was
surely no match for Dorothy Vernon, co-heiress
with her sister of the great wealth and thirty
manors of Sir George. The good knight, whose
heart was wrapped up in his fair daughter, his
" winsome Doll," might have succumbed to the
pleading of bright eyes and the persuasive
pressure of sweet lips, but dame Maude was
above such weakness, and John Manners was
mortified by a cold rejection of his suit, although
he was happily conscious that he had won the
heart of the damsel.
Margaret, the eldest sister, was betrothed to
Sir Thomas Stanley, son of the Earl of Derby, a
suitable match, highly approved by her haughty
step-mother. To add to the perplexity of the
fair Dorothy, another of the Stanleys came
awooing, and it really appeared inevitable that
John Manners must lose a fair and loving wife,

io8 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
and that the obtrusive Stanley must take his
chance with the cold heart and cold hand of an
unwilling bride, unless, indeed. Mistress Dorothy
warmed into a little shrew, and made him pay
heavily for his unwisdom.
While life moved serenely to the music of
wedding bells for the stately Margaret, poor
Dorothy was kept under observation and treated
with a salutary severity by her worldly step
mother. The girl bore up bravely however ; her
bright eyes were undimmed by secret tears ; the
bloom left not her girlish cheek ; smiles and
laughter came and went ; and none would have
guessed that the fair girl cherished a hopeless
passion, and wasted the wealth of her young
heart over a forbidden lover.
In that long past summer a pretty little
romance was being enacted, for there were
traitors in the household of Sir George, and
pretty wilful Dorothy was her father's own girl,
and not likely to pine away in despair without
trying to thwart the project of dame Maude.
When twilight passed, and the stars appeared in the
evening sky, a fair girl and a comely young forester
held secret love-trysts ; for John Manners, disguised
as a woodman, had prevailed over the fidelity of

THE ROMANCE OF HADDON HALL. ic>9
the head forester of Haddon, and Dorothy had been
equally successful in cajoling her old nurse, Luce.
Thus a very pretty and successful wooing was
being carried on, dispite the presence of a harsh
step-mother, a careful sister, a fiery old knight,
and a gay young lover.
Summer passed into autumn, and autumn
came, with its premonition of shorter days and
stormy nights. It brought mistress Margaret's
wedding day ; and great was the glee in Haddon
Hall on that auspicious night, when fair ladies
and courtly gentlemen mingled in the dance ;
wine flashed in the cup ; old greybeards lived old
days over again as they toasted bride and
bridegroom, and smiled upon Mistress Dorothy,
the fairest maiden in the hall, as she danced with
the lightest foot, and laughed with the wittiest
there — the belle of the bridal.
Midnight closed in, dark and cold outside the
hall, but lights flashed within, and the sounds of
revelry rose and fell with the changing humour of
the gay company. Suddenly from out a door —
the famous Dorothy Vernon door — there issues a
lady, cloaked and hooded for travel ; she descends
the steps, and passes swiftly onward, into the
outer darkness, to be caught in the strong arms

no BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
of John Manners, who carries the fair Dorothy off
in triumph, and thus wins the sweetest of brides,
and one of the wealthiest heiresses in broad
England, for poor Margaret's married life was
extremely brief, and Dorothy ultimately inherited
the whole of her father's estates.

^be ©rbeal of ZToucb.
THE old judicial superstitions that the
wounds of a murdered man shed forth
fresh gore at the touch of the murderer, doubtless
terrified many a guilty wretch into the confession
of his crime. Sir Walter Scott has well described
the solemn and impressive character of the ordeal
in " The Fair Maid of Perth."
" Then strange sympathies shall wake.
The flesh shall thrill, the nerves shall quake ;
The wounds renew their clotter'd flood.
And every drop cry blood for blood."
Two brief quotatations from the lengthy
description of the inimitable Scott will serve to
indicate the solemn and awful character of the
ordeal. "The scene presented that effect of imposing
solemnity which the rites of the Catholic
Church are so well qualified to produce. The
eastern window, richly and variously painted,
streamed down a torrent of checkered light upon
the high altar. On the bier placed before it were

112 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Stretched the mortal remains of the murdered
man, his arms folded on his breast, and his palms
joined together, with the fingers pointed upwards,
as if the senseless clay were itself appealing to
Heaven for vengeance against those who had
violently divorced the immortal spirit from its
mangled tenement."
The touch is thus graphically told : — " Eviot
was summoned to undergo the ordeal. He
advanced with an ill-assured step. Perhaps he
thought his internal consciousness that Bonthron
must have been the assassin, might be sufficient
to implicate him in the murder, though he was
not directly accessory to it. He paused before
the bier ; and his voice faltered, as he swore by
all that was created in seven days and seven
nights, by heaven, by hell, by his part of paradise,
and by the god and author of all, that he was free
and sackless of the bloody deed done upon the
corpse before which he stood, and on whose
breast he made the sign of the cross, in evidence
of the appeal. No consequences ensued. The
body remained stiff as before ; the curdled
wounds gave no sign of blood."
When the wealthy and hospitable Sir George
Vernon held sway at Haddon, and was popularly

THE ORDEAL OF TOUCH. 113
known as the " King of the Peak," a cruel murder
caused some sensation in the locality, and moved
Sir George to the exercise of a little ultra-judicial
rigour. The corpse of a man, discovered in a secluded
spot, was identified as that of a pedlar who had
recently been trading in the neighbourhood.
Evidences of violence were not lacking, and
suspicion attached to a certain cottar, who was
reported to have received the pedlar into his
residence on the night preceding the discovery of
the corpse. By Sir George's command the corpse
was carried to Haddon, sheeted, and laid in the
hall. The suspected man was then summoned to
the hall, and straitly questioned by the knight as to
the whereabouts of the pedlar who had been seen to
enter his cottage. The answer was a denial ; no
pedlar had entered his cottage ; he had never seen
the man. In reply to this affirmation. Sir
George drew off" the sheet, and displayed the
corpse to the gaze of the unhappy wretch, at the
same time calling upon all who were in
attendance to lay their hands upon the body, and
declare their innocency. When the suspected
man was called upon,, he refused obedience, and,
conscience-stricken, rushed wildly from the hall.

114 BYG ONE DERB YSHIRE.
sped through Bakewell, and was making for
Ashford, when Sir George's men caught him up
near the Ashford toll-bar. The knight had
ordered them to hang the wretched man, and
hanged he was incontinently.
For this summary proceeding Sir George was
called upon to appear in Court, and proceeded to
London, but declined to answer to the indictment
as he had been summoned under the title of the
" King of the Peak." The indictment necessarily
fell through, and Sir George escaped with a
salutary admonition ; no doubt to be thereafter
regarded with greater veneration and fear by his
tenants and neighbours at Haddon.

^be fIDonumental Brasses at ^ibeswell.
By James L. Thornely.
ONE of the features of our country which
strike an American visitor most forcibly
after he has recovered a little from the amaze into
which its cultivated and parcelled-out appearance
has thrown him, is its wealth in antiquities, and
especially ecclesiastical antiquities. The triteness
of the remark need not prevent our saying here
that the New Englander as a rule appreciates
more truly than the Old those silent " chronicles
of eld," of which we in their midst, are many of
us unconscious.
But those of us whose bent of inclination has
led them to visit our old country churches, know,
full well, how deep and how rich a mine of
interest awaits them there. Those in particular
who have made stone monuments and monu
mental brasses their study, must have had
many reflections suggested to them such as give
vivid glimpses and throw strong sidelights upon
the history of the English people, which we may

1 1 6 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
look for in vain in the pages of the chronicler and
historian. Of monumental brasses in general, it may be
said that, although met with on the Continent,
they are far more common in England ; many
sumptuous specimens may still be found through
the length and breadth of the land, and the traces
yet left by the ravages of the puritan and the
"restorer" (most ironic of terms), tell us of a
time when England might boast of many
thousands of effigies of armoured knight, courtly
dame, and vestured churchman. A significant
token of the distribution of the population, and
of the rank and wealth of the people through the
different counties is given by the number of the
churches, and the richness and number of their
stone or brass monuments. In the south and
eastern counties, beautiful examples of the latter
lie as thick as the falling leaves of Vallombrosa.
In the midlands and western shires, though many
rich specimens may be found, they are fewer and
further between. In the north they are
comparatively rare. Hardy, indigent Scotland,
contains scarcely a single example. The sleepy,
stagnant towns of East Anglia, Kent,- and
Sussex, from which all commerce and traffic has

MONUMENTAL BRASSES. 117
long since departed, were once the wealthiest
and busiest centres of England, and they teem
with handsome churches and costly brasses.
The factory and colliery-disfigured counties of
Lancashire and Yorkshire have very few brasses,
for they were thinly peopled, and their inhabitants
were poor.
Having once, in the course of a walking tour,
visited the old church of Tideswell, and seen its
brasses, I resolved on the earliest opportunity to
revisit it, equipped with all a " brass-rubber's "
paraphernalia ; to wit : — a long roll of thin white
paper and a piece of shoe-makers' heelball, which
when rubbed upon the paper over the brass will
make a fac-simile impression of the engraved
effigy, the lines remaining white while the rest of
the surface is a glossy black ; smooth and durable,
and throwing the outlines into strong relief The
long-awaited opportunity presented itself in the
summer of 1885, and on the afternoon of my
arrival I made the coveted treasures mine.
In some respects the finest of the four brasses
in the old church is that of Robert Pursglove
(who seems to have borne the alias of Sylvester),
Suffragan Bishop of Hull in the time of Queen
Mary. Most extant brasses of priests and

ii8 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
prelates, many of them very graceful in design,
and richly ornamented in detail, are of the
14th and 15th centuries, and it is rarely that one
meets with a prelate in full pontificals later than
Henry VII.'s reign. Very possibly, and for aught
I know, Pursglove's brass may be the only
instance of a Romish prelate so attired dating
later than the Reformation. The marvel is how
this effigy has escaped the tide of anti-popish
devastation that set in with the rise of Protest
antism, and continued to rage long after the
reformed belief had become established as the
State religion.
The earlier examples just referred to are many
of them much larger, — as indeed all early brasses
were, — many of the figures being six feet in
length ; their lines were bolder, broader, and more
deeply incised.
At a later stage, it became usual to supplement
these lines by small patches of cross-shading,
especially where the folds of drapery were to be
indicated. In the course of time, the increasing
use of cross-shading had sapped the strength and
boldness of the principal lines, until, before its
final disuse in the eighteenth century, the art of
designing brasses had decayed to a miserable extent.

MONUMENTAL BRASSES. 119
Considering how far this decay had proceeded
at the time, the brass of Bishop Pursglove may
be considered a remarkably fine specimen of its
class. The main lines are bold and easily flowing,
and although there is a good deal of cross-shad
ing in its composition, in general breadth of effect
the brass has suffered but little.
The countenance of the reverend prelate is
particularly happy in execution. Whether as an
individual likeness it be accurate or not, we have
no means of judging; but we see in the face
before us wisdom and gravity combined with a
benevolent expression, such as inspires involuntary
reverence for one of the last of the Romish
bishops, who was left like a withered leaf upon
the tree before the rude blasts of winter had
whirled it, with its few remaining fellows, from the
bough. The expressiveness of the old man's
face is the more noteworthy inasmuch as there
are very few brasses where the delineation of the
human countenance has achieved one tithe of the
success which has attended the elaboration
of embroidered vestment or damascened
armour. Like most contemporary brasses, it is much
smaller than those of the fourteenth century. It

I20 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
lies in the chancel of the church, let into a stone
slab. The bishop is attired in his eucharistic vest
ments, with mitre (and it is worthy of notice that
his mitre is of an early shape, short and angular,
not high and curved, as was more -common at that
time) ; amice, or embroidered collar ; alb, the
most ancient of vestments, being the long-sleeved
robe worn under the other garments, and adorned
with apparel or panel of embroidery or orfrey-
work at the front of the skirt, but not, — as in
many other examples, — at the wrists ; dalmatic,
i.e., the short, fringed robe worn over the alb ;
chasuble, the ample cloak which in great part
covers both alb and dalmatic ; stole, a long, narrow
scarf of rich embroidery, the two. fringed ends of
which appear below the dalmatic ; jewelled gloves
and shoes ; and a handsomely foliated pastoral
staff The absence of the Tnaniple, or em
broidered handkerchief, usually dependent from the
arm, will not escape the observation of the
technical. Below the figure is a long epitaph in a some
what halting metre, inscribed upon a different
kind of brass, and, as has been conjectured, of
later date. Thus it runs : —

ROBERT PURSGLOVEj SUFFRAGAN BISHOP OF HULL.

122 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
" Under this stone, as here doth ly, a corps sumtime of
fame.
In Tiddeswall bred and born truely, Robert Pursglove
by name ;
And there brought up by parents' care, at schoole and
learning trad.
Till afterwards by uncle dear, to London he was had.
Who William Bradshaw hight by name, in Paul's wch
did him place.
And y'r at schoole did him maintain full thrice 3 whole
years space.
And then unto the abberye was placed as I wish.
In Southwarke call'd, where it doth ly, St. Mary Overis.
To Oxford then, who did him send, into that colledge
right.
And there 14 years did him find, wh. Corpus Christi hight.
From thence at length away he went, a clerke of learning
great.
To Gisburn Abbey streight was sent, and plac'd in Prior's
seat.
Bishop of Hull he was also. Archdeacon of Nottingham,
Provost of Rotheram colledge too, of York eak suffragan.
Two gramer schools he did ordain with land for to endure ;
One hospital for to maintain twelve impotent and poor.
O Gisburne thou with Tiddeswall town, lement and mourn
you may.
For this said clerk of great renoun lyeth here compast in
clay.
Though cruel death hath now down brought this body wc
here doth ly,
Yet trump of fame stay can be nought to sound his praise
on high.
Qici legis hunc versum crebro reliquum memomeris.
Vile cadaver sunt, tuque cadaver eris.^'

MONUMENTAL BRASSES. 123
Little can be added to the above biographical
compend, which incidentally commissions the
"trump of fame " to sound, no less than his own,
the praise of the good uncle to whose kindly
nurture the bishop's eminent career must have
been largely due.
The figure and inscription are enclosed within
a riband or strip of brass ornamented at the
corners — a very common practice — with the
symbols of the four Evangelists, and bearing
the following legend : —
"Christ is to me as life on earth, and death to me is gaine.
Because I trust through him alone salvation to obtaine.
So brittle is the state of man, so soon it doth decay.
So all the glory of this world must pass and fade away."
The same lines, we are told, may be met with
on at least five other brasses in different parts of
the country. Following the verse just given, is
the following inscription, " This Robert Pursglove,
sometyme Bishoppe of Hull, deceassed the 2 day
of Mali in the yere of our Lord God 1579."
For the further details of the bishop's life I am
indebted to Mr. Cox's " Churches of Derbyshire."
" Pursglove," he says, " was consecrated Sufif-
ragan-Bishop of Hull in 1552, and Archdeacon
of Nottingham in 1553, but on the oath of

124 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
supremacy to Elizabeth being offered to him, he
refused to take it, and was deprived of his Arch
deaconry and other spiritualities. He then retired
to the neighbourhood of Tideswell, where he
remained till his death. Though considered a
Protestant Bishop under Edward VI., he seems to
have been a vehement papist under Mary, and
was appointed, in 1557, one of a commission to
inquire into heretics, etc. This commission is
regarded by Burnet and other writers as a mere
preliminary to establish the Inquisition in England.
Letters patent were granted to him in the second
and third of Elizabeth to found the Grammar
Schools of Tideswell and of Gisburne, in the
North Riding of Yorkshire. The pension
awarded to Robert Pursglove on the suppression
of the Priory of Gisburne [alias Guisborough), in
1540, was ;^i66 13s. 4d. It is said, in a
contemporary MS., that, 'the pryor lived in
the most sumptuous style, being served at table
by gentlemen only.' He was seventh and last
Provost of Rotherham College, which was dissolved
about 1550." The good bishop's original founda
tion, the Grammar School of Jesus, is still a
thriving school ; the building lies on the north
side of the church.

MONUMENTAL BRASSES.

125

In Mr. Cox's book is given a woodcut of Bishop
Pursglove's brass, for which, he says, he was
indebted to Mr. George Markham Tweddell,

JOHN AND ISABELLE DE LITTON.

who had it prepared for his " Popular History of
Cleveland." There is also, he says, a good
engraving of the whole of this interesting plate

126 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
in the Gentleman s Magazine, for 1794 (pt. ii.
p. 1 100) ; also on a larger scale in the Tideswell
Parish Magazine, for 1869; and in "Cambridge
Camden Society's Illustrations," I., p. 19.
On the floor of the aisle of the old Lytton
Chapel, in the south transept, lie the brasses of
Robert Lytton, of Lytton, and his wife Isabella.
The brasses are not very large : they are
accompanied by two ribands or scrolls of brass,
as shown in the accompanying illustration. The
scroll adjoining Robert Lytton bears the legend :
" Fili Dei miserere mei f the lady's, " Mater Dei
memento mei." Robert Lytton is dressed in the
long fur-trimmed robe with wide sleeves worn by
civilians and persons of substance, a very simple
but graceful dress ; at his girdle hangs the large
gypciere, or tasselled purse, of the period. He
is clean-shaven, and in this effigy has an almost
boyish appearance, which is increased by the
length of his hair, worn low upon the forehead.
Isabella Lytton, to whose attractions it is fair to
assume that the artist has done scant justice, is
also simply clad. She wears one of the stiff
pedimental head-dresses in vogue during the latter
part of the fifteenth and the earlier years of the
sixteenth centuries, being identical with those

MONUMENTAL BRASSES. 127
which are familiar to us as the head-gear of the
four queens upon our playing-cards. Of this
head-attire, Mr. Boutell says : " It was composed
of velvet or embroidered cloth, and sometimes of
lighter materials, and, being pointed somewhat
stiffly over the forehead, descended in lappets
upon the shoulders and back."
She also has a girdle with long depending and
ornamented end. The dresses of this couple are
similar to many other contemporary brasses.
Both figures are pleasing from their very
simplicity : there is a quaint charm in the mixture
of stiffness and flowing grace of the lines that is
redolent of true mediaeval art. Two shields of
arms were formerly seen above the figures, but
now only the matrices, or hollowed beds in the
stone in which they lay, remain. Beneath the
effigies is this inscription : " Orate pro animabus
Robti Lytton de Lytton et Isabella uxoris hie
quiquidem Robertus obiit sexto die mensis May
anno dni millimo cccclxxxiii et predicta Isabella
obiit XV die Octobris anno dni millimo ccccLViii et
pro aiabus omn fidelium defunctorum, quorum
animabus propicietur Deus."
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, the novelist, was a
descendant of this couple. The family is one of

12 8 BYG ONE DE RB YSHIRE.
great antiquity, and took its name from the little
village of Litton, which lies about a mile distant
from Tideswell. Again turning to Mr. Cox, we
learn that recent excavations have shown that the
lead coffins of Sir Robert and his wife are
immediately below the brass. Sir Robert Lytton
was Under-Treasurer of England in the reign of
Henry VI. He purchased the manor of Kneb-
worth, Hertfordshire, which became the principal
seat of the family. Litton Hall, however,
remained in the family till 1597, when it was sold
by Rowland Lytton to John Alsop.
The last of our Tideswell brasses represents
the good knight, Sir Thomas Foljambe, a
member of the ancient family of that name,
existing at the time of, or soon after the Conquest,
and which has continued to the present day. Mr.
Cox quotes from an account of the Foljambe
family written by Mr. Cecil G. Savile Foljambe,
and which I shall refer to later on. From this
extract and from Mr. Cox's remarks, it would
appear that the brass of Sir Thomas, shown in
our illustration, is not the original one, but is a
modern effigy placed there in 1875, by Mr.
F"oljambe, to cornmemorate his ancestor. At the
time I took my rubbings of the Tideswell brasses

AlONUMENTAL BRASSES.

129

being then, let it be said, somewhat of a novice in
the art, I was under the impression that I had
before me the original brass, so happily does the
figure imitate in appearance
the examples of knights con
temporary with Sir Thomas
Foljambe. As regards out
line, the modern engraver
cannot have gone astray, for
the matrix of the old brass
in the stone slab was clearly
defined and unmistakable.
This being so, it would
require little creative skill to
fill in the lines, so uniform
in detail are all the effigies
of this period, — the period
of pointed helmets and
narrow- waisted surcoats, with
richly embossed sword-belt
worn low upon the hips. /f^'
The heraldic blazon of the ^ ''^^^"'^^"¦¦-^
SIR THOMAS FOLJAMBE.
Foljambe family {sab. a bend between six escallops
or) is correctly portrayed upon the knight's surcoat.
Upon the whole we can have few misgivings as
to the faithfulness of the reproduction of the Sir
K

1 30 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
Thomas of former days. The boldness and
grace of the delineation is most creditable to
the modern designer.
Prior to its restoration the only memorial of
the old brass was its tnatrix in the stone slab,
and a piece of brass placed thereon "by one
of the family some two hundred years ago,"
bearing a shield with the Foljambe arms and
this inscription, "Tumulus Johanis filii Domini
Thomae Foljambe qui obiit quarto die Augusti
ano Domini millesimo trecentesimo quinquegesimo
octavo, qui multa bona fecit circa fabricationem
hujus ecclesiae."
In his account referred to above, Mr. Foljambe
says : — " The chancel of this church was probably
the burial place of the Foljambe family from the
time of their first settlement in the parish, soon
after the Conquest (for John Foljambe, who
died in 1249, desires to be buried in the chancel
of the church at Tideswell with his forefathers),
and it was used as such by them until the
extinction of the male line of the elder branch
by the death of Roger Foljambe in 1448."
There are said to have been formerly other
brasses of the Foljambe family in the church.
Our collection, though small, is nevertheless

MONUMENTAL BRASSES. 131
singularly complete, for it comprehends and
represents by good examples the four principal
types of the monumental brass, — the ecclesiastic
in his priestly robes, the knight in full armour,
the civilian in his garb of peace, and the lady of
high degree.
It will be sufficient here to mention that there
is also in the centre of the chancel a large altar
tomb to the memory of Sir Sampson Meverell,
the sides consisting of carved tracery, which
reveals within the body of the tomb the stone
effigy of an emaciated corpse swathed in its
shroud, with two attendant angels at its head.
Let into the slab of purbeck marble, which forms
the upper surface of the tomb, are plates of brass
engraved with quaint symbolical figures, and
dated 1462.
As already mentioned, the brasses of Derby
shire are comparatively few, but good examples
may be found at Hathersage, Ashbourne, Dronfield,
Morley, Muggington, and other places in the
county. The stately old church at Tideswell has many
other curiosities and antiquities which will repay
inspection ; but of these I may not here speak.
Yet how few know, and of these, alas ! how few

132 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
care, that within the grey walls of this upland
village church, surrounded by bleak open hills
and windswept moors, away from the world,
in a land of farmers and sheep-owners, lie stately
monuments of "Albion's elder day," telling of
the times when Tideswell could boast of her
mitred prelate, her belted knights, her high-born
dames, — of the good old days when knights and
gentlemen were content to farm their own lands,
and live and die in their own houses, and to
attend each sabbath at their parish church until
the time should come when their bones were
to be laid there to rest for ever.
The accompanying illustrations (with the
exception of the engraving of Bishop Pursglove)
are from pen and ink drawings which I took
from my heel-ball rubbings as a memento of that
happily-spent summer afternoon in the old church
of the Peak countrv.

Bolsover Castle.
By Enid A. M. Cox.
BOLSOVER is a small country town in the
Hundred of Scarsdale, six miles east of
Chesterfield. Its population is less than three
thousand, its trade is almost nil, and were it not that
the manufacture of tobacco-pipes is still said to linger
here, we should have said that no commercial ac
tivity whatever had any footing in this tranquil spot.
Yet in other days it had a very different history.
Five centuries ago it was a busy market-town,
renowned for its manufacture of buckles and
spurs ; so celebrated indeed were Bolsover buckles
for their elasticity, that it is said the wheel of a
loaded cart could pass over them without in any
way affecting their shape.
The whole town of Bolsover was formerly
fortified, and it is conjectured that it was a strong
garrison of the Danes ; of this we have no
authentic evidence, though extensive earthworks
can still be seen. After the Norman Conquest,
the manor of Bolsover was conferred on William

134 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Peverell, and he built the ancient fortalice, of
which there is now but small trace. From this
time it was considered an important station as a
place of defence ; and there are some interesting
entries relating to the castle in the Pipe Rolls.
Bolsover changed hands many times in the course
of its career, but it was for the most part a royal
fortress, and its castellans were appointed by the
crown. In the nineteenth year of Henry I I.'s
reign, there is a curious item showing the cost of
food in those days. Bolsover Castle was victualled
for a very small expenditure, 40 qrs. of corn
costing 53s. 4d. ; 20 bacons, 53s. ; and 60 cheeses,
19s. 8d. The said castle was also repaired in the
same year by the sheriff, Reginald de Lucy, for
the sum of 40s. The next notice in the Pipe
Rolls occurs in the year 1200, "for enclosing the
park at Bolsover for ^3, by the view of Calf
Lutrel and Wm. Fil Wachel."
In 1204, John bestowed the government of the
castle on his favourite, William de Briwere ; but
a few years later, it was seized by the rebellious
barons and held by them until 12 15, when
William de Ferrars, Earl of Derby, re-took it for
the king. During the next three centuries,
frequent mention is made of the castle, indeed the

BOLSOVER CASTLE. 135
list of its owners and governors is of such a
length that one is almost tempted to say that its
possession brought loss and misfortune along with
it, for it never remained long in the same family.
After many vicissitudes, it was granted by Henry
VIII. to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk ; but,
on the attainder of his son, the second duke, it once
again reverted to the crown. When Edward VI.
bestowed it on the Earl of Shrewsbury, the
ancient fortress was fast decaying, and so little
pains were taken to preserve it, that ere the
seventeenth century dawned it was a mass of
ruins. In 1613, Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrews
bury, sold Bolsover to Sir Charles Cavendish,
younger son of the renowned " Bess of Hard
wick," and probably congratulated himself on the
bargain he had made. The new owner was an
energetic man. In the year of his purchase he
cleared away the tottering ruins of the Norman
keep, and on the same site " the foundation of the
newe house at Bolsover begune to be layde."
This " newe house " is the present castle, and is
situated on the brink of a high lime-stone rock at
a considerable elevation above the valley overlook
ing a great extent of country. It is a square,
lofty fabric of brown stone, having a tower at each

136 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
angle, the one at the N.E. corner being of much
larger dimensions. It was not intended for a
fortress, but rather for a domestic residence.
The architect was Huntingdon Smithson. The
interior is a curious specimen of the arrangements
and accommodation of the age ; to our modern
eyes it appears ill-contrived and inconvenient.
The rooms are small, the floors are of stone or
plaster, the walls are wainscoted ; yet the fortress
is still inhabited, and forms a picturesque, if some
what unconventional, abode.
The entrance is by a flight of steps leading
into a high enclosed court ; over the door isa figure of
Hercules supporting on his massive shoulders the
heavy balcony above. The hall is of moderate
size. Its elaborately groined ceiling is supported
by two circular stone columns. The "pillar-
parlour " is of similar construction, and is a
remarkable apartment ; it, too, has an arched roof
sustained by a central pillar, round which is a
plain circular dining-table ; the wainscoted walls
are ornamented with quaint gilt devices. The
largest room is the Star Chamber, with its
decorated ceiling of blue and gold, its rich
chimney-piece, and its portraits of the twelve
Caesars. It has now been fitted up as a museum.

BOLSOVER CASTLE. 137
and contains a valuable collection of Etruscan
curiosities. As soon as Sir Charles Cavendish had finished
this reproduction of the old Norman keep, he
began to erect the magnificent range of buildings

BOLSOVER CASTLE.

which extends along the grand terrace. He died
in 161 7, and left the completion of his work to
his son. Earl, and afterwards Duke, of Newcastle.
This immense fabric was of almost royal dimen
sions, the dining-room was 78 feet by 33 feet, the

138 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
draw^ing-room 39 feet by 2)Z f^^*^' ^^ picture
gallery 220 feet by 28 feet, and the other rooms
were proportionately large. The noble owner
(better known in later times by his well-earned
title of " The Loyal Duke ") entertained Charles I.
three times in this new castle. In 1633 the King
paid his first visit, and so well-pleased was he
with the hospitality that he then received that he
determined to repeat his visit without loss of
time. Accordingly, we read in the Duchess of
Newcastle's " Life of the Duke," that a year after
the king was pleased to send my lord word that
her majesty the queen was resolved to make a
progress in the northern parts, desiring him to
prepare the like entertainment for her majesty,
which my lord did, and endeavoured for it with
all possible care and industry, sparing nothing
which might add to the splendour of the feast,
which both their majesties were pleased to honour
with their presence. Lord Clarendon speaks of
the entertainment as "stupendous," and the term
seems hardly too strong when we remember that
the cost was between fourteen and fifteen thousand
pounds. All the neighbouring nobility and gentry
were welcomed to the hospitable roof, open house
was. kept, rich banquets were spread, merry-mak-

BOLSOVER CASTLE. 139
ing and feasting were the order of the day ! The
generous host spared no effort to make the
entertainment worthy of the occasion, and to this
end he procured the services of Ben Jonson, who
was entrusted with the task of writing a masque
and superintending its performance. " Rare Ben "
was a courtly poet, and his work was right well
done, eulogistic phrases and delicate flattery
flowed with a happy grace from his pen. The
masque was entitled " Love's Welcome," its chief
object was to introduce a course of quintain
"performed by the gentry of the county, neigh
bours of this earl, in the guise of rustico in which
much awkwardness was affected, and much real
dexterity shown."
The entertainment was very quaint and
diverting, and as the Earl of Newcastle was at
that time Lord Lieutenant of both Derby
shire and Nottinghamshire, the union of the
two counties was typified by an allegorical
marriage between " Penn, daughter of Father
Fitz-Ale, herald of Derby," and " Bold Stub of
Sherwood." The play concluded with a panegyric on Charles,
in blank verse ; it contains the following fine
passage :- —

I40 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE. "  such a king

As men would wish, that knew not how to hope
His like, but seeing him ! A prince, that's law
Unto himself; is good for goodness sake.
And so becomes the rule with his subjects !
That studies not to seem or to show great.
But be : — not drest for other's eyes and ears.
With views and false rumours, but makes fame
Wait on his actions and then so speak his name."
At the beginning of the contest between the
King and the Parliament, the Earl fortified and
garrisoned the town and castle of Bolsover for
the King's service. He was made commander-
in-chief of the royal army, and in consequence
of his success in that capacity was created the
Marquis of Newcastle.
In 1644, the castle was attacked by the
Roundheads under Major-General Crawford.
The following account of its capture is given in
a Parliamentary chronicle bearing the curious
title "The Burning Bush not Consumed": —
" Shordy after August 1 6, 1 644, the noble Major-
General having left Colonel Bright, a commander
of my Lord Fairfax's, and a party of foot in the
casde (Sheffield) by order from the most noble Earl
of Manchester, advanced towards Bolsover Castle,
about eight miles from Sheffield. It being

BOLSOVER CASTLE. 141
another strong house of Marquesse Newcastle's,
in Derbyshire, which was well manned with
soldiers, and strengthened with great guns, one
whereof carried eighteen pound bullets, others
nine pounds, and it had strong works about it ;
yet this castle also, upon summons, was soon
rendered up to my Lord's forces, upon fair and
moderate articles granted to them. It pleased
God to give us, in this castle of Bolsover, an
hundred and twenty muskets, besides pikes,
halberts, etc. Also an iron drake, some leaden
bullets, two mortar pieces, some other drakes,
nine barrels of powder, with a proportion of
match, some victuals for our soldiers, and some
plunder." The grand range of buildings in which
Charles I. had been entertained, was partially
pulled down during the Commonwealth, and the
costly furniture destroyed.
After the Restoration, " the Loyall Duke "
returned from exile, and repaired to a
great extent the grievous damage that
had been done to the building. But it was
not destined to any great length of life, for early
in the eighteenth century it fell into decay, and
now little remains but bare walls and the spacious

142 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Riding House. The valuable pictures and
furniture were removed to Welbeck.
In 171 1, the duchy of Newcastle be
came extinct ; the estates have since devolved
to the present noble owner, the Duke of
Portland.

^be Xamp of St. Ibelen.
By T. Tindall Wildridge.
WHEN the custom arose no man knows,
but for ages certain lands at Eyam
were held by the tenure of keeping a lamp
perpetually burning on the altar of St. Helen
in the parish church. Thus the Staffords held
it through many generations. It was to be
maintained by the actual male possessor, or in
default of male issue, by female issue during her
life on condition of her utterly abstaining from
marriage, at which, or at her death, the estates
should revert to the Lords of the Manor or to the
Crown. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth these wide
spread lands were in possession of Humphrey
Stafford, whose family, from the time of King
Henry III., had enjoyed the estate, acquiring it
by marriage with a Furnival, a name occurring
among ancient British records. Humphrey
Stafford was a man of noble mind, of un-

144 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
sparing benevolence, and judicial integrity. His
father had died impressing upon him the injunction
to perpetuate the line, and thus keep alive the
lamp on the altar of St. Helen. Humphrey
married, and became the father of five daughters,
Margaret, Alice, Gertrude, Ann, and Catherine,
and two sons, Humphrey and Roland.
The sons, however, died in early youth, and
his wife died shortly after the birth of the second.
This was a great bitterness to one in
Humphrey Stafford's position ; of great wealth,
lord of a wide domain, he could not, while
recollecting the terms of his tenure, centuries old
though it was, look round upon his domain
without reflecting with a sigh that it must shortly
pass away from his family for ever. Of a lofty
soul and high-strung temperament, he had imbibed
all the refinement of the age without participating
in the least of its vices; all the chivalric devotion
and religious purity of his ancestors were embodied
in him, and he adopted, in its fullest sense, the
saying "once a wife, always a wife." He never
entertained the thought of replacing the lost
companion of his bliss, so from the prime of
middle life to approaching age gave himself up
to regrets for the past, and, so far as this

THE LAAIP OF ST. HELEN. 145
world was concerned, to gloomy contemplation
of the future.
Ready as had been his wont to adjust the
differences of his tenantry and neighbours, to
assist the indigent, and encourage the struggling,
he became a less and less familiar figure on the
village green, where the competitors in the rural
and warlike sports had been long accustomed
to measure their prowess by his approval. At
the tiny church of Eyam he continued to be a
regular worshipper, joining to his attendance
there the duty, almost as sacred to him, of
replenishing the ancient lamp which burned
with unceasing flame on the altar of St. Helen.
His daughters grew up in the lovely likeness
of their mother, and to see them develope in
virtue, beauty, and accomplishments, was by its
necessary cares, a pleasing abstraction for the
brooding Stafford. But from far and near suitors
shortly came to seek the hands of his fair children.
Rowland Morewood, of Bradford, in Yorkshire,
married Catherine ; an ancestor of the Earls of
Newburgh, Gertrude ; while Alice became the
wife of John Savage, of Castleton ; and Ann, of
Francis Bradshaw, of the famous Judge Bradshaw's
ancestry.

146 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
The beauteous Margaret alone was left, and she
refusing to leave her aging father, gently declined
all solicitations to look with favour upon the
gallants who would fain have sought her in
marriage. It is hinted, perhaps with truth, that
had she been disposed to have bestowed her
heart upon any of them, it would have been upon
young Anthony Babington, a rich gentleman of
the county, with whom she and her father were on
terms of intimate friendship. She considered,
however, it was her duty, brief though the respite
might be, to take upon herself the charge allowed
by the Stafford tenure, and maintain unmarried
till her death, should she survive her father, the
lamp of St. Helen's. If there were any truth in
the conjectures of gossips, they were prevented
by the course of events from having any
confirmation. In the neighbourhood of Eyam is the glorious
Chatsworth House, where the great Earl of
Shrewsbury, the kinsman of Humphrey Stafford,
had his seat. Humphrey Stafford, by his place in
the district, and by a mutual arrangement, was
the guardian of the earl's manorial interests during
his absence, and the most friendly relations existed
between the families. One day the earl sent

THE LAMP OF ST. HELEN. 147
a letter which had a momentous interest for the
recipients. The earl expected shortly to have in
his charge as a prisoner, the beauteous Queen of
Scots, the unfortunate, however culpable, Mary
Stuart. There is little doubt that the dethroned
and fugitive queen had among the subjects of this
realm a great sympathy, and the numerous plots
formed for her release entangled very many who,
though they were sufficiently loyal to Queen
Elizabeth to be guiltless of treason, yet could
not withhold active commiseration from her royal
captive, and a philosophical disapproval of Eliza
beth's policy. Among such might be reckoned
the Staffords. They went with eagerness to
Chatsworth, and there saw the Queen of Scots,
though the accounts do not speak of their seeing
her otherwise than through a latticed casement as
she walked on the terrace without. They thus,
and apparently in no other way, had an
opportunity of seeing her whose redoubled mis
fortunes had so often engaged their pity. Before
they left the palatial abode of the earl and
countess, the earl took the opportunity of speak
ing with Stafford upon two subjects of deep
interest to both of them. The earl expressed his
intention of having the custody of the Scottish

148 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
queen transferred to some other loyal person,
apparently having in his mind the probable
success of one of the plots directed against the
life of Queen Elizabeth.
He also alluded, in the course of his conversa
tion, to a hope that he might, by his influence, be
able to secure the expungment of the limiting
clause in the Eyam tenure. He was the titular
lord of the manor, though Stafford held the
possessions and represented him at its courts.
The Staffords returned home, full of melancholy
excitement produced by the vivid impression
of the sorrows of the queenly prisoner, as
evidenced by the sadness and despondency of her
face, which they had now themselves looked upon.
It happened that on this day the enthusiastic
Margaret had purposed writing aletter to their friend
Babington, who was then abroad. The next day
it was written, and in it Margaret gave an account
of the visit to Chatsworth, dwelling on the
injustice of Mary's imprisonment, and expressing
the hope that she would yet ascend her throne.
To this letter she attached her own signature and
that of her father.
Unhappily, this letter arrived at Paris at the
moment when Anthony Babington was being led

THE LAMP OF ST. HELEN. 149
to set on foot his well-known plot aimed at the
life of Elizabeth. Not long after the fateful visit
to Chatsworth, Humphrey Stafford died. He
was found dead in his chair one evening while his
daughter had gone on her daily errand to the
village. He was buried in simple pomp at Eyam
Church, and his daughter was left, as she had
sadly anticipated, to serve the Lamp alone.
Time beat his laboured flight slowly but
surely on, bringing in his wake troubles for the
beauteous Margaret, through her friendship for
Anthony Babington, now more deeply engaged in
his plot to subvert the government, kill the Queen,
and establish Mary Stuart upon the English
throne. In this conspiracy, of which he was the chief
mover, were concerned also Chidioke Tichborne,
Charles Tilney, Edward Abingdon, Thomas
Salisbury, and Edward Jones, John Savage,
Robert Barnwelle, Henry Dunn, John Travers,
John Charnock, and Richard Gage, " Esquires or
Gentlemen," and John Ballard, a seminary priest.
Babington returned to England, and all was ready
for the murder and invasion. Savage bound
himself to perform the assassination. Ballard,
however, while on his way to signify to Mendoza

I50 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
of Spain the readiness of affairs, was arrested
through the vigilance of Secretary Walsingham.
Upon this, Babington, with Charnock and Savage,
determined to kill the Queen without waiting for
the arrival of the Spanish ships. Here again the
omnipresent eyes in the pay of the inimitable
Secretary prevented. Babington was arrested ;
he escaped, staining his face and hands with
walnut leaves, which Speed says " shadowed
neither his shame nor sinne," for while, under
the appearance of a labourer, making his way
to tlie seas, he was discovered, and committed
to the Tower.
Before his seizure at Harrow, however,
Babington remembered that among the papers
of encouragement he had forwarded to the
Queen of Scots, and which were seized, as he
heard, at Chertsey, was the letter he had
received from the Staffords, and it affords some
colour to the suggestion of the old gossips
aforesaid, and to the probability that Stafford
and his daughter had a greater knowledge of
the plot than the historian has generally allowed,
that the flying conspirator should warn Margaret
to seek safety in flight. It also argues in the
same direction that Margaret should have

THE LAMP OF ST. HELEN. 151
promptly done so, and that her pursuit should
have been so persistent.
A yearly autumnal festival of the Midlands is
the Wakes, the chief holiday time of the year.
A large company of merry-makers on Wake
Monday, 1591, were carousing at the Shrewsbury
Arms, Eyam, when the host, one Decket, was
summoned from his singing and shouting guests
to the door of his inn by a tall stranger, whom
after a brief colloquy, he joined, and both set off
to Stafford Hall as expeditiously as possible.
They arrived there just as Margaret was leaving
the Hall to proceed to the Church to fulfil her
self-imposed task of replenishing the still steadily
burning Lamp of St. Helen's altar. The stranger
at once advanced towards her, and implored her
to read without delay the letter he handed her.
It was from Babington. She did so, and stood
in consternation. Whither should she fly. The
stranger counselled some secret cave or wood.
Decket, aware of the whole circumstances and the
need of immediate action, hurried her away to the
"Salt Pan," a deep and intricate natural cleft in
the rocks near Eyam. Here he left her, promising
speedy return. The stranger's humane mission
performed, he took his way.

152 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Within an hour, Decket was again summoned
from attending the carousing company of his
hostel. This time the strangers were four in
number ; they were mounted and armed. Dis
mounting, they ordered their horses to be stabled,
and the road to Stafford Hall to be pointed out to
them. Arrived, they demanded to be conducted
to the presence of Humphrey and Margaret
Stafford. The astonished domestics informed
them that Stafford was dead, and that Madame
Stafford was gone to church. Believing this to
be an attempt to deceive them, they rushed into
the hall and searched it minutely. They were soon
convinced that Humphrey was indeed dead, but
imagined the servants knew where Margaret was
hidden in some secret corner of the ancient
building ; the inmates of the hall could not,
though threatened with death, reveal what they
did not know, and the day passed without any
success in the search. During the next day,
every cottage in the village was ransacked.
During the night, Decket had quietly availed
himself of the darkness, and conducted Margaret
from the Salt Pan's labyrinths to a cottage at
Gother-edge, two miles across Eyam Moor,
where she remained while the queen's emissaries

THE LAMP OF ST. HELEN. 153
held watchful guard at Stafford Hall. Soon, how
ever, thecountry began to be scoured for the fugitive
lady. In view of the long pursuit, it is evident
that some treacherous tongue could not keep the
secret of her whereabouts ; but from a hundred
dangers she had as many miraculous escapes. It
is not to be supposed that the search would con
tinue as unremitting as at first, but it is certainly
recorded that for many years the unhappy
Margaret was hunted like a wild animal, never
venturing near any house or building by day.
Many times by night she ventured into Eyam
itself, and then silently would pay her heart-felt
devotions before the Lamp of St. Helen, with
her friends, probably Robert Talbot, the rector of
Eyam, an old friend of herself and her father.
In one humble cottage or another her nights were
passed, her days in the dark woods and wilds of
that rugged district.
In process of time the queen died. Then
Madame Staiiford returned to the home of her
ancestors without further fear of being disturbed,
and the villagers welcomed their beloved mistress
home with unfeigned joy.
The sufferings which Margaret Stafford had
undergone on his mother's behalf was made

154 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
known to King James, who asked how she might
be compensated for her painful experiences. She
had now an opportunity which to her was worth
all the tedious years of her dangerous conceal
ment. She requested that the Stafford tenure
connected with the Lamp of St. Helen might be
abrogated, and that the lands might henceforth
descend in fee simple to the co-heiresses of
Humphrey Stafford and their heirs for ever.
Long lived Margaret as Madame Stafford, the
idol of the villagers, whose interests she made her
own. She erected a new church-tower in the room
of the old, and added a peal of bells. Then she,
too, passed away, the Lamp of St. Helen being
placed, at her request, at the foot of her coffin. The
stone on which for centuries the lamp had stood was
also put in the same place, but this was in later
times taken up, and beneath the window of the
north aisle it may yet be seen with its quaint
Runic scroll, telling of some far-off period when
the mystic Lamp of St. Helen was first lighted
by an early devotee.

pevenl Castle.
By James L. Thornely.
SIR Walter Scott's love of romance and local
tradition occasionally led him to blend
fiction with fact in a manner which jars somewhat
upon the sense of reverence which all lovers of
history must feel for the records of the past.
In one of the most stirring of his novels,
" Peveril of the Peak," this defect is more than
once apparent. Charmed, doubtless, by the noble
beauty of the old Norman name, and possibly
still more by the convenient alliterative title which
it furnished for his novel. Sir Walter was con
strained to lay the venue (to borrow a phrase from
the lawyers) in the county of Derby, and to
weave around the old ruined keep, that towers
above the valley of Castleton, a tissue of gay
romance with the most fragile of historic founda
tions, and one which strikes even the casual visitor
to those regions as incongruous and ill-placed. In
short, his local descriptions are not those of a
man who knew the place and loved it, but rather

156 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
the artifices of a dramatic painter seeking a back
ground for his scene, not for the sake of the
scenery, but of the play and its characters.
To put it yet more briefly, Sir Geoffrey Peveril
and the other dramatis personcz might just as
conveniently have strutted their little hour upon
the stage in any other portion of the United
Kingdom : the story would have in no wise
suffered. Other inaccuracies of a kindred origin disfigure
the tale, and offend us by giving the impression
of an author whose vast knowledge of history and
tradition has encouraged a licence in the utilisa
tion of real persons and real places for the
exigencies of fiction, to which we grudge even the
mighty "Wizard of the North" his title. Per
exemplum, shifting the locale to the Isle of Man
(which he had never visited). Sir Walter makes a
strange confusion between the castles of Peel and
of Rushen. But far less excusable in our eyes is the
use he has made of the heroic Charlotte de la
Tremouille, Countess of Derby. Who, in the
colourless presentation which is given in the book,
would recognise the lofty and high-souled defender
of Lathom, or the noble woman whose years of
patient widowhood amid neglect and misfortune

PEVERIL CASTLE. 157
have been so well depicted for us by Madame
Guizot de Wit? In Scott's novel she is too
obviously a mere connecting link with the little
Kingdom of Man, whose bounds contained a wealth
of romance, tradition, and blood-curdling mysteries
which the great writer well knew, when placed in
the magic crucible ' of his brain, would give a
rich yield of brilliant ore to furnish his tale
withal. But it is time to pass away from Sir Walter's
novel, and to leave the consideration of what the
Peak Castle and its inhabitants were not, and
turn to the page of history, if haply among the
scattered fragments which are left us, we may
discern in some dim fashion what the old fortress
was, why it is here, and who were its inmates.
" Peveril's place in the peak," as it was anciently
styled, was destined to have a very brief connec
tion with the family of the man who had built it,
and given his name to it. Three generations of
Peverils, but no more ; and then the annals of a
princely house were cut short ; a base escheat had
transferred the wide lands of the Peak to the
Crown, and henceforth the strong fortress was to
shelter only a long series of chatelains, or
custodians, on behalf of the Crown, or — at a later

158 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
period — the Duchy of Lancaster, to which it
came to be, as it now is, appurtenant.
The man who gave to the casde both its local
habitation and its name is indeed to us of the
present day a shadowy enough — we had almost
said a mythic — personage, were it not that he
figures in the pages of more than one chronicler,
and in the great Book of Doomsday. This
survey describes the place as " Terra Castelli Wi.
Peverel in Peche fers," which has been considered
by Lysons as showing that the castle was built by
William Peverel ; but might, we think, be applied
with equal force in support of the opposite theory
advocated by the Rev. C. H. Hartshorne (journal
of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain
and Ireland, 1848) that the fortress was built in
Saxon times. When it was built is one of those
things which "no man shall know;" but what
evidence there is points towards a Norman,
though undoubtedly early Norman, origin.
When we called William Peverel mythic, we
merely meant to point out the lack of information
with which we have to put up : he appears as one
of those huge, rough-hewn soldier figures who
loom out of the darkness of that stormy epoch of
history beginning with the battle of Senlac.

PEVERIL CASTLE. 159
Like the Conqueror, he was a bastard — son of
that Conqueror by a Saxon lady of high degree.
His surname was borrowed from the man whom
his mother subsequently married, Ranulf Peverel,
of Hatfield Peverel, in Essex, whose father,
Payne Peverel, was standard-bearer to Robert,
Duke of Normandy, father of the Conqueror.
The bend sinister in those days was a small
hindrance to advancement, and William Peverel
had no cause to complain of his father's treatment.
Shortly after the invasion, the honour and forest
of Peke, and numerous other territories were
granted to him. Under William Rufus, Peverel
served in Normandy against Duke Robert, and
did his utmost to hold the castle of Helme,
though without success. The second Peverel
was also named William, founder of the Cluniac
Priory of Lenton, near Nottingham, which he
endowed with broad lands, and a tithe of his
lead and venison in the Peak. Church patronage
and charity, according to the views of the time,
seem to have characterised this lord of the Peak.
St. Mary's Abbey, at York, was largely benefited
by him, and he was also founder of an abbey of
Black Monks near Northampton. A record of
the latter house gives his death as occurring on

i6o BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
the fifth of the calends of February, 2, Henry I.
{i.e., 1 1 13).
It had been well for the son of the
founder of Lenton Priory had he followed in his
father's steps. This son, however, the third
William in succession^ was convicted, or at least
accused, of having poisoned the great Earl
Ranulf of Chester in league with the guilty
Countess Aloisa. More than one monkish
chronicler records this evil deed : the work of
" quondam Will. Peverel," as Gervase of
Canterbury tells us. But justice in those days
did not wholly slumber, and the atrocity of this
act, aggravated by the complicity of the victim's
faithless wife, and perhaps, more than all, by
the rank and power of the unhappy Earl, cried
not in vain for vengeance. There was nothing
for it now, so Peverel thought, but to flee for
sanctuary to his father's priory at Lenton, and as
a last resource to assume the monastic garb. But
this last shift did not avail him, and he was forced
to leave the country, and go into voluntary exile.
Thereupon the king seized "his plate, his goods,
his money, and his lands," and the castle was
added to the number of the royal strongholds.
Before bidding farewell to the Peverel family, we

PEVERIL CASTLE. i6i
may mention a rather apocryphal joust or tourney,
which is stated, on the authority of Pilkington, to
have been held at the castle in their days. The
meed of the victor was to be the hand of a fair
lady, Mellet, the daughter of Payne Peverel, with
the castle of Whittington, in Shropshire, to boot.
The hero of the fray was one Guarine de Metz of
Lorraine, while the vanquished were a Scottish
prince and a Burgundian baron.
The kings of England found their newly
acquired castle most convenient as a hunting
lodge, while the peak country was rich in beasts
of venery ; and during their residence here, the
kings kept good tables, as appears from the
sheriffs accounts entered in the great Pipe Roll.
Henry II. gave the Peak to his youngest son,
afterwards King John, who appointed Hugh de
Neville his governor, but the castle afterwards
passed into the hands of the barons. In 12 15,
William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, seized the
castle for King John, and was appointed governor,
being succeeded in that office by the Earl of
Chester. Among the castellans appointed by the
Crown at various times may be mentioned Piers
Gaveston, the favourite of Edward 1 1., and John,
Earl of Warren, who held the office in the same
M

1 62 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
reign. The post was frequently changed in the
reign of Henry III., in the thirty-fifth year of
whose reign it was held by Prince Edward.
Simon de Montfort held it in the forty-ninth year
of the same reign. In Henry 1 1 I.'s reign also
Richard de Vernon held it (47, Hen. III.), and
also Bryan de I'lsle, who was also at one time
confined in the castle.
The next stage of the old castle's history was
reached in the forty-sixth year of Edward III.,
when, after having bestowed it as a part of the
portion of his sister Joan on her marriage with
David, Prince of Scotland, the king gave it, with
the honour and forest of Peke, to his son, John
of Gaunt, and the latter having been subsequently
created Duke of Lancaster, the castle became, as
it is at the present day, part and parcel of the
Duchy. Mr. Croston tells us that the castle was used
at times as a prison. " In 2, Edward I.
(1273), John de Nedham, a companion of Hubert
the Robber, who was afterwards hung, was
immured within its walls, and Henry, the clerk,
took from the said John, whilst he was in prison,
an acre of land worth 40s., that he might assist
him in his delivery. Upon his release he paid a

PEVERIL CASTLE.

163

fine of five marks for being allowed to dwell in
the district. At a later period, 4, Henry IV.
(1402), Godfrey Rowland, a poor and simple
squire of the county of Derby, as he styles

^•^ --'.. *»- *"._ _" ^^

PEVERIL CASTLE.
himself, petitioned the parliament against the
injustice that had been inflicted on him by
Thomas W^andesby, Chivaler, and others, who
1 64 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
came and besieged his house at Mickel-Longsdon,
and having pillaged the same, carried him off" to
the casde of the High Peak, where they kept him
six days without meat or drink, and then, cutting
off his right hand, sent him adrift."
The Duke of Devonshire is lessee from the
Duchy of Lancaster of the castle, honour, and
forest of Peak.
For some centuries the castle has been ruinous
and untenanted. Charles Cotton (author of
Part II. of the "Complete Angler") in his
" Wonders of the Peak," speaks of it as —
"An antick thing, fit to make people stare.
But of no use either in peace or war."
Little enough now remains of the structure, but
the old square keep still stands on the verge of
the sheer precipice at the foot of which is the mouth
of the Peak Cavern ; still stands "four-square to
every wind that blows," as it has now stood for
at least eight centuries. Fragments of the outer
wall are also standing. The castle can never
have been a large one, for there is little space
on the rocky hill upon which it is perched.
Well-nigh impregnable it must have been in
those ante-artillery days. The keep, which
commands a sweeping view of the Hope Valley

PEVERIL CASTLE. 165
on one side, and the little ravine known as Cave
Dale which runs at the rear of the castle on the
other, is built on the very edge of a great
precipice of perpendicular rock, on which
numerous bushes and plants grow wild ; the
remainder of the crest of the hill is occupied by
the site of the old courtyard and other buildings
of the castle.
In the travels of Charles P. Moritz, the
Prussian pastor, who visited England in 1782, and
made a journey on foot to Castleton, he speaks of
his visit to the castle : —
"This morning 1 was up very early in order to
view the ruins, and to climb a high hill alongside
of them. The ruins are directly over the mouth
of the hole, on the hill, which extends itself some
distance over the cavern beyond the ruins, and
also widens, though here in front it is so narrow
that the building takes up the whole. From
the ruins all around there is nothing but
steep rock, so that there is no access to it but
from the town, where a crooked path from the
hill is hewn in the rock, but is also prodigiously
steep. The spot on which the ruins stand is now all
overgrown with nettles and thistles. Formerly,
it is said, there was a bridge from this mountain

i66 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
to the opposite one, of which one may yet
discover some traces, as in the vale which
divides the two rocks we still find the remains
of some of the arches on which the bridge rested."
From the main street of the little town of
Castleton the view of the old keep is very
striking : it stands upon the steep rock behind
the town, in strong relief against the sky ; and
when thus seen on a grey, windy day, with the
clouds driving past it, the effect is one of grandeur
and sadness never to be forgotten.
Mr. Croston, in his little work " On foot
through the Peak," has given an accurate and
succinct description of the relics of " Peverel's
place in the Peak " as we find them to-day.
" The ballium, or castle yard, occupies nearly
the entire area of the summit, and is enclosed
by a curtain wall, partially destroyed and over
grown with ivy. The plan is in the form of
an irregular paralellogram, with a donjon or keep
at the south-west angle, immediately over the
entrance to the great cavern, and at the extreme
edge of the rock which, on this side, is quite
perpendicular, and upwards of 260 feet in height.
Flanking the eastern and western angles of the
north side were two square towers, now in part

PEVERIL CASTLE. 167
destroyed, and between them are the remains
of what appears to have been a sally-port. The
postern, or entrance gateway, some traces of
which yet exist, was on the east side, and here
was stationed the porter, whose annual allowance
is entered upon the great Pipe Roll of the
Exchequer. The keep is quadrangular in plan,
being about twenty-one feet from north to south,
and nineteen feet from east to west, internal
measurement, with walls eight feet thick, the
height from the basement being about fifty-five feet.
The masonry is of a very substantial character,
and strongly grouted, the heart of the walls being
composed of broken and irregular pieces of lime
stone, cemented together with a mortar of such
excellent temper as to render the whole almost as
hard as adamant. The walls have been faced on
the outer surface with finely-wrought ashlaring,
set in regular courses, and the south and south
west sides (those least accessible) remain in a
tolerably perfect state, but the north and east
sides have been denuded of nearly the whole, the
stone having been appropriated by some vandal-
istic churchwarden to repair the church of
Castleton. Enough of the outer walls yet remain,
however, to give a tolerably accurate idea of the

1 68 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
general features and characteristics of the building.
From these it would appear that there was
originally a broad pilaster-like buttress placed
rectangular-wise at each corner of the keep, with
a plain torus moulding or small cylindrical shaft
worked on the angle, an addition frequently met
with in buildings erected during the later period
of the Norman style ; buttresses, similar in
design, were also disposed against each face of the
building. The entrance is at the south-east angle,
in which is a narrow winding staircase, much
dilapidated, giving admission to the upper storey.
The interior of the keep is a complete vacuity,
and remarkable only as exhibiting an almost entire
absence of ornament, and an equal want of
accommodation. It originally consisted of two
chambers, in addition to the basement, the floor
that once separated them no longer existing.
The lower storey, about fourteen feet in height,
is lighted by a semi-circular window on the north
and east sides ; the one above is sixteen feet high,
and lighted by three windows ; this was originally
approached by a flight of steps on the outside,
but these no longer remain, though they are said
to have existed until within a comparatively
recent period. The doorway that leads to this

PEVERIL CASTLE. 169
staircase still remains, and has a curious archway."
Although, as stated by Mr. Croston, the interior
of the keep is almost devoid of ornament, its
walls, nevertheless, exhibit some examples of the
carved zigzag pattern in which we recognise one
of the most characteristic forms of decoration
common among the Norman builders.
Meagre and brief as are these notes, little
further can probably be gleaned of the history of
the old fortalice.
Imagination, may, perhaps, be allowed the freer
scope to weave her own romances : this consola
tion at least, if such it be, can be withheld from no
pilgrim to the hoary ruin. It has been our duty
alone to set in order some of the few memorials
of the silent past which the zeal and reseairch of
the antiquary have put within our reach.
The accompanying illustration shows the old
keep as seen from Cave Dale at the back of the
castle rock, a point of view which, artistically
considered, is, perhaps, the finest, where all are fine.
Such is "Peverel's place in the Peak" as it
stands to-day — and long may it stand ! — as a link
with the past, to which the most indifferent
among us must look at times with feelings of
reverence, wonder, and regard.

Samuel Slater, tbe ifatber of tbe Hmerican
Cotton fIDanufacture.
By William E. A. Axon.
THE man to whose enterprise and business
ability the United States owes the success
ful introduction of the cotton manufacture, was a
native of Derbyshire. *
On 9th June, 1768, the family of William
Slater, who farmed the small paternal estate of
Holly House, Belper, was increased by the birth
of a fifth son, to whom the name of Samuel was
given. Of his childhood little is known, but he
doubtless enjoyed himself with the orchards and
meadows that surrounded his father's farm, and
looked with curiosity and amazement at the " new
mills " built by Strutt and Arkwright, where
several years of his life were to be passed.
Towards the close of 1782, Samuel Slater was
* The authorities for this notice are : ( I ) " Memoir of Samuel Slater,
the Father of American Manufactures," by George S. Whites (Phila
delphia, 1836) — a book containing much important and interesting matter,
mixed up with much that is irrelevant, and exhibiting an almost entire
absence of orderly arrangement ; (2) " Appleton's Dictionary of American
Biography." There is a portrait of Slater in each of these.

SAMUEL SLATER. 171
taken on trial by Mr. Jedidiah Strutt, and whilst
he was thus on probation, his father fell from a
load of hay, and injured himself in a manner
that ultimately caused his death. The indenture
by which Slater became apprenticed to learn the
art of cotton-spinning, was executed in January,
1783, and for six years he engaged to serve his
master faithfully, to keep his secrets, to avoid
fornication, matrimony, cards, dice tables, and
other unlawful games, taverns and play-houses.
In return for so doing, he was to be found in
meat, drink, washing, and lodging, and taught the
art of cotton-spinning. Slater was devoted to
his business, and for six months did not visit his
own home, which was not more than a mile away.
An improvement in the arrangement known as
the "heart motion," secured the boy a reward of
a guinea from his master, who was as swift to
reprove as to encourage. Mr. Strutt one day
noticed that Slater did not pick up some loose
cotton that was lying on the floor ; this omission
was pointed out, with the reminder that it was by
attention to such " trifles " that great fortunes
were made. " I am afraid," observed Mr. Strutt
to his wife, "that Samuel will never be rich."
The industrious apprentice was reticent, and

172 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
kept his own counsel as to his future, but he
seems to have had a fear that the business would
be "overdone" in England, and to have con
ceived the notion that there would be an ampler
scope in America, where, according to rumours
that reached Derbyshire from time to time, the
Federal, as well as several of the State govern
ments, were anxious by liberal bounties to
encourage the foundation of manufactures. The
export of machinery from England was then
prohibited, and the authorities were very jealous
of the departure of skilled artizans. These facts
may, in some degree, account for the secrecy
of Slater's actions. He went to Holly House
one day after the close of his apprenticeship,
and told his mother that he wanted his clothes
as he was going by the stage coach to London.
This was the last time he saw her, nor did he
write to tell her of his real intentions until he
was going to the ship that was to carry him
to New York. This was on September 13th,
1789, and after a voyage of sixty-six days he
landed in the New World. Up to that time the
attempt to introduce English patented machinery
into the United States had failed. Slater
obtained employment with the New York Manu-

SAMUEL SLATER. 173
facturing Company, but he heard that a manager
of cotton-spinning was wanted in Providence, and
wrote to Mr. Moses Brown of that city. That
worthy Quaker at once responded, and Slater
went to "perfect and conduct" the business of
Almy and Brown. When he reached Pawtucket
he was disappointed to find that the machines
he was to " perfect " were useless. " These will
not do," he said, "they are good for nothing
in their present condition, nor can they be made
to answer." After full consideration, it was
decided that Slater should construct and erect
fresh machinery, embodying all the inventions and
improvements made by Sir Richard Arkwright.
This was a heavy undertaking, for he had neither
models nor drawings, but only his mechanical skill
and retentive memory to depend upon, and some
even of the tools for the construction of the
machinery had to be specially made. A partner
ship was agreed upon between Almy and Brown
and Slater, by which he was to be proprietor of
one-half of the machinery. Slater was recom
mended by Brown to lodge with another Quaker,
a skilful blacksmith named Oziel Wilkinson. As
the young fellow went into the house one way,
two daughters ran out the other way, but the

174 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
younger, Hannah, touched by feminine curiosity,
peeped through the open door, and her eyes met
those of Samuel Slater. A mutual affection soon
resulted, to the great perplexity of the Quaker
father and mother, who liked the lad, but did not
wish their daughter to marry out of the Society.
The family took great interest in the young
Englishman, and sympathised with his difficulties.
These were great, and there came a critical
moment when failure seemed certain. After his
frames were ready for operation, he prepared the
cotton, and started his cards ; the cotton rolled
up on the top of the cards, instead of passing
through the small cylinder. This was a grievous
trouble to him, and he was for several days
in great agitation, and as he stood leaning his
head disconsolately over the fireplace the tears
were seen rolling from his eyes. "Art thou sick,
Samuel ?" asked Mrs. Wilkinson. He explained
his difficulty, and added bitterly, " If I am
frustrated in my carding machine, they will think
me an impostor." He then saw M. Phinney Earl,
who had made the cards for him, and who, of
course, was without previous experience, and they
found that the teeth of the cards were not crooked
enough, and the card leather not sufficiendy

SAMUEL SLATER. 175
Strong. They beat the teeth with a piece of
grindstone, and, to the joy of Slater, the
machinery moved " itself aright." It has been
said that the solution of the difficulty came in
a dream, but this is denied. Slater's success as a
wooer equalled his success as a mechanic, and
he married Hannah Wilkinson on 2, Oct 1791.
In 1798, he entered into partnership with his
father-in-law and two brothers-in-law ; the name
of the firm was Samuel Slater and Co., and
Slater held half of the "stock." He had the
reputation of a good master, though he was not
afraid to risk a strike in resisting demands which
he thought unreasonable. The Sunday school
started in connection with the Pawtucket Mills is
said to have been the first of the modern type in
America, though a Sunday school of the kind is
believed to have been working at Germantown
early in the last century. In 1806, another
brother, John Slater, came over, and the large
spinning business and village of Slatersville was
founded, and in 18 12, mills were started at
Oxford, now called Webster. Samuel Slater's
wife, the Quaker Hannah, died in 181 2, and on
the 2 1 St November, 1817, he married the widow
of Robert Parkinson. The letter in which he

176 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
offered his hand and heart to the lady may be
quoted as a curiosity in its way : — -
"Mrs. Robert Parkinson, widow, Philadelphia.
"North Providence, R.I., September 23rd, 1817.
"Dear Madam, — As the wise disposer of all events has
seen fit in his wisdom to place you and me in a single state —
notwithstanding, I presume none of his decrees have gone
forth which compels either of us to remain in a state of widow
hood. Therefore, under these and other circumstances, I now
take the liberty to address you on a momentous subject. I
have been inclined for some time past to change my situation
in life, and have at times named you to my brother and sister
for a partner, who have invariably recommended you as suit
able, and have fully acquiesced with my ideas on the subject.
Now if you are under no obligation to anyone, and on weigh
ing the subject fully, you should think that you can spend the
remainder of your days with me, I hope you will not feel
reluctant in writing me soon to that effect. You need not be
abashed in any degree to express your mind on this business,
for I trust years have taught me to receive your reply
favourably, if my understanding has not. I have six sons to
comfort you with, the eldest is about fifteen years ; he has been
at Oxford about a year (not Oxford in Great Britain). The
youngest is in his sixth year. I believe they are all compos
mentis, and they are as active as any six boys, although they
are mine. Cousin Mary is now down from Ludlow on a visit.
She has a noble corpulent son about six months old. I should
have divulged my intentions to you months past had not my
brother given me to understand that he expected you daily on
this way on a visit. Probably you may consider me rather
blunt in this business ; hope you will attribute that to the
country that gave me birth. I consider myself a plain, candid
Englishman, and hope and trust that you will be candid enough

SAMUEL SLATER. 177
to write me a short answer at least, whether it be in the aflSrma-
tive or negative ; and should it be in the negative, I stand
ready and willing to render you all the advice and assistance in
my power relative to settling your worldly matters.
" With due respect, as a friend and countryman, I am, dear
madam, your well-wisher, "Samuel Slater.
" N.B. — Hope you are a Freemason as respects keeping
secrets." In 1829, the commercial outlook was bad, and
Mr. Slater, whilst perfectly solvent, had so much
capital locked up in securities that were not'
immediately realisable, that he needed accommoda
tion to gain time. He reckoned that his assets
exceeded his liabilities by from 800,000 dollars to
1,000,000 dollars. The year was one of great
trouble and anxiety, and he did not escape with
out loss.
When General Jackson was President of the
United States, he visited Pawtucket, and paid a
high compliment to Slater as the founder of the
industry. "Yes, sir," said Slater, "I suppose
that I gave out the psalm, and they have been
singing the tune ever since." " We are glad to
hear also that you have realised something for
yourself and family," said the Vice-President, who
accompanied General Jackson. " Yes, sir, I
have obtained a competency." " We are glad to
N

178 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
hear that." "So am I glad to know it," said
Slater, "for I should not like to be a pauper in
this country where they are put up at auction to
the highest bidder." This was a characteristic
though not a courtly speech. Slater was always
helpful to the new-comers to America, and was
generally of a charitable disposition, which he
coupled, however, with a strict determination to
help only those who were willing to help themselves.
His second marriage, like his first, was a happy
one, and his wife nursed him tenderly through
the illness that ended his days. His last word
was a " Farewell " addressed to her and his
children. He died at Webster, Mass., 21st April,
1835. His descendants are known as respected
citizens, and his nephew, John Fox Slater, has left
a name for generous and enlightened philanthropy.
He was born 4th March, 18 15, at Slatersville,
and died 7th May, 1884, at Norwich, Conn. In
1882, he gave 1,000,000 dollars for the education
of the freed men in the south. A memorial
building, erected by his son, Mr. William Albert
Slater, at a cost of 150,000 dollars, was given by
him to the Free Academy of Norwich.
A portrait of Samuel Slater has been engraved,
and shows a man of high forehead, keen eyes,

SAMUEL SLATER. 179
Straight long nose, firm mouth, and broad margin
above the upper lip. Presumably, he was not
indifferent to the charms of heraldry, for beneath
his portrait is a coat-of-arms, or. a chev gu.
between three trefoils, slipped vert. Crest, a dexter
arm in armour, couped below the wrist, holding in
the gauntlet a sword all ppr. hilt and pommel or.
Motto, Crescit sub pondere virtus. This is the
coat of the Slaters of Chesterfield, in Derby.
America has good cause for gratitude to the
mechanical talents and business enterprise of
Samuel Slater, and Derbyshire may also
remember the name of this son who learned
within her borders the lessons which brought him
fame and fortune in another land.

^be Baftewell Mitcbes.
By T. Tindall Wildridge.
THE name of Stafford in high places has
furnished the theme for a chapter on
Derbyshire history bordering on the heroic. It
shall now be the medium of setting forth a
narrative on a lower plane of life — a story of
witchcraft and judicial murder. It is a story that
must be twice told to be explicit.
THE FIRST TELLING.
Mrs. Stafford, a milliner of Bakewell, kept there
a lodging-house. Early one morning, as one of
the lodgers, a Scotchman, was lying awake while it
was yet dark, he perceived through the clefts of his
chamber-floor rays of bright light. Peering down
through one of the crevices, he recognised his
landlady and a female companion in the room below,
dressed as though for a journey. As he crouched
over the hole, he heard Mrs. Stafford repeat these
strange words : —
" Over thick, over thin.
Now, devil, to the cellar in Lunnun,"

THE BAKEWELL WITCHES. i8i
when on the instant all was silence and dark
ness. They had gone.
The Scotchman, startled at the occurrence,
wondered what there might be in the lines, and
mechanically endeavoured to repeat them. He
rendered them : —
" T hrough thick, through thin.
Now, devil, to the cellar in Lunnun."
And " through " instead of " over " it was, for a
hurricane immediately caught him up, and
whirled him away, half-naked as he was, and, in
a moment, breathless, confused, and tattered to
ribbons, he found himself sat by the side of the
two witches — for they could be nothing else — in
a cellar, lighted by a dim lamp. The witches
were busily engaged in tying up parcels of silk
and similar goods, which, he somehow understood,
they had " lifted " from shops as they passed
along in their aerial flight through the city, — for
he knew instinctively he was in London. The
witch, Mrs. Stafford, handed him some wine, and,
upon drinking it he immediately became un
conscious. When he came to his senses, he found himself
alone in the cellar. Shortly after, he was taken
into custody by a watchman, and, being haled

i82 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
before a justice, was charged with being found in
an unoccupied house with felonious intent.
Asked by the justice where his clothes were, he
replied that they were at the house of one Mrs.
Stafford, at Bakewell, in Derbyshire.
" Bakewell, Derbyshire ! " cried the astounded
justice, " have you walked thence, clothed but
with that shirt, torn in such a manner ? "
" I came — I know not how. But Mrs.
Stafford came hither in like fashion. I was abed
at three of the clock this present morning in Mrs.
Stafford's house, in Bakewell. I repeated certain
words used by Mrs. Stafford and her sister — as I
think — and I came to London as I have said, but
they have gone back, as I suppose, in like manner
as they came."
" This," said his worship solemnly, " is verily a
clear case of witchcraft. Take down the deposi
tions of this worthy man. See that he be pro
vided with apparel. Lay information before the
justices of Derbyshire to the end that these
witches may be committed to gaol, tried according
to the evidence, and duly executed."
Whether the astute justice before whom the
Scotchman was brought said these actual words,
may be doubtful, but his suppositious instructions

THE BAKEWELL WITCHES. 183
indicate what was done. The witches were
committed, tried, and duly executed upon the
Scotchman's evidence. THE SECOND TELLING.
In the year 1608, a Scotchman, whose execrable
name has not come down to us, lodged at the
house of a Mrs. Stafford, an industrious milliner
of Bakewell. With her there lived as her assistant,
a person who was her sister, or a female friend.
The Scotchman got into arrears with his rent,
and, he leaving his lodgings, Mrs. Stafford
detained some of his clothes as a lien. We know
tongues in the early days of King James I. were
likely to have been more unpolished in their
usage than they are now on similar occasions ;
and it is far from unlikely that some biting words
took place, perhaps on both sides. At all events,
the Scotchman, gravitating by the inexorable
laws of northern nature to London, there
conceived the diabolic plan of vengeance he so
successfully carried out. He retired to a cellar,
stripped himself, hid his clothes, and attracted the
attention of the watch. On being subjected to
the " interrogatories " of the worshipful member
of the bench, he invented a story of how,
imitating a magic spell of Mrs. Stafford, he had.

1 84 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
in the twinkling of an eye, been transported over
no less than five counties, to find himself the com
panion of the two witches. Days had been when
all men — save Macbeth — feared witches. They
had now come when they were more hated than
feared. Nearly every man in magisterial
authority was called upon at one time or another
to decide upon cases of witchcraft, and it was but
an imitation of the silly and superstitious king,
for each man to take pride in being a witchfinder,
or a witch exterminator. The London justice was
an extreme specimen of such foolish credulity, and
set the cumbrous but dreadfully effective machinery
of the law in motion.
The ex-lodger had his revenge. The
" witches " of Bakewell were hanged, — a notable
example, but only one among many which might
be adduced to fill to the full the account of one of
the most deplorable and disgraceful periods of
English history.

flDar^ (Siueen of Scots in 2>erb^sbire.
HISTORY contains few more pathetic
chapters than that which covers the years
of captivity upon which Mary Stuart entered
when she fled from the associated lords, after the
sanguinary conflict at Langside.
Hunted from her native land, her authority
usurped by the kinsman who should have pro
tected her, she sought an asylum from her enemies,
and found a prison and an executioner.
The jealous fear that troubled the soul of
Elizabeth, induced her to retain Mary Stuart in a
long captivity, and brought upon her guilty head
a terrible retribution of long years of suspense,
distrust, and of foreign and domestic embroilments.
Perhaps no monarch was more secure in the
affections of her people, for Elizabeth was
singularly fortunate in following Queen Mary,
and that at a time when the tyrannies of Henry
VIII. were fresh in the minds of the people but,
by her conduct to Mary Stuart, she raised con-

1 86 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
spiracles and rebellions within her borders — the
natural retribution that her crime deserved.
Queen Mary is intimately associated with
Derbyshire by her confinement at Chatsworth
and Wingfield, and her visits to Buxton for the
benefit of her failing health. How jealously
Elizabeth watched her prisoner is proved by the
state correspondence relative to her changes of
residence, her majesty probably being at greater
ease when the captive queen was under safe ward
in Sheffield Castle, although Burleigh regarded
Chatsworth. as "a very mete hows for good
preservation of his charge, having no town of
resort where any ambushes might lye." Yet it
was with evident reluctance that Elizabeth granted
permission for the prisoner to take the air on
horseback, and it was distinctly enjoined that she
should not ride more than one or two miles from
the mansion, unless riding on the moors.
Tradition has it that when Chatsworth was re
built, the rooms occupied by Mary were preserved ;
but this belief is erroneous, the whole of the south
and east fronts being pulled down and rebuilt,
although the site of the rooms was retained,
and it is stipposed that a portion of the original
wall was preserved. The apartments were

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 187
shrouded in the strictest seclusion ; the imprisoned
lady being unable to view the gardens or park
from their windows.
Edensor church contains a monumental brass
to the memory of John Beton, one of Mary's
confidential servants, who was cut off" in the
thirty-second year of his age, a.d. 1570, the year
in which the queen made her first enforced visit to
Chatsworth. Perhaps, however, the most interesting me
morial of Mary, is the small square tower in the
grounds, known as Queen Mary's bower, accessible
by a stairway, surrounded by a pool of water, and
having on the top a miniature shrubbery.
This was a favourite haunt of Mary's, and it
may be recorded that the fair captive's second
letter to Pope Pius bears date of Chatsworth
House, October 31st, 1570.
While Mary was under ward in Wingfield
Manor, a conspiracy, having for its object her
restoration to liberty, was detected, and she was
removed to Tutbury Castle. This is her own
description of her forlorn condition while under
confinement in the stronghold: — ^"I find it
necessary to renew the memorial of my grievances,
respecting the remittance of my dowry, the

1 88 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
augmentation of my attendants, and a change of
residence, — circumstances apparently trivial, and
of small importance to the queen, my good sister,
but which I feel to be essential to the preservation
of my existence. Necessity alone could induce
me to descend to earnest and reiterated supplica
tions, the dearest price at which any boon can be
purchased. To convey to you an idea of my
present situation, I am on all sides enclosed by
fortified walls, on the summit of a hill, which lies
exposed to every wind of heaven : within these
bounds, not unlike the wood of Vincennes, is a
very old edifice, originally a hunting lodge, built
merely of lath and plaster, the plaster in many
places crumbling away. This edifice, detached
from the walls about twenty feet, is sunk so low,
that the rampart of earth behind the wall is level
with the highest part of the building, so that here
the sun can never penetrate, neither does any
pure air ever visit this habitation, on which
descend drizzling damps and eternal fogs, to
such excess that not an article of furniture
can be placed beneath the roof, but in four days
it becomes covered with green mould. I leave
you to judge in what manner such humidity must
act upon the human frame ; and, to say every-

MAR Y Q UEEN OF SCOTS 189
thing in one word, the apartments are in general
more like dungeons prepared for the reception
of the vilest criminals, than suited to persons
of a station far inferior to mine, inasmuch as I
do not believe there is a lord or gentleman, or
even a yeoman in the kingdom, who would
patiently endure the penance of living in so
wretched an habitation. With regard to ac
commodation, I have for my own person but
two miserable little chambers, so intensely cold
during the night that but for ramparts and
entrenchments of tapestry .and curtains, it would
be impossible to prolong my existence ; and of
those who have sat up with me during my illness,
not one has escaped malady. Sir Amias can
testify that three of my women have been
rendered ill by this severe temperature, and even
my physician declines taking charge of my
health the ensuing winter unless I shall be
permitted to change my habitation. With
respect to convenience, I have neither gallery
nor cabinet, if I except two little pigeon-holes,
through which the only light admitted is from an
aperture of about nine feet in circumference ; for
taking air or exercise, either on foot or in my
chair, I have but about a quarter of an acre

igo BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
behind the stables, round which Somers last year
planted a quickset hedge, a spot more proper for
swine than to be cultivated as a garden ; there
is no shepherd's hut but has more grace and
proportion. As to riding on horseback during
the winter, I am sure to be impeded by floods
of water or banks of snow, nor is there a road
in which I could go for one mile in my coach
without putting my limbs in jeopardy ; abstracted
from these real and positive inconveniences, I
have conceived for this spot an antipathy, which,
in one ill as I am, might alone claim some humane
consideration. As it was here that I first began
to be treated with rigour and indignity, I have
conceived, from that time, this mansion to be
singularly unlucky to me, and in this sinister
impression I have been confirmed by the tragical
catastrophe of the poor priest of whom I wrote to
you, who, having been tortured for his religion,
was at length found hanging in front of my
window." Elizabeth was suspicious, with the suspicion of
an evil conscience, and she even di-strusted
Burleigh as being too favourably disposed towards
Mary ; nevertheless, she gave a reluctant consent
to Mary's request to visit Buxton, and the Earl

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 191
of Shrewsbury escorted his illustrious prisoner to
the baths on four occasions. Burleigh gave very
strait instructions to the Earl on the first visit.
The Queen was to be treated with respect and
care, but her visit was to be kept as private as
possible, and " all others, being strangers from
your lordship's company, be forbidden to come
thither during the time of the said Queen's abode
there." " And this I write because her Majesty
was very unwilling that she should go thither,
imagining that her desire was either to be the
more seen of strangers resorting thither, or for
the achieving of some further enterprise to escape."
The following extract from a letter from the
Earl of Shrewsbury to Lord Burleigh, under date
of August 9th, 1580, refers to Mary's third visit
to Buxton : — " I came hither to Buxton with my
charge, the 28th July. She had a hard beginning
of her journey ; for when she should have taken
her horse he started aside, and therewith she fell
and hurt her back, which she still complains of
notwithstanding that she applies the bath once or
twice a day. I do strictly observe her Majesty's
commandment, written to me by your lordship in
restraining all resort to this place ; neither doth
she see, or is seen to any more than her own

192 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
people, and such as I appoint to attend : she hath
not come forth of the house since her coming, nor
shall not before her parting."
On her last visit Mary took her farewell of
Buxton in a Latin couplet, scratched on the
window of her apartment, and which has been
thus rendered : —
" Buxton, whose fame thy thermal waters tell.
Whom I perhaps shall see no more — farewell."
Poole Hole is associated with one of Mary's
visits to Buxton by a column of calcareous
matter, called Mary Queen of Scot's pillar,
because it marks a point to which the Queen
attained when visiting the cavern.
The detention of Mary led to one of the
saddest and most tragic chapters of English
history, the Babington conspiracy, originated by
foreign priests, fostered by Elizabeth's tools, and
used as a means of bringing the unhappy princess
to the block in the hall of Fotheringhay Castle.

Zbc Babinoton Conspiracy.
ELIZABETH taught the partisans of Mary
Stuart a sharp lesson when she caused
the axe to pass between the head and shoulders
of the Duke of Norfolk, but the lesson was not
accepted, and as conspiracies continued to disturb
the realm, a very bitter feeling towards the captive
princess rankled in Elizabeth's breast, and was
shared by her advisers and loyal subjects. The
excommunication issued against Elizabeth by
Pope Pius V. was calculated to arm the most
fanatical of her enemies against her life, and was
to some extent fenced by the following act
of Parliament, a.d. 1585 : — "That if any rebellion
should be excited in the kingdom, or anything
attempted to the hurt of her Majesty's person,
by or for any person pretending a title to the
crown, the Queen should empower twenty-four
persons, by a commission under the Great Seal,
to examine into and pass sentence upon such
off"ences ; and that, after judgment given, a
proclamation should be issued, declaring the
o

194 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
persons whom they found guilty excluded from
any right to the crown ; and her Majesty's
subjects might lawfully pursue every one of them
to the death ; and that, if any design against the
life of the Queen took effect, the persons by or
for whom such a detestable act was executed, and
their issues, being in any wise assenting or privy
to the same, should be disabled for ever from
pretending to the crown, and be pursued to death,
in the like manner."
The occasion for putting this act into operation
soon arose. Elizabeth's subjects were remarkable
for their loyalty, but the virulent hatred of foreign
priests was projected into the land, and stirred up
some of the disaffected Catholics, and amongst
others Anthony Babington, of Dethick, who
became one of the mediums by which Mary
communicated with her friends.
The primary movers in the Babington plot
were three priests of Rheims, Dr. Gifford, Gilbert
Gifford, and one Hodgeson, with whom a
seminary priest named Ballard, and Savage, a
soldier of fortune, were afterwards associated.
Walsingham was also engaged in the plot,
through Maude, one of his spies, by whom it was,
probably, largely organised and developed.

THE BABINGTON CONSPIRACY. 195
Babington drew into the plot the following
gentlemen, his devoted friends : — " Edward,
brother to Lord Windsor ; Thomas Salisbury,
of Denbighshire ; Charles Tilney, one of the
band of pensioners ; Chidicock Tichbourne, of
Southampton ; Edward Abingdon, whose father
had been cofferer of the household ; Robert Gage,
of Surrey ; John Travers, and John Charnock, of
Lancashire ; John Jones ; Patrick Barnwell, an
Irishman ; and Henry Dun, a clerk in the first
fruits office."
The objects of the plot were, the assassination
of Elizabeth, the release of Mary Stuart, and
a Catholic movement, fostered by foreign
invasion. When Babington drew his friends into the
conspiracy, Walsingham succeeded in introducing
Dolly, another of his agents. The confederates
were bound by a mutual oath of secrecy, and,
with a vanity utterly inconsistent with the tragical
gravity of their design, they engaged an artist to
produce a painting, in which they all figured ;
various mottoes, mysteriously expressed, and
obviously alluding to some desperate undertaking,
being added. This picture was shown to
Elizabeth, and deeply impressed her. Afterwards

196 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
meeting Barnwell in her garden, she recognised
him as one of the group of assassins.
Communications with Nau and Curie were
opened, and according to their evidence their
mistress, Mary Stuart, was cognisant of the plot.
In this advanced stage of the conspiracy Gilbert
Gifford visited England for the purpose of
inciting Savage to strike the fatal blow, but,
turning traitor, he assisted Walsingham in per
fecting the plot ; for in all its latter stages
Walsingham and Elizabeth had it in their hands,
and could at any moment have arrested the
plotters. Mary Stuart was not, however,
sufficiently in the toils, and Gifford was com
manded to open communications with her. She
was confined at Chartley, in Staffordshire, Sig
Amias Paulet being her goaler. When Walsing
ham proposed that Gifford should be permitted
to bribe one of her servants. Sir Amias, a
conscientious, if somewhat narrow-minded, man,
refused to allow any of his household to be drawn
into the plot, but found another agent, a brewer's
boy, who deposited the letters in a hole
in the wall, under the cover of a loose
stone. The correspondence thus passed through
Walsingham's hands. He deciphered and copied

THE BABINGTON CONSPIRACY. 197
the letters, communicating their contents to the
Queen. Babington was anxious to secure foreign
assistance before striking the blow, and procured
a license enabling Ballard to go abroad ; but
when he applied for one for his own use,
Walsingham held him in crafty play, and
even induced him to lodge undef his roof, for
he was anxious to work out the fullest develop
ment of the plot. Elizabeth, threatened by many
daggers, wisely concluded that further risk would
"seem rather to tempt God than to trust in God."
Ballard was arrested, and Babington incited
Savage to the immediate assassination of
Elizabeth, supplying him with money for the
purpose. It was patent that the plot was dis
covered, and Babington, finding that he was
shadowed by Scudamore, one of Walsingham's
servants, escaped from the city. The alarm
spread, and the chief conspirators stole from the
city, and for some days lurked about the environs,
but were captured and carried into London, while
bells rang and bonfires gleamed in the streets.
So closely were the toils drawn that only one
of the guilty men escaped.
Trial and condemnation followed, the culprits

198 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
making ample confession of their guilt. Mercy
was accorded to none. Ballard, Babington,
Savage, and four others were dealt with as
traitors, on the 20th of September, 1586, in St.
Giles's Fields. They were cut down and dis
embowelled while alive and sensible to the
horrors of their butchery ; but when Elizabeth
heard of their torments, she issued orders that the
seven remaining conspirators should hang until
life was extinct, and then be embowelled and
quartered. They suffered on the following day.
Babington's plot against Elizabeth was neces
sarily a failure, being in Walsingham's hands
from its commencement, but if Walsingham and
Elizabeth used it as a mask to cover a plot of
their own against Mary Stuart, they were
brilliantly successful, for Mary's trial and con
demnation followed, the state machinery acting
most perfectly. Honest Amias Paulet certainly
refused to poison the condemned lady, but
the resort to axe and block was accepted as
regular and judicial, not to be excepted to, while
poison would surely have caused grave suspicion,
and might even have attached a stain to the
memory of Elizabeth.

lEpam ant) its sab HDeniories.
By W. G. Fretton, f.s.a.
IN a somewhat secluded valley, south-east of the
High Peak of Derbyshire, about half a mile
north of Middleton Dale, and about a mile west
of the valley through which flows the Derwent,
on the west bank of which is the high road to
Bakewell, is the very interesting village of Eyam.
For centuries part of an important mining district,
rich in lead ore, but of late years of less note in
this special feature, yet abounding with pictur
esque and wild scenery. In the immediate neigh
bourhood are still to be found evidences of
primitive occupation, Druidical remains, traces of
Roman roads, tumuli, entrenchments, and other
ancient indications of a bygone period, of peculiar
interest to the antiquary and historian.
My earliest recollections of Eyam date back to
1853, when, on a hot sultry day in autumn, a
friend and I walked over from Sheffield, by way
of Burbage Moors and Hathersage, and spent the
following day in investigating the sad memorials

200 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
of this celebrated village, the devastation of
which in 1665 and 1666, have marked the spot with
such painful associations, but in which the terrible
visitation of pestilence was not more remarkable
than the extraordinary exercise of self-denial
exhibited by the villagers, from the rector to the
humblest of the inhabitants. We arrived early in
the evening, and sought out the venerable and
genial historian of the village, the late Mr. Wm.
Wood, who kindly undertook to be our guide on
the following day. Our homely inn furnished us
with good accommodation ; it had been one of the
"visited" houses at the time of the plague, we
learned from our hostess, so the sentimental
element was not wanting.
The morning was unfavourable, but the ramble
was not abandoned, and joining our friend, Mr.
Wood, we procured one of his interesting
narratives, and it is from the recollection of our
conversation, and from the perusal of his little
volume, that I give this epitome of the history of
the plague year at Eyam.
It will be remembered that the Plague in
London broke out in 1664, and continued with
various degrees of violence till the latter end of
1665. This awful scourge appears to have been

EYAM AND ITS SAD MEMORIES. 201
conveyed to Eyam in a box of clothing which had
been sent from London to a tailor, who, it is said,
lived in a house near the west end of the church,
a part of which (the kitchen) still remains,
incorporated with a more recently erected build
ing. The servant, George Vicars, who opened
the box, finding the goods damp, was ordered to
dry them before the fire, and, taking the infection,
died. This was on September 7th, 1665. From
this person the disease spread to the family, of
whom only one escaped — the mother. From this
house the disorder extended to the neighbour
hood, and the death roll, which numbered six in
September, increased to twenty-three in October.
There was now no doubt as to the identity of the
visitant. Seven died in November, and nine in
December ; five only in January, an abatement
somewhat cheering. In February, eight died ; in
March, six ; April, nine ; and in May, four ;
making in all seventy-seven, out of a population
of about 335, a result, up to then, sufficiently
alarming. The usual services at the parish
church had been hitherto continued, and the dead
buried in the grave-yard attached, but the danger
of infection was so manifest, that both were
discontinued by the rector, who removed the

202 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
scene of the services to a retired and narrow
valley west of the village, extending southwards
into Middleton Dale. Here the pastor, standing in
the hollow of a rock (still called Cucklet Church),
administered consolation to the members of his flock,
who were seated on the opposite side of the dale,
and here he led their devotions. The conduct of
this brave minister, the Rev. Wm. Mompesson, in
this awful crisis was worthy of all praise : he
never left his people, but, in conjunction with his
predecessor (under the Commonwealth), the Rev.
Thos. Stanley, devoted himself to the stricken
parishioners. No doctrinal subtleties interfered
with the performance of the duties they had
undertaken on behalf of their sorrowing and
rapidly-diminishing congregations. It was by
their self-sacrificing example and advice that the
villagers remained within the limits of the infected
area, instead of flying from the spot, urged thereto
by a natural terror, and so prevented the contagion
from spreading to other districts. Mr. Mom
pesson wrote to the Earl of Devonshire and the
neighbouring gentry, and thereby secured supplies
of food and other necessaries ; and it is difficult
which to admire most, the bold scheme of con
centration devised by the rector, or the ready

EYAM AND ITS SAD MEMORIES. 203
acquiescence given by the parishioners. His
efforts were nobly seconded by his wife, who
remained by his side till nearly the end of the
troublous time, when she fell a victim to the

EYAM CROSS.

pestilence. Their children had been sent away
early in the visitation, and were thus spared.
In June, 1666, the table of mortality rose rapidly,
the number of deaths was nineteen. No ceremonial
attended the burial of the dead ; no coffin pro-

204 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
vided ; no interment in consecrated ground ; in
the gardens and fields near to the homes of the
dead, shallow graves were dug, mostly by the
sorrowing relatives, where in after time humble
memorials were erected by the survivors. In
July, fifty-six succumbed ; but in August the
number rose to seventy-five, the highest monthly
record. Twenty-four died in September, and
fourteen in October, leaving only about thirty : the
fire was exhausted for lack of fuel. The number
of deaths altogether in Eyam during the visita
tion appears from the register to have been 267.
Mompesson says that 259 of these died of the
plague, leaving eight deaths from other causes.
At the outbreak of the pestilence it is recorded
that there was a population of about 350 ; some
of them, including the more wealthy, left the
parish at the commencement, so considering the
very few that remained of the inhabitants, the
village was practically depopulated.
There are but few memorials of the
dead now remaining ; of these, perhaps, those
known as the Riley graves are the most remark
able. They stand in a field about a quarter of a
mile east of the village, on a very elevated
position, and consist of a table monument, on

EYAM AND ITS SAD MEMORIES. 205
which is recorded the burial of John Hancock, on
the 7th of August, 1666, and six head-stones to
the memory of six members of his family, who
all died during the same month. These stones
are enclosed within a rough stone wall, heart
shape, built round to preserve them. There are
no remains of the house in which they lived
existing. The mother, the sole survivor, after
wards went to live at Sheffield with her only
remaining son. It is a local tradition that the
poor mother buried all her family herself Within
a short distance, on the site of Riley farm, stood
the house of a family named Talbot (he
was a blacksmith), this was the first of
the two residences attacked. On July 5th, two of
the daughters died of the epidemic, and one after
another the rest of the family were taken, the
father, mother, two sons, and three daughters, all
within the month of July. The disease then took
the Hancocks, with the result before narrated.
Out of eight only one was left, the grief-stricken
mother. Two stones recording the deaths of
Margaret and Alies Teylor, 1666, lie in a field at
the back of the church, and a raised tomb in a
field near the village bears only the initials of the
tenant beneath, H.M., inscribed on one end, and

2o6 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
on the top stone the date 1 666. One of the most
interesting memorials in the churchyard is the
tomb recording the death of Catherine, the faith
ful and loving wife of the rector, the Rev.
William Mompesson, who remained by her
husband's side through the dreadful visitation, to
which she fell a victim just as the plague was on
the point of abating. Of monumental memorials
outside the churchyard the number was formerly
considerable. Many have unfortunately been
removed, and in some cases broken up. We
occasionally meet with traces of ruined home
steads, and in one case at least an unfinished
mansion known as Bradshaw Hall, the residence
of the Bradshaw family. When the plague broke
out, the house was forsaken, and never afterwards
completed. The church is an interesting structure, con
sisting of chancel, nave, north and south aisles,
with a tower at the west end nearly sixty feet
high, in which is a small peal of bells. On the
south side of the church is a fine specimen of the
Runic cross, somewhat shorn of its original
height by the loss of a portion of the upper part
of the shaft. T"he church was restored about a
quarter of a century ago, not before it was needed.

E YAM AND ITS SAD MEMORIES. 207
Apart from its melancholy associations, Eyam
possesses many attractions. The scenery in the
parish itself and in its immediate neighbourhood
would well repay the searcher after the picturesque,
and a pilgrimage to Eyam and the dales in its
vicinity would not readily be forgotten.

MelUDressing.
By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, b.a.
A PLEAS ING characteristic of the Derby
shire peasantry appears to be a love of
flowers, for of the customs of no county has floral
decoration formed so essential a part. Witness,
for example, the garland with which Castleton
annually crowns its old church tower on Royal
Oak Day ; and the kit-dressing, or festooning
of the milk-maids' pails with flowers, once a
yearly observance at Edensor ; witness, too, the
flower-bedecked wains that in times gone by
brought in, on midsummer eve, the load of rushes
to strew the floors of the village churches
throughout the Peak. In the same connection
also we might point to those nosegays of wild
flowers, with which visitors to Buxton must be
familiar, so skilfully arranged by the country folk,
and in which the only fault perhaps is that art
scarcely sufficiently conceals itself
But of all such floral customs none is more
worthy of continuing than that of well-dressing,

WELL-DRESSING. 209
which has not only survived, but even extended
its sphere within our own day.
The Tissington festival has good reason for
claiming to be the mother of all the rest, and
concerning its origin a word or two must be said
presently ; but in recent times several other places
have taken up the custom. Belper began to
"flower" its wells or springs in 1838, and Derby,
with S. Alkmund's well, in 1870, while between
these dates well-dressing (or tap-dressing, as it is
sometimes called,) was introduced, or revived,
at Wirksworth, Buxton, Tilsley, Clown, Barlow,
Makeney, and Endon.
The general outlines of the observance are the
same everywhere, except that at Tissington it
preserves a more distinctly religious tone than
elsewhere. A description of the festival as there
kept, therefore, will suffice for the rest.
Five springs of clear and limpid water rise from
their native rock at different points within the
parish of Tissington, and each of these is duly
decked with flowers every Ascension Day (Holy
Thursday). Behind the well a screen is reared,
and the whole is arched over so as to form a
grotto, a temple, a wayside chapel, or what not,
according to the decorator's taste. The face of

2IO BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
this structure is covered with soft moist clay
to receive the stems of the flowers, which are
arranged in graceful patterns therein, until the
whole forms one rich mosaic. During all the
preceding week gardens and hedgerows far and
near have been ransacked for their store of party-
coloured bloom, which at earliest daybreak on the
important day nimble fingers work into such
various forms of rainbow-tinted beauty as taste
suggests and skill contrives. In one case perhaps
the marsh marygold gives a golden groundwork
on which to embroider floral devices. Another
rich in wild hyacinths seems to reflect Heaven's
own blue ; and while the chiefest glories of the
garden find their appropriate places in the design,
the humblest field flower is not despised.
Within this grotto the spring itself is seen
flowing forth from a bed of cool green moss,
starred it may be with bright points of colour.
Sometimes it is all fashioned into a representa
tion of some appropriate Biblical scene or
allegory, such, for instance, as Moses striking
the rock in Horeb ; a prominent feature also
is the introduction of suitable mottoes, worked
like all the rest in flowers, and consisting of
apt quotations, generally from Holy Scripture :

WELL-DRESSING. 2ir
" He sendeth the springs into the valleys,"
"Come ye to the water," "Let the earth bless
the Lord," or other similar passages.
At Tissington, where, as we have said, the

THE TOWN WELL, TISSINGTON.

well-dressing is part of the religious observance of
Holy Thursday, the local friendly society goes
in procession to church in the morning for matins,
at which a sermon, fitted to the occasion, is
preached ; then accompanied by choir and

212 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
clergy, and led by the village band, the
parishioners make the tour of the wells, at each
of which a portion of one of the psalms or lessons
for the day is said, and a hymn is sung. Else
where also the well-dressing usually takes place in
connection with some holy day, and at the present
time frequently forms part of the annual
Sunday School festival ; thus at Derby it takes
place on Whit-Tuesday, at Wirksworth on Whit-
Wednesday, at Buxton on the Thursday nearest
S. John Baptist's Day (June 24th). The day
is usually observed as a general holiday, with
much feasting of friends and homely merriment,
finishing with a dance on the village green, or
other rural jollity, that gives us, if but for the
nonce, a glimpse of " Merry England."
As to the origin of this pretty custom, in most
modern cases it is either avowedly an imitation of
older practices elsewhere ; or, as at Buxton
and Wirksworth, an annual commemoration of
successful efforts to improve the town's water
supply. Local tradition tells us that the Tissington
well-flowering is a yearly thanksgiving for the
uninterrupted flow of water enjoyed there during
a great drought in 161 5, which is thus referred
to in the Youlgreave parish register : — " There was

WELL-DRESSING.

213

no rayne fell upon the earth from the 25th day of
March till the 2nd day of May, and then there
was but one shower ; two more fell betweene then
and the ^th day of August, so that the greatest
part of this land was burnt upp, bothe corn and

THE HALL WELL, TISSINGTON.

hay. An ordinary load of hay was £2, and little
or none to be gott for money." During all this
parching season the Tissington springs flowed
on for the blessing of all the countryside. But
the whole character of the custom seems to point

214 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
to an earlier origin than this ; no part of the
seventeenth century, one would think, would
have proved very favourable for the growing
up of such a festival ; and the fact that Holy
Thursday would come, not at the end of the
drought, when the wells had stood their long
test, but in the midst of it, while the
issue was yet doubtful, seems to show that
that event did not originate the well-dress
ing, though it might naturally revive a
flagging interest in it, and help to perpetuate
it. Well-dressing is rather one of that fairly
numerous class of customs which have come down
to us from our heathen forefathers, customs which
the early Christian teachers found to be so
harmless, or even praiseworthy, in themselves,
that they preferred endowing them with Christian
souls to uprooting them.
Heathen Rome was used to deck its springs
with flowers in honour of the water-nymphs,
and even had its festival of Fontinalia,
which might almost be translated " well-
dressing." Milton refers to a similar custom
in his Comus, where, speaking of the river-
goddess, Sabrina, he says : —

WELL-DRESSING. 215
" . . . the shepherds at their festivals
Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays.
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils."
Here the idea, probably, was suggested to the
poet more by his familiarity with classical usage
than by his knowledge of any contemporary
English one.
Whatsoever its origin, however, we of this
prosaic age, in which grace and beauty are so
often sacrificed for utility and gold, cannot afford
to lose one custom which leads our thoughts
away for a time from " the struggle for life," and
turns our eyes to the loveliness of Nature, and
our hearts to the goodness of Nature's God.
Far distant therefore be the day when Tissington,
and Wirksworth, and their sister parishes of town
or country, shall forget to dress their wells.

®l&=«^ime ifootball.
By Theo. Arthur.
ALTHOUGH it is well-nigh impossible to
discover the date when football, that most
ancient of British sports, first became acclimatized
in this country, it is not unreasonable to accredit
the Romans with having introduced it, considering
that they played a military game almost identical
with it in character.
Between our modern scientific game, as played
under Rugby or Association rules, and the rough-
and-ready pastime, as understood by our ancestors,
but little resemblance undoubtedly exists, beyond
the fact that a ball should be the article agreed
upon as a subject for strife.
The ancient game must have partaken of the
nature of a mimic battle, the realism of conflict
being heightened by the frequency of casualties
(and even fatalities) sustained by the players, for
it must be remembered that in former days parish
would contend against parish, the entire able-
bodied male population of a neighbourhood turn-

OLD-TIME FOOTBALL. 217
ing out to sustain the honour of their native
district. One can naturally imagine the fine opportunity
a game played under such conditions would afford
for the wiping-out of old private scores, and the
settlement of differences of opinion between rival
combatants who owed each other a grudge. The
remark of a French prisoner-of-war, who happened
to be passing through Derby when a game was in
progress, is curiously significant. " If," said he,
"the English call this playing, it would be
impossible to say what they call fighting."
Stubbs, the ancient chronicler, must have held
much the same opinion, for he calls football "a
bloody and murthering practice, rather than a
fellowly sport or pastime."
Allusions to the game frequently crop up in old
chronicles and acts of parliament. It must have
been general in England during the reign of
Henry II., for it is alluded to by Fitzstephen in
1 175. In 1365, Edward III. essayed to put it
down, because the public fascination it possessed
tended to interfere with the practice of archery.
James I. specially included " footballe " among the
"rough and violent exercises" which he, in his
regal wisdom, " debarred ;" football, in his opinion.

2i8 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
being " meeter for laming than making able the
users thereof" Samuel Pepys, too, in 1664,
speaks of it in terms which show that it must
have been a public nuisance when played in
narrow streets.
All enthusiastic footballers should surely feel that
they owe a deep debt of gratitude to those sturdy
ancestors who kept alive public interest in the
favourite and popular game through times when it
rested under the ban of royal discountenance and
severe criticism.
Derbyshire has acted as the custodian of foot
ball's " pix," for within its boundaries the ancient
game is still played, with its original characteristics
only slightly modified. THE DERBY GAME.
From time immemorial up to the middle of the
present century, every Shrove Tuesday, when it
came round, was the occasion of a stirring and
exciting scene in the town of Derby.
The pancake-bell was rung at mid-day as a
signal that apprentices were to be set at liberty, in
order that they might repair to the Market Place
and join the populace assembled there to witness
the throwing-off of the ball.

OLD-TIME FOOTBALL. 219
Then commenced that giant match, "All
Saints' versus St. Peter's."
All Saints' goal was at Nun's Mill, the water-
wheel of which had to be knocked three times.
St. Peter's goal was a nursery-gate about a mile
from the town.
The ball being once delivered over to the
players, the contest commenced. There were no
rules for them to trouble their heads about ; the
survival of the fittest was the only rule necessary
to remember. Hard kicking, hard hitting
and hard running were now the order of the
day. About the Derby game there was also an added
spice of excitement, for subterfuge was not dis
allowed, indeed a suggestion of hide-and-seek was
thrown in. When the ball got driven on to the
outskirts of the crowd, an opportunity arose for a
cunning player to secrete the ball somewhere
about him, and then attempt to proceed with as
much unconcern as possible in the direction of the
desired goal ; but many things might happen
before the ball arrived there ; it not infrequently, in
company with a group of players, got into the
river, where the contest would still continue. So
the fortunes of the game went, until a victory was

2 20 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
scored for the parishioners of either All Saints' or
Saint Peter's.
On the following day. Ash- Wednesday, the
game was repeated for the benefit of boys, whose
youth had disqualified them from participating in
the struggle of the previous afternoon.
In the year 1847, the Derby football game was
threatened with extinction. The Mayor, Mr.
William .Eaton Mousley determined to suppress
it as a public nuisance, conducive to riot and
disorder. But the populace were not going to be
deprived of a game which they looked upon as a
birthright, inherited from their forefathers,
without putting the authorities to considerable
trouble. Horse-soldiers had to be called upon
to assist the police. It was forbidden that the
ball should be brought into the Market-Place,
but it was forthcoming there all the same at the
appointed hour, thanks to the offices of Mother
Hope, who entered the Market-Place with a
basket of nuts on her arm, and the football
concealed under her petticoats.
THE ASHBOURNE GAME.
In its characteristics and method of play, the
Ashbourne Shrove-tide game closely resembled
that which was simultaneously taking place at

OLD-TIME FOOTBALL. 221
Derby. But Ashbourne football is noteworthy
because of the obstinate resistance made when
its suppression was attempted. It continues to
the present time to be played in the ancient
fashion. The attempt to put down the game was made
in i860, under the mayoralty of Mr. Frank
Wright. The difference of opinion between the
authorities and the players actually became a legal
question. The case was first heard before the
Ashbourne Bench of magistrates, when the
players were worsted ; they, however, confident
of their rights, carried the case to the Court of
Queen's Bench, but the decision was the same.
The event is commemorated in a handbill
issued at the time, which reads as follows : —
Death of
The Right Honourable Game Football.
Copied from the Court Circular.
"It becomes our painful duty to record the death of the
Right Honourable Game Football, which melancholy event
took place in the Court of Queen's Bench on Wednesday,
Nov. 14th, i860. The deceased Gentleman was, we are
informed, a native of Ashbourn, Derbyshire, at which place he
was born in the Year of Grace, 217, and was consequently in
the 1643rd year of his age. For some months the patriotic
Old Man had been suffering from injuries sustained in his
native town, so far back as Shrove-tide in last year ; he was at

2 2 2 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
once removed (by appeal) to London, where he lingered in
suspense till the law of death put its icy hand upon him, and
claimed as another trophy to magisterial interference one who
had long lived in the hearts of the people. His untimely end
has cast a gloom over the place, where the amusement he
afforded the inhabitants will not soon be forgotten.
" We cannot allow a calamity like the one we have detailed
to pass over without giving publicity to circumstances proving
so fatal in their results. It appears that the Honourable Game
Football has long celebrated his birth in the most rational and
peaceful manner, the tradesmen closing their shops, and the
entire population turning out to take part in his festivity. The
old custom was carried on from generation to generation,
until it so happened that 'certain of the powers that be'
determined that this harmless old custom should be done away
with, and they accordingly issued a formal Notice that they
intended riding iron shod over the town on Shrove Tuesday
and Ash Wednesday, and any person causing any annoyance
or interfering in any way with their authority would be dealt
with according to their Law. As the eventful day approached,
great was the anxiety manifested as to whether these Distributors
of Justice and Friends of Liberty would carry out their threat.
Not long, however, were Mr. Football and his friends kept in
suspense ; sixty persons were more or less injured through their
reckless determination, and the Right Honourable Gentleman,
whose name we adore, received those fatal wounds from which
he never recovered. Professional aid was at once obtained, a
celebrated Practitioner recommended immediate removal to
another district, giving his opinion that if the instructions laid
down were strictly adhered to, the unfortunate victim would
ultimately recover ; but those who knew him best saw that his
end was fast approaching. He died honoured and in peace.
"The funeral was public, though without ostentation, and
the expenses (;^2oo) were subscribed by his surrounding friends.

OLD-TIME FOOTBALL. 223
"We understand that the Honourable Gentleman is suc
ceeded by an only Son, a young man of Herculean strength,
who inherits the valour of his Father, and his coming of age
will be celebrated by Playing at the Old Game next Shrovetide.
"The following Epitaph will be found on the Hon. Mr.
Football's Tombstone : —
May Liberty meet with success,
May Prudence protect her from evil ;
But may tyrants and tyranny tine * in the mist,
And wander their way to the Devil."
* Tine — kindle.

after tTbirti? l^ears: an 3nci&ent of tbe
Civil Mar.
By Edward Lamplough.
MANY pathetic and heroic passages shed a
living interest over the great rebellion of
the seventeenth century, but few appeal more to
our interest and sympathy than that which relates
to the tragic death of Colonel Charles Cavendish,
son of the second Earl of Devonshire.
In the eventful summer of 1643, young
Cavendish commanded in Newark for the King,
and was exceedingly popular with the loyal
townsfolk ; but when Cromwell marched his
Huntingdonshire troops, and other levies, to
.succour the garrison of Gainsborough, threatened
by the Earl of Newcastle's northern army,
Colonel Cavendish led the advanced column of
the royalists, and encountered Cromwell. A
short but severe engagement ensued. Cromwell
charged uphill against the cavaliers, although
exposed to a brisk fire from the carbines of
the royal horse, who, after delivering their fire,

AFTER THIRTY YEARS. 225
charged down upon the advancing enemy.
Cromwell repulsed the attack, broke their ranks,
and put them to flight. Cavendish strove to
redeem the fortunes of the field by falling upon
the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire regiments.
His charge was partially successful, but, before he
could re-form his horse, Cromwell took him in flank,
routed and drove his command into a marsh at
the foot of the rising ground on which the conflict
had taken place.
The broken troops, involved in the bog, were
cut to pieces. It has been stated that Colonel
Cavendish was murdered rather than slain in
honourable conflict during this sanguinary meUe,
quarter having been extended to him and his men
by Colonel Bury, but that he was stabbed to
death whilst helplessly involved in the midst of
his enemies. It is difficult to believe this state
ment : no doubt he fell, as many gallant cavaliers
and parliamentarians fell during the war, in the
first heat of the pursuit, after the ranks were broken.
When the corpse of the brave young soldier
was carried into Newark, the people were deeply
affected, and would not suffer it to be immediately
interred, paying every honour and respect to the
memory of their lost commandant. Q

2 26 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
Thirty years passed, and the Countess of
Devonshire died, when her express desire that
the remains of her gallant son should be taken up,
and carried with her own corpse for interment at
Derby, was complied with.
It is said that the old folks of Newark,
who had passed through the evil days of
the war, were strangely affected when the
soldier's ashes were removed from their midst ;
nor were their children uninfluenced by the story
of the young soldier's early fame and tragic
death, for during those changeful thirty years
the memory of the loyal gentleman had been
kept green in Newark.
As the two hearses containing the last relics of
the long separated mother and son proceeded
to Derby, great honour was paid to them
by the loyal gentlemen who held for the
Stuarts. At Leicester the magistrates and gentry received
the cortege, and attended it without the town.
Derby received its honourable dead with equal
veneration, as they were committed to the family
vault. "In the one town her funeral sermon was
preached by Mr. Frampton (Chaplain to the Earl
of Elgin), afterwards Bishop of Gloucester ; in

AFTER THIRTY YEARS. 227
the Other, his funeral sermon by Mr. Naylor,
Chaplain to the Countess."
The memory of Cromwell's victory is preserved
in the locality of the battle by the following local,
or rather memorial, names : " Red Coats' Field,"
"Graves' Field," and " Cavendi.sh's Bog."

Derbi^sbire anb tbe '45.
Bv THE Rev. Geo. S. Tvack, d.a.
FEW indeed are the countries of the world
which can boast that for one hundred and
fifty years no invader has set foot upon their soil,
nor has any serious attempt been made to
change their ruling dynasty. Yet England's
last experience of either kind was in 1745, and
Derby takes an important place in history as
marking the high-water mark of the invading tide.
Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, called
by the adherents of the ill-fated House of Stuart,
the Prince of Wales, had sailed from France, and
landed in the north of Scotland early in the
August of the above year. He was then in
his twenty-fifth year, handsome in person and
engaging in manner, and had already seen military
service with Don Carlos in Spain. Success of the
most brilliant order crowned his earliest efforts :
the highlanders rose in great numbers to greet
him, and Edinburgh flung open its gates to him
with scarcely a day's hesitation. One wild charge

DERBYSHIRE AND THE 45. 229
of his highlanders at Prestonpans, on September
22nd, cleared the route into England, and a
month later the border was crossed, and the
march on London seriously begun.

'imt.uiiminiiii'iiiii//'/'"""" THE YOUNG PRETENDER.
But the high hopes that the Prince's first
successes had roused and the enthusiasm of his
Scottish followers had stimulated, began to wither
almost from the moment that they were trans
planted to English soil. Lancashire, whence

230 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
many recruits had come to the Old Pretender's
standard in 1715, had been expected largely
to augment the forces now enrolled by his son,
but the expectation proved vain. On the
contrary, even the friends of "the cause" were
terrified by the appearance of the undisciplined
army as it swept through the country, the Gaelic
speech and tartan dress of the highlanders, at
that time scarcely more than half-civilised,
striking so strangely on English ears and eyes
as to create distrust far more readily than
enthusiasm. Moreover, everywhere before their
advancing steps rumour ran of their excesses and
exactions, so that the populace hastened to
conceal their property in out-houses or in holes
in the ground, lest they should be compelled
unwillingly to contribute to the expense of the
expedition. When the Pretender therefore
crossed the boundary line from Staffordshire into
Derbyshire at Ashbourne, on December 3rd, his
forces were not materially stronger than when the
advance commenced. At Ashbourne there was a
halt, during which the Prince, who was baiting
at the "Three Horse Shoes," was proclaimed
at the Market Cross ; all then pushed on towards
Derby, which they occupied the following day.

DERBYSHIRE AND THE '43. 231
There is extant an account of the billeting of
this army in Derby for the two nights of December
4th and 5th, from which it appears that there
were quarters required for 7,008 men on the 4th,
and for 7,148 on the following day; they had

EXETER HOUSE, DERBY.

with them also fifteen small field-pieces and some
fifty waggons of ammunition, etc.
The townsmen of Derby, in their loyalty to
the reigning house, had raised a subscription for
the King's service, and had paid the inoney in
shordy before the arrival of the highlanders ; but

232 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
unfortunately for them, information of this and a
copy of the subscription roll fell into the
Pretender's hands, with the not unnatural con
sequence that all who had contributed to the one
cause were compelled, under pain of military
execution, to give a like sum to the other.
Besides this expense to the town, we are told
that the troops "were very industrious in pro
viding themselves with cloaks, stockings, shoes,
and other necessaries while at Derby," but were
not equally industrious in the matter of payments.
The Prince, during his stay in the town, took
up his quarters at Exeter House, a fine mansion
of the Earl of Exeter, which stood, until it was
pulled down in 1854, in Full Street. Other
houses rendered memorable by the occupation
of Derby by these forces, are two houses in the
Market Place, the first, the noble residence of
Mr. Franceys, * where were lodged Lady Ogilvie
and those ladies whose romantic devotion to the
cause of " bonnie Prince Charlie" led them to
follow his fortunes even into the field ; the other
house (now occupied by Mr. Thomas Hall)
contains a noble chamber with a ceilino- of
o
* This has now become two houses, in the occupation respectively of
Mr. C. J. Storer and Mr. Haskew.

DERBYSHIRE AND THE '43. 233
elaborate design and oaken wainscot, within
which were held those stormy councils of war,
which eventually resulted in the retreat of the
Chevalier to Scotland. Another incident of his
stay in Derby, which local tradition, at least,
records, is, that on the morning after his arrival,
the Prince had mass said according to the Roman
rite in the parish church of All Saints.
So far the advance into England had been
unresisted, but now opposition began to gather
around his path. The Duke of Cumberland with
the royal forces lay at Lichfield, Coventry, and
Stafford ; to push forward to London and leave
the Duke to menace his rear, would have been
to risk all on one throw of the dice ; to meet
him without first gaining reinforcements was
almost equally dangerous. Council after council
was held throughout the day, not without
engendering some bitterness, and at last a retreat
was resolved upon in the hope of meeting rein
forcements which were coming up from Scotland.
The advanced guard had been pushed forward as
far as Swarkestone Bridge, on the Trent, — the
furthest point southward touched ; — this was
recalled, and on the 6th December the whole
army began sullenly to retrace its steps. The

234 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
same route was followed as in the advance, and
the Prince quartered at Ashbourne Hall the first
night of the retreat.
So the invading force passes beyond our
province once more, to meet its fate in the
following April on Culloden Moor. With the
romantic adventures of its unfortunate leader,
and with his final escape from the country, we
have nothing to do here.

Bess of Ibar^wicl?.
By Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s.
STANDING in a deer park, with clusterings
of magnificent old oaks, on the eastern
border of Derbyshire, and close upon that of
Nottinghamshire, on one of the more picturesque
eminences of that eminently picturesque county,
stand two mansions almost close together, the one,
old Hardwick Hall — a venerable, dilapidated,
and ivy-clothed building, the home of the
Hardwicks, and birthplace of Elizabeth Hardwick,
who died Countess of Shrewsbury ; the latter, a
quaint Elizabethan structure, erected by the said
Countess Elizabeth, who considered the old home
of her fathers not sufficiently stately for her
subsequent exalted position, and who, in carrying
out her mansion-building mania, spent an extra
ordinary amount of care in re-building her
native domicile.
The approach to the mansions is by a noble
avenue of majestic trees, which commands the
admiration of all who pass along it, and the aspect

236 B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
of the two Halls on the eminence is very
imposing, the old, venerable, and weatherworn
contrasting with the more modern, with its
eccentricity of architecture.
The modern Elizabethan house is very large,
and seems to consist of more glass than wall,
hence the saying : —
" Proud Hardwick Hall
More window than wall."
The house consists of projecting towers, pierced in
the walls with a multitude of lofty windows, and
surmounted by a balustrade, whilst the initials E.S.
(Elizabeth Shrewsbury) are introduced wherever
practicable, both outside and inside. The interior
consists of large, lofty apartments, wainscoted and
hung with tapestries, the most notable being the
Picture Gallery, extending the whole length of the
building, 160 feet in length, 22 in width, and 26 in
height ; lighted by eighteen broad windows, 20
feet high, and containing portraits, two hundred in
number, of the Cavendishes, the Countess's
relatives and friends, herself when young and
when old, of Queen Elizabeth, of Mary Queen of
Scots, and of several other historic personages of
the time.
One room is shown as the apartment of

BESS OF HARDWICK. 237
Queen Mary, which is not correct, as her place
of confinement was in the old Hall, the new one
not having been built until after her death, the
new room having been constructed for the
reception of her relics, on the model of the
original room.
From the veriest girlhood, Elizabeth Hardwick,
of a vigorous, politic, and masculine type of
character, seems to have been animated by one
supreme passion, that of accumulating wealth,
with the object of aggrandising herself and
children, and elevating their position in the world
of rank, and in later life by a passion for building,
which was subordinate to the former, inasmuch as
it arose from a desire to leave them palaces in
which to enshrine and display their greatness. She
chanced to die during the prevalence of a hard
frost, when her workmen were prevented from
carrying on her building by the severity of the
weather, which gave rise, in that superstitious age,
to a silly apocryphal tale that, on consulting an
astrologer, she was informed that she should not
die so long as she continued building, which was
said to have been the cause of her mania for
building, and the prediction to have been fulfilled
by her death during the frost, an outgrowth

238 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
worthy of the mediaeval monkish miracles and
prophecies. She was one of the daughters of John Hardwick,
of Hardwick Hall, a country gentleman of ancient
family, but of diminished fortune, since he was
only able to give his daughters wedding portions
of forty marks each. He died in the 19th of
the reign of Henry VIIL, his estate of Hardwick
passing to his son James, who bequeathed it to
his sister Elizabeth.
At the early age of twelve she married Robert
Barley, of Barley, in Derbyshire, whom, thus in
youth true to the principles which actuated her
through life, she cajoled into making a will
before she gave him her hand, by which he
left her and her heirs the whole of his vast
estates, and died very soon after, leaving no issue.
Her second husband was Sir William Cavendish,
of Chatsworth, p.c, and Treasurer of the Chamber
to Henry VIII., formerly Gendeman Usher
to Cardinal Wolsey, to whom she seems to
have been sincerely attached. At her desire he
commenced the building of Chatsworth, which
he left unfinished at his death, in 1557, for
his widow to complete. By this marriage there
was issue : —

BESS OF HARDWICK. 239
Henry, who died v. p. and s.p.
William, created Earl of Devonshire.
Charles, from whom the Cavendishes Dukes
of Newcastle.
Frances, who married Sir Henry Pierrepoint,
ancestors of the Dukes of Kingston and
Lady Mary Wortley Montague.
Elizabeth, who married Charles Stuart, Duke
of Lennox, brother of Lord Darnley,
whose off-spring was the ill-fated
Arabella Stuart.
Mary, who married Gilbert, Earl of Shrews
bury, stepson of her mother.
She did not long remain a widow for the
second time, but immediately after the death of
her husband Cavendish, began to cast her eyes
round to find another wealthy man to marry, and
to secure to herself and children a goodly share
of his fortune. Such a person she found in
Sir William St. Lo, of Gloucestershire, a possessor
of broad acres in that county. Grand Butler of
England, and Captain of the Guard to Queen
Elizabeth, who became violently enamoured of the
still beautiful widow, but she, shrewd and crafty,
whilst most anxious for the union, kept him at
arm's length until she had succeeded in inducing

240 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
him to settle the whole of his large fortune
absolutely upon her and her heirs, to the
exclusion of his children by a former wife. He
was much older than she, but seems to have been
enslaved by her charms, and to have spent as
much time as he could in her company to the
prejudice of his duties at court, as appears in the
following passage from one of his letters to his
lady : —
" My honeste swete Chatesworth. . . . The
Queue hath fownde greatt fawtt wyth me farder
and that sche wolde well chyde me, whereunto I
anseryd thatt when her hyghness understode the
trawth and the cawse sche wolde nott be ofifendyd,
whereunto sche sayed ' Verye well ! verye well !'
Howbeit hand of hersi dyd not kiss."
He did not long survive his marriage, but died
leaving her a widow for the third time, with vastly
increased possessions, still comparatively young
and beautiful, and ready for a fourth husband and
his wealth. Having, however, already secured
by her various marriages riches enough to satisfy
the longings of ordinary cupidity, she experienced
a craving for rank in her next marriage, holding
no higher rank thus far than the widow of two
deceased knights, and she fixed her eyes upon

BESS OF HARDWICK. 24 r
George Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, the
representative of that illustrious and historic
family, whom she manoeuvred by her wiles and
fascinations into becoming a suitor for her hand in
the year 1568-9, she stipulating before she con
sented to go to the altar, that his eldest son and heir
should marry one of her daughters, and that one
of her sons should become the husband of one
of his daughters, with all suitable and competent
settlements. For a short time after their marriage the Earl
and his Countess appear to have lived happily and
affectionately together, as the extract of one of
the Earl's letters to his wife testifies : —
" I thank you, swete wone, for your podengs and
venyson. The podengs I have bestowed in this
wyse : dosen to my Lade Cobham, etc., the rest I
have resarved for myselfe to ete in my chamber
. . . offe all erthley joyes that hath happenyd
unto me, I thanke God chefest for you ; for
w* you I have all joye and content asyon of
mynde, and w"'oute you, dethe is mor plesante to
me than lyfe if I thought I shulde long be from
you ; and therfor good wyfe doo as I wyll doo,
hope shortely of our metenge, and farewell dere
swete wone,"

242 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
With her usual tact, the new peeress, not
contented with her elevation in the scale of rank
to which her marriage advanced her, schemed so as
to have a magnificent jointure settled upon her.
She held also, as the wife of one of Engfah'd's
greatest nobles, a more exalted position in the
court of Elizabeth, to which she had been
introduced by her former husband, St. Lo, and
at first everything seemed to promise happily for
the future lives of the couple, but in an evil hour
they undertook the custodianship of Mary Queen
of Scots, who, in 1568, took refuge in England,
and sought the protection of her cousin. Queen
Elizabeth, who, instead of according her that
protection, treacherously detained her as a state-
prisoner, confined her for a short time in two or
three northern castles, and then consigned her to
the care of the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury.
The arrival of the Queen at Sheffield put an end
to the halcyon days of the Shrewsburys' connubial
life, and altercations, followed by squabbles and
quarrels, occurred, rendering their union a
miserable contrast to their earlier years. With
the politeness of a true gentleman, the Earl
treated the captive with the courtesy due to her
as a Lady and as a Queen, which excited in the

BESS OF HARDWICK. 243
breast of his Countess sentiments of jealousy, and
gave rise to recriminations in opprobrious
language. She offended also Queen Elizabeth by
allying one of her daughters to the Earl of
Lennojj, brother of Queen Mary's first husband,
Darnley, and by the affection she displayed for
her grand-daughter, Arabella Stuart.
The unfortunate Mary was barbarously beheaded
in 1587; her jailor, Shrewsbury, died three years
afterwards at Sheffield, and the Countess in 1607,
aged eighty-seven, at Hardwick Hall. Her
seventeen years of widowhood were spent in
completing Chatsworth and re-building Hardwick,
Owlcotes, and other of her numerous mansions.

Sbabows of IRomance.
THROUGH the mutations of the centuries,
after lingering long in tradition and song,
many romantic, touching, or gruesome incidents
of the old life before us gradually disappear from
the memory of mankind ; or dimly survive in
the last phases of a doubtful obscurity, before the
night closes over them for ever.
Of such dim traditions is that which clothes
Whin- Hill and Loose- Hill, near Castleton, with
the subtle tincture and movement of human life —
with the mournful throes of defeat, and the proud
elation of victory. Here, from early morn until
the closing in of the solemn eventide, a fierce and
bitter conflict was maintained ; then one army
won its bloody pathway to the summit of Loose-
Hill, and slew or put to flight its decimated
defenders. Such is the tradition — vague and
dim, and disbelieved in now, the more practical
age preferring to identify the titles of the two
heights with local names and productions* Yet
there is usually a substratum of truth underlying
the dimmest traditions.

SHADOWS OF ROMANCE. 245
Perhaps a little more satisfactory, because more
definite and consistent, is the story that clings
to the mansion of Banner Cross, supposed to
stand on ground where a noble Briton met his
Saxon foe, boldly under shield, with war-flags
billowing overhead, and enacted all the pageantry,
glory, and tragedy of war ; to draw closer his
decimated, but unconquered ranks, amid the rain
of missiles and the crash of axe and sword, until
the Saxon steel hewed down the last man of that
devoted army.
Over such heroic soil as this Collins might
inscribe his graceful ode : —
" How sleep the brave, who sink to rest.
By all their country's wishes blest !
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod,
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung.
By forms unseen their dirge is sung ;
There honour comes, a pilgrim grey.
To bless the turf that wraps their clay.
And Freedom shall a while repair.
To dwell a weeping hermit there."
The old life becomes more definite, government
more certain, and life and property a shade more
assured when we reach the feudal era, with its

246 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
quaint tenures and widely ramifying vf'fssalage.
Brough Mill was held by the Strellies\in the
reign of Edward III., subject to the no't very
arduous service of being in mounted attendance
on the king, with a heron falcon for the royal
pleasure, when his majesty entered Derbyshire.
The royal visitor had, however, to pay for his
entertainment by providing two robes and bruche
of court. Moreover, if the holder's horse died
during the course of the service, the king had to
furnish his vassal with another mount.
An old tradition that probably goes back to the
twelfth century relates to the magnificent bridge
at Swarkeston. At the distant period when the
first foundations of the bridge were laid, two
sisters named Bellamont were resident at
Swarkestone, and were so liberal of their money
in the building of a portion of the bridge that they
reduced themselves to poverty, and ultimately
died in extreme destitution, being buried in one
grave in Prestwold Church, Leicestershire. The
story may have some foundation in fact, and
receives some measure of confirmation by an
ancient and remarkable tomb in Prestwold
Church, which is void of mark, name, or inscrip
tion, but bears the figures of two ladies.

SHADOWS OF ROMANCE. 247
The romance of earlier days clings around the
old church of Hathersage, the reputed birth and
burial-place of that famous Derbyshire archer,
Litrie John, Robin Hood's ancient comrade.
" When shaws beene sheene, and shradds full of fayre,
And leaves both large and longe,
Itt is merrye walking in the fayre forrest
To heare the small birdes songe."
During the course of his adventurous life, the
forester fought under Simon de Montfort, and
drew his bow at the sanguinary struggle at Eves
ham, when Prince Edward avenged his former
defeat at Lewes. A notable archer was Little
John. "Then John he took Guye's bow in his hand.
His boltes and arrowes eche one :
When the shiriffe saw little John bend,
He fettled him to be gone.''
After toil of battlefield and the danger under the
greenwood tree, he retired to Hathersage to end
his days. Opposite the porch, on the south side
of the church, two stones indicate his place of
burial, and by their distance apart it is inferred
that Little John attained to the respectable
stature of thirteen feet, four inches. His long
bow and cap hung in Hathersage Church for some
centuries, until they were removed to, Cannon

2 4S B YGONE DERB YSHIRE.
Hall, near Barnsley, about the year 1800. It is
said that a thigh-bone twenty-nine and a half
inches long was disinterred from the outlaw's
grave ; but the length of this bone has been also
given as 32 inches, while the length of his grave
has been modified to ten feet.
The name of Hunloke recalls a mingling of
romantic and tragic incident, and carries the mind
back to the advent of a new dynasty, and to that
great, heroic tragedy of the seventeenth century,
the conflict between King Charles and the
Parliament. When Jarnes I. visited Ilkeston in
1623, the aged sheriff of the county, Henry
Hunloke, hastened to welcome his majesty ; but
the fatigue of travel and the excitement of the
hour overcame the old man, and he suddenly
expired in the king's presence, " acquiring so
much renown by dying in his duty to the
sovereign, as if he had lived to secure the honour
of knighthood, which the king designed to confer
upon him." His son Henry served the king
zealously with his purse and sword, and on Edge-
hill field acquitted himself so valiantly, that the
king knighted him on the spot. He was after
wards created a baronet, but the Parliamentarians
did not allow his zeal to pass unnoted, and in the

SHADO WS OF ROMANCE. 249
year 1643 they sent an expedition against
Wingerworth Hall, which they garrisoned and
maintained for a time.
To the same period of cruel internecine strife
belongs the sorrowful incident of William de Ross-
ington's death and burial. He was an active
partisan of King Charles, and was slain during an
engagement with the enemy, near Hartington.
When the news of the sad event reached his
betrothed, she proceeded to the scene of the battle,
searched for and found her lover's corpse, and con
veyed it to Hedburn wood, ten miles from the battle
field. Tools and a light she found in a solitary hut,
and in rude fashion, with no burial service save the
yearning sorrow of her widowed heart, she buried
the body of her cavalier. It is said the Parlia
mentarians attached so much importance to Sir
William, that they vainly sought for his body,
and offered a reward for its production ; but the
place remained unknown, the lady passed from the
scene of her sad ordeal, and decade after decade
passed, bringing new phases of history, until the
sorrows of that old time of warfare became a
memory of the nation, although the solid benefits
that accrued therefrom entered into the national
life. Some thirty years ago, a farmer, while

250 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
putting down a gate-post, unearthed the bones of
the cavalier, with the arms and armour in which
he was arrayed when his lady with her own fair
hands gave him hasty and sorrowful sepulture.
A melancholy instance of mistaken zeal, or
official despotism^ — probably the former — and of
tjhe low moral tone that too frequently manifested
itself in the lives of the ministers of religion, is
furnished by a memorial stone in the vestry of
Eyam Church. It records the death of a rector
of Eyam, Joseph Hunt, buried December i6th,
1709, and of Ann, his wife, who predeceased him
in 1703. The young rector, whilst making merry
in the village inn, liquor being in and wit out,
went through a mock marriage with the publican's
daughter, Ann. This freak coming to the ears
of the Bishop, he caused a greater evil than
Joseph Hunt had been betrayed into by his folly.
He commanded the rector to marry the girl.
Although engaged to a Derby lady, the unfortun
ate gendeman obeyed the command, when an
action for breach of promise was taken against
him. Several years were occupied in legal
proceedings, and large sums of money were
swallowed up by legal expenses. In the end
Joseph Hunt found himself not only stripped of

SHADOWS OF ROMANCE. 251
friends and fortune, but harassed by the officers
of the law. In this strait he buried himself in the
vestry, supposed to have been built for the
purpose of providing him with a place of refuge
from his enemies. Secluded from the companion
ship of his equals, and practically a disgraced
man, he dwelt in the vestry until his death. The
sorrows of this unfortunate couple may only be
surmised, and it may be hoped that affection and
mutual respect grew out of their poverty and
grief and purified their lives, fitting them for
a state where rectors sin not, and bishops make no
mistakes. Tragedies were numerous in the century of the
Georges, and in 1758 a sad murder is said to have
defiled the magnificent scenery of the Winnats —
Windgates, or portals of the wind. The
tradition is that a maiden had eloped with her
lover, and that while proceeding on horseback to
Peak Forest chapel for the hurried performance of
the marriage ceremony, they were way-laid by a
gang of miners, and by them robbed and
murdered. Three years later a sad accident lent a tragic
interest to the magnificent precipitous scenery of
Dove Dale. Mr. Langton, Dean of Clogher,

252 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE.
while visiting at Longford Hall, in July, 1761,
visited the dale with a party of friends. During
the return, the Dean proposed to ride over a steep
hill, over which ran a path to Tissington. One of
his fair companions. Miss la Roche, agreed to
accompany him in his adventure, and was
accordingly mounted beside him. Unfortunately
the Dean got confused as to the proper path, and
turned into a sheep-track, which proved so steep
and difficult of ascent that he decided to retrace
his way. The horse, embarrassed by its double
burthen, lost its footing when Mr. Langton
endeavoured to turn it in the narrow path, and
rolled backward down the hill. The unfortunate
riders were severely bruised, and the Dean
expired a few days after the accident, and was
interred in Ashborne church. The lady, more
fortunate, was arrested by her hair being caught
in a thorn, and, although her fall was thus
opportunely broken, she was so severely bruised
that two days elapsed before she recovered
consciousness. Many Derbyshire steeps are famous for legends
of lovers and lovers' leaps, and chief of these
is a lofty perpendicular rock at the entrance to
Middleton Dale. From this dreadful height.

SHADOWS OF ROMANCE. 253
about the year 1760, a poor girl cast herself
headlong, while under the temporary excitement
or despair of an unrequited passion. Brambles
and rocky projections caught her clothing as she
fell, and so effectually broke her fall that she
reached the foot of the rock in a comparatively
uninjured state, and, with a little kindly assistance,
was able to walk home. The reflections induced by
her rash act, and the contemplation of her narrow
escape from a dreadful and shameful death, calmed
her troubled mind. Triumphing over her unfortun
ate passion, she lived an exemplary life, and died
without entering into the married state.
Such are a few old memories of Bygone Derby
shire, not uninteresting to the reflective mind, nor
void of lessons in the endurance of trials and
sorrows inseparable from the conditions of human
life. Above all they are fraught with the spirit of
mutability and change ; lying beyond us in a dim
and hazy atmosphere, where distance tones down
the language of life to the whispered accents of
tradition, and the colours, once flashing brighdy in
the morning sun of life, are reduced to a cold and
opaque mass, from which the poet and the artist
reproduce the colour and movement of the life
that was " in the old times before us,"

3nt>ey.

After Thirty Years, 224
Anglo-Saxon Nomenclature, 50
Ashbourne, The Pretender at, 230
Babington, Anthony, 149
Babington Conspiracy, The, 193 ;
The Conspirators, 195 ; execu
tion, 198
Bakewell Witches, The, 180 ; The
First Telling, 181 ; The Second
Telling, 183
Banner Cross, 245
Bellamont Sisters, 246
Beton, John, 187
Bolsover Castle, 132; ancient
owners, 134-5 ; captured, 140 ;
victualled, 134
Bradbury, E., quoted, 92
Cavendish, Col. Charles, 224-7
Charles I. at Derby, 9
Chatsworth, 13, 146
Chesterfield, Conflict at, 7
Collins quoted, 245
Crawford, Major-General, 140
Cumberland, Duke of, 233
Danes in Derbyshire, 4 ; first arrival
of, 45
Derby, Charter granted to, 6 ; dur
ing the '45, 16-17, 228-234;
Mint at, 5 ; Pretender at, 231 ;
stormed, 4 ; tumult at, 1 1
Derbyshire and the '45, 228
Derventio (Derby), 4, 46
Devonshire, Earl of, 12
Duffield Castle, 55 ; demolished,
90 ; discovered, 56 ; excava
tions, 60 ; Keep, the. Si ; stone
implements, 63
Early Christian Tomb at Wirks
worth, 19

Ethelbald, 4
Eyam and its sad Memories, 199 ;
Riley grave at, 204
Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 10
Ferrers, Robert, 6-8, 87-9
Ferrers, Henry de, 78, 94
Flowers, love of, 208
Football, Old-time, 216 ; Ashbourne
game, 220; death of, 221 ;
Derby game, 218; Frenchman
on, 217 ; Stubbs on, 217
Gell, Sir John, 9-10
Haddon Hall, 92 ; Chapel, 96 ;
Chaplain's room, 95 ; Dining
room, 99 ; Drawing room, 100 ;
Gallery, 100 ; Hall, 97 ; Kit
chen, 98
Hardwick, Bess of, 235
Heretic burnt, 8
Highlanders in England, 230
Historic Derbyshire, i ; Anglo-
Saxon period, 3-5 ; Baron's
War, 6 ; Civil War, 9 ; Early
period, 1-2 ; Norman Conquest,
Hunloke, Henry, 248
Hunt, Joseph, 250
Jackson, President, 177
Lambert, General, 11
Lamp of St. Helen, The, 143
Langton, Dean of Clogher, 251
Lead Mining Customs, Curious
Derbyshire, 30 ; Barmaster,
36 ; Barmote Court, 34 ; Dues,
Tythes, Lot, and Cope, 35 ;
Miner's dish, 36 ; Miner's
rhymes, 34 ; Theft, punishment
of, 37

256

INDEX.

Little John, 247
Lombe, Thomas, 14
Lover's Leap, 252
Mary Queen of Scots, 147, 193,
242-3 ; Act of Parliament, re.,
193 ; Babington Plot, re., 196,
198
Mary Queen of .Scots in Derbyshire,
185 ; Buxton, 191 ; Chatsworth,
186 ; Tutbury Ca.stle, 187 ;
Wingfield, 187
Moated Mounds, 72
Mompesson, Rev. W. , 202
Monumental Brasses of Tideswell,
115; Foljambe, Sir Thomas,
1 28 ; Lytton, Robt. , 1 26 ;
Meverell, .Sir Sampson, 131 ;
Pursglove, Robt., 117
Newcastle, Duke of, 137-141
Ordeal of Touch, iii
Paulet, Sir Amias, 189, iq6, 198
Peveril Castle, 155; described by
Mr. Croston, 166; present
stale, 164 ; tournament, 161 ;
used as a prison, 162
Peveril, William de, 5, 133, 158
Place Name, Derby, 38 ; Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle, 41 ; Deoraby,
39-40 ; Northweorthig, 39 ;
various renderings, 44
Plague at Eyam, 201
Poole Hole, 192
Pretender, the Young, 228-234
Pursglove, Robert, 117
Ranulf of Chester, 160
Repton, 4

Roman Roads, 2-3
,, Altar, 102
Romance of Haddon Hall, 106
Rowland, Godfrey, imprisoned, 163
Runic Cross, 206
Ryknield Street, 46
Sachevesel, Dr., 14
Sanders, Col., 11
Scandinavian Terminology, 47
Scott's Peveril of the Peak, 155
Shadows of Romance, 244
Shire, derivation of, 45
Silk Mill at Derby, 15
Siward, 70
Slater, .Samuel, 170; anns, 179;
apprenticeship, 171 ; descend
ants, 178 ; letter and marriage,
175-6
Stafford, Humphrey, 143
.Stanley, Rev. Thos., 202
Stuart, Charles Edward, 16, 228-
234
Tenure, Brough Mill, 246
Tissington, engagement at, 10
,, Festival, the, 209
Tutbury Castle, 6, 187
\'ernon. Sir Richard, 96
Mlla, the Roman, 68
Walsingham, 194-8
Well-dressing, 208
Whin-Hill and Loose-Hill, 244
Winnats, murder, 251
Wirksworth, Lead Mines of, 19 ;
church restorations, 21 ; sculp
tured stone, 23 ; described by
Rev. R. R. Rawlins, 24
Withlafi'e, 4

PUBLICATIONS

OF

WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO.
THE HULL PRESS,
HULL.

Elegantly honni in cloth gilt, demy Svo. , price 7s. 6d.
Only 500 copies printed, and each copy numbered. Only 30 copies
remain on sale.
BYl^DflE WOpAMpTOH^pI{(E,
Its History, Folk-Lore, and Memorable Men and Women.
Edited by WILLI AM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s.,
Author of "Old-Time Punishments," "Curiosities of the Church,"
"Old Church Lore."

Contents : — Historic Northamptonshire, by Thomas Frost — The Eleanor
Crosses, by tbe Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, b.a. — Fotheringhay : Past and Present,
by Mrs. Dempsey — The Battle of Naseby, by Edward Lamplough — The
Cottage Countess — The Charnel House at Rothwell, by Edward Chamberlain
— The Gunpowder Plot, by John T. Page — Earls Barton Church, by T. Tindall
Wildridge — Old Fairs, by William Sharman — Witches and Witchcraft, by
Eugene Teesdale — The City of Peterborough, by Frederick Ross, F.R.H.S. —
The English Founders of the Washington Family of America, by Thomas
Frost — Ann Bradstreet, the Earliest American Poetess — Liber Custumarum,
Villje Northamptonia;, by Christopher A. Markham, F.S.A. — Thomas Britton,
the Musical Small-Coal Man, by E. E. Cohen — Old Scarlett, the Peterborough
Sexton — Accounts of Towcester Constables, by John Nicholson — Miserere
Shoemaker of Wellingborough, by T. Tindall Wildridge — Sir Thomas
Tresham and his Buildings, by John T. Page — Northamptonshire Folk-Lore,
by John Nicholson — Northamptonshire Proverbs — An Ancient Hospital, by
the Rev. I. Wodhams, M.A. — A carefully prepared Index. — Numerous
Illustrations. PRESS OPINIONS.
" The Volume is very interesting, and for those who dwell in the county, or
whose tastes lead them to explore its history, it will have especial attraction."
— Publishers' Circular.
"A welcome contribution to the literature of the county." — Northampton
Herald. " The book is published in a form that is well worthy of the high standard
that the Hull Press has achieved, and we can congratulate Mr. Andrews on
adding one more stone to the fabric of the bygone history of the Midlands." —
Hiill Daily News.
" An interesting volume, as well as being got up in exceptionally good style.
The matter is well chosen and well rendered, so that the book is not only a
thing of beauty, but also a veritable treasure-house of reliable and entertaining
articles. " — Beverley Independent.
" A welcome addition to the shelves of anyone interested in the antiquities of
Northamptonshire, while even those who are not, will be able to pleasantly
while away many odd half-hours by perusing its pages." — Kettering Leader.

HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.

Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., price 7s, 6d.
Only 750 copies printed, and each copy numbered.
Its History, Folk-Lore, and Memorable Men and
Women.
Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s..
Author of "Old-Time Punishments," "Cupiositles of
the Chupeh," "Old Church Lore."

CONTENTS.

Historic Essex, by Thomas Frost — Epping Forest : Its History, Customs,
and Laws, by Jesse Quail — Greenstead Church, by Edward Lamplough — The
Burial of Harold at Waltham, by William Winters, f.r.h.s — St. Osyth's
Priory, by John T. Page — Colchester in Olden Times, by Joseph W. Spurgeon
— The Siege of Colchester, by Joseph W. Spurgeon — Colchester : Its Historic
Buildings and Famous Men, by Joseph W. Spurgeon — Essex Tokens, by
Thomas Forster — Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury : A glance at Armada Days, by
Edward Lamplough — The Lawless Court, by the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. —
The Dunmow Flitch — A Deserted Primitive Village, by G. Fredk. Beaumont
— William Hunter : The Young Martyr of Brentwood, by John W. Odling —
Fairlop Fair, by John W. Odling — Thomas Tusser, and his " Five Hundred
I'oints of Good Husbandry;" by W. H. Thompson — ^John Ray, Naturalist, by
W. H. Thompson — ^Wanstead House, by John T. Page — Hopkins, the Witch-
finder, by Frederick Ross, F.R.H.S. — An Essex Poet, by the Rev. Geo. S.
Tyack, B.A. — Historic Harwich — Old Bow Bridge, by John T. Page — Index.
PRESS OPINIONS.
" Readable as well as instructive, and it has an interest for many more than
Essex people." — The Globe.
" Good paper, good type, and good illustrations all help to make. ' Bygone
Essex' an exceedingly pleasant and agreeable book." — Sola's Journal.
"This work will be welcomed by all intelligent explorers of their own
country, who cannot fail to regard its ancient monuments and historic localities
with renewed interest after perusing it." — The Gentlewoman.

HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.
Colchester: T. Forster.
London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld,

Only 760 copies printed, and each copy numbered.

Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy Svo. , ys. 6d.
Begone Xancasbire.
Edited by ERNEST AXON.

Contents: — Historic Lancashire, by Ernest Axon — The Religious Life of
Lancashire during the Commonwealth, by W. A. Shaw, m.a. — Kersal Moor,
by Janet Armytage — A Lancaster Worthy (Thomas Covell), by William
Hewitson — Some Early Manchester Grammar School Boys, by Ernest Axon 
The Sworn Men of Amounderness, by Lieut.-Col. Henry Fishwick, f.s.a. 
Lancashire Sundials, by William E. A. Axon, m.r.s.l. — The Plague in
Liverpool, by J. Cooper Morley — The Old Dated Bell at Claughton, by Robert
Langton, f.r.h.s. — The Children of Tim Bobbin, by Ernest Axon — The
" Black Art " at Bolton — An Infant Prodigy in 1679, by Arthur W. Croxton —
Wife Desertion in the Olden Times — The Colquitt Family of Liverpool — Some
Old Lancashire Punishments — Bury Simnels — Eccles Wakes, by H. Cottam —
Furness Abbey — Colonel Rosworm and the Siege of Manchester, by George C.
Yates, f.s.a. — Poems of Lancashire Places, by William E. A. Axon, m.r.s.l.
— Father Arrowsmith's Hand, by Rushworth Armytage — Index. — Illustrated.

"A work of considerable historical and archieological interest." — Liverpool
Daily Post.
" The book is handsomely got up." — Manchester Guardian.
" In the collection of papers forming this highly interesting volume, many
antiquarian and historical matters connected with the County Palatine are
dealt with, and at least a dozen authors have contributed essays rich in curious
facts. . . All the articles are good, and should make this volume a favourite
among the historical students of the County Palatine." — Liverpool Mercury.
" The book is excellently printed and bound." — Library Review.
" ' Bygone Lancashire ' is a welcome addition to the literature of the county,
and we may echo the hope expressed by the editor that its appearance ' may
encourage the local patriotismi which is such a striking characteristic of the
Lancashire Lad.' It may be added that the work, which contains a few
illustrations, is well got up, and does credit to the publishers." — Manchester
Courier. " This is another of those clearly-printed, well-covered, readable, accurate,
and entertaining ' Bygone ' volumes that come forth with pleasant frequency
from the Andrews' press, Hull. . . . The volume is sure of a ready sale
among the more intelligent of the ' Lancashire Lads. ' " — Antiquary.

HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.
London : Simpkin, MarshaU, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.

Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., price 7s. 6d.
3B^gone : Xon^on.
By FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S.,
Author of " Yorkshire Family Romance," "Legendary
Yorkshire,'' etc.

CONTENTS.
The Walls and Gates — Episodes in the Annals of Cheapside — Bishopsgate
Street Within and Without — Aldersgate Street and St. Martin's-le-Grand —
Old Broad Street — Chaucer and the Tabard — The Priory of the Holy Trinity,
Aldgate — Convent of the Sisters Minoresses of the Order of St. Clare,
Aldgate — The Abbey of St. Mary of Graces, or East Minster — The Barons
Fitzwalter of Baynard's Castle — Sir Nicholas Brember, Knight, Lord Mayor
of London — An Olden Time Bishop of London : Robert de Braybrooke — A
Brave Old London Bishop : Fulco Basset — An Old London Diarist — Index.
PRESS OPINIONS.
"Mr. Ross deals with the chief episodes in the history of London
architecture, and with existing London antiquities in a garrulous, genial spirit,
which renders his book generally attractive." — The Times.
"Beyond all doubt a, more interesting and withal informing volume than
' ' Bygone London " it has not been our good fortune to come across for many
a long day." — The City Press.

PRICE ONE SHILLING.
-*©e In the Temple. ^^
eOMTE/MTS.
In the Temple— The Knight Templars— The Devil's Own— Christmas in
the Temple— How to Become a Templar— On Keeping Terms— Call Parties. .

"Amusing and interesting sketches." — Law Times.
" Pleasant gossip about the barristers' quarter." — Gentlewoman.
"A very pleasant little vohxme.." -^Globe.
" An entertaining little book." — Manchester Examiner.

HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO.
London: Hutchinson. & Co.

Elegantly ^ bound, in cloth gilt, demu 8uo., 2 uals., 7s. 6d. each
QBggone Bmcofngpire.
Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S.

Contents of Volume I. : — Historic Lincolnshire, by John Nicholson  The
Ancient Boat at Brigg, by T. Tindall Wildridge— HaVelok, the Dane, by
Mabel Peacock— ^The Crowle Stone, by the- Rev. Geo, .,S. Tyack, b.a.'  A
Roman Arch — A Curious Legend, by the Rev. W. Henry Jones — Quaint
Land Tenures and Customs of the Manor, by T. Broadbent Trowsdale, f.r.h.s.
— Swineshead : The Story of King John's Death, by Edward Lamplough—
Barton-on-Humber in the Olden Time, by C. H. Crowder — Pirates in the
Ilumber, by Edward Peacock, f.s.a. — The Pilgrimage of Grace, by Frederick
Ross, F.R.H.S. — Horncastle or Winsby Fight, by Edward Lamplough —
Somersby Manor and Cross, by J. G. Hall — Some Old Lincolnshire Gilds,
by the Rev. J. Malet Lambert, M.A., LL.D. — Somerton Castle and its Royal
Captive, by Theo. Arthur — The Champion, by William Andrews, f.r.h.s.
— Haxey Hood — Bull-Running, by John H. Leggott, f.r.h.s. — Henry Welby,
the Grub Street Hermit, by Theo. Arthur — The Plague in Alford, 1630,
by the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. — -Kirke White in Lincolnshire, by Alfred
Lishman — Index.
Contents of Volume II.: — Lincoln Cathedral, by T. Tindall Wildridge —
Lincoln Castle, by E.' Mansell Sympson, m.d. — Tattershall, its Lords, its
Castle, and its Church, by E. Mansell Sympson, M.D.— Bolingbrofce Castle, by
Tom Robinson, M.D.' — Ancient Stained Glass at Bar,ton-on;^y umber, and the
great Earl Beaumont, by T. Tindall Wildridge'— On the Population of
Lincolnshire, by Tom Robinson, m.d. — Superstitious Beliefs and Customs
of Lincolnshire, by the Rev. Wm. Proctor Swaby, D.D. — The Legend of
Byard's Leap, by the Rev. J. Conway Walter — Thornton Abbey, by Frederick
Ross, f.r.h.s. — The Witches of Belvoir, by T. Broadbent Trowsdale — The
Battle of Lincoln, by Edward Lamplough — Lincoln Fair, by Edward
Lamplough — Alford Fight, by the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, b.a. — Robert de
Brunne, by Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s. — Dr. Dodd, the Forger, by John T.
Page — Sir Isaac Newton — Barton-on-Humber Ferry, by C. II. Crowder —
An Eighteenth Century Poet, by the Rev. Alan Cheales, m.a. — Lincolnshire
a Century Ago — Spalding Gentlemen's Society, by Dr. Perry — The Great
Brass Welkyn of Boston, by William Stevenson — The Great Hawthorn Tree
of Fishtoft — Index.
PRESS OPINION.
" Mr. Wm. Andrews collects together a series of papers, by various com
petent hands, on the history, antiquities, and folk-lore of the great eastern
county which has borne so conspicuous a part in the past history of England,
and produced so many men who have illustrated it. . . A valuable
contribution to local history." — The Times.

HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.
London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.

SECOND EDITION. Bound in cloth gilt, demy 800. 6s
Cuvmitm of i^t Cputcp :
studies of Curious Customs, Services, and Records,
By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S.,
Author of "Historic Romance," "Famous Frosts and
Frost Fairs," " Historic Yorkshire," etc.

eO/STE/MTS:
Early Religious Plays : being the Story of the English Stage in
its Church Cradle Days— The Caistor Gad-Whip Manorial
Service — Strange Serpent Stories — Church Ales — Rush-Bearing
— Fish in Lent — Concerning Doles — Church Scrambling Chari
ties — Briefs — Bells and Beacons for Travellers by Night — Hour
Glasses in Churches — Chained Books in Churches — Funeral
Eiligies — Torchlight Burials — Simple Memorials. of the Early
Dead — The Romance of Parish Registers — Dog 'Whippers and
Sluggard 'Wakers — Odd Items from Old Accounts^A carefully
compiled Index.
— ® I LLC! ST-RATE-D. ®—

Ipress ©piniona.
" .\ volume both entertaining and instructive, throwing much light on the manners
and customs of bygone generations of Churchmen, and will be .read to-day with much
interest." — Neivbery House Magazine.
'* An extremely interesting volume." — North British Daily MaiL
" A work oflasting interest." — Hull Exavtitter.
" The reader will find much in this book to interest, instruct, and amuse." — Hotuc
Chimes. *' We feel sure that many will feel grateful to Mr. Andrews for having produced sut h
an interesting book."— TAe Antiquary.
"A volume of great research and striking interest." — The Bookbuyer (Ne-uj York).
" kviiaahXs hook."— Literary IVorl J ( Boston, U.S.A.).
" An admirable \xso\."— Sheffield Independent.
" An interesting, handsomely got up volume. . . . Mr. Andrews is always chatty
and expert m making a paper on a drj- subject exceedingly xs?,Ash\e.." —Neweastle Courant
" Mr. William Andrews' new book, 'Curiosities of the Church,' adds another to the
series by which he has done so much to popularise antiquarian studies. . . . The book.
It should be added, has some quaint illustrations, and its rich matter is made available foi
rcterence by a full and carefully compiled 'md.ex.:'—Scatsiimn.

HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.
London : Simpkin, MarshaU, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.

Ofb eptttcp Bore.
By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S.,
Author of "Curiosities of the Church," " Old- Time Punishments,"
"Historic Romance" etc.

C03SCTE1STTS.
The Right of Sanctuary— The Romance of Trial— A Fight
between the Mayor of Hull and the Archbishop of
York— Chapels on Bridges— Charter Horns— The Old
English Sunday — The Easter Sepulchre - St. Paul's
Cross— Cheapside Cross— The Biddenden .Maids Charity
—Plagues and Pestilences— A King Curing an Abbot
of Indigestion— The Services and Customs of Royal
Oak Day— Marrying in a White Sheet— Marrying under
the Gallows— Kissing the Bride— Hot Ale at Weddings
-Marrying Children — The Tassing Bell - Concerning
Coffins— The Curfew Bell— Curious Symbols of the Saints
—Acrobats on Steeples— A carefully-prepared Index.
S-V^ I ULCI ST-RATE'D ®-V>^

^1- PRESS OPINIONS. -1^
" A worthy work on a deeply interesting subject. . . . Wo
commend this book strongly." — European Mail.
"An interesting volume." — The Scotsman.
"Contains much that will interest and instruct." — Glasgow
Herald. ' ' The author has produced a book which is at once entertaining
and valuable, and which is also entitled to unstinted praise on the
ground of its admirable printing and binding." — Shields Daily Gazette.
"Mr. Andrews' book does not contain a dull page. . . .
Deserves to meet with a very warm welcome." — Yorkshire Post.
"Mr. Andrews, in 'Old Church Lore,' makes the musty
parchments and records he has consulted redolent with life and
actuality, and has added to his works a most interesting volume,
which, written in a light and easy narrative style, is anything but
of the ' dry-as-dust ' order. The book is handsomely got up, being
both bound and printed in an artistic fashion." — Northern Daily-
Xews. 
HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & lo., Ld.

Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8vo., 6s.
Legendary - LJorkshire.
By FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S.
Contents :— the Enchanted Cave— The Doomed City— The Worm of
Nunnington— The Devil's Arrows— The Giant Road Maker ,of Mulgrave—
The Virgin's Head of Halifax— The Dead Arm of St. Oswald the King— The
Translation of St. Hilda— A Miracle of St. John— The Beatified Sisters— The
Dragon of Wantley-The Miracles and Ghost of Watton— The Murdered
Hermit of Eskdale— The Calverley Ghost— The -Bewitched House of
Wakefield. PRESS OPINIONS.
Bmerley Recorder says—" It is a work of lasting interest, and cannot fail to
delight the reader."
Driffield Observer says— " The history and the literature of our county are
now receiving marked attention, and Mr. Andrews merits the support of the
public for the production of this and the other interesting volumes he has
issued. We cannot speak too highly of this volume, the printing, the paper,
and the binding being faultless."

Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy Svo., '6s.
l^orUsbtve f amtli^ IRomance*
By FREDERICK ROSS, FR.H.S.
Contents .-—The Synod of Streoneshalh— The Doomed Heir of Osmofherley
—St. Eadwine, the Royal Martyr— The Viceroy Siward — Phases in the Life
of a Political Martyr— The Murderer's Bride- The Earldom of Wiltes—
BlackfaceU Glifford— The Shepherd Lord— The Felons of Ilkley— The Ingilby
Boar's Head— The Eland Tragedy— The Plumpton Marriage— The Topcliffe
Insurrection — Burning of Cottinghani Castle — The Alum Workers — The
Maiden of Marblehead — Rise of the House of-Phipps — The Traitor Governor
of Hull. PRESS OPINIONS.
"The grasp and thoroughness of the writer is evident in every page, and the
book forms a valuable addition to the literature of the North Country." —
Gentlewoman. " Many will welcome this work." — Yorkshire Post.
HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. '
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.

Price 6s. Demy 8uo. Elegantly bound, cloth gilt.
(^ (TUonf p in a ®anbi :
A Woman's Wanderings in Northern India.
By CHRISTINA S. BREMNER.

Contents :— The Ascent from the Plains to the Hills— Kasauli and its
Amusements — Theories on Heat — Simla, the Queen of the Hill Stations-
Starting Alone for the Interior^n Bussahir State — The Religious Festival at
Pangay — On Congress — On the Growing Poverty of India.
PRESS OPINIONS.
'¦ The author of a ' Month in a Dandi' has a facile pen, and is evidently i
shrewd observer. Her book differs from many belonging to the same class
by reason of its freshness, its spontaneity, and its abundance of interesting
detail. Moreover, the book is written with a purpose. ' If by perusing these
p.agcs the reader obtains a clearer view of England's attitude to her great depend
ency, if his prepossessions against ' black men ' and the ' poor heathen ' should
melt away in any degree, if the assumption that what is good for England must
necessarily be so for India receives a slight shake, the writer will feel rewarded.'
To these conclusions one is almost certain to come when the experiences of
Miss Bremner's 'Month in a Dandi 'are recalled. There would be no end
to our quotations were We to reproduce air the passages we have marked as
being interesting. Miss Bremner is always in good spirits, and writes with
ease, and evidently con amore. " — Birmingham Daily Gazette.
" Miss Bremner's book describes a woman's wanderings in Northern India,
and it is written from adequate knowledge, with shrewd discernment, and
a pleasing amount of vivacity." — Speaker. ^
"'Allonth in a Dandi ' is full of instruction. It shows a great deal of
ability and determination to express truths, «ven if they be unpalatable. The
chapters on the vexed questions of Baboo culture and Indian Congress ars
well worth reading." — •Manchester Guardian.
" Miss Bremner's style is chastened fur the most part, bumorous, faithful to
detail, and oftentimes polished to literary excellence. The earlier chapters are
full of racinessand agreeable personality." — Hull Daily Mail.
" 'A Month in a Dandi ' describes the writer's wanderings in Northern
India, following upon a shrewdly observant account of the seamy side of Anglo-
Indian ¦ Society. The subject throughout is approached from a political
economist's point of view. The chapter on the growing poverty of India
sounds a warning note." — Gentlewoman.
" The author of a ' Month in a Dandi ' is evidently a keen observer of men
and things, and we know that her opinion is shared by many of our countrymen
who have had a much larger experience of India and Indian affairs than herself.
The book is full of the most exquisite word pictures, pictures that are full
of lieht beauty, and grace, but, unfortunately, some of them have more
shade than we care to see ; but, doubtless, Miss Bremner's treatment is correct
and life-like."— .e«// DailyNews^ 
HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.

F'cap 4to. Bevelled boards, gilt tops. Price 4s.
jf amous jFtosts anb Jfrost jfatrs
in Great Britain*
Chronicled from the Earliest to the Present Time.
By WILLIAM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s.

This work furnishes a carefully prepared account ot all the greai i-iosis
occurring in this country from A.D. 134101887. The numerous Frost Fairs
on the Thames are fully described, and illustrated with quaint woodcuts, and
several old ballads relating to the subject are reproduced. It is tastefully
printed and elegantly bound. PRESS OPINIONS
" The work is thoroughly well written, it is careful in its facts, and may
be pronounced exhaustive on the subject. Illustrations are given of several
frost fairs on the Thames, and as a trustworthy record this volume should be
in every good library. The usefulness of the work is much enhanced by a
good index." — Public Opinion.
" A very interesting •vo\\xcae.."— Northern Daily Telegraph.
" A great deal of curious and valuable information is contained in these
pages ... A comely volume." — Literary World.
" The work from first to last is a most attractive one, and the arts alike of
printer and binder have been brought into one to give it a pleasing form." —
Wakefield Free Press.
" An interesting and valuable work." — West Middlesex Times.
" Not likely to fail in inteiest."-~Manchester Guardiart.
" The book is beautifully got up." — Barnsley Independent.
' ' This chronology has been ¦ a task demanding extensive research and
considerable labour and patience, and Mr. Andrews is to be heartily con
gratulated on the result. " — Derby Daily Gazette.
" A volume of much interest, and great importance. " — Rotherham
Advertiser.

One hundred coties only printed for sale, and each copy numbered.
XTbe lEvolution of Brama*
By SIDNEY W. CLARKE.
" A ca.refully written work. . . . It is a readable contribution to dramatic
histor)'." — The Critic.

HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HtILL PRESS.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ldt

Elegantly bound i„ cloth gilt, demy Svo., price 6s.
yorkshire Battles.
By EDWARD LAMPLOUGH.

Cfl«/««/j.-— Winwidfield, etc.— Battle of Stamford Bridge— After Stamford
Bridge— Battle of the Standard— After the Battle of the Standard— Battle of
Myton Meadows— Battle of Boroughbridge— Battle of Byland Abbey— In the
Days of Edward III. and Richard II.— Battle of Bramham Moor— Battle of
Sandal— Battle of Towton— Yorkshire under the Tudors— Battle of Tadcaster
—Battle of Leeds— Battle of Wakefield— Battle of Adwalton Moor— Battle of
Hull— Battle of Selby— Battle of Marston Moor— Battle of Brunnanburgh—
Fight oft Flamborough Head — Index.
PRESS OPINIONS.
" A remarkably handsome volume, typographically equal to the best pro
ductions of any European capital." — North British Daily Mail.
" An important work." — Beverley Independent.
" Does great credit to the new firm of book publishers." — Yorkshire County
Magazine. -
"A beautifully printed volume." — Halifax Courier.
Cloth, 4s.
yorkshire in Olden Times.
Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s.

Contents: An Outline History of Yorkshire, by Thomas Frost — The Cow-
Devil : A legend of Craven, by William Brockie— The First Anglo-Saxon
Poet, by John H . Leggott, F. Ii. H..S. — The Battle of Brunanburgh,..by .Frederick
Ross, F.K.H.s. — Old Customs of York, by George Benson — Elizabethan
Gleanings, by Aaron Watson — The Fight for the Hornsea Fishery, by T.
Tindall Wildridge — Folk Assemblies, by John Nicholson — Quaint Gleanings
from the Parish Register-Chest of Kirkby Wharfe, by the Rev. Richard
Wilton, M.A. — The Wakefield Mysteries, by William Henry Hudson — A
Biographical Romance, by William Andrews, F.R.H.S. — Some Scraps and
Shreds of Yorkshire Superstitions, by W. Sydney, f.r.s.l. — The Salvation of
Holderness, by Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s. — Yorkshire Fairs and Festivals, by
Thomas Frost — James Nayler, the Mad Quaker who claimed to be the
Messiah, by William Andrews, f.r.h.s.— Duke Richard's Doom : A legend of
Sandal Castle, by Edward Lamplough — Obsolete Industries of the East
'Riding, by John Nicholson— Bolton Abbey : Its bistory and legends, liy
Alfred Chamberlain, B.A. —To Bolton Abbey, by the Rev. E. G. Charlesworth.
PRESS OPINION.
"The work consists of a series of articles contributed by various authors,
and it thus has the merit of bringing together much special knowledge from a
great number of sources. It is an entertaining volume, full of interest for the
general reader, as well as for the learned and cwt'mw!,." —Shields Daily Gazette.
HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRES.S.
London : Simpkin, Marshalt,, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.

Paper Cover, is. Cloth, 2S.
Mij ©ftm'f: or^t) otfier poeny.
By H. ELVET LEWIS.
(elfed)
" The fifty pages, by no means overcrowded, which Mr. Elvet Lewis has
given us, go far to justify the hope that a new poet of genuine power has
arisen among us. The thought is often singularly beautiful. The expression
is so simple and so natural that it conceals the art. The delicacy of the
workmanship may easily blind us to the strength. Mr. Lewis is essentially
original, though his affinities are closest, perhaps, to Whittier and Lynch ; but
there is not a trace of imitation to be found in the book from one end to the
other." — Literary World. .'
"This little volume possesses' a rare charm for the lovers : of really good
verse. The writer is evidently of the number of those whose spirituality is
intense, and whose faith in, and bold of, the things ' not seen and eternal ' are
vivid and strong. The opening poem, -which gives the work'its title — 'My
Christ '^s singularly beautiful for the spirit of love, loyalty, and devotion
which it breathes in every line. Altogether, the poems are of a high order,
and quite worthy of ranking alongside such works as ' The Lyra Innocentium '
and ' The Christian Year.' " — Hull Times.
"The verses are worthy of Mr, Lewis' .poetic genius, and breathe a-spirit of
devotion which will certainly have an uplifting influence upon those who peruse
the verses. Mr. Lewis has a pure style, and in the poems before us there are
a few gems of thought which shew their originator to be an author of great
ability. " — Llanelly Guardian.
" Sacred poems of great merit and beauty." — Newcastle Daily Chronicle.

Fancy Cover, is.
WantE(l--i[ii Mntt ; \ plovel.
By EVAN MAY.
" It is an entrancing story, and perfectly wholesome reading. In (his work,
the author of 'The Greatest of These' is at her best; and 'Wanted, an
Heiress- may be pronounced a leading tale of the season, "-iow//; Yorkshire
Free Press..
" The stofy is well \(AA." —Northern Echo.
"It is a bright book for holiday reading." —Carlisle Express.

HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS,
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.

"Quite up to Date."-Hull Daily Mall.
Crown 8vo., 140 pp. ; fancy cover. Is. ; cloth hound, Ss.

STEPPING-STONES TO SOCIALISWI.
BY DAVID MAXWELL, C.E.

In a reasonable and able manner Mr, Maxwell deals with the following
topics : — The Popular Meaning of the Term Socialism — Lord SaUshury on
Socialism— Why There is in Many Minds an. Antipathy to Socialism—.
On SomB-Socialistic Views of Marriage— The auestion of PrlTato Property
—The Old Political Economy is not the ¥ay of Salvation— Who is My
Neighhour ?— Progress, and the Condition of the Labourer- &ood and
Bad Trade: Precarious Employment— All Popular Movements are
Helpiag on Socialism— Modern Literature in Eolation to Social Progress—
Pmntug the Old Theological Tree—The Churches,— Their Socialistic-
Tendencies— The Future of the Earth in Relation to Human Life— Socialism
is Based on Natural Laws of Life— Humanity in the luture— Preludes to
Socialism— Forecasts of the Ultimate Form of Society— A Pisgah-top View
of the Promised Land,

pj^Ess opmio^a

The following are selected from a large number of favourable notices :—
" The author has evidently reflected deeply on the subject .of Socialism,
and his views are brodd, equitable, and quite up to date. In a score or
so of chapters- he discusses Socialism from manifold points of view, ancl n
its manifold aspects. Mr. Maxwell is not a fanatic ; his book is not dull,
and his style is not amateurish."— .ff"«// Daily Mail.
"There is a good deal of charm about Mr. Maxwell's s'vfi.e:' —Northern
Daily News.
" The book is well worthy of perusal."— .H«// I^ews.
" The reader who desires more intimate acquaintance with a subject
that is often under discussion at the present day, will derive much interest
from a perusal of this little work. \Vhether it exactly expresses the views
ofThe various socialists themselves is another matter, but inasmuch as
mese can seldom agree even among themselves the objection is scarcely so
serious as might otherwise be thonzhf-PuMishers Circular. 
HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.
London : Simpkin, Mapshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.

Jn tbe lpte88.

Oi

GONE YORKSHIRE, edited by William Andrews,
F.R.H.S.
GONE LEICESTERSHIRE, do. do.
GONE WARWICKSHIRE, do. do.
GONE HAMPSHIRE, edited by Canon Benham.
GONE KENT, edited by Richard Stead, b.a.
GONE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, by William Stevenson.
GONE SCOTLAND, by David Maxwell, c.e.
)NUMENTAL BRASSES OF LANCASHIRE AND
CHESHIRE, by James L. Thornely.
IE STUDIES OF A SOCIALIST PARSON, by the Rev.
W. H. Abraham, m.a.

Particulars of any of above works on application.