Memorials of old Derbyshire

by Unknown

THE PREHISTORIC STONE CIRCLES OF DERBYSHIRE

By W. J. Andrew, F.S.A.

Scattered over the world, from India to Peru, from Southern Africa to Northern Europe, wherever it may be, the megalithic circle marks a grade in the advance of civilization, for it is man’s earliest attempt at geometrical architecture. As such, although so uniform in design, its age must vary by thousands of years, according to the intelligent progression of the early inhabitants of the country in which it is present. Old as our stone circles seem to us, those on the shores of the Mediterranean were probably grey with antiquity when ours were yet unbuilt; indeed, so far as the old world is concerned, it may be assumed that the megalithic monuments of the British Isles are amongst the latest in date.

The circle is but an elaboration of a monolith surrounded by stones. There is, however, every indication that it was introduced into this country after it had passed through all its stages of evolution and assumed its final form. Its builders made their way hither from the south, spreading more especially over Spain, Brittany and Denmark on the mainland, and on arriving upon our southern coasts, branching northward through England and Scotland, even to the Orkneys, on the one side, and by sea to Ireland and the Western Hebrides on the other. Thus the date of its advent must have been subsequent to the mastery of navigation. It has been assumed that because Stonehenge represents the finished design, it must be the latest of our English examples, and, therefore, the evolution of those rude, and often unhewn, monuments of which so many examples have weathered more than two thousand winters on the high-lands of the Peak. But the very opposite proposition probably represents the truth. In the whole of our isles there is no other example of a trilithic design, so the theory of local evolution must fail. On the other hand, we trace it without a fault from India, through Arabia, along the north coast of Africa, in Malta and Minorca, and finally on the coast of Brittany, on its way to this island. Again, the curious architectural joint of mortice and tenon, which is so interesting a feature of Stonehenge, is unknown here, but present in the trilithons of the Mediterranean shores.

Arbor Low: General View of the Southern Half.

We may, therefore, infer that the builders of Stonehenge were of a race which originally came from the south, and that the monument was erected under the direction of men who had seen or had, at least, been thoroughly instructed in the architecture of the earlier trilithons. This was their work, but after them came the copyist and the invariable deterioration. A parallel case is that of the introduction of the art of coinage into this country about B.C. 200. It found its way to us over nearly the same route, and in its earliest stages was, therefore, an imitation of the Greek and Phœnician money then current; but before many years had passed many of the designs had degenerated into conventional figures, often of a distinctive character, yet evolved by the exaggeration of some minor detail upon the prototype. Another comparison may be made with the customs of burial about the period we are considering. At first the useful and valuable flint implements of the deceased were, with a praiseworthy unselfishness, interred or cremated with his remains; but later, this sometimes became a mere matter of ceremony, and it was thought sufficient to substitute flint chippings for these offerings.

Assuming Stonehenge to be the prototype of our rude stone circles, it may be well to remember its general features, and particularly the dimensions of its plan. Its architecture consisted of an outer circle of ditch and earthen bank of an approximate diameter of three hundred feet, broken at the entrance from the north-east, where the banks are continued in that direction, and form an avenue of approach fifty feet in breadth. Within was a concentric circle one hundred feet in diameter, of upright stones supporting a continuous lintel. These stones are roughly squared, and the pillars now measure about fourteen feet above ground, whilst the lintels are about eleven and a half feet long. Ten feet within was a minor concentric circle of pillar stones, a few feet in height, arranged in pairs. Again, within were five huge trilithons arranged in the plan of a horse-shoe with a diameter of about fifty feet, and composed of stones similar in form to those of the outer peristyle, but varying in height to nearly twenty-five feet above the turf; one stone, for example, measuring, when exposed by excavation, twenty-nine feet eight inches in length. Finally, within the whole is the “altar-stone,” some sixteen feet by four, lying prone and within a broken, or horse-shoe shaped ellipse of a diameter of forty feet, composed of pillar stones about five or six feet high. Without the whole, and at a distance of two hundred and fifty feet from the centre, is a monolith, or “pointer,” sixteen feet high, known as the Friar’s Heel. It stands to the north-east and a fraction to the south of a line drawn from the altar-stone along the centre of the avenue. Another stone, now fallen, lies on the line just within the enclosure.

From this very superficial description it will be noticed that there is a certain geometrical proportion to scale. The diameter of the outer bank is three times that of the peristyle, which, in turn, is twice that of the trilithons. The space betwen the peristyle and the outer bank equals the diameter of the former. The diameter of the outer circle of small pillar stones is twice that of the inner ellipse of pillar stones, and the distance of the Friar’s Heel from the peristyle is twice the diameter of the latter. Even admitting a wide margin for inaccuracy, the impression must remain that there is ground for the suspicion that some attempt at a decimal system prevailed in the general plan of this mysterious monument.

These proportions are so obvious that it seems unlikely that they have escaped the attention of those who have studied the plan of Stonehenge. It was not, however, in relation to the great monument of the south that a possible system of geometrical mensuration suggested itself; but in the survey of our own hill-circles of Derbyshire, when it appealed so forcibly to observation that it prompted a reference to the prototype for possible confirmation.

No other county in England is so prolific in prehistoric circles as that of Derby. Many, probably, are still undiscovered, for the writer has been able to add several to the list. Yet at least twenty can be visited with the assistance of an Ordnance map, another dozen have disappeared in modern times, but are recorded by old authorities, and, no doubt, as many more lie hidden by the heather on our little-frequented moors. All are in the north-west quarter of the county, within a space of less than twenty miles square, and at an altitude of not less than a thousand feet.

Although differing much in dimensions and details, there was a common purpose, and consequently there is a uniform character in all. Commencing with the smallest, and measuring the diameters from stone to stone, we find: (1) a plain circle of standing stones, ten feet across, and with either a single stone or heap of stones at a short distance outside the circle, which, for convenience of reference, may be called the “pointer”; (2) similar, but with a diameter of twenty feet, and an encircling mound, or vallum, of earth, in the inner edge of which the stones are usually set; (3) the same, but with diameters of thirty, forty, sixty, eighty, one hundred, and one hundred and fifty feet. It is probable that, originally, all had a cromlech of some description in the centre, or, as at Ford, a small circle in the north-eastern quarter. At Park Gate this remains as a central cone of stones; at Arbor Low as three great stones, which, with the rest, have fallen; on Offerton Moor it was four stones, and at the Wet Withens a single stone. Outside the circle at Arbor Low is a raised causeway of earth extending in a curved line from the circle towards its artificial mound, Gib Hill, a thousand feet away, which once it probably joined. At Stadon a similar causeway leaves the circle, but returns to it again in the form of the lower half of a triangle, and at the Wet-Withens Mr. Trustram called attention to the remains of what was, very possibly, an avenue of stones arranged in parallel lines at equal distances towards the south-west. These alignments must be considered with reference to the avenue at Stonehenge.

The circles are never present on the actual summit of a hill, but are almost invariably on the hillside near the highest point. Hence on one side they have a sharp and near horizon and on the other a distant view. All have, or presumably have had, a “pointer” outside the circle; that is, an artificial mound of earth or stones or a smaller circle to the larger examples, and a single upright stone to the smaller.

It will have been noticed that the diameters of the circles have evidently been planned according to a geometrical scale, of which the unit seems to have been equivalent to ten feet of our measure. A reference, for example, to the plan of Arbor Low will again demonstrate this point. The average diameter of the circle of the stones is one hundred and fifty feet, the width of the fosse is twenty feet, and that of the vallum on the ground level is thirty feet, and its height above the excavated fosse is ten feet; the total diameter of the monument is two hundred and fifty feet, and Gib Hill, its pointer, stands one thousand feet away south-west by west. But the stones at Arbor Low, and, indeed, those of all the other examples, do not form a true circle; there is always an elliptical variation. At Arbor Low this variation is about ten feet; at the Wet-Withens it is only three or four feet. At the former there are in the centre three fallen stones, which in all probability formed a dolmen, of which the capstone measures fourteen feet in length; it may be assumed, therefore, that its supporters occupied a space of about ten feet. At the Wet-Withens we read that there was originally a single large stone in the centre, which we may assume was not more than three or four feet in diameter. If, therefore, the central cromlech was first erected, and the radius of the circle of stones measured from its outside walls instead of from the true centre, we have the probable explanation of the elliptical variation in every case. The variation, in turn, should give us some idea of the central cromlech when, as in so many instances, it has been destroyed.

This suggestion is supported by another distinctive feature in the plan of stone circles, of which, also, no explanation has been offered. Nearly every circle has two entrances, or an entrance and exit, cut through the mound, and when a fosse is present it is broken at the causeways; but these entrances, although on opposite sides of the circle, and usually towards the north and south, are never directly opposite each other. If, therefore, the central cromlech was the dominant purpose, the roadway would pass alongside it, and not have to deviate around it, as it certainly would if it truly bisected the circle.

The three principal examples in the county are Arbor Low, the Bull Ring, and the Wet-Withens. Arbor Low is situate on the hillside, 1,200 feet above the sea, a mile to the east of Parsley Hay Station, eight miles south-east from Buxton. It has been termed the Stonehenge of the Midlands, and as a megalithic monument, the very grandeur of its loneliness appeals to memories of the days of old and the race that is gone. Its dimensions have already been given, but its general features are a circular plateau, averaging about one hundred and sixty feet in diameter, and surrounded by a broad fosse, enclosed, save at the two entrances, within a high vallum of earth. In the centre of the plateau are three limestone blocks, of which one is fourteen feet in length, and another, now broken, about twelve feet by eight feet six inches; these, before destruction, probably formed a dolmen, or trilithon, similar to those of Stonehenge. Arranged around the edge of the plateau, and seemingly in pairs, which also allows the possibility of a trilithic formation, are forty-six similar stones, all, with one exception, lying prone, and measuring from thirteen feet by six to comparatively small dimensions—the exception referred to, however, lies at a very low angle. They seem to have been selected from the surface limestone of the district, which explains the many weathered and holed stones amongst them; and it must be remembered that a holed stone has always claimed a superstitious veneration. It is present in the circle at Stennis, in our chambered barrows, and in the dolmens of France, Russia, and India. The trilithons of Stonehenge may be its elaboration, and in later times King Alfred caused the Danes to swear their treaty according to their most solemn custom upon the holy ring. Even in mediæval days the superstition connected with St. Wilfred’s Needle at Ripon may probably have been but a survival of this archaic tradition.

Although not shaped in the usual sense of the word, some of the stones at Arbor Low show indications of rough dressing, particularly at the base, which was, no doubt, for the purpose of stability when they were originally set upright. That once they were erect there can be no doubt, for it is essential to a stone circle that they should be so placed. As they lie, it will be noticed that, with very few exceptions, the top of every stone points to the centre of the plateau, whereas the natural fall of the stones would be towards the ditch, on the edge of which they were placed, for their foundations on that side would be the weaker. The obvious explanation must be that they were pulled down by ropes, and as the vallum would impede the process on the outside, it followed that the crowd of haulers necessarily required the full width of the plateau, and so caused the stones to fall inwards, like the radii of a circle. Similarly the central stones were hauled down in a straight line with the entrance to the circle, which thus gave the necessary leverage of length. When and by whom was this done? It is unlikely that the Romans would interfere with customs which in no way clashed with their own. When, however, the first waves of Christianity passed over the land, and Christian stone crosses were erected throughout our county, it is unlikely that the stone monuments of a pagan race would be tolerated amongst them; and in the seventh century an edict of the Church was passed in France exhorting the clergy to stamp out the idolatry of stone-worship. In Northumbria, which country then included the county of Derby, King Edwin, upon his conversion to Christianity in A.D. 627, authorised Paulinus to destroy “the altars and temples, with the enclosures that were about them,” at which he had previously worshipped.[31]

We may, therefore, assume that the great circle of Arbor Low was too prominent a monument to be allowed to remain, but the lesser circles, no longer frequented by the people, would pass unnoticed by the Reformers; yet the circle on Harthill Moor, only four miles away, was left standing, although some of its stones were nine or ten feet high, and nine stones still stood a century ago, but now only four remain, varying in height from about four feet to eight or nine feet. Perhaps the late interment, discovered by Mr. St. George Gray during the excavations at Arbor Low in 1902, may have dated from the time of its destruction, for its selection as a place of sepulture would naturally offend the tenets of a Christian people, and call attention to the superstitions still associated with this mysterious monument. It was not the first interment there, for built upon the vallum adjoining the southern entrance are the remains of a large tumulus, which yielded to Mr. Bateman, its excavator, urns of coarse clay and other evidence of cremation, with relics of flint and bone. Again, the summit of the great mound of its satellite, Gib Hill, had been selected for a similar interment in the days before the shadow of mystery was cast over Arbor Low.

The Bull Ring almost adjoins the modern church at Dove Holes, three and a half miles north-north-west from Buxton. So far as the ground plan of the circle is concerned, it is identical with that of Arbor Low, save that the vallum is now, perhaps, not quite so high. No doubt it is the work of the same architects, and originally contained a similar arrangement of great stones. Unfortunately these were entirely removed nearly two centuries ago for building purposes, and its very existence is to-day threatened by approaching lime works. With the circle itself its similarity to Arbor Low ends, for instead of lying on a northern slope it faces south-east, hence as the natural conditions are varied, so are its adjuncts. Instead of a high mound a thousand feet away, its pointer is brought close to it, and, therefore, lower in height, although a mound of about the same circumference; but its direction is nearly the same, namely, to the south-west.

The Wet-Withens is on the northern slope of Eyam Moor, 1,002 feet above sea-level, and is the best example of the type in which the fosse is absent. To-day it is represented by a circular mound of earth, one hundred and twenty feet in diameter, and about ten feet broad by two feet six inches high, broken for the entrances in the usual positions, namely, due south and nearly north. Set in the inner margin of the mound remain ten stones of millstone grit, most of which are upright, and probably fifteen or sixteen originally completed the arrangement, and some may be hidden by the heather. They stand at nearly equal distances, but the largest only measures, as exposed above the turf, four feet three inches long, one foot nine inches broad, and nine inches deep. It has already been mentioned that a monolith once stood in the centre, and there is still a considerable depression in the ground whence it was excavated—for the hand of the quarryman has been ruthless amongst the prehistoric monuments of our county. Forty feet due north of the circle are the remains of a great cairn, or tumulus, with a base seventy feet by forty feet, composed entirely of stones averaging over a foot in length. This may have served the purpose of the pointer, or, like the tumulus on the vallum at Arbor Low, may merely have been a sepulchral mound, for it also yielded a half-baked urn containing cremated remains and a flint arrow-head. If Mr. Trustram’s theory be correct, the stone-marked avenue leads to the south-west, and thus conforms with the pointers of Arbor Low and the Bull Ring; also with the general direction of the avenue or causeway of the former.

The relative position of these three circles is certainly curious. They form an inverted isosceles triangle, of which the base line from the Wet-Withens to the Bull Ring is nearly due east and west; to be accurate, it is almost the true magnetic orientation, and the apex at Arbor Low is due south. The Ordnance map discloses the length of the base line to be nine miles, and that of each of the sides ten miles; in fact, the compasses pivoted in the centre of Arbor Low bisect both the circles of the Bull Ring and Wet-Withens. It is needless to remark that the megalithic builders had not the knowledge nor the appliances to measure distances otherwise than on the ground level; but as the valleys run north and south, and the line east to west is therefore much more broken and undulating, it is not impossible that there was a measured intention to construct these three circles as nearly as possible in the form of an equilateral triangle, of which the circle of Arbor Low was to be due south, according to the sun’s then apparent meridian. Indeed, it is an interesting question of fact whether, if measured on the ground level, these three circles would not prove to be equidistant one from another.

Reduce the compasses to the equivalent to eight miles, and a series of coincidences follows. They exactly span Arbor Low and Stadon; Arbor Low and an unmarked circle near Park Gate on East Moor; the latter and the double circle on Abney Moor, and, again, the same circle and two others on Brassington Moor; the Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor and the circle on Froggatt Edge; that on the Bar Brook and the most northern of the two on Bamford Moor; the southern circle on Bamford Moor and the double circle on the Ford estate near Chapel-en-le-Frith; the latter and the circle on Abney Moor, and so on, until it would seem to be worth one’s while to follow the eight miles radius from any given circle in search of its colleague. If there is any variation in the distances quoted above, it is so slight as to be scarcely perceptible on the one-inch scale Ordnance map. This is, at the least, tentative evidence of that careful system of mensuration which seems to pervade the mystery of these interesting memorials.

Arbor Low: General View of the Southern and Western Part.

The triangular arrangement of the three chief circles calls attention to that of Stadon, situate a mile and a quarter south-east from Buxton. Its stones, like those of its neighbour, the Bull Ring, have been confiscated, and for centuries, perhaps, it yielded to the plough; nevertheless, its mounds, though almost levelled, are quite distinct, and disclose a plan probably unique in its design. It comprises an annular vallum, forming three-quarters of a circle, the fourth quarter being straight-sided for one hundred feet, and from the corners of this side expand two straight causeways or mounds for a distance of about one hundred and, presumably, one hundred and twenty feet respectively, when they then turn at an acute angle and unite in a straight line, of probably one hundred and twenty feet, almost parallel to the side of the circle. Thus they form the base of an isosceles triangle, bisected horizontally by the straight side of the circle. Unfortunately, the south-west corner of the base line is now cut off by the London and North Western Railway line from Buxton to Ashbourne, and therefore its measurements can only be estimated. If continued, the apex of this triangle would correspond with the nearest quarter of the horizon, namely, on the ridge of Stadon Hill at a point nearly due east. On the inside of the mounds, both of the circle and of the triangular adjunct, are indications of a ditch, and the usual entrances are north by west and south-east respectively. The average width of the circle from the outside of the mounds is now two hundred feet, but owing to the straight side it is subjected to more than the usual elliptical variation; the width of the mounds and ditch are twelve and ten feet respectively. These latter dimensions probably indicate that originally it must have had a fosse and vallum of no mean importance. One hundred and twenty feet north-by-east from the circle seems to be the base of what was probably a large mound or “pointer,” about forty feet by twenty feet, but this also has been levelled.

Although lacking the grandeur of Arbor Low, the small circles have an interest only secondary to it in any attempt to determine cause from effect. Many of them, fortunately, have suffered from the hand of time alone, and are to-day as the race that is gone left them. No better examples could be desired than some in the Baslow district, particularly that near Park Gate; but those by the Bar Brook and on Froggatt Edge are nearly as well preserved, and the double circle at Ford is perfect.

Selecting the Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor as a typical example, its description will suffice for its class. A circular vallum ten feet wide and two feet high at the crest, with diameter varying from forty-five to fifty feet, measured from its outer edge, and broken for the usual entrances, which, however, in this instance are east-by-north and south-west. Within the inner margin of the mound are arranged nine stones, all, with one exception, still upright, and the largest measuring, above the heather, three feet high, two feet three inches broad, and nine inches deep. In 1848 there was a cone of stones in the centre, but this has been destroyed; the Park Gate circle, however, shows this in a complete form. Exactly at a distance of one hundred feet west by south of the circle stands a single stone as the pointer, measuring above the turf thirty inches high, twenty-two wide, and eleven deep. It is known as “The King Stone,” and the nine stones of the circle have given the name of “The Nine Ladies” to the monument as a whole. This is, of course, a complimentary variant of the general term “maidens” so often applied to the stones of circles in all parts of the country, and for which so many derivations have been offered.

A circle of this class which has hitherto escaped observation has an interesting deviation from the usual lines. It stands 1,050 feet above sea level on the hillside at Cadster, near Whaley Bridge, but in Chapel-en-le-Frith parish. Its vallum has an elliptical diameter, varying from thirty-five to forty feet, with entrances north-north-east and south-west. The stones are of the same arrangement and size as those of The Nine Ladies, and the diameter of their circle varies from thirty feet to thirty-three feet six inches. The centre is nearly level, but some large stones below the turf may have supported a monolith, which, perhaps, was a large pointed stone, measuring four feet long, two feet six inches wide, and one foot deep, now lying at the foot of the vallum. Ninety feet nearly south by west of the circle, almost prostrate, is the “pointer,” a block of millstone grit measuring three feet six inches high, two feet six inches broad, and two feet deep. In these particulars the monument closely resembles the last described, but it lies on a hillside with a declination to the west of one in ten, and to obtain the required plane for the western vallum and stones, the builders have lowered the height of the vallum on the east to about one foot high, and raised that on the west to four feet. Hence it is nearly, but not quite, level. Although there is a very extensive view to the north-west, the horizon is within two or three hundred yards on the north and east. A line of sight taken over the stones west and east within the circle exactly touches the eastern horizon, where there is a small artificial mound of stones, and this system of levelling the vallum and stones of a circle to the plane of the horizon seems to be general, and is especially in evidence at Ford.

For the purpose of these notes, and to ascertain that the vallum had not been raised by an interment, a partial excavation has been made. A narrow trench cut from east to west disclosed that the entire monument is composed of loose stones, seemingly hand-laid, upon the natural soil. On the west side the raising of the vallum was an example of careful and permanent work. Commencing from the outside there was a foundation of large stones sloping inwards, and acting as a retaining wall for the stones above, and a similar foundation marked the inside margin. In the centre of the vallum was a core of stones about two feet high leaning towards each other, and filled in with horizontal stones, thus forming the base of a solid triangle. Above this the loose stones were built up to the required height and form. An examination of some of the principal stones of the circle disclosed that they were supported by or resting upon others of large size. As it was not desirable to disturb more than was necessary to disclose the general construction, and to remove turf which had overgrown some of the pillars, a very small proportion of the whole was searched, and this did not yield a single relic of the work of man.

So far, we have dealt with the effect of circles as we see them; let us look to the cause. Imagine an agricultural people without any knowledge of the seasons or months of the year, save from the gradual changes from cold to warm weather, and from long to short days; without the means of estimating the length of the latter, and without even the power of numbering the years or knowing whether they themselves were young or old, for except, perhaps, in the calm pools of water, their very appearance would be strange to them. A few treacherously warm days in December, and they would sow their corn to the winds. Preparation for winter needs or summer work would be impossible, and all would end in famine and waste—all would be confusion. No wonder that, like nature, they turned to the sun—the almanac of all time. No wonder their chief astronomer became the chief priest of the tribe. So is it to-day with uncivilized races of mankind. So, also, is the superstition of astrology in civilized races but a survival of the days when the seer alone cast his horoscope and foretold to the people the coming of the seasons, the time for preparation and all that was necessary for their continued existence. Sun worship followed, and religion and astronomy were blended for ages to come.

Sir Norman Lockyer and the late Mr. Penrose have scientifically demonstrated the relation of Stonehenge with the rising of the sun over the Friar’s Heel at the summer solstice, where tradition still gathers people together on the morn of Midsummer day; but it is with the more primitive and varied circles of our hilly county that we are concerned, and these may be treated, as indeed they probably were by their designers, in a more primitive method.

We read a sundial from the outside, and therefore the gnomon is in the centre and the numerals are on the outside. If, however, we stood in the centre of a vast dial, a series of gnomons would be required to replace the numerals. This is the stone circle. As a primitive example, the Cadster circle will suffice for its class. When the circle was constructed, the “pointer,” instead of being a point to the west of south as it is now, a variation owing to the obliquity of the earth’s axis, stood exactly due south; therefore the seer, sighting from the point of the central monolith, knew that when the sun was directly over it the time was mid-day—the greater distance assisting the accuracy. Similarly the east stone is now a point to the southward, so when the sun rose over the horizon in line with it and the central monolith, it was the May festival, and so on for every phase of the sun. Obviously, the northern stones would be useless for this purpose; but the object of the vallum was to enable the line of sight to be also taken across the circle from the outside, and over any stone and the central dial, or over any two stones, thus subdividing the then equivalent to the hours and the months. The slope of the vallum lent itself to any level required by the observer whilst taking his observations, and the entrances enabled the people to pass through the circle to make their obeisance, whilst the arch-astrologer stood by the central monolith giving his instructions and advice. To them his simple predictions would seem to be the greatest of miracles. As the “pointer” is not always in a southerly or northerly position, for the latter would serve the same purpose if the point of observation were transposed, it follows that various monuments were dedicated to or were specially required for various seasons or times; the winter or summer solstice and the spring or autumn equinox being the most popular. The points of the stones would be accurately notched or, perhaps, surmounted with a wooden stile or pierced disc.

In the larger circles the same system would be carried out with greater accuracy. The ditch and vallum enabled the sights to be taken from either the foot or the top of the stones, and the mound would, if required, itself form the horizon. The ditch was certainly not for any processional ceremony, for that at Arbor Low was found to be broken across by faces of natural rock three or four feet in height; but the curved causeway leading towards the great pointer, Gib Hill, may have served that purpose when the seer left the circle to take his observations, and probably to invoke the rising sun from the mound. The central dolmen would be the inner temple of the priest, and the greater distance of the circle of stones would increase the accuracy of his observations.

Let those who question this simple origin for these circles study any one of them with as many or as few scientific instruments as they wish; then, after allowing for the variation of the obliquity, nature’s almanac is there to be read within the oldest astronomical observatory known to man.

A word as to the age of the circles. Sir Norman Lockyer deduced from the variation of the obliquity in relation to the avenue and the Friar’s Heel at Stonehenge, that the temple must have been erected about the year 1680 B.C., or within a margin of 200 years of that date. Professor Gowland, as the result of the excavations conducted by him in 1901, arrived at practically the same period, when he inferred that it was constructed by “the men of the Neolithic or, it may be, of the early Bronze Age.”

The assumption in these pages is that Stonehenge was the first and not the last of its series. If that be correct, it follows that the design must have been introduced by the new race, that of the Bronze Age, when they invaded this country from the south. The Neolithic tribes had been here for thousands of years before B.C. 1500, and it is unlikely that they, to whom metal was unknown, attained the architectural skill to erect a colossal and uniform temple. It is true that with one possible exception no trace of metal was found during the recent excavations at either Stonehenge or Arbor Low; but on the other hand, all the interments (with again one exception, and that of late date) found in circles are of the Bronze Age. These interments, of which one instance was in a small circle on Stanton Moor, do not necessarily indicate any sepulchral purpose for these monuments, but rather suggest that sometimes the priest himself would be laid to rest in the shrine of his order. Again, the general character of the numerous tumuli usually surrounding the momuments is of the Bronze period, and there seems to be some affinity between the “cup and ring” designs of the rock carvings and the plan of these circles. One fact is certain—that as a class they are not of any later times, for upon the vallum of Arbor Low stands the great “low” which yielded clear evidence of a burial of one who worked with bronze, and similar proof was furnished by the discovery of a like interment in the summit of Gib Hill.

It does not, however, follow that our Derbyshire circles date from the commencement of the Bronze Age; it is more probable that some of them are hundreds of years later than Stonehenge, and there is every likelihood that their use was continued through the Roman even to early Christian times, only to be stamped out when their original purpose had been forgotten in their mystic pagan rites. There is evidence that the great circles of the country were centres of native population at the time of the coming of the Romans, for the roads of the invaders were driven straight for them, as the maps of Avebury and Stonehenge in the south, and of Arbor Low and the Bull Ring in our county, clearly indicate. In the Anglo-Saxon language the phrase for astrology was circol-crœft, and to-day the horoscope of the fortune-teller is but a survival of our subject.

We who look upon these temples of a bye-gone people are still the slaves of Time, and though we measure it with the science of to-day, it is but a question of degree, for the cause and effect is still the same. True, we no longer worship in the Temple of Time, but we can ill afford to sneer at those who knew no better religion than the praise of the heavenly bodies and the admiration of nature’s handiwork as viewed over the distant scene. Nor can we pride ourselves in our science, which for centuries has failed to read the story of these mystic signs, which the rude workers in bronze could yet devise and set up, to—

“Observe days, and months, and times, and years.”