Grave-mounds in General—Their Historical Importance—General Situation—Known as Barrows, Houes, Tumps, and Lows—List of Names—Division into Periods.

To the grave-mounds of the early inhabitants of our island, more than to any other source, we are indebted for our knowledge of their arts, their habits, and their occupations. Indeed, to these mounds and their contents, we owe almost all the knowledge we possess as to the history of the races and peoples who have preceded us, and are enabled to determine, approximately, their chronological succession as masters of the soil.

From the very earliest ages men of every race have bestowed peculiar care over the graves of the dead, and have marked to later ages, in an unmistakable manner, these places of sepulture, which have, in many instances, been preserved with religious care to modern times. Thus the relics which they contain have come down to us intact, and even now tell their wondrous tale, in a language of their own, of ages and of races of beings long since passed away. A single implement of stone or of flint; a weapon or an ornament of bronze, of iron, or of bone; a bead of jet or of glass; an urn, or even a fragment of pottery; or any one of the infinity of other relics which are exhumed, no matter to what period they belong, or from what locality they may have come; one and all tell their own tale, and supply new links to our ever-extending chain of knowledge.

To the graves, then, of our earliest ancestors, must we mainly turn for a knowledge of their history and of their modes of life; and a careful examination and comparison of their contents will enable us to arrive at certain data on which, not only to found theories, but to build up undying and faultless historical structures.

As, wherever the country was populated, interments of the dead must, as a necessity, have taken place, these all-important store-houses of after-knowledge exist, or have existed, to more or less extent in almost every district throughout the land, and give evidence, whenever opened by experienced hands, of their historical value and importance. The earliest grave-mounds are mostly found in the mountainous districts of the land—among the hills and fastnesses; the latter overspreading hill and valley and plain alike. Thus, in Cornwall and Yorkshire, in Derbyshire and in Dorsetshire, in Wiltshire and in many other districts, the earliest interments are, or have been, abundant; while the later ones, besides being mixed up with them in the districts named, are spread over every other county. In the counties just named Celtic remains abound more than those of any other period. In Dorsetshire, for instance, that county, as the venerable Stukeley declares, “for sight of barrows not to be equalled in the world,” the early mounds abound on the downs and on the lofty Ridgeway, an immense range of hills of some forty miles in extent, while those of a later period lie in other parts of the county. In Yorkshire, again, they abound chiefly in the wolds; and in Cornwall, on the high lands. The same, again, of Derbyshire, where they lie for the most part scattered over the wild, mountainous, and beautiful district known as the High Peak—a district occupying nearly one half of the county, and containing within its limits many towns, villages, and other places of extreme interest. In this it resembles Dorsetshire; for in the district comprised in the Ridgeway and the downs are very many highly interesting and important places, around which the tumuli are most plentiful.

It is true that here and there in Derbyshire, as in other counties, an early grave-mound exists in the southern or lowland portion of the county; but, as a rule, they may be almost said to be peculiar, and confined, to the northern, or hilly district, where in some parts they are very abundant. Indeed, there are districts where there is scarcely a hill, even in that land, where

where a barrow does not exist or is not known to have existed. In passing along the old high-road, for instance, over Middleton Moor by way of Arbor Low,1 Parcelly Hay, High Needham, Earl Sterndale, and Brier Low, to Buxton, or along the high-roads by way of Winster, Hartington, or Newhaven, the practised eye has no difficulty in resting on the forms of grave-mounds on the summits of the different hills or mountains, whose outlines stand out clear and distinct against the sky.

The situations chosen by the early inhabitants for the burial of their dead were, in many instances, grand in the extreme. Formed on the tops of the highest hills, or on lower but equally imposing positions, the grave-mounds commanded a glorious prospect of hill and dale, wood and water, rock and meadow, of many miles in extent, and on every side stretching out as far as the eye could reach, while they themselves could be seen from afar off in every direction by the tribes who had raised them, while engaged either in hunting or in their other pursuits. They became, indeed, land-marks for the tribes, and were, there can be but little doubt, used by them as places of assembling.

Sepulchral tumuli are known as barrows, lows, houes, tumps, etc. Barrow is of pretty general use; low is almost universal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and other districts; tump is in use in Gloucestershire, etc.; and houe in Yorkshire.

In Derbyshire and Staffordshire, the term “Low” is so very usual that, wherever met with, it may be taken as a sure indication of a barrow now existing or having once existed at the spot. As a proof of this, it will only be necessary to say that at about two hundred places in Derbyshire alone, and at about half that number on the neighbouring borders of Staffordshire, which bear the affix of Low, barrows are known to exist or have already been opened. For my present purpose, it will be sufficient to give the few following names:—Arbor-Low, Kens-Low, Ringham-Low, Blake-Low, Fox-Low, Gib-Low, Green-Low, Great-Low, Grind-Low, Cal-Low, Chelmorton-Low, Casking-Low, Larks-Low, Thirkel-Low, Ribden-Low, Har-Low, Bas-Low, High-Low, Foo-Low, Lean-Low, Huck-Low, Borther-Low, Dow-Low, Totman’s-Low, Staden-Low, Stan-Low, Blind-Low, Boar-Low, Bottles-Low, Brown-Low, Caldon-Low, Calver-Low, Cock-Low, Cop-Low, Cow-Low, Cronkstone-Low, Dars-Low, Drake-Low, Elk-Low, End-Low, Far-Low, Pike-Low, Fowse-Low, Galley-Low, Gris-Low, Grub-Low, Herns-Low, Hawks-Low, Horning-Low, Hard-Low, Knock-Low, Knot-Low, Laidmans-Low, Lady-Low, Liffs-Low, Lomber-Low, Lousy-Low, Mick-Low, Moot-Low, Money-Low, Musden-Low, May-Low, Needham-Low, Nether-Low, Ox-Low, Off-Low, Pars-Low, Painstor-Low, Peg-Low, Pigtor-Low, Pike-Low, Pinch-Low, Queen-Low, Ravens-Low, Rains-Low, Rick-Low, Rocky-Low, Rolley-Low, Round-Low, Rusden-Low, Saint-Low, Sitting-Low, Sliper-Low, Thoo-Low Three-Lows, Ward-Low, Warry-Low, White-Low, Whithery-Low, Wool-Low, and Yarns-Low. To some of these I shall again have occasion to make reference. In Yorkshire, the names of William Houe, Three Houes, and Three Tremblers Houes, will be sufficient indication of the local use of the term “Houe.”

Grave-mounds may, naturally, be divided into the three great periods; the Celtic, the Romano-British, and the Anglo-Saxon. This division will be adopted in the present volume, and it will be its aim, while speaking of the characteristics of each, to classify and describe their contents, and to point out, briefly, such circumstances of interment, and such evidences of customs, as they may present, and which may appear to be of sufficient interest and importance to its plan.

Of the forms of barrows, and their characteristics and modes of construction, occasion will be taken to speak in a later chapter.