Archaeologia Volume 32 Section X. The order of Council for the removal of the Queen of Scots from Bolton [Map] was not actually signed before the 20th of January, 1569. She travelled with uneasy steps, dejected in mind, and out of health. Letters exist written by her at almost every stage of her journey, namely, at Ripon [Map] on the 27th, at Pontefract [Map] on the 28th, and at Rotherham [Map] on the 30th. Here she was obliged to leave one of her ladies, Lady Levingston, who was ill: and she was herself so much indisposed that, instead of proceeding as she intended to Chesterfield on the 1st of February, she was obliged to stay at the house of Mr. Foljambe^b. On the 2nd or 3rd of February, however, she arrived at Tutbury [Map], where both the earl and the countess were ready to receive her. Up to this time it is of course manifest that she cannot have stayed at Hardwick [Map]. We have however now seen her committed to the charge of the persons to whom Hardwick, that is the estate of Hardwick [Map], and whatever buildings might then be upon it, at that time or soon after belonged. The Countess of Shrewsbury was a daughter of the house of Hardwick, the daughter of John Hardwick, who died in 1528; she was not his heir or coheir, for she had a brother, James Hardwick, who succeeded to the family inheritance, the exact date of whose death or the time when he disposed of his lands to his prosperous and wealthy sister being alike unknown. However there is this in favour of the opinion of Hardwick [Map] having been one of the places connected with the residence of the Queen of Scots in England, that it was, from the time when the Queen was first placed under the charge of the Earl of Shrewsbury, a place belonging either to the countess or her brother, and certainly, in the later years of the queen's residence with the earl, to the countess herself. And this is evidently the basis of the received opinion on this subject, falling in, as it does, with the natural desire to connect the place with a story of royal misfortune and national importance.

Note b. This could not have been Walton [Map], near Chesterfield, as might be supposed, that being then the chief house of the Foljambes, because Walton is beyond Chesterfield, as the Queen was then travelling. If it did not rather appear that she set out on her journey from Rotherham [Map], the house intended would be Aldwark [Map], one of the seats of the Foljambes, a short distance from Rotherham [Map], but to the north. Junior branches of the family had at that period a house at Barlborough, and also Moor Hall, both not far out of what may have been the road on which she travelled; but the precise line is not at present, I apprehend, determinable.

Section I Tumuli 1843. The 30th of June 1843 was occupied in examining the middle part of a large barrow on Brassington Moor, usually called Galley Lowe [Map], but formerly written Callidge Lowe, which is probably more correct. About two feet from the surface were found a few human bones mixed with rats' bones and horses' teeth; amongst these bones (which had been disturbed by a labourer digging in search of treasure) the following highly interesting and valuable articles were discovered: several pieces of iron, some in the form of rivets, others quite shapeless, having been broken on the occasion above referred to, two arrow-heads of the same metal, a piece of coarse sandstone, which was rubbed into the form of a whetstone; an ivory pin or bodkin, of very neat execution; the fragments of a large urn of well-baked earthenware, which was glazed in the interior for about an inch above the bottom; two beads, one of green glass, the other of white enamel, with a coil of blue running through it, and fourteen beautiful pendant ornaments of pure, gold, eleven of which are encircled by settings of large and brilliantly coloured garnets, two are of gold without setting, and the remaining one is of gold wire twisted in a spiral manner, from the centre towards each extremity (a gold loop of identical pattern is affixed to a barbaric copy of a gold coin of Honorius in the writer's possession); they have evidently been intended to form one ornament only, most probably a necklace, for which use their form peculiarly adapts them. It will here not be out of place to borrow some quotations relative to a remarkable superstition connected with glass beads similar to those discovered in Galley Lowe, particularly the one having "two circular lines of opaque sky-blue and white," which seem to represent a serpent entwined round a centre, which is perforated. "This was certainly one of the Glain Neidyr of the Britons, derived from glain, which is pure and holy, and neidyr, a snake. Under the word glain, Mr. Owen, in his Welsh Dictionary, has given the following article: "The Nair Glain, transparent stones, or adder stones, were worn by the different orders of the Bards, each exhibiting its appropriate colour. There is no certainty that they were worn from superstition originally; perhaps that was the circumstance which gave rise to it. Whatever might have been the cause, the notion of their rare virtues was universal in all places where the Bardic religion was taught."

These beads are thus noticed by Bishop Gibson, in his improved edition of Camden's Britannia: "In most parts of Wales, and throughout all Scotland, and in Cornwall, we find it a common opinion of the vulgar, that about Midsummer-eve (though in the time they do not all agree) it is usual for snakes to meet in companies, and that by joining heads together and hissing, a kind of bubble is formed, like a ring, about the head of one of them, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on, until it comes off at the tail, when it immediately hardens, and resembles a glass ring, which whoever finds shall prosper in all his undertakings: the rings they supposed to be thus generated are called gleinen nadroeth, namely, gemma anguinum. They are small glass annulets, commonly about half as wide as our finger-rings, but much thicker, of a green colour usually, though some of them are blue, and others curiously waved with blue, red, and white.'' There seems to be some connexion between the glain neidyr of the Britons and the ovum anguinnm, mentioned by Pliny as being held in veneration by the Druids of Gaul and to the formation of which he gives nearly the same origin. They were probably worn as a mark of distinction, and suspended round the neck as the perforations are not large enough to admit the finger. A large portion of this barrow still remaining untouched on the south-east side, which was but little elevated above the natural soil, yet extending farther from the centre, it offered a larger area, in which interments were more likely to be found than any other part of the tumulus, it was decided on resuming the search on the 3d of July, 1843, by digging from the outside until the former excavation in the centre was reached. In carrying out this design the following interments were discovered, all of which seem to pertain to a much more remote era than the interment whose discovery has been before recorded. First, the skeleton of a child, in a state of great decay; a little farther on a lengthy skeleton, the femur of which measures nineteen and a half inches, with a rudely ornamented urn of coarse clay deposited near the head; a small article of ivory, perforated with six holes, as though for the purpose of being sewn into some article of dress or ornament (a larger one of the same kind was found in a barrow at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, in 1832); a small arrow-head of gray flint, a piece of iron-stone, and a piece of stag's horn, artificially pointed at the thicker end, were found in the immediate neighbourhood of the urn. Between this skeleton and the centre of the barrow four more skeletons were exhumed, two of which were of young persons; there was no mode of arrangement perceptible in the positions of the bodies, excepting that the heads seemed to lie nearest to the urn before mentioned. Amongst the bones of these four skeletons a small rude incense cup was found, which is of rather unusual form, being perforated with two holes on each side, opposite each other.

Section I Tumuli 1844. On the 6th of May, 1844, was opened a large flat barrow called Moot Lowe [Map], situated about one mile south-west from Grange Mill, in a field of considerable elevation and rocky surface. The tumulus is about fifteen yards in diameter, and about four feet high, with a level summit. The section was made by cutting through the centre of the barrow from east to west; when within about four yards from the middle, a secondary interment was discovered very near the surface, which consisted of a deposit of burnt bones placed in a large urn, measuring about sixteen inches in height, and thirteen in diameter at the mouth, which was broken, owing to its being so superficially covered; since being restored, it exhibits a very curious appearance, being ornamented in a different manner to any yet discovered in Derbyshire; when found, it lay on its side, and on carefully collecting the pieces, and the bones it contained, a small brass spear-head, or dagger, was found amongst the latter; it is three inches and a quarter in length, and has a hole through which it has been riveted to the handle or shaft; two very similar in size and form are engraved in Sir Richard Hoare's 'Ancient Wiltshire,' vol. i, plates 11, 28. This is the first recorded discovery of a weapon of this description in this county, though subsequent researches have proved them to be by no means rare.

Nearer the centre a much earlier interment was found, namely, a human skeleton with the knees drawn up, lying on some large limestones, and not accompanied by any utensils. The ground in the centre of the barrow was found to be four feet lower than the level of the native surface in other places, probably owing to the rocky and unequal surface of the field before mentioned; it was fiUed up with stones free from soil, to the level of the other ground, beneath which nothing was found, although such was expected to be the case. Dispersed through the mound the following articles were observed: teeth of swine and other animals, a small piece of another urn, chippings of flint, and a few rats' bones. About four hundred yards from the preceding there is a small portion of another barrow, also named Moot Lowe [Note. Presumed to be Moot Low 2 Barrow [Map]], which was long since almost razed to the ground; on the afternoon of the 6th of May the site was dug over, and a few human and animal bones brought to light; the former indicated the interment of two individuals, and the latter included the well-known rats' bones.

Minninglow. On the 20th of July we opened a small mound [Map] [Rockhurst Barrow [Map]] near the preceding, on the face of the hill declining towards the Brassington and Elton road. Upon cutting a section through the middle, traces of a large fire appeared, the earth forming the tumulus being changed in colour and consolidated. The natural surface in the centre was strewed with charred wood, calcined human bones, and stones which had been cracked and flaked by heat. Amongst these relics of the long quenched pile, were portions of three vessels of compact wheel-formed earthenware, precisely like the bulk of the fragments from the large barrow last described, and one small brass coin of the Lower Empire; all much burnt. One, only, of the three vessels is sufficiently complete to afford an, outline of its form, which is clearly an improvement on the usual globular shape of the Roman olla: it is very elegant in outline, and measures 7 inches in height, and differs from the Roman ware in the quality of the paste, which is extremely gritty and hard, and is externally grey. One of the others has been of the same shape, but of a dark red colour. It is certain that this mound covers the place where the corpse was reduced to ashes along with the three vases and the coin, but from so few bones being found, it is rather likely that the collected remains were deposited in some part of the mound not explored unless, indeed, they were so completely burnt as to leave but a slight residuum.

I have frequently observed the difference between Celtic deposits from tumuli, and Roman incinerated bones, to be most strongly marked; the former are almost uniformly cleanly burnt in pieces sufficiently large to be recognised as parts of the skeleton, and consequently far exceed the latter in quantity, which are as constantly reduced to ashes, and are frequently mixed with sand and other impurities from the embers of the pile. This discovery is chiefly interesting as fixing the date of a kind of pottery which might easily be mistaken for medieval ware by persons not accustomed to the critical examination of texture.

Section I Tumuli 1843. About the close of the last or the commencement of the present century, a very large barrow, situated upon Brassington Moor, and now called Stoney Lowe [Map], though sometimes written Stanhope Lowe, was removed, in order that its time-honoured materials might assist in Macadamising some lanes or roads in the immediate neighbourhood. In the course of this work of destruction a large cist was discovered, in which lay three human skeletons, ranged side by side, one of which is said to have had one half of its skull clothed with hair. In another part of this barrow an urn was found, and taken out only to be broken to pieces. On attentively surveying the site of this noble tumulus, which, previous to its demolition, was connected with a small cirque of stones adjoining to it, and destroyed at the same time, the edges of several large stones, placed in a cist-like form, and appearing above the turf, suggested an idea, that, by digging into the interior of these vaults, something might yet be recovered. This was put to the proof on the 8th of August, 1843, and produced the following results: the first vault was a square of about three yards, and contained earth and stones for about a foot in depth, which was indeed the entire depth of the vault itself when cleared out. These debris were minutely scrutinised, and were found to contain the following remains, all in the utmost disorder: no less than 161 human teeth, a large quantity of human bones, a small piece of an urn, various kinds of animals bones and rats bones in abundance. The second vault was of more irregular form, but was very similar to the first in the confusion visible amongst its contents, which were the remains of two human skeletons, apparently of females, with which a delicately-formed arrow-head was found, which, as is frequently the case, had been calcined. The number of interments originally deposited in this tumulus must have been enormous, as the teeth before mentioned vary from those of very juvenile subjects to those of persons of very advanced age, some of the latter are worn almost to a level with the jaw, and yet do not exhibit the least symptom of decay.