Calver Low. Having been informed, on the 30th of August, that some skeletons had been discovered the day before, by men baring the rock preparatory to quarrying it, at the verge of the cliff overlooking the limekilns at Calver Low [Map], I immediately went to the place and found that there had been five skeletons buried in a line side by side, a few feet apart, in graves sunk down to the rock which is there about two feet below the turf. The bodies were all extended at length with the heads to the west, so as not merely to admit of the corpses facing the east, as is the Christian custom of burial yet observed, but in this case also to face the village, and the pleasant valley extending towards Baslow - either motive may have prompted the arrangement, as there is reason to believe the interments to be of the Anglo-Saxon period, although it was suggested at the time, in one of the local papers, that they were remains of some who perished during the ravages of the plague at Eyam in 1666.

In returning to the narrative, it will be best to describe the several skeletons, numbering from the north, promising that the legs of all had been cut away, owing to their being so near the border of the cliff, which descends for a considerable distance almost perpendicularly, having long been quarried for lime burning.

Note 1. - A young person with very slender bones, the femur 17½ inches long, undisturbed with the exception of the skull, which had been broken and robbed of the teeth previous to our visit; a small bit of coarse red pottery was picked up amongst the earth near the bones.

Note 2.- Removed before our arrival, but from the few bones preserved, it appears that the person was older than the first, although the femur measures 16½ inches only - the skull thin, a good deal decayed and very imperfect.

Note 3. - Removed - the skull very perfect when found, since despoiled of the whole of the facial bones. The calvarium and lower jaw have been recovered. The former presents, when viewed from above, an oval outline with a very full occipital protuberance; the latter is well formed, and the state of the teeth indicates an early adult age. Imperfection in the thigh bones prevents measurement, they do not however appear to have been very long. A small iron knife, of the common Saxon shape, lay upon the pelvis of this skeleton, and has imparted a ferruginous tinge to the bone from contact during oxidyzation. It is the only instrument found with any of the interments, and alone furnishes a clue to their date.

Note 4. - With the exception of the legs, was quite undisturbed, as it lay beneath a wall on the extreme edge of the hill. By working on the other side of this fence, the skull was extracted in such a state as to be capable of restoration; it is oval, platycephalic, and like the other three - that of a young individual whose thigh bones, imperfect at each end, are large and much stronger than the appearance of the head would lead one to expect The skull is very much distorted by pressure, also producing fracture, posthumously applied to the left side of the frontal bone, most likely from stone filling the grave, as no care had in any instance been taken to protect the bodies from the overlying weight.

Note 5. - This, the most southern of the row, was entirely removed, most of the bones having been thrown down the precipice before attention was excited by a recurrence of the skeletons.

There are some indications of a tumulus in the field a few yards further back from the wall, which, if opened might disclose some- thing to substantiate the inference drawn from the presence of the iron Knife with one of the skeletons, which, however, we think is alone sufficient to determine the Saxon origin of the cemetery.

Ten Years' Digging 1853 Hob Hurst's House. On the 3rd of June, we went to a conspicuous mound on the heathery uninclosed, and most elevated part of Baslow Moor, called Hob Hurst's House [Map], and found it to be a circular tumulus, composed of sand and gritstones, about eleven yards diameter, and four feet high; though, from its being surrounded by an embankment, inside of which the earth had been cut in the form of a ditch, the height appeared fully six feet, and it was only by digging down to the natural surface, that we were able to ascertain the actual elevation. The diameter at the outside of the embankment waa 22 yards, it was formed, like the mound, of stones and sand, and was fourteen feet thick at the base and about four feet high. A trench cut from the south side of the central mound, disclosed some large upright slabs of gritstone, set on the natural level, which we at once perceived to be part of a cist or sepulchral chamber, which was soon cleared out and sketched.

It was rectangular, measuring from north to south ten feet three inches, and nine feet from east to west, and was chiefly constructed of slabs of stone each nearly a yard broad. There were traces of fire throughout the whole enclosure; the undisturbed sand having been burnt to a dirty white, or cream colour, and covered with a layer of charcoal, which was thickest towards the east side, where in the comer formed by the junction of the south boundary of the chamber, we discovered the original deposit, consisting of calcined human bones, lying in the very spot where they had been drawn together while the embers of the funeral pyre were glowing. They were in a small heap along with some thick pieces of charcoal and two lumps of burnt lead ore; and were separated or marked oiF from the floor of the chamber by a semicircular row of small sandstone boulders, all of which exhibited marks of fire. A few more burnt bones were found embedded in the sand near the north end of the cist, but no instrument or pottery of any kind was seen, although one of the pieces of charred wood exhibits a cleanly cut oblique surface, which must have been effected by a sharp instrument. The popular name given to the barrow, we have an indirect testimony to its great antiquity, as Hobhurst's House signifies the abode of an unearthly or supernatural being, accustomed to haunt woods and other solitary places, respecting whom many traditions yet linger in remote-villages. Such an idea could only arise in a superstitious age long ago, yet sufficiently modem to have effaced all traditionary recollection of the original intention of the mound; it likewise affords a curious instance of the inherent tendency of the mind to assign a reason for everything uncommon or unaccountable, which no extent of ignorance or apathy seems able totally to eradicate.

Many of the remaining pre-historic monuments of our land are similarly connected with names well know in popular mythology, now so rapidly vanishing, that it is probable the legends will be forgotten, while the names alone will be perpetuated as long as the structures with which they are identified exist. We may here observe, that the practice of separating the deposits within the cist by pebbles, as in this barrow, is most unusual in the Midland Counties, but is described as prevalent in the Channel Islands, by Mr. Lukis, in the Journal of the British Archaeological Institute, Vol I., page 142.