Barrows and Bone-Caves of Derbyshire. By Rooks Pennington, F.G.S. (Macmillan.)—Mr.
Pennington's book is not meant to be a learned manual of arclueology, but merely a plain and simple account of such results as he has picked np for himself on the hills and moors of his native county. Derbyshire, with its Peak, and its holes and caverns, is a fine field for the antiquary, and contains many traces of man in the various stages of the stone and bronze ages. It requires a good deal of enthusiasm, something of what Mr. Pennington calls the "geologic mania," to spend week after week among bones ; and the cave-hunting process is often disappointing, as well as tiresome and arduous. Our author, however, was usually fortunate enough to be able to undertake it under pleasant circumstances, and he seems to have thoroughly enjoyed it, and we can answer for it that his readers will enjoy his description of his work and of its results. The man of the neolithic or late-atone and of the bronze age could not indeed build a house,
but he had some notion of agriculture, of military engineering, and of commerce. His bronze he got probably by trade. He had some sort of religion, and some of the stone circles were perhaps not burial-places, but temples, or rather a combination of both. To him are due the axes, hammers, arrow-heads, &c., which are, in their way, marvellous specimens of workmanship. It appears that one of the most interesting "finds" in Derbyshire was one recently made in Windy Knoll Quarry, a cavity crammed with the remains of bisons, reindeer, wolves, and bears, some of which. particularly the skulls and antlers, are well pre- served. How amid lions, bears, and wolves the palaaolithie man, whose only weapons wore of stone or bone, contrived to survive is in- deed a mystery ; but some of the Derbyshire caves testify to his exist- ence, along with other creatures, and with one yet more terrible, the " machairodus," a sword-toothed beast, lithe as a tiger, and strong as a bear. In 1873, Mr. Pennington, with a friend, made the descant of the famous Elden Hole, still, we believe, reputed to be bottomless by the rustics. The chasm, at a depth of about 180 feet, ends in a cavern, which expands into a vast chamber, as much as 70 feet in height. What is most remarkable about this chasm is the fact that it is quite isolated. We have an interesting account of it in Mr. Pennington's book.
Previous page
