Castern. On the afternoons of the 18th and 19th of July, we opened a barrow between Bitchin Hill [Map] and Castern [Map], eighteen yards diameter, and only about eighteen inches high, a great deal of the top having been removed for the sake of the stone. On the first day we removed a considerable area from the centre towards the south-east, the whole of which was strewed with human and animal bones, and other trifling remains common in most barrows. Amongst them was the decayed skeleton of a young person. The next day we continued our excavation in an opposite direction, where, about two yards from the middle of the barrow, was an oval grave, seven feet long by 3½ feet wide, cut in the rock to the depth of about two feet. It was filled with earth and stones, covering a large skeleton lying at the bottom, on its lefl side, in the usual contracted posture, with the head to the north. Near the shouders was a large and highly-polished stud, of jet or coal, 1¾ inches diameter, with two oblique holes meeting at an angle behind. A small piece of calcined flint was also found near the same place.

The femur measures nineteen inches. In the grave were many rats' bones, and above it were the remains of a young person, with bits of earthenware and burnt flints.

Thomas Bateman 1846. On the 20th of July, 1846, were opened two barrows, upon Stanshope Pasture, near Dovedale, Staffordshire. The first [Note. Probably Stanshope Barrow 1 [Map]] is of considerable magnitude, and appeared beautifully perfect, but, as is not unfrequently the case under similar circumstances, proved entirely deceptive. A natural elevation in this rocky neighbourhood having been taken advantage of in the construction of this barrow, and trimmed into form, consequently the greater part of it was solid rock, and the small portion of soil which had been added had been much disturbed at some prior excavation. In one situation in the interior of the barrow, the rock seemed to have been slightly cut, in order to form a cist, and here were found the only traces of interment that were met with; namely, a small piece of a coarse urn, some calcined human bones, and various pieces of flint, which had undergone the same process.

Stanshope. A singularly-constructed barrow [Possibly Stanshope Barrow 1 [Map]] on Stanshope Pasture, partially opened by us on the 20th July, 1846, was more carefully examined on the 1st, 4th, and 5th of June. The former excavations showed the mound to be almost all of natural rock, levelled and trimmed into a tumular shape. On the present occasion we succeeded in finding several interments, all of which had been deposited in clefts of the rock, in a way difficult to describe without reference to a plan, the clefts being quite natural, and running in different directions from the centre of the mound, which was altogether solid, except in these places, which had been successively occupied. The first contained two deposits of calcined bones; one, high up in the cleft, had been contained in an urn much broken, the other lay on the floor, which was partly burnt to lime, indicating, perhaps, that the corpse had been consumed on the spot.

Thomas Bateman 1846. The second barrow [Note. Probably Stanshope Barrow 2 [Map]] was at the distance of about five hundred yards from the foregoing, and had been entirely removed to the surface of the ground whereon it stood; on digging, however, in the centre, it was found to descend a few inches in a dish-like form, at which point a few pieces of human bone, the fragments of a skeleton, and some pieces of a small cup of Samian ware, probably of Romano-British manufacture, were found. Owing to the barrow having been taken away, these things were in a lamentably shattered condition, which is the more to be regretted, as this is the only instance of Samian ware being applied to a sepulchral purpose as yet brought to light in the counties of Derby or Stafford.

Stanshope. In a meadow by the road side between Stanshope and Dam Grate, are three tumuli, two of which are within thirty yards of each other: the third is at a greater distance from either. They are composed of different coloured earth, grey being the prevailing tint. That nearest Stanshope [Stanshope Barrow 3 [Map]] was first opened on the 16th of October, by cutting out a portion of the middle, five yards square, to the depth of three feet six inches, but without corresponding success, as nothing was found to indicate the nature of the mound but a sprinkling of charcoal. It is 28 yards diameter and three feet high, and in all probability contains calcined bones.

Stanshope. The second [Stanshope Barrow 4 [Map]] (about thirty yards from the first) is the same height, but about two yards less in diameter. It was opened on the afternoons of the 2nd and 5th of November, by digging a circular hole in the middle, and several trenches in the south and east sides, with but little more satisfactory results than in the former case. The charcoal was more abundant and we found a rudely formed spear-head and some chippings of flint, and near the surface some animal teeth and bones.

Stanshope. The third [Stanshope Barrow 5 [Map]] (nearest to Dam Gate) is neither so high nor so large as the others, as it measures only sixteen yards across. We made a section nineteen feet long by eight wide, from east to west, through the middle and found only a few particles of calcined bone, and numerous chippings of flint, two of which have been intended for instruments; one of the latter has been burnt.

Alstonefield. Stimulated by the want of success attending former excavations, we determined to make one more effort to disclose the primary interment in the large barrow at Steep Low [Map]. To effect this purpose, two men were constantly employed for a fortnight at the end of September and beginning of October, to penetrate to the centre, which, to a certain extent, they succeeded in doing; but owing to the immense accumulation of stone, it was found impossible to clear a passage more than three feet wide at the natural surface, consequently affording but a very slight chance of our hitting upon so small an object as an interment in an area so large as that covered by the mound. Charcoal in profusion, and a few calcined bones were observed at the bottom - higher in the tumulus, amongst the large stones, was the skull of an ox - and on the natural soil we picked up a small brass coin of Tetricus the elder, which had probably slipped from near the top of the barrow, through the interstices of the stones, although it appears from the patina to have been some time buried deeper than those formerly discovered near the top. Close to the surface, beneath the foundation of a stone fence which had been built across the hill, the writer picked up an iron spear-head, which had doubtless been deposited with the remains disinterred in 1845 (Vestiges p. 76), but which being under the wall, not at that time taken down, escaped observation. We have since received an iron arrow-head, an article of great rarity in tumuli, that was picked up by a looker-on when we first opened the barrow; it is devoid of socket, though otherwise well-shaped, and must have been secured in a slit cut in the arrow.