THE REV. R. CUNNINGHAME.

53

Having indulged thus liberally in quotation, I have necessarily circumscribed the space that, otherwise, might have been devoted to a more ample account of the writer. The Rev. R. Cunninghame left the village of Eyam in the year 1790; where," through evil and good report," he had spent the flower of his days. Though now not exactly in the decline of life, he was yet not young, and his mode of living had left him poor; he was, therefore, under the necessity of selling all that he possessed, even his books, to enable him, as he expresses it, "to encounter the expensive outset of the new life he was entering upon." In a letter to one of his friends, written the week before his departure, and which is now before me, he says, "I am disposing of all my books and every thing else, as you may suppose I shall need all the money I can raise to encounter the very expensive outset of the new life I am entering upon; and, from what I can discover, I must chiefly depend upon myself for the means. You have a set of the elegant Swinburne's Travels in Spain belonging to me: they cost me 6s. a volume; if you choose to purchase them you shall have them for 10s. 6d.; which you will be so good as to remit me immediately, or the books, that I may dispose of them elsewhere. I should suppose you will have an opportunity of doing either by R. Blackwall or the old post on Sunday. By those carrier pigeons you can likewise oblige me with the copy I desired; I wish my circumstances enabled me to offer you the books gratuitously. But, alas! —"

The majority of Mr. Cunninghame's parishioners were poor and ignorant, and he strove to better their manners and improve their situation in life by informing their minds. His attention to the education of the youth of the village was, at one time, truly exemplary; regardless of pecuniary compensation, he took them under his tuition, and devoted much of his time to their improvement. So long, indeed, as he remained at Eyam none were permitted to want instruction; hence he was beloved, and the grateful recollections of his pupils still dwell upon his name with delight. His farewell sermon, and the effects which it produced, are well remembered and frequently mentioned, even at the present day: it was a composition of great eloquence and the most powerful pathos, full of recollected kindness, and delivered in the tenderest tones of affection. This sermon was never printed, but some copies were circulated in manuscript among his hearers, after he had bidden them a last farewell. These are yet preserved with

SECTION VI.

William Peveril.

Thor. ·Druidical Circle and Ancient Barrow. an Earthquake in a Mine on Eyam Edge.

WHEN William the Conqueror, after the overthrow of Harold at the battle of Hastings, found himself at leisure to attend to the distribution of the lands which his prowess had obtained, he bestowed the Peak of Derbyshire upon his natural son William Peveril, whom he appointed lord and governor of the counties of Nottingham and Derby. The rich domains thus acquired continued in the family of the Peverils until the reign of Henry the Second, who deprived the then possessor of his honours and his lands, on a charge of poisoning Ranulph, Earl of Chester. The correctness of the accusation was hardly disputable, and he ignominiously fled to another country, stigmatised with the character of a murderer: so terminated the brief honours of this once wealthy family. Afterwards Richard the First gave and confirmed to his brother John, then Earl of Mortaine, the "counties of Nottingham, Lancaster, and Derby, with the honours belonging to them, and also the honour of Peveril.” *

Those parts of Derbyshire which are included under the general denomination of the KING'S FIELD, are subject to the operation of a peculiar system of mineral law, which declares "that by the custom of the mine it is lawful for all the King's liege people to dig, delve, search, subvert, and overturn, all manner of grounds, lands, meadows, closes, pastures, mears, and marshes, for ore-mines, of whose inheritance soever they be; dwelling-houses, orchards, and gardens, excepted." From the inconvenient effects of this comprehensive and sweeping clause, the freehold tenures of the parish of Eyam are happily exempt, in consequence of a mineral charter granted by KING JOHN, when Earl of Mortaine, previously to his being created Duke of Lancaster.

* Cambden.

HAMMER OF THOR.

61

From King John the Eyam estate descended to the Stafford family, on whom it was bestowed in consideration of certain military services, and on the express condition "that a lamp should be kept perpetually burning before the altar of St. Helen, in the parish church of Eyam." The lamp has ceased to burn, and the estate has passed into other hands: it now constitutes a part of the immense property of his Grace the DUKE of DEVONSHIRE.

In the reign of Richard the Second, a period when the rights of the subject were but inaccurately defined, and his liberty but imperfectly secured by law, a violent and outrageous assault was made on one of the Staffords, who was at that time lord of the manor of Eyam. Attacked by an armed force when in the bosom of his domestics, he was forcibly carried from his home to the residence of his enemy, away and there detained close prisoner until he was ransomed by his friends. A new mansion was erecting for the last of the Staffords who resided at Eyam, at the time of the plague, when the family left the place never to return: the building, part of which yet remains, was never finished.

The wild moorlands which surround this village have lately been brought into cultivation, a circumstance that has obliterated the traces of many mountain tumuli which were before conspicuous: some, evidently of a very ancient date, in which urns, bones, and arrow heads, were found, have lately been opened on Eyam Moor; and not far from Hucklow, a brazen axe and a beautifully polished stone hammer, supposed to have been used by the Druids in sacrifice, were turned up by the plough: they are now in Mr. Bird's collection.

The hammer was the weapon or sceptre of THOR, one of the Gods of the Saxons, who long possessed this part of the country, and where undoubtedly they had erected altars to their divinities. It is therefore probable that this hammer may be a Saxon, and not a Druidical relique. Whatever may have been its use, the instrument has evidently been manufactured with the nicest care, and as it appears not to have been intended for common occasions, the supposition of its Saxon origin may not be entirely groundless. In the Honourable W. Herbert's Miscellaneous Poetry, published in 1804, there is a very curious and romantic ballad, called "THE SONG OF THRYM, or the RECOVERY OF THE HAMMER." Thor was the Mars of the Scandinavians, and the

62

HAMMER OF THOR..

hammer was not only the symbol but the depository of his power. Thrym, the King of the Thursi, being acquainted with this important secret, stole upon the god in his hour of sleep, and carried away this mysterious ensign of his prowess. He now demands that Freyia, the wife of Thor, shall become the partner of his bed, and he declares that on no other terms shall the hammer be restored. This proposition suggests the adoption of a mischievous stratagem; and Thrym's fit of love, which, like many a mortal attachment, was fraught with ruin, becomes the means of his destruction.

"Then busked they Thor as a bride so fair,
"And the great bright necklace gave him to wear;

"Round him let ring the spousal keys,

"And a maiden kirtle hang to his knees;

"And on his bosom jewels rare,

"And high and quaintly braided his hair."

Thus disguised, he visits Thrym, who as an earnest of his "love and fondness," commands his attendants to "bear in the hammer to plight the maid." The hammer is laid upon the lap of Thor; his strength immediately returns, and he finds himself once more mighty in power. The enormous supper he had just made would have unfitted any mortal for great and extraordinary undertakings, but it was the regale of a God, and we find him not only exempt from the stupifying influence of good eating, but prepared for the most active and important exertions. The poet informs us that,

"He ate alone

"Six salmons and an ox full grown,

"And all the cates on which women feed,
"And drank three firkins of sparkling meed.

*

*

"The thunderer's soul smiled in his breast

"When the hammer hard on his lap was placed :

"Thrym first, the King of the Thursi, he slew,
"And slaughtered all the giant crew. -

"He slew that giant's sister old

"Who prayed for bridal gifts so bold;
"Instead of money and rings, I wot,
"The hammer's bruises were her lot.

"Thus Odin's son his hammer got."

BARROW ON EYAM MOOR.

63

The district, included under the general denomination of Eyam Moor, occupies a space of several miles. In one direction it extends to Bretton, and in another to the vicinity of Highlow. Spears, and arrow heads, axes, hatchets, and other remains of antiquity, have been frequently found in this wild moor; and very recently, before the introduction of the plough, it contained one of the most perfect and interesting barrows in the Peak of Derbyshire. Near this ancient place of sepulture, the remains of a druidical circle are yet to be seen, the circumference is about nineteen yards, and a rude altar of unhewn stone occupies the centre of the area. The adjacent barrow is indisputably of remote antiquity, and it is formed by a circle of stones, which includes a space of greater extent. In the middle of this circle there is, or rather was, a mound composed of an admixture of earth and stones: on opening this mound an unbaked urn was found, containing human bones, an arrow head of flint, and some fragments of the charcoal with which the body had been burnt. That this was the cemetery of some person of distinction, is highly probable, and the peculiarity of its construction might induce one to ascribe it to the Danes, had not the arrow head of flint been found within it; a circumstance which intimates that it was formed antecedent to the use of metals in this country. A part of Eyam Moor, called Wet-withins, is the site of this interesting monument of antiquity.

Wormius, describing the funeral ceremonies of the Danes in that early period of their history which he denominates the age of burning, says, "The defunct was brought out into the fields near the highway or estate that belonged to him while living, where they made an oblong place with great stones, for the reception of the body, and there burnt it, collecting the ashes into an urn, round which they set great stones; then with sand, gravel, or earth, they threw up a little hillock in form of a mound." The same writer afterwards details the mode of sepulture which succeeded to that of burning, from which it seems highly probable that both methods were occasionally united. Some of the barrows that have been opened in Derbyshire, and particularly one near Ashford, are confirmatory of this opinion. "The body," Wormius observes, 66 was brought entire with its ornaments, and laid unburnt in the middle of a large circle of stones; then over it they raised a mount of earth, &c. These mounts were sometimes plain, made only of earth, and cast up like a cone, and sometimes