A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE bone-caves. Valley, or dale, would not be at all an appropriate term to apply to the short and singularly beautiful sudden dips in the earth's surface which converge at this old mill-pond, and the exceptional place- name of grip, or grips, seems peculiarly appropriate. Hollinhill Grips, which diverges westward from the mill-pond slightly to the north, and Markland Grips, which takes the like direction whilst bearing slightly to the south, have both the same characteristics ; they bear some resem- blance to Dovedale in its narrow places, on a much reduced scale. In each case the grip takes the form of a sudden depression in the ground, flanked on both sides by limestone cliffs of the Lower Magnesian, which are mostly quite precipitous, and vary from 25 feet to 40 feet in height. These cliffs or limestone walls abound in places with small yew trees, and are rendered beautiful by trails of ivy and other creepers, whilst larger trees crown for the most part their summits, and some have grown up at the base. The ground within the grips is level and rich in grass, the width between the cliffs varying from 50 to 70 yards. These grips, as they diverge westward, leave between their inner walls or cliffs a triangular or irregularly tongue-shaped piece of table- land, which seems marked out by nature, after a striking fashion, for defensive purposes. Early man availed himself of this exceptional con- figuration of the surface, and flung three great ramparts, with corresponding fosses, across the open western base of the triangle, as shown on the plan. By this means a great level space of tableland was enclosed, measuring in extreme length, from the inner rampart to the tip of the tongue over- hanging the mill-pond, 433 yards. The original width at the base, previous to the railway cutting off a corner, was just 200 yards; but this soon decreases to 133 yards, and thence tapers away to the tip. On the top of the inner rampart grows a series of big-rooted gaunt thorn trees, the remains of an old quickset hedge. This rampart has been chiefly formed of large rough stones ; many of them are partly exposed and of considerable size. The present elevation of the rampart at the south end is about 7 feet above the inner level ; the top of this great rampart in the same part is 24 feet wide, and the ditch beyond, which is 8 or 9 feet deep, has a width of about 1 5 feet. The width and height at the northern end of the rampart, where more earth and less of large stone seems to have been used, are somewhat less, and appear to have been worn away. The remains of the two outer ramparts were con- siderable and well defined at the southern end, as shown on the plan, up to recent years ; but a slice of that angle was unfortunately cut off by the making of the Teversall branch line of the Midland Railway. A comparatively modern farm entrance has been cut through the triple ramparts in the centre ; north of that the land is ploughed, and though the lines of the two outer ramparts can be still detected right through, their traces are becoming less and less year by year. The great enclosure of pasture land is almost perfectly level, and shows no traces of having been hollowed for pit dwellings, thereby sup- porting the theory that it was used as a refuge camp for men and cattle, 366
