ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 12. MOUSELOW CASTLE (xi. 8) is the name of a round hill about a mile to the north of Glossop. On the top of its wooded summit is an intricate earthwork. The present confused condition of mounds renders the suggestion of any scheme or plan of its original construction almost an impossibility, save that there are fairly obvious traces of a double rampart and on the east a triple rampart encircling an oval formation about 350 feet in extreme diameter. All that can be safely said of its date is that Mouselow Castle was probably a Celtic fort to some extent reused during the Roman occupation. Glover, writing of Mouselow Castle in 1829, says : 'This hill, forty-five years ago, was pastured to the top, on which it was plain to be seen a building had stood, there being deep holes and a quantity of stones. The top occupies a large space of ground. The whole of the hill, as well as the top, is now planted with firs of about forty-five years' standing, and the late Hon. Edward Bernard Howard gave it the name of Castle Hill.' 1 13. PILSBURY CASTLE HILLS (xxvii. 7). It would indeed be strange if a site bearing a name that denotes fortification in three successive lan- guages did not bear obvious traces of its former use. The appearance and nature of this earthwork can be much better realized from the plan than from any verbal description, more particularly as a tumulus seems to have been combined with earthworks. Moreover, the earth- works are apparently of two dif- ferent dates, and a further element of confusion has been introduced by the reckless way in which exploring excavations have been undertaken on at least two distinct occasions. This remarkable earthwork is situated between the River Dove on the west and a ridge of rocks on the east. The ground that it covers measures roughly 175 yards from east to west, by 150 yards from north to south. The following description appeared in Glover's Gazetteer in 1831 : 'At Pilsbury, in Hartington parish, in a deep valley on the banks of the Dove, in a field called Castle Hills, are some ancient remains deserving of notice. On the east side is a sharp natural ridge of rocks, which in one part rises to the height of seven or eight yards, bearing some resemblance to a sugar loaf. Adjoining to this is a raised bank, inclosing an area of about sixty yards from north to south, and forty from east to west, having a barrow near its western side about forty yards in diameter. Southward of the barrow is a second bank, forming a square of thirty yards each way.' 2 1 Glover's Derbyshire, i. 298. Glover has adopted this passage from A Description of the Country round Manchester, by J. Aikin, M.D., 1793, by merely changing 'fifteen years' to 'forty-five years.' 3 Glover's Derbyshire, i. 236. This description is reproduced, almost verbatim, in Bateman's Antiquities (1848), 123. 385 49 V 4*1 16 yrf&l II' ftfje 5 5 yrf,. SCALE OF FEET o IPO gqo PILSBURY CASTLE HILIS.
