former period have been removed by the landowner or the farmer. I doubt not that Whirlow, Castle Dyke, and the high ground thereabouts, were also the site of a very early settlement. No remains of a village are to be seen, but Whirlow is the ancient seat of the family of Bright—a name well known to all who are conversant with the early history of Sheffield. It is certain that few, if any, trees grew on this high ground. The gorse still blooms in the old lane, and there have probably been few shrubs of a higher growth.
It seems strange that lead should be taken to be smelted in such places, for not only is the distance from the lead-mining districts very considerable, but the difficulty of approach would not be slight. It has been observed that these 'Bole hills' were always on high ground, and exposed to westerly winds. We may call them wind furnaces.[1] It is not improbable that the art of fusing metals may have been first discovered in the bale-fire by accident. We know the service which alchemy rendered to chemistry, and we know how from the quackery and prodigious recipes of herbalists many valuable medicines have been discovered. The place of melting would, on the principle of survival, or distaste for change, if for no other reason, be likely to remain the same as the place of the bale-fire. We here seem to be brought near to the dawn of a discovery whose effects on the progress of material civilization have been greater, perhaps, than any other. For, when man possessed the use of iron instruments the forest could be cleared, and the land efficiently ploughed. Where was iron first fused or smelted? What places would be so likely as these great fires on the tops of hills exposed to westerly winds? It concerns us not to inquire whether the art of fusing metals was brought into Great Britain by early settlers, or whether the oldest inhabitants themselves discovered that art. Such an inquiry would probably be futile; but, inasmuch as the
- ↑ 'The lead-stones in the Peak lye but just within the ground nest to the upper crust of the earth. They melt the lead upon the tops of hills that lye open to the west wind; making their fires to melt it as soon as the west wind begins to blow—which wind, by long experience, they find holds longest of all others. But for what reason I know not, since I sould think that lead was the easiest of all metals to melt, they make their fires extraordinary great.'—Childrey's Britannica Baconica; or the Natural Rarities of England, Scotland, and Wales, 1661, p. 112. Bole Hills are numerous in the vicinity of Sheffield.
