Replies to Minor Queries.
_Arbor Lowe_--_Stanton Moor_--_Ayre Family_ (Vol. iv., p. 274.).--In
Rhodes's _Peak Scenery_, p. 228, it is said:
"Near Middleton, by Youlgrave, we found the celebrated Druidical
monument of Arbor Low, one of the most striking remains of
antiquity in any part of Derbyshire. This circle includes an area
of from forty to fifty yards diameter, formed by a series of large
unhewn stones, not standing upright, but all laid on the ground,
with an inclination towards the centre; round these the remains of
a ditch, circumscribed by a high embankment, may be traced. Near
the south entrance into this circle there is a mound, or
burial-place, in which some fragments of an urn, some half-burnt
bones, and the horns of a stag, were found."
In the same work, at pages 236, 237., is an account of the Druidical
remains at Stanton Moor. And at page 224. are the following remarks:--
"The Eyres is one of the oldest families in Derbyshire, where they
have continued to reside through the long lapse of more than seven
hundred years, as appears from the following curious extract from
an old pedigree which is preserved at Hassop. 'The first of the
Eyres came in with King William the Conqueror, and his name was
Truelove; but in the battle of Hastings (14 Oct. 1066) this
Truelove, seeing the king unhorsed, and his helmet beat so close
that he could not breathe, pulled off his helmet and horsed him
again. The king said, Thou shalt hereafter from Truelove be called
_Air_ or _Eyre_, because thou hast given me the air I breathe.
After the battle the king called for him, and being found with his
thigh cut off, he ordered him to be taken care of; and being
recovered, he gave him lands in the county of Derby, in reward for
his services, and the seat he lived at he called Hope, because he
had hope in the greatest extremity; and the king gave the leg and
thigh cut off in armour for his crest, and which is still the
crest of all the Eyres in England.'"
A descendant of this person is the present Earl of Newburgh, of Hassop
Hall.
At page 240. is an account of the village of Birchover, and also of the
Rowter Rocks, but no mention is made of the family of the Ayres, or of
the ruins of any house formerly belonging to them.