If the various conclusions which have been arrived at in the preceding pages are correct, Derbyshire is fortunate in her sepulchral remains illustrating the succession of burial customs from Neolithic to Roman times without a serious break. But there is still a difficulty to be faced. The barrows which we have classed as of the Bronze Age are usually ascribed to the Earlier Bronze Age, upon the evidence of the bronze implements associated with their interments. While the socketed axe, which is characteristic of the Later Bronze Age, is perhaps found in greater abundance than all its forerunners put together, it has rarely, _if ever_, been found in association with these interments.[30] But this proves nothing, when it is considered that it has never been found with any _other interments_. The earlier forms of the axe have occurred, but only sparingly, with the drinking-cup and food-vase interments; but of the hundred or more recorded inurned interments of Derbyshire and the adjacent parts of Staffordshire, not one has yielded a bronze axe of any kind, and this appears to be generally the case throughout the country. These inurned interments certainly succeeded them, so there is no reason to doubt that they represent the Later Bronze Age among our sepulchral remains. [30] _British Barrows_, 44; Evans’ _Bronze Implements_, 473. Having brought the burial customs and remains of our ancient predecessors in Derbyshire well within the bounds of authentic history, we here conclude. The few remains of Roman sepulture, and the many and varied burials of the early Anglo-Saxon period, are outside the scope of this article, and would involve many pages to adequately describe them. THE PREHISTORIC STONE CIRCLES OF DERBYSHIRE By W. J. Andrew, F.S.A. Scattered over the world, from India to Peru, from Southern Africa to Northern Europe, wherever it may be, the megalithic circle marks a grade in the advance of civilization, for it is man’s earliest attempt at geometrical architecture. As such, although so uniform in design, its age must vary by thousands of years, according to the intelligent progression of the early inhabitants of the country in which it is present. Old as our stone circles seem to us, those on the shores of the Mediterranean were probably grey with antiquity when ours were yet unbuilt; indeed, so far as the old world is concerned, it may be assumed that the megalithic monuments of the British Isles are amongst the latest in date.