Chapter 43

Fig. 455.—Peasemarsh, Godalming.1⁄2

At Farnham, between Alton and Godalming, many palæolithic implements have been secured from the gravels of the valley of the Wey, principally through the intelligent care of Mr. Frank Lasham, of Guildford, and Mr. H. A. Mangles, F.G.S., of Littleworth Cross, Tongham. The former has contributed a paper on “Palæolithic Man” to the Surrey Archæological Society,[2603]and has kindly given me much information on the subject. The beds of gravel are from 10 to 40 feet deep, and lie upon the Lower Greensand. They attain an elevation of 364 feet[2604]above the mean sea-level, or about 150 feet above the present bed of the river, and are principally dug in pits on the southern or right side{596}of the Wey towards Wracklesham, pits which have furnished several hundreds of palæolithic implements of various forms and sizes. The oval and ovate seem to predominate, but there have been found not a few fine pointed implements. Associated with the more sharply preserved specimens, are many of dark ochreous colour, with their angles much abraded, which in all probability have been brought down by the old river from beds higher up its valley. Remains of mammoth occur occasionally in the gravels. Some specimens of the implements are preserved in the Charterhouse School Museum. Mr. Lasham informs me of an implement having been found in gravel at Peperharow, of a part of one near Farley Heath, and of one found at Frimley,[2605]in the valley of the Blackwater.

The discoveries of palæolithic implements in the valley of the Colne near its junction with the Thames, have already been recorded. In the valley of the Misbourne, an affluent of the Colne, an implement was found in 1891 in digging the foundations of the bridge over the Metropolitan Extension Railway, just north of Great Missenden. It is of a thick ovate form, made of grey flint, rather narrower than Pl. II., No. 18, and with small flat surfaces of the original crust of the flint left about the middle of each side. The specimen is in my own collection.

In the valley of the Gade, in Hertfordshire, a few have been found by myself. The first of these was lying on the surface of a ploughed field near Bedmond,[2606]in the parish of Abbot’s Langley, at a spot which, though probably 160 feet above the level of the nearest part of the stream, is towards the bottom of one of the lateral valleys leading into the main valley of the Gade, between Boxmoor and Watford. The implement, which has unfortunately lost its point, is remarkably similar in form and size to that from Gray’s Inn Lane, Fig. 451. The flint of which it is made has become nearly white and porcellanous on both faces, though more so on one than on the other. In places it has been so much altered in structure that it can be cut with a knife. I have noticed this feature in flints which have lain long in pervious red brick-earth, and this leads me to suppose that the implement may have been derived from some beds of that character at the spot where it was found, though on this point I have no direct{597}evidence. In 1892[2607]I found another small implement (4 inches) of rude ovate form, among some stones recently placed in a rut at Bedmond Hill. Here, again, there is no evidence as to the exact geological position. Nor is there with regard to two other implements, both of which I found in 1868, in gravel laid on the towing-path of the Grand Junction Canal, which is there united with the Gade, between Apsley and Nash Mills, about two miles south of Hemel Hempstead. There is, however, no doubt of the gravel in which they lay having been dredged or dug from the bottom of the valley in the immediate neighbourhood. One of them, of grey flint, is a neatly-chipped, flat implement, of ovate outline, about 4 inches long, in form much like Fig. 468, from Lake. The other is imperfect, but appears to have been originally of much the same character, though flatter on one face. It is deeply stained of an ochreous colour, and its angles are considerably waterworn. I have searched in the gravels of the neighbourhood for other specimens, but as yet in vain. I may add that during the formation of this part of the canal, some eighty years ago, an elephant’s tooth was found in the gravel, within about 200 yards of the spot where I discovered one of the implements.

Other specimens are reported to have been found near the head of the tributary valley of the Bulbourne, at Wigginton, near Tring.

At Watford, Herts, on the left bank of the Colne, in gravel near Bushey Park, at a height of about 40 feet above the level of the existing river, Mr. Clouston has found several implements of ochreous flint of various types. He has kindly given me a square-ended flake, much like Fig.426A,from High Lodge, Mildenhall.

Some of the discoveries made by Mr. Worthington G. Smith were in localities within the valley of the Ver, an affluent of the Colne, rather than in that of the Lea, but inasmuch as many of the beds which contained the implements found by him seem to bear but little relation to existing watersheds, and are at no great distance from the Lea, I shall at once proceed to the discussion of the remarkable series of facts which he has brought to light. All details must, however, be sought for in Mr. W. G. Smith’s own book, “Man, the Primeval Savage.”[2608]{598}

The main source of the Lea is at Leagrave Marsh, about 3 miles N.W. of Luton, and 376 feet above Ordnance datum. On the surface near this place, Mr. Smith[2609]found a flat ovate implement, in form much like those from Warren Hill or that from near Dunstable, Fig. 17. He says that it may be neolithic, but that he has found palæolithic flakes, both ochreous and grey,in situin gravel at Leagrave. At Houghton Regis,[2610]11⁄2miles north of Dunstable, Mr. Smith found a fragment of an ovate implement on the surface. Another implement, found so long ago as 1830 by Mr. William Gutteridge, at Dallow,[2611]or Dollar farm,3⁄4of a mile west of Luton, is distinctly palæolithic in form.

The most interesting of Mr. Worthington Smith’s discoveries have, however, been made on or near the summit of a hill, a good 2 miles from the Lea, and somewhat nearer the Ver. At and around the village of Caddington there are several brickfields, some of them no longer worked. The original surface of the ground in some of these is as much as 550[2612]to 595 feet above the Ordnance Datum. The brick-earth is of great thickness, in places fully 50 feet, and overlies the Chalk. The upper portion of the beds is much contorted, and has in it occasional seams of flint gravel or tenacious clay, in which cream-coloured or brownish palæolithic implements occur. In the gravel, brown, ochreous, slightly abraded implements and flakes are found, and at the base in many cases is the old land-surface or “Palæolithic floor” resting on and surmounted by brick-earth. In one pit were three heaps of flints brought by hand in Palæolithic times from flint-bearing beds either above or in the Chalk. On the Palæolithic floor were numerous sharp-edged flakes, which had hardly been moved from the original place at which they were struck off. Mr. Smith has replaced more than 500 flakes either on to other flakes or on to implements and cores from the same floor.

One old land-surface was full of narrow vertical fissures, due perhaps to the heat of a burning summer sun. While they were still open 18 inches of watery brick-earth, perhaps brought down by a heavy storm of rain, filled up the fissures, covered up the old surface and formed a new surface at a higher level. The upper deposits often resemble contorted masses of half-frozen mud and stone pushed over an old water-laid and perhaps frozen surface of brick-earth. Mr. Smith’s view is that Palæolithic{599}man lived here by the side of one or more small freshwater lakes, and manufactured his implements upon the spot which eventually, by successive storms and flooding, became buried beneath accumulations of mud. The neighbouring valley on the west was not at that time excavated to its present depth. He considers that the ochreous implements found at Caddington are of earlier date than those of lighter colour found on the Palæolithic floor, and points out that there is, moreover, a difference in the nature of the tools, inasmuch as some well-formed scrapers occur in the brick-earth of the Palæolithic floor, while they are never found amongst the ochreous tools. The difference seems consistent with the probability that the tools for domestic use would be more abundant on the spot where the men of the period were at home than elsewhere. One of the most interesting features of the case is the number of instances in which Mr. Smith has been able to bring together the fragments of implements broken in Palæolithic times,[2613]and to replace upon them the flakes removed during the process of their manufacture. Of these he has given a long series of illustrations in his book;[2614]those relating to one instance are here by his kindness reproduced as Figs.455A,B, andC.

Fig.455A.—Caddington.1⁄2Fig.455B.—Caddington.1⁄2

Fig.455A.—Caddington.1⁄2

Fig.455B.—Caddington.1⁄2

In Fig. 455Ais shown a finished implement broken in Palæolithic times, both pieces found separately and now conjoined. Fig. 455Bshows the other side of the implement, with three of the flakes struck off during its manufacture replaced, and Fig. 455Creproduces the first view, but shows a fourth flake replaced.{600}

A good series of these reconstructed implements is in the British Museum.

Fig.455C.—Caddington.1⁄2

Fig. 455Dshows an ovate implement from the brown stony clay at Caddington. Fig. 455Erepresents a scraper, and Fig. 455Fa pointed tool from the Palæolithic floor, and an ivory-white sharp-edged implement from the same source is illustrated in Fig.455G.For all these figures,[2615]I am indebted to Mr. Worthington Smith, as well as for very many acts of kindness.

Fig.455D.—Caddington.1⁄2

A paper by Mr. Smith on Neolithic and Palæolithic scrapers, re-placed and re-worked, will be found in theEssex Naturalist.[2616]

At Mount Pleasant,[2617]Kensworth, to the west, on the other side of the extension northwards of the valley, and at a height of 760 feet above Ordnance datum, or nearly 200 feet higher than the Caddington deposits, Mr. Worthington Smith has found{601}some ochreous flint flakes, apparently of Palæolithic age, one of them trimmed.

Fig.455E.—Caddington.1⁄2Fig.455F.—Caddington.1⁄2

Fig.455E.—Caddington.1⁄2

Fig.455F.—Caddington.1⁄2

At Harpenden,81⁄2miles from the source of the Lea, and not far from the stream, he has obtained a few ochreous palæolithic flakes. At Wheathampstead, a few miles further down the Lea, he also met with a few ochreous flakes in gravel near the railway station.

Fig.455G.—Caddington.1⁄2Fig.455H.—Wheathampstead.1⁄2

Fig.455G.—Caddington.1⁄2

Fig.455H.—Wheathampstead.1⁄2

In gravel brought from No Man’s Land, a common about a mile south of Wheathampstead, the late Rev. Dr. Griffiths, of Sandridge, found two small ovate implements of whitened flint,[2618]one of which he presented to my collection. Mr. Worthington Smith, on visiting the spot in 1886, discovered a rude implement of nearly the same characterin situin the gravel, and has lent me the block,[2619]Fig.455H,on which it is represented. He subsequently found an implement with only one edge and the point{602}chipped into shape, alsoin situ. He likewise discovered a third implement and a well-formed scraper in the beds. The gravel at No Man’s Land is in a valley along which in former times the Lea or a branch of its stream may have taken its course. Near Ayot St. Peter[2620]and Welwyn, in the valley of the Maran, Mr. Worthington Smith has found flakes only. I have recorded the finding of an implement at North Mimms,[2621]south of Hatfield.

At and near Hertford and Ware, the Lea receives several other affluents coming from the north. Among these is the Beane, the present source of which is near Stevenage. At Fisher’s Green,[2622]a little to the north of that town, pointed ochreous implements have been found in the brick-earth by Mr. Frank Latchmore and myself. I have also a rough ovate specimen made from a large broad flake, and found in a brick-field south of Stevenage. Further south, in gravels exposed in a cutting of the Great Northern Railway near Knebworth,[2623]some well-formed implements, both pointed and ovate, were found in 1887. I have several specimens, as well as an ovate implement found on the surface in 1890. Still farther south, in a clay-pipe near Welwyn Tunnel, a pointed ochreous implement (4 inches) was obtained in 1896, which Mr. Frank Latchmore has kindly added to my collection.

Palæolithic implements have been found by Mr. Worthington Smith in the gravels of the Lea[2624]and Beane at Hertford and Ware, one of them at Bengeo. They are of pointed forms, fairly well made, and much water-worn. He has recorded other implement-bearing gravels a mile north-west of Ware and at Amwell. General Pitt Rivers has a remarkably fine palæolithic implement, which is said to have been found at Bayford, a mile or so south-west of Hertford.

In the valley of the Stort, which joins the Lea near Hoddesdon, two palæolithic implements have been found by Mr. W. H. Penning, F.G.S., in the neighbourhood of Bishop’s Stortford. Though in both instances lying on the surface, yet the condition of the implements is such that there can be no doubt as to their having been but recently dug out of the soil; the colour of both is a dark brown, ochreous in places, and the general appearance{603}much like that of the implements found in the brick-earth at Hoxne. One of them was found at a short distance from the river, by the side of a ditch cut in a thin deposit of valley brick-earth, about a mile north of Bishop’s Stortford, and probably had been thrown out with the soil from the ditch. It is51⁄2inches long and33⁄4inches broad, and in form it much resembles Fig. 421. The other is of the same character, but is somewhat broader, and is squarer at the base. It was found farther north, on the sandy surface of a ploughed field, close to Pesterford Bridge.

In 1872 Mr. Penning also found, near Stocking Pelham, five miles north of Bishop’s Stortford, an ochreous, somewhat water-worn, oval implement 5 inches in length.

At Flamstead End,[2625]one mile west of Cheshunt, and on the right side of the Lea, Mr. Worthington Smith has obtained several implements in the gravels, some of which he has kindly added to my collection. He has also found specimens at Bush Hill Park and Forty Hill, near Enfield; Rowan Tree Farm, Lower Edmonton, and between Edmonton and Winchmore Hill. For his discoveries on the east or left side of the Lea I must refer the reader to Mr. Smith’s book, “Man, the Primeval Savage.” Suffice it to say that he has found implements in Drift deposits at Plaistow,[2626]Stratford, Leyton, Leytonstone, Wanstead, Walthamstow, Higham Hill, West Ham, Forest Gate, and Upton. In the valley of the Roding he has added Barking, East Ham, and Ilford, and farther east again Rainham, Gray’s Thurrock, Little Thurrock, Tilbury, Mucking, Orsett, and Southend.

Mr. Hazzeldine Warren, of the Cedars, Waltham Cross, has obtained several palæolithic implements from gravels at Bull’s Cross and Bush Hill Park, Enfield, and a few at Hoddesdon. A fine pointed specimen (7 inches) from Bull’s Cross is rather like Fig. 459, but is battered at the butt.

From gravel at Grove Green Lane, Leyton,[2627]some good pointed implements have been obtained by Mr. A. P. Wire. One of them is 6 inches long.

A thin ovate implement made from a piece of tabular flint was found in gravel at Lake’s Farm,[2628]Cannhall Lane, Wanstead.

A sub-triangular implement with a heavy butt was found in gravel of the Roding Valley at St. Swithin’s Farm,[2629]Barking{604}Side, and two others at Wallend, one mile west of Barking town. Mr. G. F. Lawrence found an oval implementin situat Stratford.[2630]I have a rude specimen found at Shoeburyness by Mr. B. Harrison.

Returning to London we must notice some discoveries on the southern side of the Thames.

In 1872[2631]General Pitt Rivers recorded the finding of a palæolithic implement and a flake in gravel on Battersea Rise, at the junction of Grayshot Road and the Wandsworth Road; and in an excavation for a new house on Battersea Rise,[2632]near Clapham Common, on one of the higher gravel-terraces of the Thames, Mr. Worthington Smith picked up a palæolithic implement in 1882.

Mr. G. F. Lawrence has also found two or three implements in gravel at East and West Hill, Wandsworth, on each side of the Wandle, as well as at Earlsfield. One from the latter place, now broken, must originally have been of very large size. This and another are pointed. He has also found one at Lavender Hill, and a small ovate specimen at Roehampton.

At Lewisham also an implement has been discovered. One of ovate form (4 inches) was found in 1874 in gravel on Wickham Road by Mr. A. L. Lewis, and by him liberally added to my collection.

Further south, in a branch of the valley of the Ravensbourne, on a patch of gravel upwards of 300 feet above Ordnance Datum, Mr. George Clinch,[2633]in 1880, found several ovate palæolithic implements, and in subsequent years many more; in all some fifty[2634]in number.

About four miles farther east, at Green Street Green,[2635]about 250 feet above Ordnance Datum, Mr. H. G. Norman found two palæolithic implements, on the surface of what is now a dry part of the valley of the river Cray, about two miles above its present source. They are both of ovate form, one much like Fig. 420, the other like Fig. 468. Each is about51⁄2inches in length. “The gravel at this spot has afforded remains not only of the mammoth, but also of the musk-ox.”{605}

Mr. de B. Crawshay[2636]has also found about 40 ovoid and pointed palæolithic implements near Green Street Green.

The valley may be traced upwards for nearly five miles, in a south-easterly direction, to Currie Wood, between Knockholt and Shoreham; and on the border of this wood, not far from Currie Farm, I found on the surface of the ground, in 1869, a well-marked flint implement, in character and size closely resembling that from Swalecliffe, Fig. 462, and stained of a rich ochreous colour. In places there are some ferruginous concretions adhering to the surface, and it has all the appearance of having been derived from the gravel which here not unusually forms the superficial deposit. A part of one of the faces has been lost owing to a recent fracture, and it can be seen that the implement has been formed of what is now a light buff, somewhat chalcedonic, flint, similar in character to that of most of the pebbles in the gravel at Well Hill, near Chelsfield, about midway between Currie Wood and Green Street Green. A subsequent search on the spot, in company with Sir John Lubbock, Sir Joseph Prestwich, General Pitt Rivers, and Sir Wollaston Franks, was unproductive of any more specimens. The remarkable feature in the case is the elevation at which this implement was found, the level of the ground being probably 300 feet above the neighbouring valley of the Darent, and upwards of 500 feet above the sea. Regarding the gravel, however, as connected with the valley of the Cray, and not with that of the Darent, its elevation above the head of the valley is but slight. In 1872 I remarked that it was “necessary that further discoveries should be made in this district, before it will be safe to speculate on the origin of these gravels, and their relation to the superficial configuration of the neighbourhood.” Since then, as will be seen in subsequent pages, these discoveries have been made.

Farther down the valley of the Cray than Green Street Green, near Dartford Heath, about half a mile to the south of Crayford Station, Mr. Flaxman C. J. Spurrell, F.G.S., has been so fortunate as to discover,in situ, the beautifully symmetrical implement which, through his kindness, I am enabled to engrave as Fig. 456.

It is of dark, brownish grey flint, in places mottled with white. It is worked to an edge all round, but is less sharp towards the base than towards the point. On one side, near the point, the edge{606}has been worn away by use into a curved notch. On the opposite side is a more modern break. It is almost equally convex on the two faces.Fig. 456.—Dartford Heath.1⁄2Mr. Spurrell informs me that he found this implement lying on its face, at a depth of 8 feet below the surface of the gravel, which is that of the upper level of Dartford Heath, and appears to belong to the valley of the Thames, and not to that of either the Cray or the Dart.

Fig. 456.—Dartford Heath.1⁄2

Mr. Spurrell informs me that he found this implement lying on its face, at a depth of 8 feet below the surface of the gravel, which is that of the upper level of Dartford Heath, and appears to belong to the valley of the Thames, and not to that of either the Cray or the Dart.

Another implement has been found near the same spot by Mr. C. C. S. Fooks.[2637]A little to the north of Crayford, in the brick-earth below an old cliff of chalk and Thanet sands, Mr. Spurrell has found a number of flakes of flint associated with remains of the Pleistocene fauna. He has, indeed, discovered a “Palæolithic floor” on which the ancient workmen lived while they fashioned their tools. Not many of the larger implements were found, but many of the flakes after having been struck off the nucleus had been trimmed at the butt-end. By patience and skill Mr. Spurrell was able to bring many of the flakes together into their original positions, and thus to reconstitute the blocks of flint from which they had been manufactured.[2638]In one instance he was able to build up around an implement—broken in old times—the various flakes struck off during its manufacture, and thus to reproduce the block of flint originally taken in hand by the workman. Two hammer-stones were present, made from cylindrical nodules of flint.

It is to be remembered that in April,[2639]1872, the Rev. O. Fisher, F.G.S., found a worked flint, or flake, in Slade’s Green Pit, Crayford, beneath a sandy stratum containing among other shells those ofCorbicula fluminalis. In 1875 a large broad flake(51⁄2inches) was picked up by Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S.,[2640]in a{607}brick-earth pit at Erith. It is figured and described in theArgonaut.[2641]Another flake found in 1876 in the same stratum as that in which ten years earlier a skull of a musk ox occurred, has been figured by Professor Boyd Dawkins.[2642]

The fauna of the Crayford beds is remarkable, and comprises two Arctic forms,Oribos moschatusand aSpermophilus, as well asMegaceros hibernicus,Rhinoceros megarhinus,tichorhinusandleptorhinus,Elephas primigeniusandantiquus, lion, hyæna, bear, and bison. Professor Boyd Dawkins regards it as Mid-Pleistocene.[2643]

Before proceeding to discuss the discoveries that have been made in and near the valley of the Darent, it will be well to follow the course of the Thames a little farther eastward, and record those that have been made in the neighbourhood of Northfleet, opposite Gray’s Thurrock. At several places within about a mile of Northfleet Station, and to the west of it, especially at Swanscombe, Milton Street, and Galley Hill, gravel has been dug in considerable quantities, and has proved to contain a very large number of palæolithic implements of various forms, among which the pointed type is most abundant. At Milton Street[2644]the surface level is about 100 feet above the Thames, and at Galley Hill[2645]about 90 feet. It was in this pit, apparently at a depth of about 8 feet from the top of the gravel, that a human skull, or to judge from the presence of bothtibiæ, a whole skeleton, was discovered in September, 1888. No formal account of the discovery was given until nearly seven years afterwards, when Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., communicated a detailed notice of the skull and limb-bones to the Geological Society.[2646]I was present at the meeting, but it appeared to me that the evidence as to the contemporaneity of the bones with the containing beds was hardly convincing, and I ventured to assume an attitude of doubt with regard to the discovery which I still maintain. There can, however, be no question as to the true palæolithic character of the implements found in the gravels, of which a few are figured in illustration of Mr. Newton’s paper.[2647]

Leaving the Thames we come to the valley of the Darent, in which, about a mile E.S.E.[2648]of Horton Kirby, Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., in 1861, found upon the surface, on the top of a hill, a{608}small ovate implement about31⁄2inches long, and in form much like Fig. 468.

At Lullingstone,[2649]at an elevation of 400 feet, another implement has been found, and a pointed specimen of the Amiens type was picked up by Miss H. Waring on Cockerhurst Farm,[2650]near Shoreham, at the level of about 430 feet.

I now come to the numerous and important discoveries made during the last thirty years by Mr. Benjamin Harrison,[2651]of Ightham, which, aided by Sir Joseph Prestwich’s interpretation of them, have done much to revolutionize our ideas as to the age and character of the Drift deposits capping the Chalk Downs in Western Kent, north of the escarpment facing the Weald.

All around Ightham, at different elevations above the bottom of the neighbouring valley of the Shode, Mr. Harrison has succeeded in discovering palæolithic implements of flint, for the most part of oval or ovate forms, but not unfrequently pointed. Fane Hill, Bewley, Chart Farm, Stone Pit Farm, Stone Street, Seal and Ash to the North may be mentioned among the localities where his search was successful. He has also found nearly fifty implements in the talus of Oldbury Hill.[2652]

Some of those from Seal occurred at a height of 420 feet above Ordnance Datum, and on what appeared to be the watershed between the Medway and the Darent. An almost circular specimen formed of ochreous flint and found at Bewley, Ightham, is shown in Fig.456A.

For full particulars of the localities and their relative levels, the reader must be referred to Sir Joseph Prestwich’s comprehensive paper[2653]on the occurrence of palæolithic flint implements in the neighbourhood of Ightham, Kent, in which about forty places are mentioned. Since that paper was published, Mr. Harrison, aided by Mr. de B. Crawshay, has extended his researches with the result that many more implements have been found at high elevations to the north of the escarpment of the chalk. These discoveries enabled Sir Joseph Prestwich in another paper[2654]on the Age, Formation and successive Drift-stages of the valley of the Darent, and on the origin of its chalk escarpment, still farther to extend his interesting speculations. It is true that he accepts as being{609}of human manufacture, flints with bruised and battered edges, which I and some others venture to regard as owing their shape to purely natural causes. But fortunately this does not invalidate his arguments, as in most cases where the so-called “Plateau types” have been found, more or less well-finished palæolithic implements of recognized form, though much abraded and deeply stained, have also been discovered. The evidence of such witnesses is not impaired by calling in that of others of more doubtful character.

Fig.456A.—Bewley, Ightham.1⁄2

The continuous slope now extending from the neighbourhood of the Thames to the summit of the Chalk escarpment, and in many places capped with implementiferous drift, appears to have been continued southward within the human period over a part of what is now the Lower Greensand area, if not, indeed, into that of the Weald; and subsequently the great valley that now intervenes between the Lower Greensand escarpment and the North Downs must have been excavated.

Whatever causes we may assign for the changes in the surface-configuration of the district, it must be borne in on all that the time required to effect them is beyond all ordinary means of calculation.

West of Ightham, at the head of the present valley of the Darent, is Limpsfield,[2655]the scene of some interesting discoveries{610}made by Mr. A. Montgomerie Bell. These, also, have been discussed by Sir Joseph Prestwich in his paper on the Drift-stages of the Darent valley, already mentioned; but for the following account of the locality I am in the main indebted to Mr. Bell. Palæolithic implements have been found by him and others in the parish of Limpsfield, Surrey, from the year 1883 up to the present time. They are of the usual forms, both pointed and oval, symmetrical and well made, though rarely exceeding41⁄2inches in length. Many of them have been found on the surface of the ground; but in a gravel-pit on the water-shed between the Darent and the Medway, at an elevation of 500 feet above the sea, Mr. Bell has succeeded in obtaining several implements out of the solid bed of gravel, at depths of from 3 to 7 feet from the surface. The gravel is about 8 feet in thickness and covers a considerable area. The late Mr. Topley[2656]has pointed out that it presents some features that are unusual in river gravels, and Mr. Bell is inclined to invoke some kind of ice-action in its formation. I content myself with recording these opinions.

Besides the gravel there is a second implementiferous deposit at Limpsfield, on the slope of the Lower Greensand escarpment. Here more than three hundred implements have been found, at elevations of from 450 to 570 feet above the sea, principally on the surface, but also in the brick-earth at a depth of from31⁄2to 5 feet. They have been most frequent on Ridland’s Farm, and comprise all the forms that are usually obtained.

Eastward of Ightham, within the watershed of the Medway, implements from the gravels have been obtained at West Malling.[2657]

Dr. C. Le Neve Foster, F.R.S., in 1865, picked up a broken ovate implement about a quarter of a mile S.W. of Marden Church, on the edge of the valley of the Teise, an affluent of the Medway. Though found on the surface, it is of an ochreous colour, and apparently has been derived from some bed of gravel. In the same year, in the valley of the Medway itself, at Sandling, he found a rude, almost circular, implement, which, though on the surface, was also ochreous.

The most important discoveries, however, have been made in the well-known pits near Aylesford, in which some very fine implements have been found. I have several, one of which, of pointed form, with a heavy butt, must originally have been 9 inches long.{611}It has, however, had the end broken off. Mr. B. Harrison has given me another thinner and more perfect pointed specimen made from a flat block of flint. Numerous remains of the pleistocene fauna have been found in the gravels.

In 1862, Prof. T. McK. Hughes, F.R.S., found a rude palæolithic implement near Otterham Quay, Chatham, and another at Gillingham, in the same neighbourhood. He also picked up a small oval implement at Tweedale, half-way between Chatham and Upchurch; and one of larger size, 5 inches long, with a rounded point and truncated base, on the railway, west of Newington Station. Prof. Hughes likewise found a rudely-chipped implement in gravel said to have been brought from a pit near the railway-cutting at Hartlip. There may be some question whether the gravels at these latter places would be more properly classed as belonging to the valley of the Thames, or to that of the Medway. On the north of the Medway, at St. Mary, in the hundred of Hoo, Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., found a small, neatly-chipped, pointed implement; and another at Stoke, in the same district, with rounded point, and sub-triangular in form. They are both ochreous in colour, and have their angles much abraded. To the south of Gravesend, at some distance from either the Medway or the Thames, near Meopham, Nursted, and Cobham, he has also found broken implements of palæolithic types.

In the Christy Collection is an ovate implement,41⁄4inches long, in form like Fig. 462, which was discovered by Mr. E. A. Bernays on a heap of gravel at Chatham.

I have also an ovate implement found in gravel at the Engineering School, Chatham, in 1882, by Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., who presented it to me; as well as a good pointed implement found at Chatham by Mr. Worthington Smith.

Farther east, Prof. Hughes found a large implement, which, though wanting its point, is 8 inches long, in gravel said to have been brought from a pit on the hill north of the railway, and half a mile east of Teynham Station; and at Ospringe, near Faversham, Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins found, in 1865, not in gravel, but on the surface, a small, neatly-chipped, ovate implement. In form it resembles Fig. 467, from the Isle of Wight, but is white and porcellanous. I have another fine specimen, from the brick-earth at Faversham, which was given to me by Mr. J. W. Morris of that town. It is 5 inches long, in form much like Fig. 456, but thinner, and it has weathered to a porcellanous white on{612}one face, and to a light grey on the other. South of Faversham, at Moldash, Mr. C. E. Hawkins, of the Geological Survey, in 1872 came across a smaller and thicker porcellanous ovate implement lying on the surface of the ground. In the same district,11⁄2miles south of Selling Church, Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., has found another small pointed implement of palæolithic character.{613}

Fig. 457.—Reculver.1⁄1

It is, however, in the neighbourhood of Herne Bay and Reculver, that palæolithic implements have been found in the greatest number. The first discoveries in that locality were made in the autumn of 1860 by Mr. Thomas Leech,[2658]who had studied in the School of Mines, in Jermyn Street, and who, while searching for fossil remains at the base of the cliff between Herne Bay and Reculver, picked up a flint implement which he at once recognized as analogous in form with some of those from the River-drift of the valley of the Somme. Continuing his search, he found six implements in all, which he placed in the Museum of Economic Geology, in Jermyn Street. One of those is shown full size in Fig. 457, from a block which has already been used in theArchæologia. It is of considerable interest, as having been formed from a Lower Tertiary flint pebble, and not from a flint derived directly from the chalk. The rounded end of the pebble, which forms the butt of the instrument, is admirably adapted for being held in the hand. It is singularly like the implement from St. Acheul, shown in Pl. I., Fig. 9.

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