SESSION 1905-1906. xxxi 



The gravel consists for the most part of water-worn flints, 

 some completely rounded, others subangiilar, and also contains 

 quartz and quartzose-pebbles. The layers of sand and clay and 

 some peculiar black bands give it in many places a stratified 

 appearance, but it is nowhere horizontal for any considerable 

 distance, this conformation being accounted for in places by 

 cross-bedding, but mostly being due, as in the Ayot sections, to 

 irregular dissolution of the underlying Chalk. 



The large number of Palaeolithic implements which have been 

 found in the gravel, occurring throughout it but most numerous 

 near its base, constitute its most interesting feature. The 

 molar of an elephant, most probably Elephas antiquus, has been 

 found at a depth of 20 feet from the surface, and also a tusk, 

 believed to be of the same species. 



At the western end of the pits there is an interesting- 

 pyramidal heap of sand and clay containing several large Sarsen- 

 stones, and composed of green, white, yellow, and chocolate- 

 coloured sand, together with a band of mottled clay. (See 

 Plate VII.) It has only recently been exposed, and the presence 

 in a fluviatile gravel of a mass which could so easily be washed 

 away is not easily explained. It was suggested that the large 

 Sarsen-stones may have helped to prevent its destruction. 

 From its constituents and its position directly on the Chalk, 

 Mr. Hopkinsou said that it must belong to the Reading Beds. 



The party then visited the interesting old tythe-barn of the 

 St. Albans Abbots adjoining Croxley Hall, which was shown 

 to the members by Mr. Sansom, the present tenant, as also was 

 the fine old parlour in the house itself. The manor of Croxley 

 was held of the Cellarer of St. Albans by the family of Creke 

 or Croke, whence the name Ci'okesley, modernised into Croxley. 

 On the dissolution of the monasteries it came to the Crown, 

 and eventually it was granted by Queen Elizabeth to her 

 physician. Dr. Kaye, who is better known under the Latinized 

 form of his name, " Caius." He erected Gronville Hall into 

 a College, and the Master, Fellows, and Scholars of Caius 

 College are still Lords of the Manor. 



Croxley Hall is " a good example of an old farm house, with 

 gabled ends, and porch without ; and within, solid beams 

 overhead, with carved mantelpiece and panelled walls in the 

 parlour." The tythe-barn adjoining is " about thirty -eight 

 yards long, and very wide and lofty, and the largest cart-load 

 of wheat which it is possible for the agricultural heai't to 

 conceive can pass in safety through its capacious north transept. 

 The massive oaken posts, beams, and rafters, support a roof 

 of tiles, which, if laid out, would perhaps cover an acre of 

 ground. The outer face of the walls has been so often restored 

 that all trace of the original work has been lost ; but the timber 

 and tlie roughly-carved Totternhoe Stone within, clearly indicate 

 the building to be at least four centuries old." (Cussans, 

 ' History of Hertfordshire,' Cassio Hundred, p. 130.) 



