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IX. 



ox A RECEXT I'AL.EOLITHIC DISCOVERY XEAR 

 RICKMAXSWORTH. 



By Sir John Evans, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., Sc.D., F.R.S. 



Head at Watford, 2iid April, 1906. 

 (PLATES II AND III.) 



Eleven years ao^o, in the Anniversary Address to this Society 

 in February, 1895,* I mentioned that some important discoveries 

 of Palaeolithic implements had been made in the valley of the 

 Colne by Mr. Clouston, then resident at Watford. 



In the second edition of my ' Ancient Stone Implements,' 

 published in 1897 (p. 597), I made further mention of 

 Mr. Clouston's discoveries, and on leaving the neighbourhood 

 he kindly allowed me to add the specimens which he had found, 

 including a well-formed and typical ovate ochreous implement, 

 4| inches long and 2| inches wide, to my collection. Nearly all 

 came from gravels at the side of a new street known as Grrove 

 Road, Bvishey. Another and much smaller implement made 

 from a thick flake is of the pointed form, but has in old times 

 lost its tip. Its original length was about 3j inches. It was 

 found in the Back Lane, Old Bushey. A diligent search would 

 doubtless lead to the discovery of more specimens. 



As Local Secretary for Hertfordshire of the Society of 

 Antiquaries of London, I communicated the account which 

 I now submit to you to that body, and it appears in their 

 ' Proceedings ' for 14th December, 1905. 



The discovery to which I now have to call attention is due 

 to the acmnen of Mr. Robert Barker, of the Briery Close, Croxley 

 Grreen, near Rickmanswoi'th, who in the summer of 1904, when 

 examining the excavations for gravel being made by the 

 Rickmanswoi'th Gravel Company in Long Valley Wood, 

 Croxley Green, found an ovate Palaeolithic implement about 

 5 inches long and 3^ inches wide. It is ochreous in colour, but 

 its symmetry is slightly injured by its having lost a portion of 

 one side in olden times. 



Mr. Barker has another fine specimen foimd at a depth of 

 20 feet from the surface, and near the base of the gravel. It is 

 of ochreous flint, sand-polished on the surface, of ovate pointed 

 form, 6| inches in leng-th and 3| in extreme breadth. Its 

 greatest thickness is If inch. Both of these he has kindly 

 presented to the Hertfordshire County Museum at St. Albans. 



The workmen in the pits have now been trained to recognize 

 the worked flints, and as the result I have been able to make 

 a collection of 10 or 12 specimens, most of which are exhibited. 

 They are of the usual typ6s, for the most part of pointed ovate 

 form, and varying in size from 7 inches by 4 to 3| inches by 2. 



* ' Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc.,' Vol. VIII, p. 169. 



VOL. XIII. — I'AKT I. 5 



