SESSION 1893-94. ' xxvii 



Field Meeting, 26th Mat, 1894. 

 LUTOX, CADDIXGTON, AND DUNSTABLE. 



This meeting was held in conjunction with the Geologists' 

 Association of London, and was under the direction of Mr. 

 AVortliington G. Smith, F.L.S., of Dunstable. The chief object 

 was to enable Mr. Smith to show to the members of tlie two 

 societies the beds at Caddington from which he has obtained 

 a large number of Palajolithic flint implements, described in his 

 book, ' Man, the Primeval Savage.' 



Arriving at Luton at a few minutes to eleven, the party first 

 inspected the parish church of St. Mary and noticed particularly 

 the iise of local materials in its construction, the tower being built 

 of Tottcrnhoe Stone and flints from the Upper Chalk in alternate 

 cubes. In the interior, the "Wenlock chapel, the ancient font with 

 its ornate canopy, and the fine oak carvings, attracted attention. 

 The quaint inscriptions on some of the tombs were also noticed. 



Soon after leaving Luton on the way to Caddington a storm 

 came on, and the party sheltered for some time in a bana. The 

 walk being continued by Farley Green to Woodside, some brick- 

 fields between that hamlet and Slip End were visited. The pits 

 ai'B in re-laid Tertiary clay about 50 feet thick and 400 feet above 

 sea-level, and, in the whitish beds above this clay, abraded 

 Palaeolithic flint implements have been found. 



Bedfordshire having been left for Hertfordshire, the county 

 boundary rimning through Caddington, the brick - fields near 

 Caddington were visited, and Mr. Worthington Smith stated 

 that he had come to the conclusion from long and careful 

 investigation that they were on the site of an ancient lake, on 

 the shores of which huts were built in which dwelt the 

 primitive inhabitants who have left many relics attesting their 

 occupation of the site. Here they made their implements, and 

 left the flint tools they made them with and the flakes they 

 chipped off in making them. Many of those which Mr. Smith 

 has found he has pieced together, building up with them the 

 flints in their original form, thus showing that the fragments 

 were struck off on the spot. Many of the flint flakes, of which 

 some hundreds have been found, have edges nearly as keen as 

 those of knives. 



The men who built these huts and made these implements were 

 already, as Mr. Smith says in his book, skilful workmen, and they 

 were therefore not nearly the most ancient of the human race, for 

 " man must have existed thousands of years as a being incapable 

 of designing and making stone weapons and tools of geometrically- 

 correct form." They probably migrated from warmer climes, 

 and, travelling over Europe in a north-westerly direction, reached 

 Britain (which then formed, with Ireland, part of the European 

 continent) as glaciers were here for the last time retreating north- 

 wards. 



