Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixvi. (1922), iVo. 4 11 



account for the coming of bronze to Europe, it is evident that 

 the use of stone for purposes of construction suffers a decline, 

 and in some places an eclipse. This degradation was con- 

 tinuous, so that, in Denmark for instance, and Southern 

 Sweden, the use of stone for purposes of construction finally 

 disappeared. For the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who came 

 thence to this country at the beginning of our era, made no 

 use of stone whatever, either in their homeland or in this 

 country. They built entirely of wood, and made ordinary 

 graves in the g^round such as we still make. 



The failure of the Anglo-Saxons to use stone in this 

 country is all the more remarkable in that they succeeded the 

 Romans who, as is well known, were excellent stone-masons. 

 But, curiously enough, the Anglo-Saxons avoided the Roman 

 settlements, and made their homesteads sometimes miles away 

 from the Roman highways. Only when missionaries came 

 from Italy to convert the country did the use of stone begin 

 again, and then only sporadically. The Normans, another 

 branch of the same Scandinavian people, did not work stone 

 when they came to this country. Their early castles were 

 made of wood, and were set on the tops of earthern mounds. 

 They were not the great structures of stone that are so well 

 known to us as Norman castles. 



In this country, therefore, the use of stone has more than 

 once disappeared. It was unknown before the coming of 

 people from the Mediterranean bringing with them the 

 essentials of civilisation. After the arrival of bronze weapons 

 the use of stone gradually disappeared, so that the mounds of 

 the bronze age often have no stone in them at all. In the 

 later times the use of stone suffers still further eclipse, until 

 the arrival of the Romans, another people from the Mediter- 

 ranean. Then came the Normans, another group from 

 Scandinavia, who did not use stone. They were educated in 

 the use of stone later on. Thus in all cases the use of stone 

 in this country is associated directly with men coming from 

 the Mediterranean. It is therefore legitimate to claim that 

 this craft is really a cultural element, and that people do not 

 use stone just because it happens to be the most suitable 

 material in any particular circumstances. 



Exactly the same story can be told in other parts cf ^he 

 earth. In" Polynesia, America and elsewhere, the use of stone 

 is mostly a thing of the past. In many places people who use 

 wood or skin for their dwellings, and who make no use of 

 stone, live in regions full of stone remains. It is well known 

 what has happened in such places. The old civilisation has 



