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mindedly struck a piece of tiiut. A Hake flew off, ami lie tried 

 again, soon acquiring the knack of chipping however he wished. 

 At that time he could make and sell hfty flint arrowheads per 

 day. Thenceforth dates the extraordinary supply, and the life of 

 imposture which he led for so many years. 



The distinctive signs of prehistoric flint implements were then 

 not so well understood as they are at the present day ; and although 

 no fault could be found with the tthape of the spurious implements 

 made by "Flint Jack," the chippinij was of the crudest description. 

 The spurious implements made by Brandon knapi)ers nowadays 

 are distinctly superior. He studied various antiquities in museums, 

 and set himself to the fabrication of all kinds of antiques, for 

 which purpose he spent years in comparative seclusion. In the 

 beginning of 1844 Edward Simpson was at Bridlington, and by 

 judiciously leavening his spurious with genuine implements, made 

 a collection of six hundred " genuine " for a local antiquary. He 

 ordinarily walked thirty or forty miles a day, vending his wares 

 and collecting materials. Towards the end of the year he started 

 making British and Roman urns, first near Bridlington, and then 

 near Kavenscar. Alter a " baking-day " he Avould proceed either 

 to Whitby or Scarborough, and there dispose of his " collections," 

 which he solemnly declared were taken from tumuli (pronoiuiced 

 ioomoolo by him) on the moors. These urns were too thick in the 

 walls, of wrong material, ornament, shape, and burning, but the 

 knowledge of British antiquities was then but small, and there 

 was little risk of detection. " Flint Jack " M'as asked his opinion 

 of a set of (jenuine implements, and, in a moment of weakness, 

 confessed that he made them. At Malton, he sold a local antiquary 

 a spurious hatchet of ironstone for one shilling. Out of an old 

 tea-tray, at Pickering, he fashioned a Roman breastplate, which he 

 sold without difficulty. A Roman milestone having then recently 

 been found, " Jack " fashioned one out of a slab, lettering, 

 grinding, chipping, and then burying the stone for subsequent 

 exhumation This Avas sold to a medical gentleman for £5. He 

 made other inscribed stones, one of which was for long a puzzle 

 to antiquaries. 



In 1846 Edwiird Simpson took to immoderate drinking, and 

 remained in poverty to the end of his life. He made a flint comb, 

 which the antiquaries of that day thought might have been used for 

 tattooing. The same year (1846) he started on las first tour. At 

 Hull, he sold a spurious axe to the Mechanics' Institute ; at 

 Lincoln, spurious implements to the museum ; at iS'ewark, he first 

 began making fossils ; and at Cambridge, he decei\ed the curator 



