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of the Geological jMuseum and a local optician Avith fossils 

 supposed to have come from the chalk and greensand. He also 

 visited, on this tmir, Newmarket, Brandon, Thetford, Norwicli, 

 Yarmouth, Ipswicli, and Colchester. In the neighbourhood of 

 Yarmouth, he made tlie acquaintance of an " archaeological parson, 

 easy to do," who gave an unlimited order for British or Roman 

 antiquities. " Jack " soon produced a valuable assortment, with 

 forms quite unique, the invention of his own fertile brain. At 

 Colchester, he fell in Avith a travelling Jcav, whom " Flint Jack " 

 duped wholesale. From thence he went to London, and made the 

 acquaintance of Mr. Tennant of the Strand, to whom he sold 

 spurious fossils, flints, and antiquities. On his own confession, he 

 also deceived the British Museum folk. He remained in London 

 a year, and at lengtli feared the museums might liecome over- 

 charged with his implements. He also made spurious fibulae, 

 coins, seals, rings, leaden antiques, and jet seals and necklaces 

 from Cannel coal. 



Upon returning to Yorkshire he, for twelve months, collected 

 genuine chalk fo.ssils for the York Museum. At length, one day, 

 at Xorth Sliields, he found Hint among the shingle, and started 

 on his old life again, doing good trade at Durham. The following 

 year he went to Ireland, and in 1852 again set out for London. 

 At Bottesford he found an open quarry of lias, and stopped there 

 some time collecting fossils He sent his first basketful to a 

 clergyman at Peterborough, who had befriended him — gratitude 

 being a redeeming trait in " Flint Jack's " character. At St. 

 Albans he found a good customer, and sold him spurious flint 

 knives and arro\vheads. He also made an ancient silver coin to 

 order, out of the handle of a German silver tea-si)oon. In after 

 life, "Flint Jack" related with evident glee how a Roman urn 

 (calcined bones, earth, and all), which a canny sceptic had refused 

 to accept for five shillings, was afterwards bought up for £3. 



In 185-i Wiltshire was the scene of his operations, and at 

 Devizes (where he sold both forged fossils and implements to the 

 Museum) he sat for his first portrait, which sold freely as a 

 photograph of " The Old Antiquarian." The same year he 

 thoroughly worked the West of England, and during the next 

 three years he also visited Scotland and most of the Engli.sh 

 counties, doing a flourishing trade. Many and many a time did 

 he chuckle at having deceived the very elect of antiquaries. After 

 further wanderings, Edward Simpson again came to the Eastern 

 Counties by way of Boston, Spalding, and Lj'nn, visiting Norwich, 

 Brandon, Yarmouth, and Ipswich. This was in 1860. Concerning 



