46 Mr. George Clinch on Recent 
interpreted by different observers as representing a bird, an 
animal, and a boat. 
It seems probable that the hard sand in which the excavations 
were originally made was buried under a considerable thickness 
of made earth when the lawn was levelled. 
This work was probably done when or soon after the house 
was built, perhaps about the middle of the eighteenth century. 
From the remains which have been found during the past 
twenty years it is clear that a large district to the E., S.E. and 8. 
of Croydon was much occupied by man during the neolithic age. 
On Hayes Common there are numerous indications of neolithic 
hut floors. These occur in groups, and suggest independent or 
successive settlements of a small tribe occupying about six or 
eight huts. 
There are other, but fewer, indications of neolithic dwellings 
on Shirley Hills and the high ground in the southern part of 
West Wickham parish; and to come nearer home, several 
examples have been found on the top of Croham Hurst, as well 
as on its steep southern side. At Croham Hurst, and at the 
various other sites indicated, particularly at West Wickham, 
very extensive operations in the manufacture of flint implements 
have been carried on, pointing to the presence of a large popu- 
lation or of long continued occupation. 
These hut-circles, which have been attributed to the neolithic 
age, are circular in plan, with marks of entrances on the K. or 
§.E. side; and one can hardly fail to be impressed by the strong 
resemblance in dimensions and plan of these circles to the under- 
ground chambers at Waddon. Moreover, on the steep side of 
Croham Hurst, traces of similar dwellings are recorded, and it 
seems extremely probable that the men who made the sepulchral 
excavations at Waddon may have been influenced by those 
examples of hill-side dwellings. 
The chambers for the dead were in fact practically copies of 
those for the living, and when, as in the case of the Waddon 
site, it was desired to find a secret place of burial, where violation 
would be practically impossible, the chamber was excavated in 
an underground situation. 
As a contribution towards the solution of the interesting 
question of the position, shape, plan, &c., of prehistoric dwell- 
ings, the Waddon discovery is of great importance. In the 
vaulted roofs, cut in the hard sand, we see a durable copy of the 
ordinary hut built on the surface of the ground, with its covering 
of interlaced boughs, benders, and basket-work, and in the small 
opening by which the underground chamber was entered from 
the lateral passage we see probably an exact imitation of the 
doorway of a neolithic habitation. This, judging from those of 
the sepulchral chambers, was oval in form so as to allow of the 
