Friday, July 7th. 145 



story tliat Judge rophaiii was bribed witb the gift of Littlecote to 

 ac([uit him. John rophain at the time was a K.C., and not a judge 

 at all. As to the legend that Darell broke his neck in a fall from 

 his horse, as a matter of fact he died in his bed from a fever, and 

 having to choose between two cousins, Marmaduke Darell and 

 John Popham, he left Littlecote to the latter, who had aided him 

 in the vexatious lawsuits with his neighljours. This Mr. Doran 

 Webb declared was the truth about Judge Popham, and he recom- 

 mended his hearers to read Darell's diary, the original of which 

 exists in the Eecord Office. 



After leaving Littlecote, where we could well have spent more 

 time, tlie way lay past Froxfield and back to Marlljorough along the 

 Bath Road, stopping on the way at KNOWLE, where MK. S. B. DIXON 

 was present and discoursed on the discovery of Palaeolithie imple- 

 ments in the gravel pit a few years ago.^ Mr. Kendall had a few 

 worked implements found liy the gravel-diggers to dispose of, and 

 in the great heaps of flints lately dug there were good examples 

 of the still mysterioiis " polish," or " glaze," - to be foiind by those 

 who knew how to find them. After a look at the remains of the 

 tiny little CHAPEL adjoining the farm-house, the party proceeded 

 on their way home, arriving in a distinctly hot and dusty condition, 

 and fully ready to enjoy the tea so hospitably provided on their 

 lawn by MR. AND MRS. J. W. BROOKE. After tea the time was 

 all too short for the proper inspection of the wonderful collection so 

 admirably housed and arranged in the large room built on purpose 

 l)y Mr. Brooke.'^ The most notable feature of the museum is the 



' Wilts Arch. Mag., xxxii, 282. 

 - The origin of this " glaze " still continues to be a subject of discussion 

 The advocates of the sand-polish theory maintain that they have solved it, 

 but it cannot be said that that theory has been generallj- accepted. Meanwhile 

 up to the present the peculiar "glaze" has not been known elsewhere than at 

 Knowle. Mr. Kendall, however, at this meeting produced a flint from 

 Hackpen which had a small " gummj' " patch on it, which appeared to be 

 very like the Knowle "glaze," and Mr. Brooke has in his museum a grey 

 flint found by him at Burney, between Aldbourne and Ramsbury, which is 

 certainly covered with a glaze almost if not quite identical with that found 

 at Knowle.— E.H.G. 

 ' Devizes Gazette, July 6th, 1905, prints an account of Mr. Brooke's museum. 



