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is said that the eye can see what it wants to see, but all I can 

 say is that there were a great many eyes looking on during 

 the diggings very anxious to see traces of man's (if not of 

 monkey's) handy work, but failed to see what they were so 

 eager to see ; indeed the shivery nature of the chert would not 

 well admit of any good implements being formed ; as I found on 

 frequent trials that it had a peculiar will of its own, and split off 

 into fragments the very reverse of what the operator desired. 

 Next in descending order after the cherty layer, came the loose 

 uncompacted Greensand proper, quite destitute of any traces of 

 man's work, save in one solitary instance, when about one foot or 

 so down a piece of fused modern glass was picked up under 

 circumstances however somewhat suspicious. After this incoherent 

 sand was passed through, a layer of hard indurated coarse 

 Greensandstone was reached, locally called " Pen Stone." Here 

 then we came to the object of these excavations. It was evidently 

 for the purpose of winning these " Pen Stones" that the people 

 who formerly worked here had riddled these hills. In every 

 instance we found these beds at the bottom of the excavations. 

 In some cases large blocks had been removed, where a joint or 

 fracture had rendered their removal easy ; in others the blocks 

 had been only partially taken away from their bed ; whilst in 

 others they remained iv, situ quite undisturbed, to be dug out by 

 the hand of some modern rustic in search of material for his 

 cottage-pigstie, or the boundary wall of his garden. Having 

 ascertained that these blocks of hard stone rested on undisturbed 

 ground, of course it was useless to proceed further, the object 

 being to ascertain whether any traces could be found of former 

 occupation in the disturbed ground on the top. One shallow 

 depression, well situated to the South on the sunny slope of the 

 spur, the very spot an ancient Britain would have chosen to sun 

 himself in, looked very promising. The brambles were cleared 

 out, the levels taken, and a trench cut right in from the original 

 surface of the ground on the South side to the centre of the 



