41 



within a few (three or four) feet of the surface, where the EUza- 

 bethan pipes come in, with other and more modem refuse. The 

 finest and best "flakes" occur just where the black earth termi- 

 nates and the yellow band commences. These " cores " and 

 " flakes " somewhat puzzle me. Of what use were they to the 

 Romans? For that they were contemporaneous with that 

 people may be fairly assumed as reasonable from the fact that 

 they are found associated with pieces of Roman pottery, boars- 

 tusks, ox teeth, &c. Is it that we here find traces of a people 

 who had hardly passed from the stone to the iron age ? Were 

 iron implements a scarce article with the primitive inhabit- 

 ants of Aquae Solis ? or, were these flint implements the relics 

 of an ancient superstition, the saxum silex or lapis silex of the 

 " pater patratus"? "0 Jove, smite thou the Roman people, as I 

 here to-day shall smite this hog. And having said this, he 

 struck the hog with a flint stone." And thus were conse- 

 crated the solemn treaties of the Roman people. (Liv. i. 24 ; 

 XXX. 43.) That the Jews regarded flint knives with reverence 

 we know. Vide that remarkable passage on the death and 

 burial of Joshua. (LXX. Josh. xxiv. 29, 30.) "'Exr. eQnxav /aet' 



ihiv a'uf rn! aV^fov V''f«f." (Vide Tylor's " Early History of 

 Mankind.") 



But to whatever purposes these flint implements may have 

 been applied, it surely is not an idle curiosity that prompts one 

 to gather up every thread of a lost history, and thus to endea • 

 vour to " shadow out the period in the dim distance " when 

 a people of somewhat similar habits and of like wants with 

 ourselves lived, struggled, and perished in this land of ours. 



At least this search for the missing links will give a zest to 

 our rambles on the wild sea- coast and the barren moor ; and 

 we shall not enjoy the beauties of nature the less for finding 

 that others have gone before us and have left their footsteps 

 behind. 



