THE STORY OF THE BETTISCOMBE SKULL. 183 



Matters, too, were not improved by finding that the object for 

 which I had instituted the " Visitors' Book " had evidently 

 not been achieved. There were but few names in it, and I 

 could only imagine that it must have been servants and not 

 the village charities who had meanwhile beiiefitted by the 

 largesse of the benevolent. May I hope that the oppor- 

 tunity of the skull doing some good whilst it does remain 

 above ground may presently be recovered ? 



PART II. 

 NEVIS : THE STORY OF THE SKULL AND ITS OWNERS. 



It must be seen from what has been said that considerable 

 interest has always been attached to the person to whom the 

 skull belonged, and that it has been generally accepted that it 

 had " belonged to a faithful black servant of an early possessor 

 of the property a Pinney who, having resided abroad 

 some years, brought home this memento of his humble fol- 

 lower." 



In my paper in the " Somerset and Dorset Notes and 

 Queries," it will be remembered that I had thrown some doubt 

 as to the skull being of a negroid character at all ; but the other 

 is the more generally received opinion, and it is upon that being 

 the correct one that the interest of this part of my story 

 attaches. 



In my capacity of Chief Justice of the Colony it is my duty 

 to go on Circuit from time to time to the principal Presidencies 

 constituting the Leeward Islands, and in February, 1903, I 

 was on duty in Nevis. One day on passing through a sugar 

 plantation there I by chance inquired its name, and was 

 informed that it was called " Pinney 's " ; and further inquiry 

 elicited the fact that until about a century ago it had belonged 

 to a family of that name. The story of the Bettiscombe 



