MY COUNTRY STUDY 217 



and topographical significance, and many British and Roman 

 remains have been discovered hereabouts since my country 

 study was first occupied a few years ago. Only a short distance 

 away, in a gravel pit just off the Icknield, a late Celtic Cinerary 

 Urn was unearthed by a workman in October 1912. It contained 

 calcined bones, and a bronze connecting-link of a belt. Of 

 elegant design and beautiful workmanship a fine example of 

 the early potter's art the vessel measures 15 inches in height, 

 with a maximum diameter of 6.3 inches. It may now be seen 

 at Letchworth Museum, of which I have made mention in the 

 concluding chapter. 



Rudely fashioned flint implements made and used by early man, 

 are constantly being picked up close to the study, and I discovered 

 a few fragments, with fossil Belemnites and Gryphsea incurva, 

 when the foundations for my house were excavated. I have 

 also found several in the garden. Hard by, there are several 

 Tumuli, and the site of a Roman Camp and Villa. 



On the north side of the Icknield Way, looking from the study 

 window, there is a belt of woodland consisting of Maple, Fir, 

 Crab, Ash, Oak and other trees, and these form the northern 

 boundary of an open space known as Norton Common. For 

 some distance the Icknield borders this tract of country as it 

 passes through Letchworth, and on the south side of the old road 

 our pleasant country homes form the southern boundary. This 

 old-established Common of Norton dates back to the time of 

 Offa, King of Mercia, of whom I have already had something to 

 relate in Chapter II. It is the sole surviving piece of primeval 

 scrub in the district, all the other land having been reclaimed 

 by the builder and husbandman, and the former remains to-day, 

 as I wander past gnarled Hawthorns, rank Elders, sturdy Buck- 

 thorns, fruiting Blackthorns, budding Dogwood and Privet, and 

 the rest, as it was in Celtic days, when, perchance, the British 

 Chief whose remains were interred in the Cinerary Urn, already 

 referred to, roamed about here in centuries long since gone by. 

 Perchance, he tended his herds on the very spot upon which 

 this house of " Verulam " now stands. 



When King Offa gave the adjacent old-world village of Norton 

 (now part of Letchworth) to the Monks of St Albans some time 

 prior to A.D. 793, the whole of the district now known as Letch- 

 worth Garden City was scrub, but, as Norton Common, which I 

 see from my window, is the catchpit between two ridges of rising 

 ground, it was apparently deemed unworthy of draining for 



