A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



by the current, sometimes to the depth of a hundred feet or more, since 

 the gravels of which the implements formed constituent parts had been 

 deposited. To distinguish this more ancient Stone age from that 

 which was both better known and more recent, the term ' Palaeolithic ' 

 was applied to it by Sir John Lubbock (now Lord Avebury), while the 

 more recent Stone age was designated the ' Neolithic.' 



Others preferred the terms ' River-drift period ' and ' Surface Stone 

 period.' The relics characteristic of a transition from one period to the 

 other, though occasionally asserted to have been found, have not as yet 

 had their existence satisfactorily established ; and in England, at all 

 events, there seems to be a great gulf fixed between the two periods. 



This is not the place in which to enter into the geological features 

 of the question ; but it may be mentioned that the beds containing 

 Palaeolithic implements seem in some cases to be of lacustrine rather 

 than of fluviatile origin, and that from time to time implements are 

 found upon the surface, probably in consequence of the containing beds 

 having been denuded by the action of rain. 



The principal Palaeolithic forms are ' flakes,' often of large size, and 

 oval, ovate, and pointed implements, usually from about three to six or 

 seven inches in length. The flakes, which generally show three or four 

 facets on the more convex face, have been detached from blocks of flint 

 by means of a single blow, and seem to have served as knives or as 

 scraping tools. 



The larger implements have been trimmed into shape by a succes- 

 sion of blows administered at their margins, each blow detaching a flake 

 or splinter. They seem to have been employed for all purposes, and to 

 have been held in the hand, and not mounted on any handle or shaft, 

 though some of them look as if they might have been readily converted 

 into spear-heads. For their general character and theories as to their 

 age 1 other works must be consulted. 



The discoveries of Palaeolithic implements within the county of 

 Hertford have been numerous, and some of them have been made under 

 peculiarly interesting circumstances. It will be well to consider them 

 in somewhat geographical order, taking the districts comprised within 

 the watersheds of the rivers Colne and Lea as the two main divisions. 



The first recorded discovery of the kind within the county was 

 made by myself in the year 1 86 1, 2 when I found a Palaeolithic implement 

 in a ploughed field near Bedmond, in the parish of Abbot's Langley. It 

 is of the pointed triangular form, but it has lost its point, and although 

 found lying on the surface, it was probably derived from a bed of red 

 brick-earth in the immediate neighbourhood. The spot where it lay is 

 about half a mile to the west of Bedmond and about 1 60 feet above the 

 level of the Gade at its nearest point. It is, however, near the bottom 



1 Evans, /Indent Stone Implements ; Lubbock, Prehistoric Times ; Dawkins, Early Man in 

 Britain, etc., etc., etc. 



2 Arcb&ologia, xxxix. p. 73 ; Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, 2nd ed. p. 596 ; Tram. 

 Herts Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. viii. p. 182. 



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