THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD 



of a lateral valley leading into the main valley of the Gade itself an 

 affluent of the Colne between Boxmoor and Watford. In 1892 I 

 found another smaller implement of ovate form, which lay among some 

 stones placed in a rut at Bedmond Hill. 1 In a ploughed field near Hart 

 Hall Farm, about midway between these two localities, I found in 1885 

 what seems to be the point of a Palaeolithic implement, not made of flint, 

 but of a hard Tertiary sandstone. There is, of course, no geological 

 evidence as to the position which these implements originally occupied ; 

 and the same may be said with regard to two ovate specimens which I 

 found in gravel laid on the towing-path of the Grand Junction Canal, 

 with which at this spot the Gade is incorporated, between Apsley and 

 Nash Mills, about two miles south of Hemel Hempstead. 



Other specimens are reported to have been found near the head of 

 the tributary valley of the Bulbourne near Wigginton, to the south-east 

 of Tring. 



Farther to the west, in the valley of the Misbourne, another 

 affluent of the Colne, a good specimen was found in 1891 in digging 

 for the foundation of the bridge over the Metropolitan Extension Rail- 

 way, just north of Great Missenden. 2 This, however, is in Buckingham- 

 shire, and not in Herts. 



Returning to the valley of the Colne, it is recorded that on its left 

 bank, near Bushey Park, 3 close to Watford, several Palaeolithic imple- 

 ments of various forms have been found in gravel, about 40 feet above 

 the existing stream. 



Between Watford and St. Albans the Colne receives the waters of 

 the Ver, the source of which in very wet seasons is but a few miles 

 distant from that of the Lea ; and in the district around Kensworth and 

 Caddington most interesting discoveries have been made by Mr. 

 Worthington G. Smith. They are fully described in his book entitled, 

 Man the Primeval Savage* so that it is not necessary to give more than a 

 resume of them. At Kensworth itself nothing more than a few Palaeo- 

 lithic flakes have been found, but all around Caddington, on the high 

 ground two or three miles north of the source of the Ver, and just out- 

 side the present boundary of the county, Mr. Smith has been fortunate 

 enough to discover a large number of relics of Palaeolithic man. They 

 occurred for the most part in the pits worked for brick-earth, and 

 present various recognized forms of Palaeolithic flint implements, includ- 

 ing some round-edged scrapers. 



Not only did he find the implements, but he also found the original 

 land-surface on which those who made them worked. He found their 

 stores of unworked flints, the refuse chips and flakes resulting from the 

 manufacture, the waste, broken and unfinished implements, and he was 



1 Irons. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. viii. p. 183, pi. xi. 8. 



* Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, and ed. p. 596. 



8 Op. cit. p. 597 ; Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. viii. p. 182. 



* Stanford, London, 1894. See also Nature, 1889, xl. pp. 15, 181 ; Evans, Ancient 

 Stone Implements, and ed. p. 598 ; Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sac., vol. viii. p. 184. 



I 225 Q 



