98 



belonging only to drift deposits, they are found everywhere, and 

 are now recognised as curious and interesting arcliaic objects. 



Thus some twenty years ago, in opening Celtic Barrows in 

 Gloucestershire, we found flint flakes indubitably worked by 

 man's hands ; so, again, in extra mural burial grounds around 

 Cirencester, the Eoman Corimum, flakes of a like kind were not 

 uncommon, while the Saxon graves at Fairford are not free from 

 worked flints. 



During some geological examinations at Lyme Eegis we found 

 what we considered a manufactory of flint implements upon the 

 top of a high cliff overlooking the sea. Subsequently we have 

 found hand-fashioned articles, both in flint and in chert, on the 

 Island of Portland ; and the wide open Fordington Fields at 

 Dorchester yield implements of various forms, which, indeed, 

 are to be met with abundantly in the flint deposits, which remain 

 from the degradation of the upper chalk in different parts of 

 Dorsetshire. 



These facts show that with the eye once educated a wide range 

 of observation may be before us, and objects of interest may 

 everywhere be found in places where they were not suspected 

 to exist. 



However, Ave do not intend to describe the objects of this class 

 of the county at large, but would rather beg oiu- members each 

 to examine his own district, while we proceed to notice a series 

 of worked flints found for the most part in our own parish ; nay, 

 not only so, but principally on our own farm. 



The village of Bradford Abbas lies in a valley of depression, 

 faults having brought down the Fuller's earth below the level of 

 the Inferior oolite sands. Our farm is situate on an eminence of 

 the Inferior oolite rock, with a prospect towards the south^ 

 bounded by the chalk range of Dorset hills. Thi'ough the valley 

 below us runs the Eiver Yeo. In the valley will be found 

 pebble drifts, both at Bradford and its associated tithing of 

 Clifton Maybank. 



KFow, we have not yet found any flint implements in these 



