TRAXSACTIOXS OF SECTION H. 913 



3. Tke Defensive Earthworks of Yorkshire. By Mrs. Armitage, 



The author describes the various types of earthworks in Yorkshire — Roman 

 camps, hill forts, and houndary earthworks — and gives a summary of the results 

 of recent researches regarding these three classes of earthworks. 



A fourth class very frequent in Yorkshire is the moated hillock, with moated 

 court attached. It has been assigned in turn to the Britons, Romans, Saxons, and 

 Danes. The author gives reasons why none of these views is probable, and shows 

 the erroneousness of the theory of Mr. G. T. Clark, now so widely accepted, that the 

 Anglo-Saxon burh was a hillock of this kind, its meaning in Anglo-Saxon literature 

 being clearly !x fortified toion. The author produces the following arguments for 

 the Norman origin of these hillocks (called by the Normans mottes) : (a) the 

 Normans are known to have built such earthworks in Normandy and Ireland, 

 and are represented in the Bayeu.x tapestry as throwing up a similar work at 

 Hastings ; (/3) the type belongs to the age of feudalism, and answers to the needs 

 of the Normans in the United Kingdom ; {y) the Norman castles mentioned by the 

 contemporary chroniclers or by Domesday Book as constructed by the Conqueror 

 or his followers have nearly all of them mottes. 



The evolution of the Castle, the personal fortification of the feudal chieftain, 

 accompanied the evolution of society from the tribal to the feudal type. 



On the Prehistoric Antiquities of Rumbald's Moor. 

 By Butler Wood. 



5. On the Occurrence of Flint Implements of Palceolithic Type on an old 

 Land-surface in Oxfordshire, near Wolvercote and Pear Tree Hill, 

 together with a few Implenients of various Plateaic Types. By A. M. 

 Bell, M.A. 



At "Wolvercote, near Oxford, there is a large section of a quaternary river-gravel 

 which has produced the usual fauna, Elephas primigenius &c., and many fine 

 implements of human workmanship. This gravel cuts into and is consequently 

 newer than a previous land-surface. A portion of this surface is found at 

 Wolvercote and another portion at Pear Tree HiU, about half a mile distant. 

 In both places flint implements of palaeolithic type, together with bulbed flakes 

 and a few implements of plateau type, have been found. In every case the flints 

 are ochreous, which distinguishes them from those which belong to the river- 

 gravel at Wolvercote. 



The older surface has been previously described as Northern Drift. It is sup- 

 posed by the author to be a remayiiement of the true Northern Drift, but to have 

 been deposited under semi-frozen conditions. It must be anterior to the river- 

 valley, and consequently its relics of man are the oldest as yet obtained from the 

 Thames Valley. 



The drift in question most resembles the drifts of Caddington, described by 

 Mr, G. Worthington Smith, and some sections of the Lower Greensand near 

 Limpsfield. Both of these drifts are implementiferous, and the author would 

 correlate the Wolvercote and Pear Tree Hill surface with these drifts. 



6. On the Physical Characteristics of the Population of Aberdeenshire, 

 By J. Gray, B.Sc, and J. F. Tocher, F.I.C. 



_ These observations were taken at the Lonach gathering in Strathdon, a district 

 lying right at the head of the valley of the Don. The district is comparatively 

 isolated, the nearest railway station being over twelve miles distant. 



Our principal object was to ascertain what difierence if any existed between 

 the people in the upper ends of the river valleys and the people on the eastern sea- 

 1900. 3 u 



