246 Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 



Early Man and his Stone Implements, a paper read 



by Mr. J. W. Brooke at a meeting of the Swindon Field and Camera 

 Club on Oct. 30th, is printed in full in the North Wilts Herald t Nov. 1st. 

 1901. The writer deals at considerable length with the origin of man, 

 and states his opinion that stone implements may be divided into three 

 periods, Paheolithic, Mesolithic, ;m>l Neolithic — and with regard to Mr. 

 S. 13. Dixon's recent remarkable discovery of Hints in the Savernake 

 Hint gravels, he says : — " I have seen nearly all the specimens found, 

 and though they bear some analogy to Paheolithic weapons, yet I consider 

 they belong to a middle period, and are Mesolithic ... all of them 

 assimilate far more with the last Stone Period than they do with the 

 first." He maintains, moreover, that many of the stones in the gravel 

 pit from which they were taken show distinct glacial striation, proving 

 that the gravel is pre-glacial. Passing on to the origin of the extraordinary 

 polish which some of the Savernake Hints show on their surface, which 

 has been attributed to the action of blown sand, Mr. Brooke suggests 

 that lightning is a more probable explanation — in fact that parts of the 

 surface of a Hint have been fused without the general substance oi the 

 Hint being in any way affected. This theory will hardly commend Itself. 

 On the other hand Mr. Brooke takes the commonsense view that the 

 more or less cone-shaped flints, which it is possible to stand up on their 

 flat butts, (which in the eyes of Mr. Auberon Herbert and other 

 writers in The Times have become totems, or phalli), in so far as 

 their butts have been purposely fashioned flat at all, were intended as 

 implements for some practical purpose, for which a Hat butt wa> di cit able. 

 Mr. Brooke gives an interesting account of the methods of polishing 

 Hint implements, but he is in error in speaking of early pottery as 

 " sun-baked." In England, at least, all the early hand-made ware has 

 been burned — imperfectly it is true. He also begins the Bronze Age 

 about flfty years before the advent of Julius Casar, and ends it with the 

 reign of Domitian — leaving no room for the Late Celtic or Iron Period 

 in which the southern tribes of Britain, at least, were living for some 

 time before the coming of the Romans. 



Wiltshire Notes and Queries, No. 32. Dec. 1000. 



Mr. W. 11. H. Rogers discourses on Mu>gers-Courtenay-Huddcslield of 

 Bradford-on-Avon, Carrington, Soni.. and Shillingford, Devon, with a plate 

 of a baru at Shillingford and t wo cuts of arms. Records of Bratton are 

 continued. Mr. Kite continues his excellent notes on Amesbury Monastery, 

 giving the salient events in the lives of its possessors: the first Karl of 

 Hertford, Protector Somerset ; the second Earl Edward ; Sir William 

 Seymour, third Karl and Marquess of Hertford and afterwards second Duke 

 of Somerset. Under the latter the mansion was probably built from the 

 designs of Inigo .Tones, carried out by .John Webb Mr. Brakspcar adds a 

 note identifying "The Jessy e " as being not a chamber, but in all probability 

 the »<<•< ssariin/i, or rere-dorter. Quaker l'-irth Records Calemhirof Feet of 

 l inos — and Notes und Queries complete the number. 



