June 20, 1891. 



OUR COLUMNS. 



27 



archaeological ano Jl5atural lj)i0torp Section. 



ExcTJKSioN TO Dunstable and the Neighboubhood. 



first excursion of the season was made, on May 13, to Dunstable and tlie 

 neighbourhood, but, unfortunately, only very few Members were able to take 

 part in it, a circumstance the more to be regretted as the weather was perfect, 

 and the various points of interest were visited under especially favourable conditions. 

 On the arrival of the party at Dunstable, the Priory Church first claimed attention. The 

 Vicar, the Rev. Canon Macaulay, gave every facility for the examination of the interior, 

 but time did not allow of more than a brief glance at the principal architectural features 

 of this once magnificent building, which, notwithstanding that it has suifered cruelly 

 from wilful neglect, and has, besides, been shorn of its once imposing proportions, still 

 remains the most noteworthy example of the Norman, Transition Norman, and Early 

 English styles in this part of England. The party next proceeded to the residence of Mr. 

 Worthington G. Smith, in the High-street South, to see his interesting museum of local 

 and other antiquities. In this collection archaic stone implements, both of the Palaeolithic 

 and Neolithic type, occupy an important place. The former are represented by specimens 

 from many localities at home and abroad where they have been discovered, including, of 

 course, examples from Kempston and other places in Bedfordshire. The Neoliths, 

 comprising Celts, arrow and spear heads, flakes, &c., were mostly found on the neigh- 

 bouring Downs. But, perhaps, the most remarkable objects in Mr. Smith's storehouse 

 of antiquities are the skeletons of British and Romano-British date carefully arranged in 

 the positions in which they were discovered. Many of them lie on the side with the 

 knees partly drawn up towards the chest, the elbows brought near to the knees, and the 

 hands resting in front of the face. Most of these skeletons were found in the vicinity 

 of Dunstable. Urns and other objects associated with them were also exhibited. 

 Before starting for Maidenbower and Totternhoe, the principal objects of the excursion, 

 the party was joined by a contingent of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society, some 

 ten or twelve in number, with whom a meeting had been arranged some time before. 

 Leaving Dunstable in two large waggonettes, after a far too brief inspection of Mr. 

 Smith's antiquarian treasures, the first halt was made at the foot of the lofty hill on the 

 outskirts of the town, called " The Five Knolls," to allow those who so desired to ascend 

 to the summit to see the himnli and other earthworks. The sepulchral barrows, situated 

 on the highest point of this prominent spur of the Chiltern Range, are five in number 

 (hence the name " The Five Knolls "), and consist of conical mounds about 18 or 20 feet 

 high. They are presumably tumuli of the British epoch, but as, we believe, only 

 one or tw^o of them have been explored by competent antiquaries, their true date must 

 be left an open question for the present. Within a few yards of these objects Mr. Smith 

 drew attention to a number of circular cup-shaped pits, about eight or ton feet in diameter 

 and four or five feet deep, supposed to represent the remains of British dwellings. These 

 curious depressions resemble in many particulars the so-called " British villages " found 

 at Egton and in other parts of the East Riding of Yorkshire. The remarkable earthwork 

 Maidenbower (Magh-dun-barr, or the fortress at the top of the elevated plain, according 

 to some etymologists) next claimed attention. It is situated about one-and-a-half miles 

 north-west of " The Five Knolls," and is approached by a grass road or " baulk," which 

 is said to represent the site of a British causeway much older than the Roman road, a few 



