457 
Wo have no written records of the early men who occupied this 
portion of tlio country, until long after its present features had 
commenced to be sliaped ; but they have left evidence of their 
exis nee, and of some of their manners and customs. Their 
polished stone implements, or celts, are scattered over the surhmo of 
the countiy, and imbedded in the older alluvial deposits of the 
va leys • while evidence obtained in various parts of England show 
hat Whea , Earley, and Millet were then cultivated, and that the 
azel, M alnut, Eeecli, Acorn, Apple, and Pear also contributed to 
the food of the people.* Later on, in what is called tlie Eronze 
period, also prehistoric so far as we are concerned, wo fiml 
oinamcnts and weapons of bronze. This Eroiize ago in our 
country, according to Mr. Evans, e.xtcnded from about 1400 or 
1-00 n.c. to uOO or 400 n.c. ; and the x\oolithic or .Surface Stone 
period may have endured in Eritain for about two thousand or more 
years previously. 
During those jiorioils wo have oviJcnco of man’s habitations in 
pits, caves, ana lake-dwolliiiga ; and of his sopulchros in bnrial- 
nounda liumdi, or barrows. Among his domesticated companions 
r wl r'l ‘I'o 
4 lo , while the Horse was added in later times. 
t),o^'l.orf°*‘ to modify tiio surface of 
settlements if wo believe tlio evidence of any of the slmllow pits 
.account of their high and dry, .and probably more open, situation t 
loiigh no positive evidence has been obtained to show that any 
pits on the haaths of ’U-oybourn, Euntoii, Aylmetkm, and other 
aaiidy wastes in -Yorfolk, wore really occupied as the foundations of 
dwollmgs and the evidence brought foniMrd in other places has 
been questioned, pt Professor Dawkins states that suclf pits were 
11 use as hate as the Roman occupation. And how easily all traces 
of luiimn settlement m.ay be lost, is patent to all who study the 
surface sods of our country, where relics of modem auinial life are 
so e.vceptioiially preserved. The kte Mv. J. H. Diuery mforuied 
* J. Evans, ‘Nature’ (p. 531), Sept. 2Sth, 1SS2. 
t See II. E. ^V., « Midland Naturalist,’ 1SS.3. 
vor.. iir. 
I I 
