ST. ALBANS AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
245 
now be impossible if its votaries bad to depend upon locally 
caught badgers, but in the first half of the last century badger- 
baiting is said to have been a feature of Sandridge Fair, and at 
a later date—in the seventies and eighties—badgers were trapped 
in the neighbourhood of Munden and Aldenham. The otter 
often strays from its customary haunts, and we may still hope 
to hear of its occasional visits to the local streams, but any such 
occurrence would be noteworthy. A dog otter which was shot 
at Munden—not far, by the way, from Otterspool—in February, 
1875, is said to have scaled thirty-two pounds—an exceptionally 
heavy beast. 
The Rodents bulk largely in the fauna of most parts of 
England at the present day, and “ rats and mice and such small 
deer” are certainly more abundant in the district than they 
would be if their natural enemies, the predatory mammals and 
birds, were given fair play. The black rat, once ubiquitous, has, 
it is true, disappeared entirely, and no authentic record of its 
actual occurrence even exists. In this case the creature’s foes 
were “ they of its own household,” for it succumbed in com¬ 
petition with its more powerful congener the brown rat, which, 
like the house-mouse, is an all too common and destructive pest. 
A melanic example of the brown rat was caught at Wheat- 
hampstead in 1892. The wood-mouse, locally “ hog-mouse,” is 
plentiful in hedge-banks and coppices, and in such situations 
the bank-vole abounds. This vole, which is partial to beech- 
mast and may often be seen feeding among the fallen leaves in 
autumn, is perhaps the most abundant of the small mammals. 
The field-vole affects meadow-land rather than hedge-banks, 
while the water-vole, another abundant species, is to be found 
in every watercourse. There is no certain record of the harvest- 
mouse, but it probably occurs, as it has been taken elsewhere in 
the county. The dormouse, known to the country folk as “ the 
sleeper,” is fairly abundant, and the same may be said of the 
squirrel. The rabbit everywhere abounds, and the hare, thanks to 
protection, exists in numbers sufficient to afford sport for a pack 
of harriers. 
VIII. ARCHAEOLOGY.* 
Scattered finds of flint implements are all that remain to tell 
us of the conditions of the district around St. Albans in the 
earlier part of the pre-historic period. A few flakes from 
Bernard’s Heath and a couple of ovate implements from 
No-Man’s Land are the only relics of Palaeolithic man which 
have been discovered in the immediate neighbourhood. The 
Neolithic Age has been more fruitful; celts and flakes have 
been found at Bedmond, Abbot’s Langley, Sandridge, and 
* The Society is indebted to Messrs. Gibbs & Bamforth, Ltd., for permission 
to reproduce Plates X and XI illustrating this article, and to the Homeland 
Association for Plate XII, which is from a photograph by Mr. Stanley Kent. 
