Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/278

with one found in the heart of a burnt stone tumulus at Bressay^[1] (Fig. 179), so as to give them much of the appearance of the short batlet or

Fig. 174.—Shetland. 201/2 in.

Fig. 175.—Shetland. 19 in.

Fig. 176.—Shetland.

Fig. 177.—Shetland.

Fig. 178.—Shetland. 21 in.

batting-staff used in the primitive mode of washing linen, such as is still so commonly practised in many parts of the Continent. Nearly similar rough instruments have been found at Baldoon,^[2] Wigtownshire. Is it possible that these stone bats can have served a similar purpose? In the Northern counties^[3] a large smooth-faced stone, set in a sloping position by the side of a stream, on which washerwomen

1. P. S. A. S., vol. vii. p. 127.
2. P. S. A. S., vol. xxiii. p. 219.
3. See Whitaker's "Hist. of Craven.," 2nd ed., p. 468.