have occurred, interspersed with the charcoal in a barrow at Broad Down, near Honiton.[1]
In one of the ancient habitations in Holyhead,[2] was a large stone 11 inches long, probably used for grinding hæmatite, with which it was deeply tinged; and a small stone box found with celts and other relics at Skara, Skaill, Orkney,[3] contained a red pigment.
There can be little doubt of this red pigment having been in use for what was considered a personal decoration by the early occupants of Britain. But this use of red paint dates back to a far earlier period, for pieces of hæmatite with the surface scraped, apparently by means of flint-flakes, have been found in the French and Belgian caves of the Reindeer Period, so that this red pigment appears to have been in all ages a favourite with savage man. The practice of interring war-paint with the dead is still observed among the North American Indians.[4]
"The paints that warriors love to use
Place here within his hand,
That he may shine with ruddy hues
Amidst the spirit land."
Fig. 180a.—Lamberton Moor.
Some few of the grinding-stones found in this country resemble those of polygonal form found in Denmark,[5] in so far as they are symmetrically shaped and have been used on all their faces. One 1312 inches long, found on Lamberton Moor,[6] Berwickshire, is shown in Fig. 180a., kindly lent by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
In the Christy Collection is such a sharpening-stone, nearly square in section, about 914 inches long, and of the form shown in Fig. 181. Both the faces and sides are worn slightly concave, as if from grinding convex surfaces such as the edges of celts, though it is impossible to say with any degree of certainty that this was really the purpose to which it was applied. It is said to have been found near Barcoot, in the parish of Dorchester, Oxon, in 1835, not far from a spot where a
