Wyatt, F.G.S., obtained specimens so early as April, 1861, since which time considerable numbers have been found. The pit in which they first occurred is one near Biddenham, in which I had, some few years before, discovered freshwater and land shells,[1] and which I had, previously to Mr. Wyatt's discovery, already visited with him in the expectation of finding flint implements in the gravel. The other localities in the immediate neighbourhood of Bedford where palæolithic implements have been found, are Harrowden,[2] Cardington, Kempston, Summerhouse Hill, and Honey Hill, all within a radius of four miles.
The Ouse near Bedford winds considerably in its course, which has in all probability much changed at different periods, the valley through which the river now passes being of great width. As instances of its changes even within historical times, it may be mentioned that the chapel in which Offa,[3] King of Mercia, was interred, is said to have been washed away by the Ouse; and in the time of Richard II.[4] its course was so much altered, near Harrold, that the river is recorded to have ceased flowing, and its channel to have remained dry, for three miles.
At Biddenham, the beds of Drift-gravel form a capping to a low hill about two miles in length, and about three quarters of a mile in width, which is nearly encircled by one of the windings of the river. Judging from the section given by Sir Joseph Prestwich,[5] the highest point which the gravel attains is about 59 feet above the river, and its surface in the pit, where the implements are found, is 40 feet above it. The gravel rests upon the Cornbrash, or upper member of the Lower Oolite; but the valley itself, though partly in the limestone rock, has been cut through a considerable thickness of Oxford Clay and of Boulder Clay, which here overlies it. The gravel consists of subangular stones in an ochreous matrix, interspersed with irregular seams of sand and clay.[6] It is principally composed of fragments of flint, local Oolitic débris, pebbles of quartz and of sandstones from the New Red Sandstone conglomerates, with fragments of various old rocks. All these latter have no doubt been derived from the washing away of the Boulder Clay or of other Glacial beds. The thickness of the gravel, in the pit where the implements have been principally found, is about 13 feet, and detailed sections of it have been given by Sir Joseph Prestwich and by Mr. Wyatt. Dispersed throughout, from a depth of about 5 feet from the surface down to the base, are to be found land and freshwater shells, mostly in fragments, but occasionally perfect. Their character has been determined by the late Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S.;[7] and they consist—including some specimens from Harrowden and Summerhouse Hill—of various species of Sphærium,or Cyclas, Pisidium, Bythinia, Valvata, Hydrobia, Succinea, Helix,- ↑ Athenæum, April 4, 1863, p. 459.
- ↑ Wyatt in Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xviii., p. 113; xx. ,p. 187. Geologist, vol. iv. p. 242. See also Bedfordshire Archit. and Archæol. Soc. Trans., 1861 and 1862. Prestwich, Phil. Trans., 1864, p. 253. Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xvii., p. 366. Evans, Arch., vol. xxxix. p. 69. Lyell, "Ant. of Man," p. 163.
- ↑ Matt. Paris, "Vit. Offæ II.," p. 32.
- ↑ Walsingham, "Hist. Ang.," s. a. 1399.
- ↑ Phil. Trans., 1864, p. 254.
- ↑ Prestwich, Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xvii., p. 367.
- ↑ Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xviii., p. 113; xx., p. 185.
