in Hearne's edition of Leland's "Collectanea."[1] From his account it would seem that a skeleton of an elephant was found not far from Battlebridge by Mr. Conyers, and that near the place where it was found, "a British weapon made of a flint lance, like unto the head of a spear, was dug up."
A full-sized engraving of this implement illustrated my first notice of these discoveries, in the Archæologia,[2] and is here reproduced as Fig. 451. As will be seen, it is remarkably similar in form to that from Santon Downham, Fig. 433, though rather larger in size. During some excavations in Gray's Inn Lane[3] in 1883 and 1884, several palæolithic implements of different forms were found; but none I think so fine as that described by Leland. One found in Clerkenwell Road in 1883 by Mr. G. F. Lawrence,[4] was, however, slightly larger. Another implement was found in Drury Lane,[5] and others from Jermyn Street and Prince's Street, Oxford Street, are in the Museum of Economic Geology.
Fig. 452.—Hackney Down. 12
Before describing the recent discoveries which have been made higher up the valleys of the Thames and its affluents, it will be well to discuss the various localities in the immediate neighbourhood of London, so as not to disturb the sequence of the Figures which is necessarily that of my first edition. It will be needless to do this at any great length, as the principal investigator of the gravels around London, to whom indeed the greater part of the discoveries are due—Mr. Worthington G. Smith—has given full particulars in his excellent book, "Man, the Primeval Savage."[6]
- ↑ Vol. i. p. lxiv.
- ↑ Vol. xxxviii. p. 301. See also Lyell, "Ant. of Man," p. 160. Lubbock, "Preh. Times," 4th ed., p. 352. "Horæ Ferales," p. 132, pl. i. 21. Dawkins, "Early Man in Brit.," 1880, p. 156.
- ↑ Nature, vol. xxviii. p. 564.
- ↑ Nature, vol. xxix. p. 15.
- ↑ Nature, vol. xxviii. p. 564.
- ↑ Stanford, 1894.
