Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/98

implements.
Fig. 24.—Scamridge, Yorkshire. 1/2According to this account, a man digging flints on Clayton Hill, on the South Downs, Sussex, in 1803, found near the windmill, just beneath the sod, and lying side by side, eight celts of grey flint, chipped into form and not ground. One of these was as much as 13 inches long. Those in Mrs. Dickinson's collection were—(1) 113/4 long by 31/2 broad and 21/8 thick, (2) 91/8 by 31/4 by 13/4, (3) 71/2 by 31/8 by 21/8, and (4) 61/2 by 3 by 15/8. Four such, 71/4 to 9 inches long, chipped only, were found buried in a row at Teddington.^[1]

Fig. 25.—Forest of Bere, near Horndean. 1/2

These deposits seem to have been intentional. "In the Hervey Islands^[2] it was customary on the eve of battle to bury the stone adzes of the family in some out-of-the-way place. Beds of these (in heathen times) priceless treasures are still occasionally discovered. About a dozen adzes, large and small, were arranged in a circle, the points being towards the centre. The knowledge of the localities where to find them was carefully handed down from one generation to another." At Northmavine,^[3] Orkney, seven celts were found, arranged in a circle with the points towards the centre. From two to eight flint axes are sometimes found together in Denmark, and by Dr. Sophus Müller^[4] are regarded as funeral offerings or ex-votos.

Such roughly-chipped celts have been found in immense numbers in the neighbourhood of Eastbourne. A large collection of them is in the Museum at Lewes. I have seen a large celt of this section, but with flatter edge^[5] and straighter sides, which was found in peat at Thatcham, near Newbury, Berks. Of the same class is a celt

1. Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S.,vol. x., p. 34.
2. Rev. W. W. Gill, LL.D., Rep. Austral. Assoc. for the Adv. of Science, vol. iv., 1892, p. 613.
3. Low's Tour., quoted in Folklore Jour., vol. i., p. 191.
4. Aarb. f. Nord. Oldk., 1886, p. 200; Mém. Soc. R. des Ant. du Nord, 1886-91, p. 227; Mat., 3rd. S., vol. v., 1888, p. 105.
5. Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S., vol. iv., p. 521.