A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE with splintered and fractured flints, it requires a practised eye to discern among them those which have been more or less chipped into shape by the hand of man. Within the parish of Abbot's Langley 1 alone I have found six or eight roughly chipped flint hatchets, some of them of symmetrical form. A rough celt found by Mr. Percy Manning, F.S.A., at Bedmond in this parish, has been presented by him to the County Museum. Mr. Worthington Smith has in like manner found specimens at Kensworth 2 and Wheathampstead. One has also been found near Ware, 3 and I have a thin flattish example 5^ inches long, found by Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., at Merkyate Street in 1863. Mr. Marlborough Pryor has collected celts of this character and other forms of Neolithic date at and near Weston. Celts ground at the edge only. There is at present but one specimen of this kind to record. 4 This was found in 1871 by myself in a field of my own in the angle formed by the Hyde Lane and the London and North-Western Railway, in the parish of Abbot's Langley. The edge has been intentionally blunted, so that it may have served as a weapon rather than as a tool. Polished Celts. A fine example of this character, 7^ inches long, found at Panshanger, was exhibited to the Archaeological Institute in 1863, and has been figured in the Archaeological Journal!" It is of light-coloured flint carefully ground over the whole of its surface, and with the sides slightly flattened by grinding. The central part of a flint celt of the same kind found on King's Langley Common by Mr. Percy Manning, F.S.A., has been given by hkn to the County Museum. A narrower and thicker celt, 6f inches long, also of flint, was found at Albury 6 near Bishop's Stortford. Mr. A. E. Gibbs has a flint hatchet, 4^- inches long and 2% inches wide, ground all over, and found at Ashwell. I have a highly finished hatchet made of a black basaltic rock and polished all over, which was found at Duckland, 7 between Hitchin and Pirton. It is inches long and about 2. inches wide. The sides are partially flattened. I have a small flint chisel or pick, or possibly an arrowflaker, found near Baldock 8 by Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S. Mr. A. E. Gibbs has a flint chisel, 4! inches long, found at Digswell Hill. Perforated Axes, Hammers, etc. As a rule the implements of this character belong to the close of the Neolithic or the beginning of the Bronze period. A perforated adze or hoe, formed of a dark grey grit, found at Welbury, 9 near Offley, is in the collection of Mr. W. Ransom, F.S.A., of Hitchin, and has been figured. It is about 5 inches long and 2f inches broad. A small perforated hammer-head made from a quartzite 1 Ancient Stone Implements, 2nd ed. pp. 70, 77 ; Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sec., viii. pi. xi. I. a Man the Prim. Savage, p. 307. 3 Ancient Stone Implements, 2nd ed. p. 70. 4 Op. cit. p. 87. 5 Vol. xx. p. 193 ; Ancient Stone Implements, 2nd ed. p. IOI. 6 Ancient Stone Implements, 2nd ed. p. IOO. 1 Op. cit. p. 114. * Op. cit. p. 177. 9 Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sac., viii. p. 175. 230
