townsmen who assembled to see the departure of Henry V through the west gate for the field of Agincourt.

An abridged translation of one of these is here given. "Court held Tuesday next after the feast of St. Ann, 16 Richard II, before Johu fflete, then Baliff there.

"Richard Hake and Constance his wife, of Southampton, brought before the said Baliff, etc., a charter of enfranchisement, viz.: We, Richard Hake and Constance my wife, grant to Richard Bradwey, burgess of the same town, one croft of arable land lying in the suburbs of the town, in the parish of St. Mary, on the north side of East Street, between the messuages of Nicholas Chapman on the east, and land of John Polymond on the west, the King's highway on the south, and land of John Pukbrok on the north. To have and to hold to the said Richard Bradwey for ever.

Warranty against all men. Mayor's seal attached.

Witnesses: John Polymond then Mayor, John flete then baliff, Nicholas Langstoke, Jolin Skarlet, Philip Cake, John Borard, and others.

"At Southampton, 29 July, 16 Richard II, Constance examined, swears it to be her own free act and deed; and it is enrolled according to the custom of the town.”

In a word, we may compare the "Black Book" to a miniature Record Office for Southampton. Extending from the 16th of Richard II to the 12th of Elizabeth, 1392 to 1569, it embodies an amount of historical facts which can hardly be over-valued. And all to whom the history of their country is a matter of consideration owe a deep debt of gratitude to the grand old town of Southampton for the care with which they preserve this and all their documents.

ON SOME

PREHISTORIC FLINT IMPLEMENTS FOUND ON THE SOUTH DOWNS,

NEAR CHICHESTER.

BY MR. W. HAYDEN.

(Real at the Winchester Congress.)

It was very kind of your Secretary to invite me, a stranger, to read a paper at this, the jubilee meeting of your Association.

As the time allowed for the reading of papers is limited, I will dispense with any superfluous introductory matter, and go direct to my subject.

In July 1853 the Archæological Institute held its Annual Meeting at Chichester, of which place I am a native, and I well remember being sent to Bow Hill by my master (the late Mr. J. Butler, architect), either with some instructions to his men (then employed in excavating the tumuli situate on the crest of the hill), or, what is more likely, to take the men their wages-the work of excavation, I should say, being carried out under the directions of the Institute.

Bow Hill is about six miles to the north of Chichester, and two of the tumuli are conspicuous objects from a considerable distance; the other two (there are four in all) being much dilapidated, are not very noticeable. These tumuli are known as the "Devil's Humps".

I made a plan of the tumulus which was opened on my visit, and I have brought it with me in order that you may see it.

The excavations did not result in the discovery of many objects of antiquarian interest, but an account of what was found appears in the Trausactions of the meeting at page 51.

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I may Kingley Bottom", or Kingley Vale", as it is now generally called. It is celebrated for its grove of ancient yews, which Dr. Brewer, in his Dictionary of Phrase and

mention that on the southern side of the hill is

Fable, says "were standing when the sea-kings landed on the Sussex coast"; they are certainly of great age, as their present appearance sufficiently testifies.

At the time I have alluded to the study of flint instruments was, like your Association, in its infancy; for none seem to have been found by those who superintended the excavations. In fact, I think that, except the more elaborate examples-viz., those specimens produced by the expenditure of much time and labour, by a great number of chippings, or by grinding and polishing the ruder forms, those resulting from a few minutes' labour, by a few skilful blows of a rude hammer, were almost, if not entirely, overlooked. But this was forty years ago, and considerable advances have been made in the knowledge of most subjects, not excepting flint implements.

Sir John Lubbock divides the ancient flint or stone implements into two classes, the paleolithic, and the neolithic, or those belonging to the older Stone Age, and those belonging to the newer Stone Age. The specimens that I have collected would all be classed as neolithic.

I am inclined to think, however, that this classification is somewhat artificial, and that we are to be guided, in regard to the relative ages of these stone implements, chiefly by the elevation of the locality at which they are found above the sea-level, whether they are found in caves or on the surface.

With my specimens I have often found small fragments of ancient pottery; these, the evidences of the existence of prehistoric man, practically defy the disintegrating effects of time and meteorological influences.

The crest of Bow Hill, where the tumuli are situate, is, according to the Ordnance Survey, 667 ft. above the sea-level, and the lowest elevation in Kingley Bottom, immediately to the south, is 223 ft., and it is on the chalk, between elevations of these extremes, that my specimens have been found.

At the foot of the chalk hills the gravel commences, and the slope to the sea at Selsey Bill is gradual, a distance of about eleven miles. A little to the west of the Bill is Bracklesham, where some remains of the mammoth were found several years ago, which remains

now in the Chichester Museum. I mention this because the soil on the chalk hills is so scanty that it is doubtful whether fossil remains of the large extinct animals could be concealed in it; and it seems to me that the absence of such remains from localities where surfacestone implements are found, is not to be regarded as conclusive evidence that at least some of these implements may not be as old as those assigned to the palæolithic period. I have here a section of the district, running north and south, which I have made from the Ordnance Survey Maps; an inspection of it will perhaps give you a better idea of the contour of the country than my description.

It is in the neighbourhood of Bow Hill that I have found a considerable number of the ruder types of flint implements. Flint implements, or flakes, lay sometimes on the surface of the ground, but are generally buried in the scanty soil, and are frequently brought to light by burrowing animals—the rabbit and the mole, particularly the latter, as he only works just below the surface; and by observing where the moles have been at work you may expect to find flint implements in the earth turned up by these little miners, especially after a rainy season. The denuding effects of heavy rainfall on the steep slopes of the hills must also be mentioned as a means of bringing specimens to view.

I do not know whether my classification of ancient stone implements is, or is likely to be, adopted by others, but I divide them into three classes, and if I take an exceptional specimen, which I have, as typical, I may say four classes.

The first, or primitive, type offlint implement is contained by three principal surfaces, two surfaces which meet at, generally, a very large angle, forming the upper side of the implement; and one surface, which forms the under side. These three surfaces were formed by three separate blows of a hammer, or some substitute for this wellknown tool; and all three blows were delivered at one end of the implement, when it formed part of the parent mass, the third blow producing the severance, and completing the implement.

Supposing the implement to have been made by the above method, and the surfaces to be planes (which they never are in reality), we should have in section a triangle with

two very acute, and one very obtuse, angles; the two acute angles representing the cutting edges, and the obtuse angle representing the backbone, as it were, of the implement. If the specimen is perfect, at the end where the third blow was struck (that producing the under surface), there will be observed a small bulbous projection; this is known as the "bulb of percussion", and this under surface will present small undulations at about right angles to the direction of the blow which produced it, very similar to the concentric circles caused by throwing a stone into a pond when the surface is still. Knowing this, if the specimen is imperfect, we can generally tell at which end the bulb of percussion was, that is, supposing it is wanting.

Sometimes the upper side is finished off by additional or secondary chipping to make the implement more convenient for handling, when perhaps the ridge will be absent; but the under side is invariably formed by one principal fracture.

In order to produce these flint flakes, it is pretty certain that the stone was either held in the hand, or placed upon some soft substance; for if you observe a workman striking off pieces of flint, or "spaults", as they are called, with a hammer, for the purpose of sticking into the joints of walls, in order to make them as dangerous as possible, you will notice that he holds the stone in one hand, while with a hammer in the other he strikes off thin pieces of flint suitable for his purpose.

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Sometimes these chippings almost exactly resemble the ancient flint flakes. I have some among my specimens, and if it were not for the change caused by time and atmospheric influences, I could not tell the modern spaults" from the ancient implements. In the ancient flakes the surfaces are more or less stained and bleached; this bleaching may extend as much as the tenth of an inch into the substance of the flint, and in thin specimens it sometimes extends through the entire thickness. Also, the surfaces of the ancient flakes have often a dull polish, and if fractured, resemble broken china- that is, to the extent of the bleaching.

The class of implements I have endeavoured to describe appear to have been intended for cutting or scraping,