8 LEPORES PALAEOLITHICI ; OR,
again." As opposed to this [natural and noble sentiment, I will give the
opposite side of the picture. Five or six years ago a Clapton carpenter overheard
me speaking about human remains, and a few days afterwards this man called at
my house with a recent human skull. I feel sure that he had rifled a grave in
Hackney Churchyard for it, but he declared that he had found it in the gravel pit.
Disgusted, I told the man it was no good, and gave him 6d., with which he
was satisfied. A day or two afterwards, this man called on me again, and said that
if I did not particularly want the skull, his master, the builder, would be glad of it.
When I asked the man what his master wanted with the skull, he replied, "to
put it on the rockwork of his garden as an ornament."
In going to a strange locality, I have sometimes accosted a labourer in the
street with "Are they digging gravel anywhere about here?" I have commonly
received as an answer, "Do you want a yard of gravel guv'n'r for your garden?"
If I say "No, I only want to look at the hole," the man will probably say, "You
might just as well have a yard of gravel of me guv'n'r, 'cos I was the first man you
asked."
Before the new roads were made where Clapton Park now is, I once saw a
Palaeolithic implement embedded in a new path ; it took me some little time to dig it
out with my stick ; and a man who saw me probing the ground said, "If you are
digging for worms for fishing mate, you had better go a little nearer the river,
for you'll never find none where you are."
When the new canal was being made between West Drayton and Slough in a
position where I had found a large number of drift implements, I was one day
accosted by a young geological swell, who asked what I was looking for. Not
wishing to be rude or to make the young gentleman as wise as myself, I replied
''fossils.'' He said,'' Ah, you are not up to much yet, if you want to find anything
good you must go nearer West Drayton and search in the London Clay." This
gentleman gave me 6d., and said my searching on a Saturday afternoon did me
great credit. I had my Palaeolithic clothes on !
One day a gentleman who saw me searching about at Edmonton, walked up
and asked me to give him an explanation of the whole subject. This I did as
briefly and clearly as possible. He replied, "Ah, geology is a beautiful art,—a
beautiful art," and walked away.
Another gentleman once asked me about the nature of the tools themselves.
As I happened to have one or two in my pocket, I took pains to explain their
nature and antiquity. He replied, "Ah, I have no doubt they will look very
pretty when they are polished."
I have commonly told strange diggers to look after stones in the shape of the
blade of a trowel. A man, so instructed, one day came to me and said, "I have
found you a splendid stone, sir ; it is not in the shape of a trowel, it is a good
deal better, it is more like a stag's horn."
I was once looking over a newly gravelled road at Ealing, when a workman
came up to me and said, "I see you are looking for curiosity stones, sir ; a few
days ago I found one in this road marked exactly like a tabby cat,—a gent came
up to me directly and offered me a sovereign for it. I would not sell it as I did
not want the sovereign then ; you shall now have it for a shilling sir, if you like,
'cause I clearly see you are a gentleman as understands stones."
Sometimes I have had large numbers of waste pieces of flint; one evening,
after dusk, I threw about a thousand such pieces into the road opposite my house.
The next morning I saw two carters looking at the scattered flints, and I heard one