type, and devoid of any sort of ornament. One sherd only, of a finer buffcoloured ware, apparently part of a "butt-shaped" vase, has an indefinite ornament of two rows of straight parallel lines impressed on the ware before baking. There are several fragments of hollow foot bases, and several of the flat bases are perforated with one or more holes. No fragment of Roman pottery, or any showing Roman influence, was found. The pottery as a whole is rather coarse and characterless. The ware, especially that of the larger vessels, is freely mixed with fossil shell, pounded flint, and vegetable matter in the form of chopped straw or grass stems. The pottery seems to have been thrown, or more probably silted, into the pits in broken pieces with the other rubbish as chance dictated, and only in two cases were enough pieces of the same vessel found to make it possible to restore their original size and shape. As a whole the pottery is fairly well baked. A few pieces show distinct polishing, but the surface of most of the vessels was only roughly tooled. The only vessels the shape of which could be restored were a large handmade bowl, with an incipient bead rim, a prototype of the wheel turned bowls so numerous about the beginning of the Roman era, and a flat open dish of the type known as grain dishes,similar to those from the Glastonbury lake-village, but without a grooved rim. (Glastonbury, Vol. II., p. 521.) DESCRIPTION OF PLATE OF OBJECTS FOUND IN PITS IN BATTLESBURY САМР. 1.--Iron sickle shaped key, point slightly flattened; handle end turned back to form loop; length in straight line from tip to loop 11 in. Pit 4. This type of key is sometimes called the "Celtic" key, and is found with Late-Celtic and Romano-British remains. The way in which it was used is a matter of some difference of opiuinion. For references, etc., see The Glastonbury Lake- Village, II., 375. 2.-Iron knife blade, with rivet; length 5in. Pit 1. 3.-Iron ring, diam. 54in. Two other similar rings were found with this one at the bottom of Pit 8; one is of the same diam., the other in. less. With these were found Figs. 4, 5, and a flat iron blade, 7țin. long, with midrib down the centre, possibly the handle end of a sword; and a thin strip of iron, 2țin. × lin., with a long rivet at each end. 4.-Iron cleat such as may have been used for clamping wood or leather (see above, Fig 3). Similar cleats were found by Pitt-Rivers, see Excavations, II., 132, 190; III., 102, etc. 5.—Iron rivet of square section with square bolts, or washers, at each end (see above, Fig. 3). 6.-Thin sickle-shaped blade of iron, the end of the tang bent over into a hook; there are traces of wood on the tang, so that it seems to have been attached to a wooden handle of some kind; the cutting edge seems to have been on the inner side of the blade. Pit 9. 7.-Iron saw with two rivets; the saw appears to be complete; it averages about lin. in width, and is 84in. long, 12in. of this forming the handle, or tang, for insertion into a wooden handle. Like modern Oriental saws, and most, if not all, prehistoric ones, the teeth slope towards the handle, so that the sawing was done when the blade was drawn back towards the operator, and just the opposite way to that of modern saws. The teeth are set in twos, alternately from side to side; being thus in pairs it is comparatively easy to count them even in their present rusted condition; they number sixty-six. Pit 9. This interesting object may be compared with an iron saw found complete with its wooden handle at the Glastonbury Lake-Village (Vol. II., 371; I., 53; here, also, will be found references to the discovery of other ancient saws). This example is very nearly the same size as the Battlesbury one, it has two rivets, and the same number of teeth, but they appear to be set singly and not in pairs. 8. A small metacarpal bone (of sheep?), with one hole bored through both surfaces of the bone, and another hole through one surface only, but opposite it a prick mark, as if the intention had been to bore this through too; the bone is not bored longitudinally. P'it 9. A worked bone identical with this, except that the two holes are completed, was found at the Glastonbury Lake-Village, and the writer of the report stated that no parallel was then known to him (Vol. II., 423, B168). One of the holes is midway down the shaft, the other being 4mm. nearer the distal end, exactly as in the Battlesbury example. 9.-Scoop-like bone implement, with rivet hole at the butt end; butt partially trimmed and bone hollowed out longitudinally. Length 6in. Pit 4. 10.-Large heavy band-made bowl of grey to black ware with tooled surface. This seems to be a prototype of the well-formed wheel-turned bowls that are so commonly found in this part of the country associated with remains dating from about the beginning of the Roman occupation. The form of this bowl may be compared with one from the Glastonbury Lake-Village (Vol. II. Pl. LXXV., v.) Height, 12in.; rim diam., 10 in.; base, 6in. Pit 4. Other objects found but not illustrated include the following:Piece of a turned ring of Kimmeridge shale, probably part of a bracelet. Pit 2. Twenty-four or twenty-five sling bullets of clay, found together in Pit 4; these are exceptionally roughly made and badly baked; some are partly blackened, the others are of a yellowish clay colour. Two or three are in fragments; hence the uncertainty as to the exact number. A much better modelled and baked sling bullet was found in Pit 8. A much-worn saddle quern. Four flint hammerstones. Pit 2. Pieces of fine sandstone used as whetstones. Pits 4, 6. The few bones found were fragmentary and appear to be the remains of animals used for food. The following animals were represented :-a small ox (bos longifrons ?), pony or small horse, sheep, goats, pig, red deer, roe deer. The only human bone was part of a radius in Pit 6. Fragments of pottery were found in all the pits, these are described separately on page 370. The only piece of bronze found was a small pin that may have belonged to a penannular brooch, picked up in the rubble thrown out from the trench. It seems well to take this opportunity to put on record the fact that a considerable number of human skeletons have from time to time been unearthed in the course of quarrying chalk from the pit close to, and just outside the north-west entrance of Battlesbury Camp. From information obtained locally it seems that these burials were, at least some of them, made in the contracted position, and about 11⁄2ft. to 2ft. below the turf. Mention was made of a mother and child (i.e., a child and an adult) found together; sometimes as many as five or six skulls seem to have been found close to one another. One skull was described as having a complete double set of teeth. Another skull was taken away by a medical student and is now in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. All the others seem to have been destroyed. We could not hear of any associated objects being found with the skeletons. The Caley Collection of MSS. There have recently been purchased for the Society's Library two bound folio volumes of MSS. papers with printed title-page, "A Feudal History of Wiltshire Being collections of Cases on Manorial Rights and Boundaries, Copies of Deeds, Researches on Endowments, Impropriations, Tithes, Ecclesiastical and Corporation Rights and Immunities, Franchises, Tolls, Fairs, Markets, Bridges, Titles of many Estates, Extracts from Records from the XI. to XVIII. Centuries, arranged under their several parishes. By John Caley, Keeper of Records in the Augmentation Office and Secretary to the Record Commission." This title is more grandiose than the contents of the volumes warrant, which consist largely of letters from Mr. Caley himself giving the result of searches in records as to tithes and enquiries on other matters, but the collection is well known, and it will make a desirable addition to the Library. The volumes dealing with other counties are now for the most part in libraries connected with the localities with which they deal. Reference to these papers is easy, as they are bound up under parishes arranged in alphabetical order. VOL. XLII.-NO. CXXXIX. 2 C WILTS OBITUARY. Maurice Henry Hewlett, died June 15th, 1923, aged 62. Cremated at Woking, the ashes being buried at Chislebury Rings. B. Jan. 22nd, 1861, eldest son of Henry Gay Hewlett, himself a scholar, educated at the London International College at Spring Grove, Isleworth. Called to the Bar 1891. Keeper of the Land Revenue Records, 1896-1900. Married 1888, Hilda Beatrice, d. of the Rev. G. W. Herbert, and had a son and daughter (Mrs. Robin Richards). His son, Wing Commander F.E.T. Hewlett, D.S.O., O.B.E., took part in the Cuxhaven Raid on Christmas Day, 1914, and served at Dunkirk and in the East. Mrs. Hewlett was one of the earliest women motorists, and later took to flying, being the first woman to gain the Aero Club's certificate. She started a flying school at Brooklands, and afterwards entered into partnership with M. Blondeau in constructing aeroplanes, building many for the Government during the war. Mr. Hewlett went to Broad Chalke more than twenty years ago, and had lived there-except for a few years-ever since. For many years he lived at the Old Rectory, where he made a beautiful garden. Latterly he had lived in a smaller house in the village, where he died. He was a District Councillor and since 1921 an Alderman of the County Council, and was Chairman of the Housing Committee, as well as a member of the Education Committee. He was a J.P. for Wilts. He took a particularly keen interest in the housing question, and was one of the three promoters of the "S. Wilts Housing Society," intended to assist people to purchase houses for themselves. In politics he was an advanced Liberal. He was a keen gardener and of late had written many gardening articles in Country Life. During his later years he threw himself with eagerness into country life, and came to understand the Wiltshire labourer, and what is more to appreciate him, as very few literary men have ever done, as he showed to the world in "Our First and Last," where he boldly affirmed that the Wiltshire Labouring Man is by blood predominantly Neolithic still, and neither Saxon nor Norman nor Dane, and that that blood is, taken all round, some of the best blood to be found in England to-day. To him the labouring man was not merely Hodge," as he is to ninety-nine out of every hundred literary men. The people of Broad Chalke and the neighbourhood knew this and reciprocated his respect. 66 The Times of June 16th, 1923, had an appreciative article on his work as a writer, headed "A great creative Imagination. Colour and Romance," tracing the very varied stages of his talent from the time when he first found himself famous as the author of "The Forest Lovers," a book which went all over the world, to the time when "Towards the end of his life in his country home at Broad Chalke ... he began to write new prose 'In a Green Shade,' Wiltshire Essays,' and many delightful articles, critical, appreciative, philosophical, or simply descriptive writing with an economy and distinctness rare in English prose." The Salisbury Times of June 22nd, 1923, in a long obituary article, quotes this, as well as an appreciation by Mr. Frederic Harrison, in the Tribune. The Wiltshire |