scale in Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times."[1] Mr. Frere presented some specimens of the Hoxne implements to the Society of Antiquaries, which are still preserved in their museum; and it was my seeing these, on my return from Amiens and Abbeville, in 1859, that again directed attention to this most interesting discovery.
Sir Joseph Prestwich, F.R.S., in his admirable Papers on Flint Implements and their containing Beds, published in the Philosophical Transactions[2] for 1860 and 1864, has given full details of the contour of the surrounding country, and of the section at that time exposed in the brick-field visited by Mr. Frere more than sixty years before, which is still in operation. It is situated to the S.W. of the village of Hoxne, in Suffolk, and close to Fairstead Farm; Hoxne itself being about 4 miles to the east and slightly to the south of the market town of Diss, which is on the other, or Norfolk, side of the Waveney.
The Drift deposits rest in a kind of trough, in the Boulder Clay[3] which caps all the neighbouring hills, and forms a sort of table-land through which the small valleys are cut. The top of the freshwater beds reaches within 6 or 8 feet of the summit of the hill of which they form an unbroken and uniform part. Their upper surface is about 40 feet above the neighbouring Goldstream, from which they are not more than 200 yards distant, and 50 feet above the Waveney, of which the Goldstream is a tributary, and which flows within about a mile of the spot. The present configuration of the surface is totally unconnected with these beds of Drift, and must have been produced after they were deposited.
The part of the pit which was being worked in 1859 exhibited the following section:—
| 1. | Surface soil, with a few flints2 feet. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ |
| 2. | Brick-earth, consisting of a light-brown sandy clay, divided by an irregular layer of carbonaceous clay12„ ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ |
| 3. | Yellow sub-angular gravel6 in. to 1„ ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ |
| 4. | Grey clay, in places peaty, and containing bones, wood, and freshwater and land shells2 to 4„ ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ |
| 5. | Sub-angular flint gravel2„ ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ |
| 6. | Blue clay, containing freshwater shells10„ ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ |
| 7. | Peaty clay, with much woody matter6„ ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ |
| 8. | Hard clay1„ ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ |
The thickness of these lower beds was ascertained by Sir Joseph
- ↑ 4th ed., pp. 353, 354. See also Geologist, vol. iv. p. 19.
- ↑ 1860, p. 277; 1864, p. 247. See also Lyell, "Ant. of Man," p. 166.
- ↑ Prestwich, Phil. Trans., 1860, p. 307.
