Palaeolithic implements are found locally in certain parts of the county, although from the gravels of a very considerable area, especially the Harpenden district, they appear to be absent. The larger implements, or “celts,” which are often six or seven inches in length, seem to have been employed for all purposes, and to have been held in the hand, without handle or shaft, although some of them might easily be used as spear-heads. The first discovery of an implement of this type in the county was made near Bedmond, Abbot’s Langley, in 1861. A few specimens have been obtained in other parts of the Colne basin; but in the district round Kensworth and Caddington vast numbers have been discovered, although for the most part just outside the county boundary. In fact, near Caddington the Stone-age men had a great manufactory of these implements:--a kind of Palaeolithic Sheffield. In the basin of the Lea a few flakes, etc., have been found at or near Ayot St Peter, Welwyn, Hertford, Bengeo, Ware, Amwell, Hoddesdon, Ippolits, Stocking Pelham, and elsewhere. Much more important is a “find” at Hitchin, near the source of the Hiz, and thus situated, in part at any rate, in the Ouse basin. These implements, which were first brought to notice in 1877, occur in clay-pits worked for brick-earth, and are accompanied by bones of the mammoth, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros. [Illustration: Palaeolithic Flint Implement (_From Kent’s Cavern, Torquay_)] [Illustration: Neolithic Celt of Greenstone (_From Bridlington, Yorks._)] Between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic age exists a gap of untold length, for the land had again to be re-peopled. Chipped, or rough-hewn celts, or hatchets, of the latter age have been picked up in fields near Abbot’s Langley, Bedmond, Kensworth, Wheathampstead, Markyate Street, and Weston. Polished celts are more rare, but specimens have been found at Panshanger, King’s Langley, Aldbury (near Stortford), Ashwell, and between Hitchin and Pirton. Perforated axe-heads and hammer-heads of stone, which may belong to the close of the Neolithic or commencement of the Bronze age, are still more uncommon, although a few such have been found, notably a hammer, near Sandridge, now preserved in the British Museum. Much the same remark applies to chipped arrow-heads--the fairy darts of a more poetical age--but a few beautiful specimens have been found near Tring, some so long ago as the year 1763 or thereabouts, and others at Ashwell and Hunsdon.