With their garden walls and hedges they almost seem to have
grown in their places as did the great trees that stand near by. They
have nothing of the uneasy look of the parvenu about them. They have
an air of dignified repose; the spirit of ancient peace seems to rest
upon them and their beautiful surroundings.
[Illustration: Sun-dial. The Manor House, Sutton Courtenay]
CHAPTER VIII
THE DESTRUCTION OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS
We still find in various parts of the country traces of the
prehistoric races who inhabited our island and left their footprints
behind them, which startle us as much as ever the print of Friday's
feet did the indomitable Robinson Crusoe. During the last fifty years
we have been collecting the weapons and implements of early man, and
have learnt that the history of Britain did not begin with the year
B.C. 55, when Julius Caesar attempted his first conquest of our island.
Our historical horizon has been pushed back very considerably, and
every year adds new knowledge concerning the Palaeolithic and Neolithic
races, and the first users of bronze and iron tools and weapons. We
have learnt to prize what they have left, to recognize the immense
archaeological value of these remains, and of their inestimable
prehistoric interest.
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