punched, and through this a thin strip of iron has been inserted and bent at each end into a spiral, so that it projects 1¾ inches on each side. Its purpose is to prevent the peg from being driven too deeply in the ground. Four of these objects were discovered in the Silchester hoard of 1890, but their purpose was not at first recognised, so long had they ceased to be used in England. It turned out, however, that they were still employed in Spain, in South America, in Italy, and they are common in many parts of Europe to-day. The mower sits on the ground, and, laying the scythe across his knees, hammers out the edges upon the anvil, which is planted between his legs, before giving the edge a final polish with his hone. It may be added that whetstones of various shapes and sizes were common at Newstead. The specimen from Pit LXI, figured in Plate LXII., No.2, is remarkable for its length and fineness. It measures 11¾ inches, and was no doubt intended to be exactly a Roman foot in length. It is evidently a carefully manufactured article, unlike the flattened river stones, many of which, it is apparent, had been used for the same purpose.
Among the smith's tools in Pit XVI were five hammers of different sizes. The largest of these (Plate LXIII., Fig. 11) is a fore-hammer, 7 lbs. 4 oz. in weight. It is 11½ inches long, and the head is The Smith's cross-paned. The shaft must have been fastened with a wedge. Tools The face measures 2 inches by 17⁄8 inches, the pane 1¾ inches by ¾ of an inch. Fig. 1 is a smaller fore-hammer of the same type. It weighs 4 lbs. 1¼ oz., and is 11 inches in length The shaft must have been wedged in position. No modern smith would use so small a fore-hammer, but it would be eminently suitable for making spears or sword blades. Plate LXIII., Fig. 5, is a cross-paned hammer, roughly octagonal at one end and furnished with a slip eye. It weighs 16½ oz.; one end seems to have been used for driving in nails, the metal being upset and abraded. The pane shows the steel welded upon it, although nothing of the kind is now visible on the face. Plate LXIII., Fig. 3, is a roughly made hammer, weighing 1 lb. 4½ oz. The eye is badly shaped, and the tool looks as if it had been hurriedly turned out. Plate LXIII., Fig. 6, is a smith's set-hammer—an instrument which is held against the iron and receives the blows of the fore-hammer. The eye is only ¾ of an inch in diameter, and was probably fitted with an iron shaft. The weight is 1 lb. 9 oz. Plate LXIII., Fig. 7, shows the tool known as a 'drift.' It is 5¾ inches long and oval in section, and was used by the smith in making the eye-holes of hammers. It came
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