n my old
Surrey parish there was one which was the cause of much speculation.
The name was Hercules; it originated in a disagreement between the
parents, before the child was christened. The mother wanted his name
to be John, but the father insisted, that as an older son was Noah,
the only possible name for the new baby was "Hark" (Ark). They had a
lengthy argument, and there was no definite understanding before
reaching the church. The mother, when asked to "name this child,"
being flustered, hesitated, but finally stammered out, "Hark, please."
The vicar was puzzled, and repeated the question with the same result;
a third attempt was equally unsuccessful, and the vicar, in despair,
falling back upon his classical knowledge, christened the child
Hercules. A few days later the vicar called at the cottage, and the
mother explained the matter, relating how indignant she was with her
husband, and how on the way home, "Hark, I says to him, ain't the name
of a Christian, it's the name of a barge!"

CHAPTER XXVI.

IS ALDINGTON (FORMER SITE) THE ROMAN ANTONA?

"Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe
Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!"
--_Hamlet_.

One of my fields--about five acres--called Blackbanks from its
extraordinarily black soil, over a yard deep in places, and the more
remarkable because the soil of the surrounding fields is stiff
yellowish clay, showed other indications of long and very ancient
habitation. Among the relics found was a stone quern, measuring about
21 inches by 12 by 7-3/4, and having, on each of two opposite sides, a
basin-shaped depression about 6 inches in diameter at the top, and
2-3/4 inches in depth; also a small stone ring, 1-1/4 inches in
diameter, and 3/8ths in thickness, with a hole in the centre 1/4 inch
across; the edges are rounded, and it is similar to those I have seen
in museums, called spindle whorls. The quern and the ring I imagine to
be British. This field and the fields adjacent on the north side of
the stream formed, I think, primarily a British settlement and area of
cultivation, afterwards appropriated by the Romans in the earliest
days of the Roman occupation of Britain, and inhabited by them as a
military station until they left the country.

Among other relics found in Blackbanks and in