In England there were originally vast plains where the plentiful supply of water could gather.

The streams were deep and slow, and there were holes of abysmal depth, where any kind and size of antediluvian monster could find a habitat.

In places, which now we can see from our windows, were mud-holes a hundred or more feet deep.

Who can tell us when the age of the monsters which flourished in slime came to an end?
There must have been places and conditions which made for greater longevity, greater size, greater strength than was usual.

Such over-lappings may have come down even to our earlier centuries.