Latimer, 5th Sermon bef

Edw. VI., 1549. 3. A gorge or cleft between perpendicular or steeply inclined walls of rock. [New Eng.] It is nearly the same as flume (used as a topographical word), except that localities called flumes in New England always have a stream of water running through them, which the purgatories have not. purge The best-known localities bearing the name of purgato ries are those at Sutton and Great Barring ton, Ma ., and there is one on the sea-shore at Newport, R. I. J. D. Whitney, Names and Places, p. 160. Purgatory hammert, one of the ancient and prehistoric perforated axes found in Scotland. This implement was so named as being supposed to have been buried with its owner in order that he might have the wherewithal "to thunder at the gates of Purgatory till the heavenly janitor appeared" ( Wilson , Prehist. Ann. of Scotland, I. 191). As we find the little flint arrow-head a ociated with Scottish folk-lore as the Elfin's bolt, so the stone hammer of the saníe period was adapted to the creed of the middle ages. The name by which it was popularly known in Scotland almost till the close of last century was that of the Purgatory Hammer.