ON A RECENT SUBSIDENCE AT MUCKING, ESSEX. 253 



l 5 ( J 858), we learn that "stones for grinding wheat, nay, 

 large quantities of that grain itself, apparently charred, were 

 found in what had been a subterranean granary in one of the 

 Castella " (Castlecarey). 



It is also worth recording here that in the Gentleman's 

 Magazine Library (Romano -British Remains, Part. II., p. 352) it is 

 mentioned that in the old British camp in Wiltshire, known as 

 Battlesbury, " a quantity of parched corn was found, some years 

 ago, curiously preserved underground in a sort of stone trough." 

 Battlesbury is near Warminster, and stands on the western 

 edge of Salisbury Plain. The date of this account of Battlesbury 

 is 1787. 



It may also be useful to note in this place that a brief 

 account is given in Trans. Essex Field Club, Vol. iv., pp. 

 108-110, of ancient British subterranean granaries discovered in 

 the camp known as Winklebury, on the borders of Wiltshire 

 and Dorset, and of others in the Isle of Portland. A consider- 

 able amount of blackened corn was found in them at both the 

 places mentioned. 



Deneholes in the Chalk, even when destroyed (for instance) 

 during the enlargement of 'a great chalk-pit, are visible during 

 the progress of their destruction. If, like those of Hangman's 

 Wood, and of Stankey and Cavey Spring, Bexley, they exist in 

 groups which have made the areas they occupy useless for 

 other purposes, they retain for centuries a certain proportion of 

 open shafts, which allow their characteristic features to be 

 noted. Consequently, whatever may be the views held by their 

 explorers as to the purposes of their makers, to all they 

 are obviously ancient and remarkable. But the shallower 

 subterranean storehouses, in sand, gravel, and clay, would very 

 seldom have their existence revealed except when the sudden 

 collapse of their chambers disclosed their sites. When this 

 occurred, they would be much more likely to have their true 

 nature and former uses recognised by farmers and labourers 

 whose families had long been resident in the locality, and who 

 possessed traditional information about them, than to attract the 

 attention of a local antiquary. For, apart from the fact that 

 antiquaries are few in number, they naturally tend (like Mr. 

 Clowes) to be interested in a rude subterranean chamber only 

 when it contains coins, pottery, or inscriptions, and not when it 



