THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 95 



to make the publications of the Club famous in the annals of 

 pre-historic archaeology. The curiosity aroused by our first 

 visit to the dene-holes led to further visits by the Club on June 

 17th and Sept. gth, 1882 {Pyoc. III., xxviii., Iviii.), the outcome 

 of these meetings being a paper by Mr. T. V. Holmes (Trans. 

 III., 48) and a very full bibliographical history of the subject by 

 our Hon. Secretary, Mr. W. Cole {Proc. III., xxviii— xxxiv). 

 The raising of a fund for the systematic exploration of these 

 remains was suggested at our meeting on Oct. 28th, 1882 [Ibid. 

 LXXXIV.) ; there were further visits to Hangman's Wood by 

 the Club and the Geologists' Association on June 15th and i6th, 

 1883 (Pyoc. IV., XX.) and Mr. T. V. Holmes as the result of this 

 further inspection published his " Miscellaneous Notes on Dene- 

 holes " in our Transactions lor that year (IV., 87). A committee 

 of exploration was appointed by our Council on March 31st, 

 1883, and a sufficient fund raised to enable Mr. Holmes and Mr. 

 W. Cole, to whom had been entrusted the practical work of 

 superintending the excavation, to commence operations in 

 October of that year [Proc. IV.,cxxiii.) The work was discontinued 

 on Nov. loth, and the results withheld till further evidence had 

 been obtained, for which purpose work was resumed by Mr. 

 Holmes and Mr. W. Cole and his brothers on Sept. 26th, 1887, 

 and continued till October loth of that year (Essex Natural- 

 ist I., 202). The full report was drawn up by Mr. Holmes, 

 read on Nov. 12th, 1887, 'i"^ published shortly afterwards 

 (Essex Naturalist I., 225). This report may fairly claim to 

 embody all that is authentically known concerning these 

 mysterious remains down to the present time, and if, owing 

 to the absence of positive evidence, the problem of their age 

 and purpose has not been finally solved, we have the satisfaction 

 of knowing that we have at least advanced the knowledge of 

 the subject by a very marked step, and that such conclusions as 

 have been arrived at by Mr. Holmes and his colleagues are 

 based upon the solid ground of scientific evidence. One valu- 

 able feature of the report is the series of papers contributed in 

 the form of appendices by Messrs. E. T. Newton, F. W. Rudler, 

 F. J. Bennett, H. B. Woodward and F. C. J. Spurrell. It is 

 probably within the recollection of most of those present that 

 the dene-holes have been visited by the Club several times since 

 the issue of the report, but no fresh discoveries of note have been 

 made and the matter rests where it was left by our reporters 



