21 



The caves were habitations, and, to a certain extent, served the 

 usual purposes of a dwelling. 



The next form of Dene Hole noticed by the Lecturer, was 

 one which, from the roughness of the excavation, and from the 

 great increase of size, removes the probability of its having been 

 used as a dwelling. It served perhaps as a store-chamber, and, 

 on emergency, as a refuge from an enemy. Perhaps a use was 

 beginning to be found during this period for the excavated chalk 

 soil ; and a later fonn appears to indicate that chalk was dug from 

 these chambers for manure. This conclusion is rendered the more 

 probable from the fact that such holes are found where th« 

 chalk lies at a considerable depth from the surface, and where it 

 would obviously be of value in softening the sticky clays of the 

 district. It is in the neighbourhood of the great old roads which 

 lead to London from the Continent, and which converge about 

 Shooter's HiU, that tliis laborious method of extracting marl {i.e. 

 marrow) from the depths of the earth was practised ; and it is 

 known that this marl, partly from a real and partly from a fancied 

 value, was much employed abroad. 



These deep pits, from their position near the gi'eat highways 

 to the Continent, would be likely to attract the notice of Eoman 

 travellers ; and such travellers, on their return to Rome, would be 

 " pumped " by the insatiable Pliny, and much valuable information 

 derived from them. From Pliny we learn that marl was dug for 

 manure in pits a hundred feet deep, and Mr. Spun-ell asserted 

 that nowhere else but near the great Roman way, and around 

 Shooter's HiU, are shafts of this great depth to be found. 



Long before the late discussion respecting the Subsidences on 

 Blackheath, Mr. SpuiTeU had included Blackheath and its vicinity 

 as a locality for Dene Holes, and he had formed this opinion from 

 personal observation of the earth-faUs on the Heath itself, and on 

 the lands around. The subsidence of these places is a common 

 occurence, and the Lecturer explained the diflferent phases of the 

 event. 



The Paper was illustrated and elucidated by a large number 



of diagrams. 



Note. — This Paper is now being published in extento in the Journal of the 

 Royal Archaeological Institute. 



