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system of bell-pit mining for chalk is still in use, but in 

 others, such as Essex and Kent, it is altogether forgotten. 

 In those counties where the practice is still carried out or 

 remembered these excavations are known as " chalk wells " or 

 bell-pits ; in other counties where the system has been abandoned 

 and forgotten, they are not unfrequently called " Dane holes," 

 for the simple reason, as many archaeologists have observed, that 

 the English peasantry are in the habit of attributing any 

 mysterious excavations and x-uins to the agency of the Danes, 

 and especially anything relating to calamity. Thus the " Dene " or 

 " Dane holes" are locally pointed out as being old hiding places and 

 receptacles for storage of crops in time of danger, for which they 

 are obviously most unsuitable. It is marvellous that in one county 

 the system should be carried forward in all its old efficiency, 

 while in others the results of the self-same system should be in- 

 volved in a romantic haze, arising from ignorance of the 

 original use of these excavations. It is curious that although 

 the excavated chalk had been removed and laid on the neighbour- 

 ing field for manure, that the very absence of chalk should have 

 been attributed to the desire of the persons who were supposed 

 to have inhabited these dwellings to conceal the site of the 

 entrances of the shafts. So deeply imbued were the supporters 

 of these theories that it seemed in vain to reiterate that there is 

 no evidence of any habitation, and that the absence of chalk 

 debris is the best evidence of their having been used for chalk- 

 pits according to a past and present custom. The concentration 

 of a few groups of pits in Essex is by no means unusual ; in fact, 

 all ancient writers agree that large tracts of ground were honey- 

 combed for the purpose, and so dangerous was their vicinity 

 that woods grew up and flourished around them. Respecting 

 the alleged beauty of design and finish of the Essex and 

 Kent "Dene holes," it may at once be stated that such 

 allegations are made up of gross exaggeration and miscon- 

 ception. Such of the flints at the sides of the walls of 

 the excavation, which were pointed out to visitors as being 

 carefully trimmed so no sharp points should injure people, are 

 nothing more than bands of tabloid flints which have a naturally 

 straight fracture, and break off with a slight blow flush with the 

 excavated surface. The design of these pits are necessarily 

 uniform and pillared both for safety as well as to prevent the 

 encroachment of one pit upon another. Every mining engineer 

 knows that, without some such regularity and system in design, 

 waste and danger must accrue. 



Nothing further need now be said. Mr. C. Roach Smith long 

 ago animadverted on the fallacy of considering these excavations 

 anything more than chalk pits ir/iere other erulence does not e.rixt 

 (and, so far, no evidence is forthcoming). It was left to the 



