294 Charles Bcmson — Ancient and Modern " Dene Holes'^ 



Others imagine that they were hiding-places or stores for crops, but 

 both these latter suggestions, in absence of direct evidence, are 

 rendered unlikely by the size, depth, and number of the pits, and 

 their close proximity to one another. They differ very much froiu 

 those much smaller beehive-shaped excavations discovered in Port- 

 land and which, with probability, may be considered to represent 

 a type of the true silos or grain-pits of ancient writers.^ The dene 

 holes ere of very considerable size and would have held an enormous 

 amount of grain or fodder, and this notwithstanding that their 

 normal size may have been slightly exaggerated by falls of blocks 

 of chalk from the roof and sides. Judging from the wonderful 

 stability of the shafts in many cases, the formation of these par- 

 ticular pits may have extended over some years, perhaps by 

 intermittent excavation until the chambers got too large to be 

 conveniently worked. With respect to similar classes of these 

 excavations existing elsewhere, the stability of the rock and subsoil 

 does not seem to have admitted of this intermittent working. 



To those people who have made a study of these excavations '^ 

 the chief points which present themselves as requiring elucidation 

 are as follows : — 



If these pits are merely chalk-pits (which theory is the natural 

 presumption which first occurs to the mind) — 



1. Why are they frequently clustered together ; and although 

 they are dug so close to one another yet they are never intentionally 

 connected ? 



2. Why are they all constructed on the same general design and 

 seemingly elaborate ground plan ? 



3. And why were they dug for chalk when chalk itself occurs on 

 the surface less than a mile away ? 



It will be the object of this paper to answer the above questions 

 by simple comparison of the so-called " dene holes " with excava- 

 tions of exactly similar character and design, which have been 

 worked for centuries, and which are still being worked in England. 



In the centre of East Sussex, in a very old-world neighbourhood, 

 many miles away from any railway station, there is exposed a series 

 of rocks known as the " Purbeck Beds," being the lowest beds 

 exposed in the South-East of England. This strip of ancient strata, 

 as it shows itself, is about 8^ miles long by 1 mile in width. 

 Here and there beds of limestone called "the Greys" and "the 

 Blues " are to be discovered, sometimes cropping out and sometimes 

 occurring within a short distance of the surface. Up to the middle 

 of the present century, and doubtless for centuries past, this stone 

 has been quarried to be burnt for lime, and proved to make a cement 

 of exceptional hydraulic properties. 



For many years past the quarrying of the limestone has been 

 given up ; but the stone is now being excavated for " road-metal," 

 and thus used for many miles around. 



^ See Mr. T. V. Holmes' paper iu the Essex Field Club Transactions, 1887, 

 p. 253. 



'^ See Essex Field Club Eeports, especially Mr. T. V. Holmes' paper, vol. 1887 ; 

 also Mr. Miller Christy's paper in the Beliquary, April, 1895. 



