T. V. Holmes — On Deneholes and Bell Pits. 449 



What we may expect fo see are those differences in the nature of 

 the site and structure which are absolutely essential, but nothing 

 more. A primitive excavation in chalk, for example, made to 

 obtain subteiTanean space, will be likely to have some superficial 

 resemblance to another excavation of the same period made in order 

 to procure chalk. Jn the case of many isolated pits the evidence 

 may amount to so little as to prevent any decided conclusion. In 

 such cases, however, it is as absurd to decide that they must be pits 

 made for the sake of the material extracted as to conclude that they 

 must have been used for domestic purposes. To us at the present 

 day the mining explanation may seem the" more probable, excavations 

 in rocks for domestic purposes being comparatively rare. But 

 among primitive people they are usually far more common than 

 excavations for mining. Even in Brittany at the present time pits 

 in the fields are used for the storage of grain. The top of the pit 

 is covered with a layer of earth or clay to keep out the wet, 

 and a slight mound indicates the site.^ However, in writing of 

 deneholes with the view of making the distinctions between them 

 and pits for mining purposes as clear as possible, it is best to leave 

 out of consideration excavations of doubtful affinities. 



The name denehole is not confined to certain excavations in the 

 Chalk, nor to pits with vertical entrances. A much esteemed Northern 

 archgeologist, Mr, K. 0. Heslop, of Newcastle-on-Tyue, pointed out 

 to me many years ago that deneholes exist, and are known by that 

 name, in the county of Durham. They are mentioned in a paper 

 read by one of the most eminent of Northumbrian antiquaries, 

 Mr. W. H. D. Longstaff, at the Newcastle meeting of the Archasologioal 

 Institute in 1852 the title of the paper being, "Durham before 

 the Conquest." Mr. Longstaff remarks that the name ' Danes 

 Hole ' is applied to several hiding-places in the county, and that 

 it may perhaps have originated during the warfare between Saxon 

 and Dane, from their use as retreats dqring Danish incursions. 

 He adds : — 



"They are frequent in Hartness, where the struggle seems to 

 have been most bitter, and are described as excavations in the sides 

 of eminences, in those sides from which the most extended views 

 might be obtained." On the map accompanying Mr. Longstaff's 

 paper are the words, "Excavated halls called Danes Holes " ; and 

 they are shown as existing on the Magnesian Limestone of South 

 Durham, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Enibleton, six or seven 

 miles west of Hartlepool. And in Hutchinson's History of Durham 

 (1785), vol. iii, p. 82, there is in a note by ' Mr. Cade ' the 

 following remark : " There is a large cavity on the summit of 

 the camp at Mainsforth which is at this day called the Danes-Hole, 

 where there was lately dug up a pair of moose deer horns," etc. 

 Mr. Cade thinks the site of Athelstan's victory over the Danes was 

 about two miles from this camp, and is interested in determining 



^ Note on the use of Pits in Brittany for the Storage of Grain : by Charles 

 Browne, M.A., Barrister-at-Law. {Essex Naturalist, vol. ii, 1888, p. 3.) 



DECADE IV. VOL. V. — NO. X. 29 



