79 
that sort which is very generally found in the neighbourhood of 
Roman villas and towns, and was doubtless formed while the 
cave was a place of habitation." * 
Late in the year 1869, Prof. T. McK. Hughes saw Mr. 
Jackson's collection, and appreciating the importance of a 
further and systematic exploration of the cavern, set to work 
at its accomplishment. He obtained permission from the 
owner of the property, the late Mr. Stackhouse, and induced 
some of the gentry of the neighbourhood and others to 
form a Committee, under Sir James Kay -Shuttle worth, for 
the purpose. A subscription-list was opened, and donations 
came in liberally. Prof. Hawkins kindly undertook the 
scientific direction of the work.f Mr. John Birkbeck, Jun., 
accepted the post of Hon. Treasurer and Secretary, and the 
Committee were fortunate in obtaining Mr. Jackson's assist- 
ance as superintendent. 
Mr. Jackson's previous work had been entirely in the 
inside, from a narrow entrance in rock at the bottom of a 
niche in the overhanging cliff (now walled up), but light 
could be seen towards the right on entering the cave, and it 
was resolved to remove the screes at the outside which 
blocked up the aperture, and form a new entrance. The 
obvious advantage of this was that it would enable thg^ork- 
men to work in daylight, and, moreover, the small plateau 
formed by the screes "could not fail,'' as Prof Hawkins 
observes,! " to have been chosen by the inhabitants for 
kindling their fires and cooking their food. On the surface 
there was a talus, 2 feet thick, of angular fragments, broken 
away from the cliff above by the action of frost. It rested 
* Joum. Anthrop. Inst., vol. i., p. 61. 
+ Prof. Dawkins was obliged by stress of work to resign this responsibility 
in the summer of 1873, and at the request of the Committee the Author 
undertook it. 
; Op. Cit. ♦ 
