90 
Miscellaneous Notes on Deneholes. 
shortness along the line through the shaft-openings by 
increased size in the other four chambers, marked both that 
they recognised their nearness to their neighbours and that 
their pit was the older and more developed one. The No. 6 
people, on the contrary, neglected the two ways in which 
they might have given themselves more room without inter¬ 
fering with No. 5, either by lowering their floor to the level 
of that of their neighbours or by reducing the partitions 
between their chambers to pillars. Consequently, in 
rounding-off the end of their chamber, they (in all probability) 
made the partition too thin for stability. 
II. Notes on the Supposed Deneholes at Easneye Park, near Ware, 
Visited by the Essex Field Club, June 28th. 
In the case of palpable Deneholes, such as those of Grays 
and Bexley, the problem before us is simply to ascertain their 
age, and the uses to which they have been put. But with 
regard to the depressions on the plateau at Easneye Park, it 
is evident that to explain their existence by the agency of 
Deneholes is to bring forward a hypothesis, not a demonstra¬ 
tion. We must therefore carefully consider the whole of the 
available evidence to see how far it tends to support the 
Denehole view, and what, if any, other hypotheses are 
tenable. For while we of the Essex Field Club are especially 
familiar with Deneholes as a cause of similar depressions, to 
a very much larger number of persons the existence of purely 
natural hollows—analogous to swallow-holes—is sure to seem 
much more likely, unless careful consideration shows that 
they cannot apply to the case under discussion. 
We have therefore, in the first place, to consider the 
geological structure of the neighbourhood of Easneye Park; 
as, even if it should become evident that a geological theory 
of the depressions there is out of the question, the geology 
and physical geography of ground in which Deneholes exist 
should always be carefully noted. For we may fairly assume 
that the greater the geological difficulties overcome the later 
must have been the date of the Deneholes themselves. 
We saw on June 28tli that, directly above the alluvial flats 
