100 
Miscellaneous Notes on Deneholes. 
those which had become useless from their excessive liability 
to tumble in. 
On the other hand, the supposition that these chalk-wells 
are simply Deneholes of the older and simpler type satis¬ 
factorily explains their position on the hill-top, close to the 
heads of the valleys which furrow the dip-slope of the Chalk, 
and descend towards the north-east. And both their plan of 
construction and their irregular distribution here and there 
in twos and threes are intelligible on that hypothesis. On 
PL II. of Mr. Spurrell’s paper, Nos. 6, 7, 8, and 9 belong to 
the Lenham type of Denehole, and in 7 and 8 especially we 
have a pair in that close proximity to each other of which we 
have seen so many examples at Lenham, and which is so 
common among Deneholes generally. But in the heap of 
sandy clay at the bottom of No. 7 flint flakes and worked 
scrapers were found below Roman and other remains. The 
Lenham pits may be either of earlier or later date, but we 
may fairly infer that they are, in all probability, prehistoric. 
And their distribution seems to me to point towards the 
conclusion that each group of two or three marks the position 
of storehouses once occupied by closely-allied families, or of 
some similar domestic arrangement common to the race 
inhabiting this district in prehistoric times. 
To some readers many of the foregoing remarks may appear 
almost unnecessary; but all who are interested in Deneholes 
find, sooner or later, how strong and general is the feeling in 
districts where these “ chalk-wells ” abound that they were 
originally made for the purpose indicated by the name they 
bear. Of course there is no necessary improbability in the 
existence of shafts for such a purpose; there may doubtless 
be districts in which they would be the most natural means 
of getting chalk. Whether the pits of any given locality are 
ancient Deneholes—which may have been more or less 
utilised in later times—or modern shafts for chalk is a 
matter of evidence. And it is only by a careful review of 
that evidence in any given case that we can hope to settle 
this question, which any amount of mere vague talk about 
this district and that district would leave just where it was 
before the discussion. 
