AT HANGMAN'S WOOD, GRAYS.
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hoard was secured in an inner enclosure. Of such a nature were the
hoards at Montargis, St. Quentin, and elsewhere, described by M.
Reneaume. The magazine at Metz, in which corn had been stored
from 1575 to 1707, and at Sedan, are cases in point. The numerous
simple, as well as the complicated, souterrains of Picardy, are of this
nature; some, however, are greatly altered from their original simpli-
city, under the necessities required by troubled times. One of the
most highly developed examples was described by M. Louvel. It
consisted of little caverns, regularly arranged on either side of a kind
of subterranean streets, in the chalk, the entrance to which was
originally by a well. As appears by the records, such places have
existed since the tenth century, beyond which no documents could
be found. It appears clear that if they then served as stores, refuges,
and dwellings, they must have existed in their pristine or simpler
form for some period long previous ; and that many of a very simple
form, with no other outlet but the well, were primarily stores,
thus closely resembling English deneholes. Certainly the Romans
made use of chalk caves as magazines, and the receptacles of masonry
for corn, constructed in a souterrain at Ardres, still remain to show
their practice. We have the evidence of Tacitus, coupled with that
of Caesar, for the use of silos in Northern France and Belgium, by
the earlier peoples.
That such places, originally stores, were frequently used as dwel-
lings and refuges during religious wars, is well known; and the
value of caves with small entrances and galleries beneath the
surface, to persecuted people, is admirably illustrated by Victor
Hugo, who, in his '"93," vividly describes such places in Brittany,
from his personal knowledge. These last, however, may have been
mines.
In Britain grain pits were in use before the Romans came ; and
examples were luckily preserved intact to our inspection by the
rubbish they poured into them. In North Kent, some of these are
admirably finished, the pick blows having been moderated in force
and neatly applied to make an even surface. In one pit at North-
fleet, for instance, the chalk was chipped almost to smoothness;
at one part where a pipe of gravel had come in the way of an
even rounding of the cave, the chalk had been trimmed to the
thinness of two inches only. The coarseness in workmanship of
many of the deneholes of S. E. England, is no evidence of their
use originally—it does not appear that the workmanship would
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