THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 95
to make the publications of the Club famous in the annals of
pre-historic archaeology. The curiosity aroused by our first
visit to the dene-holes led to further visits by the Club on June
17th and Sept. 9th, 1882 (Proc. III., xxviii., lviii.), the outcome
of these meetings being a paper by Mr. T. V. Holmes (Trans.
III., 48) and a very full bibliographical history of the subject by
our Hon. Secretary, Mr. W. Cole (Proc. III., xxviii—xxxiv).
The raising of a fund for the systematic exploration of these
remains was suggested at our meeting on Oct. 28th, 1882 (Ibid.
LXXXIV.); there were further visits to Hangman's Wood by
the Club and the Geologists' Association on June 15th and 16th,
1883 (Proc. IV., xx.) and Mr. T. V. Holmes as the result of this
further inspection published his "Miscellaneous Notes on Dene-
holes" in our Transactions tor that year (IV., 87). A committee
of exploration was appointed by our Council on March 31st,
1883, and a sufficient fund raised to enable Mr. Holmes and Mr.
W. Cole, to whom had been entrusted the practical work of
superintending the excavation, to commence operations in
October of that year (Proc. I V.,cxxiii.) The work was discontinued
on Nov. 10th, and the results withheld till further evidence had
been obtained, for which purpose work was resumed by Mr.
Holmes and Mr. W. Cole and his brothers on Sept. 26th, 1887,
and continued till October 10th of that year (Essex Natural-
ist I., 202). The full report was drawn up by Mr. Holmes,
read on Nov. 12th, 1887, and published shortly afterwards
(Essex Naturalist I., 225). This report may fairly claim to
embody all that is authentically known concerning these
mysterious remains down to the present time, and if, owing
to the absence of positive evidence, the problem of their age
and purpose has not been finally solved, we have the satisfaction
of knowing that we have at least advanced the knowledge of
the subject by a very marked step, and that such conclusions as
have been arrived at by Mr. Holmes and his colleagues are
based upon the solid ground of scientific evidence. One valu-
able feature of the report is the series of papers contributed in
the form of appendices by Messrs. E. T. Newton, F. W. Rudler,
F. J. Bennett, H. B. Woodward and F. C. J. Spurrell. It is
probably within the recollection of most of those present that
the dene-holes have been visited by the Club several times since
the issue of the report, but no fresh discoveries of note have been
made and the matter rests where it was left by our reporters