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 Thier 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 Pare, 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 28th that, directly above the alluvial flats