xl Journal of Proceedings.
that the pits might have been utilised for other purposes, but he said
they were unlit for residences ; a short stay in such damp places would
soon destroy anyone with consumption, ague, rheumatism, and fever;
neither did he consider them places of refuge ; to go into such places for
refuge would simply be to go into an open trap. The woods would be far
safer for refuge than a hole in the ground. As for their being granaries
and places for storing corn, he well knew as a fungologist that corn
placed in such a position would be immediately and utterly destroyed by
mildew. Corn to be kept good must be preserved in a dry barn. Some
archaeologists were always talking about the ancient Britons' enemies, as
if they were always fighting like tribes of wild Indians; such speakers
forget that the Britons were a pastoral people, with farms, farm imple-
ments, herds, flocks, and dogs; they were not always fighting and running
into perpendicular shafts 80 or 90 feet deep. What would become of
their oxen and sheep under such circumstances?
The President remarked that in the explorations made at Cissbury by
General Pitt-Hirers and Mr. Harrison, they found a deer-horn pick in the
position where it was evidently left by the workmen. Therefore there
was evidence that they did tunnel into the chalk, and he was disposed to
think that Mr. Worthington Smith might be right in that. But he did
not see why these Dene-holes should not have been used successively
for different purposes. If they were used in Neolithic times for flint-
making, in later times they would have been taken advantage of for other
purposes.
Mr. Holmes said he had simply urged that the pits they had visited
and those at Bexley were not such. No people in their senses wanting to
get flints would begin in a stratum 50 feet above the chalk. They would
begin near the chalk, as they had done at Cissbury and other places.*
Mr. Worthington Smith asked what proof was there that these old
excavators ever dug into the chalk at Grays Thurrock ? There are
plenty of pits now, but it does not follow that the pits were there a
thousand or two thousand years ago. In the last hole descended there
was one large flat place at the exact position where a band of flints had
occurred; every flint was removed from the flat place, and not an inch
of the chalk disturbed below. Still it was possible, and perhaps probable,
that the Dene-holes were used for other purposes, as well as for quarrying
flint; and the Essex Field Club might profitably employ some of its time
in an attempt to solve this point.†
The friendly discussion at the tea-table was somewhat prematurely cut
short by the necessity for catching the return train from Grays, but it
was continued on the way to town, the preponderance of argument being
* For Mr. Holmes's arguments at length, see his paper on Dene-holes in this volume
of the ' Transactions.'—Ed.
† We understand that Mr. Smith has since considerably modified his views as to the
probable intention of these deep Dene-holes (see report of Meeting at Grays, on Sep-
tember 9th 1882, infra).—Ed.