lviii
Journal of Proceedings.
Grays, where the usual " Club tea " was excellently served at the "King's
Arms" Hotel.
After tea an Ordinary Meeting (the thirtieth) of the Club was held for
the election and proposal of members, the President in the chair. The
following were elected members:—Messrs. Alfred Brooks, Herbert E.
Brooks, T. V. Holmes, F.G.S., M.A.I., &c., and W. Thomas.
A short discussion was initiated by Mr. Walker (Mr. Holmes being
obliged to leave by an early train), who detailed the results of the day's
operations. He had been very much struck with the symmetrical form
of the six separate caverns, looking very like cathedral crypts, with their
dome-shaped roofs, and with their careful finish as if for form's sake,
showing in his opinion that these were the later dene-holes. The earliest
dene-hole which we knew—that at Erith—was far ruder in construction;
instead of ramifying into this complex form, there was a shaft simply
expanding into a large bell-shaped chamber. Its age was fixed by its
rudimentary form and by the flint implements found at the base of the
cone of earth lying on the floor. The contrast of that with the hole
examined that day was very marked. There, near Grays, they seemed
to have got the decidedly later dene-holes, but he did not think the data
were yet ripe for a full and exhaustive discussion of the subject.
Mr. Worthington Smith said he could add very little to what had
been already brought forward. He really knew very little about these
dene-holes. They had as yet been very superficially examined, and
people were waiting for accurate information about them. His remarks
on dene-holes made at the July meeting had been founded on observa-
tions upon those at Cissbury and Grimes's Graves. But evidently the
dene-holes at Grays must be of later date, because it appeared they were
made with iron picks, in which respect they differed very much from
those of Cissbury and Grimes's Graves, which were made with the
antlers of deer. It was possible, however, that the Grays dene-holes were
made in very ancient times, and afterwards enlarged, and some of the
closed ones might be very different in style from the others. Round the
outside of these dene-holes are always found a very large quantity of
flint-chips, as if the men brought the flints up and worked them round
the edges of the pits. But till they had these pits really worked, and saw
whether the men went down to the bed of flints and then stopped, they
could say nothing about them. The dene-holes should be carefully
surveyed, and every hole stopped or unstopped marked on a plan, with
the levels. Then an exploration should be made of as many as possible,
and sections prepared showing the measurements of each. Part of the
original floor of the pits should be uncovered. There might be "hut-
circles" near, and the ground around for three or four miles should be
carefully examined. Until this was done, in his opinion no decided
verdict could be pronounced upon them.
The President remarked that, seeing the success which had crowned
their efforts in other researches in pre-historic archaeology, he had no