lx Journal of Proceedings.
recording their work and their failure, but not adopting the inscription
which he had suggested. He had suggested that they should use the
epitaph upon a baby's tombstone :—
"If so early I was done for,
What on earth was I begun for ?"
[Laughter.] He thanked the organisers of that expedition for the very
admirable way in which all had been managed.
Mr. Worthington Smith, in reply to Mr. White, who asked for informa-
tion respecting some holes existing in a wood near Cromer, Norfolk,
supposed to be about 2000 in number, said that Mr. Spurrell had investi-
gated them, and had discovered that they were not at all like the Essex
or Kent dene-holes, but were very shallow excavations, and appeared to
be ancient pit-dwellings. A considerable quantity of iron ore had been
found in them, which led to the supposition that they had been the habi-
tations of people living in the early iron age.
The President asked the Society to return its thanks to the conductors,
which was done by acclamation. Thanks were also voted to Messrs.
Brooks, Shoobridge, and Co. for the great facilities they had provided for
the descent into the holes, and Mr. Walker, on behalf of the conductors,
thanked Mr. W. Cole, the Hon. Secretary, for the care which had been
shown in planning and carrying out all the arrangements.*
* The two visits made by the Club to the Hangman's Wood dene-holes attracted con-
siderable attention, and an admirable report of the last visit was given in the 'Standard
for September 11th, followed by many letters and articles in the same paper, in the
' Times,' 'Daily Telegraph,' 'Notes and Queries,' &c., &c., but few of which added any-
thing to the information given above. It may be well, however, to quote the following
remarks by Mr. Spurrell in a letter to the 'Standard,' dated October 4th:—"Some of the
caverns, and presumably the oldest, were dug by persons (I think for flint, and as
dwellings) who did not use metal in the work, but must have employed no better tools
than wood or bone; whilst other evidence places their origin as far back as the pure
stone (Neolithic) age; and this, too, in the case of the Hangman's Wood holes. In later
times similar excavations were made for the same and other uses, such as are discussed
by me in a paper published in the ' Archaeological Journal' of this year. It
is not surprising that those who see but a few instances, and those in populous
districts, should be puzzled by them. Even the late Mr. Darwin connected their forma-
tion, as he several times remarked to me, with the chemical action of rain on chalk, aided
by worms (see his work, ' The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of
Worms'), for he thought that the worms by their burrows directed the carbonic and
humic acids in such a way into irregularities of the chalk—of his neighbourhood—as to
cause the pipes and pits he describes. The periodical falling in of holes at Down is to
be ascribed to dene-holes, I know, and also that there are no pot-holes in such active
condition there as he describes, I know also. During the late agitation concerning the
subsidences on Blackheath, much promoted by the late Astronomer-Royal, Sir R. Airy,
the local Natural History Societies of Blackheath and Lewisham frequently discussed the
matter, and cases were made out for many different natural causes, but I have had no
difficulty for many years in connecting the subsidences with the existence of dene-holes
there formerly, as in other places. However, much has to be done in excavating, and
I hope that the members of the Essex Field Club will be well supported in their very
interesting examinations underground,"