AT HANGMAN'S WOOD, GRAYS.
245
that many of the simpler and shallower deneholes do the same. It
has always naturally been assumed that the deeper deneholes, such as
compose the groups at Cavey Spring, Stankey and Hangman's Woods,
would prove to be of later date, as those which have been visited
have always shown an abundance of metal pick-marks. Previously,
however, to our tunnelling operations in Hangman's Wood, only the
open-shafted pits, which form from five to ten per cent, of the total
number in each group, had been visited, either at Bexley or at
Grays, and consequently it was quite possible that we might have
discovered in some of the shaft-closed pits indications that the open
pits had all been worked over by people living at a much later date
than the original constructors. This point could not have been
satisfactorily settled without the inspection of a considerable propor-
tion of the pits, for 50 or 100 years ago many of the shafts now
closed were open, a writer in 18677 stating that at least twice the
present number of pits were accessible "within the last few years"
at Hangman's Wood. But in addition to the total absence of flint
flakes in the mounds, there was nothing in any of the pits we entered
suggesting that particular examples had been seriously modified in
any way. In each there seemed a unity of design and an even
distribution of pick-marks, quite unlike what would have shown itself
had any serious enlargements been made by men with new views,
careless of the original system of excavation. To mediaeval seekers
after treasure we may not improbably owe something of the dearth
of human relics on the floors of the Hangman's Wood pits, but these
gold hunters do not seem to have anywhere interfered with the pre-
existing symmetry, possibly because iron pyrites is very rare at
Hangman's Wood. For that mineral, occasionally abundant in
chalk, has frequently, from its bright yellow, metallic appearance,
been mistaken for gold. Each denehole may have taken as long to
excavate as a mediaeval cathedral to build, but the deneholes, unlike
most cathedrals, show no signs of diversity of style. Our explora-
tion, therefore, has made the post-Neolithic age of the Hangman's
Wood pits almost certain.
But though evidently post-Neolithic, the available evidence bear-
ing on the approximate age of the Hangman's Wood pits still leaves
7 "Building News," Feb. 1st, 1867. [This statement of the writer in the "Building News''
should perhaps be received with caution. As before stated, we found no evidence of artificial
"filling-in,'' and a gentleman well acquainted with the locality assured us that it would not
"pay to attempt doing so. We shall be glad to receive any evidence obtainable on this point.
-Ed.