ON A RECENT SUBSIDENCE AT MUCKING, ESSEX. 253
15 (1858), we learn that "stones for grinding wheat, nay,
large quantities of that grain itself, apparently charred, were
found in what had been a subterranean granary in one of the
Castella" (Castlecarey).
It is also worth recording here that in the Gentleman's
Magazine Library (Romano-British Remains, Part. II., p. 352) it is
mentioned that in the old British camp in Wiltshire, known as
Battlesbury, "a quantity of parched corn was found, some years
ago, curiously preserved underground in a sort of stone trough."
Battlesbury is near Warminster, and stands on the western
edge of Salisbury Plain. The date of this account of Battlesbury
is 1787.
It may also be useful to note in this place that a brief
account is given in Trans, Essex Field Club, Vol. iv., pp.
108-110, of ancient British subterranean granaries discovered in
the camp known as Winklebury, on the borders of Wiltshire
and Dorset, and of others in the Isle of Portland. A consider-
able amount of blackened corn was found in them at both the
places mentioned.
Deneholes in the Chalk, even when destroyed (for instance)
during the enlargement of a great chalk-pit, are visible during
the progress of their destruction. If, like those of Hangman's
Wood, and of Stankey and Cavey Spring, Bexley, they exist in
groups which have made the areas they occupy useless for
other purposes, they retain for centuries a certain proportion of
open shafts, which allow their characteristic features to be
noted. Consequently, whatever may be the views held by their
explorers as to the purposes of their makers, to all they
are obviously ancient and remarkable. But the shallower
subterranean storehouses, in sand, gravel, and clay, would very
seldom have their existence revealed except when the sudden
collapse of their chambers disclosed their sites. When this
occurred, they would be much more likely to have their true
nature and former uses recognised by farmers and labourers
whose families had long been resident in the locality, and who
possessed traditional information about them, than to attract the
attention of a local antiquary. For, apart from the fact that
antiquaries are few in number, they naturally tend (like Mr.,
Clowes) to be interested in a rude subterranean chamber only
when it contains coins, pottery, or inscriptions, and not when it