Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-07-14
Wonderful Curiosity Near
London Seldom Seen.
Few Tourists Visit Chis|ehurst
Caves and Oene Holes.
Scene Of Ancient Druid Rites, Home
Of Ancient Tribes.

Gnu comparatively unknown Is one of
the most remarkable sights to be
found in this country
Not the worlds of a tourist agent
but of member of the British Archae-
Association talking of one of
the most interesting places in England.
where the American tourist is almost
never seen, the Chislehurst caves and
dene holes. Even when motoring the
tourist manages most often to escape
unconsciously this byway of Kent and
its strange link with the late Celtic. or
the iron age. as the archaeologist calls
it. anywhere from 400 B. c. to the be-
ginning of the Christian era; and his
Baedekar won't help him to it,
Here many feet under ground, but in
dry, good air. at a temperature of
about 50 degrees no matter the season
OF the year. the traveller who will look
to the byways rather than the high
ways of travel may walk where the
tribes of ancient Britain walked, where
the Druids performed their rites and
where probably there have been human
sacrifices. The exact origin and uses
of the caves cannot yet be told with
certainty. but that they were places of
refuge for whole communities, place:
FOR the secreting of treasure and ipla-
ces where religious ceremonies wer.
performed there is little doubt
The caves sO-called are really laby-
rinthinc galleries or corridors dug into
the chalk many feet beneath the sur.
face of the earth. The visitors face al
first Cimmerian gloom. but armed eacl
with hand lamp giving light in one
direction only, like a dark lantern, an6
preceded by d guide, they can PRESENT.,
thread the ancient workings in safety
not to say in some degree of comfort.
If it is hot day out in the oper
the comfort of the entrance to thi:
cool temperature is agreeable, al.
though after twenty minutes in the
subterranean chambers the return OF
such day to the surface air make
you feel that you can imagine wha
it would be like to be steamed or stew:
ed. The hand lamps are needed nov
only for parts of the labyrinth, for tho
enterprising proprietor of the lant
where the mouth of this system of tun-
nels is located has installed electric in.
candescent lamps through large sec
ton of the workings, fact which onl,
intensifies the feeling of incongruity a:
finding yourselves in a Druid priest:
chamber in the bowels of Kent. tn,
ancient recesses of the tribe of tn,
Cantii
With the white chalk walls and roo
and the lights the place doesn't loo;
half bad. but you wonder what it
lights were in Druidical times. Scat
tered all through the chalk the chunk
OF black flint add to the appearance o
the tunnel The pick marks are cleaI
and the guide may tell you that thest
marks in themselves show the age Q
the chamber. since they are mark
such as were made only by a print,
tive pick long since out of use. TIL,
antiquarians, however. will correct thi
and tell you that the pick marks Civ
much the same pattern as the picl
of today or of 1000 years ago" MOI
far from these pit there We're fount
few years ago remnants of prehis
tOris man.
The modern visitor to the pits is for
tunate in being able to enter then
practically at their own floor level,
tine pits have been broken into through
the side of high hill. The mode 0
entrance used by the diggers an
users of the galleries was a hole lead
ing to them vertically from the sur
face 100 feet above.
AS YOU go along the galleries yol
come to one of these ancient entrance:
three or four feet in diameter and yo,
can look up it to the sky and hav'
somewhat the reverse of the sensatio,
Of n 10 FIN
Their on indeed you can look down {
well if the guide will lower a light
for the ancients dug we'll there s
that they had water in their dark dig
gings.
The first gallery you enter is about
$50 feet long, ten or twelve feet higl
and about fifteen feet broad at tn
"asc. narrowing toward the roof as il
the form of an arch to about sever
'ort Beyond the tunnel similar gal
leries open to right and left and thes
in turn into other passages so numer'
Gus that you cannot keep any trac
of direction and wonder how that guild
ever learned his way. not in, but out.
Some of these passages are mucl
smaller in size. only four feet wide am
five feet high. 1t is conjectured tina
they were of earlier workmanship. On
of these. sixty-three feet long. led to !;
chamber ten feet square and twelve
feet high. which could be entered onl,
through small hole at the groun
level, and this was guarded On thu
inner side by seat cut into an angl
of the wall so situated that one mai
alone could guard the chamber from ::
host, since all he would have to d.
would he to despatch singly and il
turn as they came on the invaders VIII
stopped to crawl through the hole
entrance. 1t is supposed that the room
was the hiding place for the priests
treasures.
The well already spoken of IS onl,
forty-three feet deep now. being en-
numbered with debris at the bottom
md the archaeologists look hopefully
to it's original depth, for they thin
that down there must surely be som
relics that will shed light on the earl!
residents of Britain. The light well o;
ancient entrance has it's top eighty
five feet above the tunnel level. and tn
top is in what now is the garden O
a modern villa near Chislehurst com
mon.
About seventy of these dene holes