_(To the Editor of the Mirror.)_
Allow me to hand you an account of a very curious cavern at Blackheath,
fortuitously discovered in the year 1780, and which will form, I have no
doubt, a pleasing addition to the valued communication of your
correspondent _Halbert H_., in the 348th Number of the MIRROR, and prove
interesting to the greater portion of your numerous readers. It is
situated on the hill, (on the left hand side from London,) and is a very
spacious vaulted cavern, hewn through a solid chalk-stone rock, one
hundred feet below the surface. The Saxons, on their entrance into Kent,
upwards of 1,300 years ago, excavated several of these retreats; and
during the discord, horrid murders, and sanguinary conflicts with the
native Britons, for nearly five hundred years, used these underground
recesses, not only as safe receptacles for their persons, but also
secure depositaries for their wealth and plunder. After these times,
history informs us the caves were frequently resorted to, and occupied
by the disloyal and unprincipled rebels, headed by Jack Cade, in the
reign of Henry VI., about A.D. 1400, who infested Blackheath and its
neighbourhood, (as also mentioned by your correspondent;) since then by
several banditti, called Levellers, in the rebellious times of Oliver
Cromwell. The cave consists of three rooms, which are dry, and
illuminated; in one of which, at the end of the principal entrance, is a
well of soft, pure, and clear water, which, according to the opinion of
several eminent men, is seldom to be met with. The internal structure is
similar to the cave under the ruins of Reigate Castle, built by the
Saxons; where the barons of England, in the year 1212, with their
followers, (frequently amounting to five hundred persons,) held their
private meetings, and took up arms, previous to their obtaining Magna
Charta at Runny Mead, near Egham, in Surrey.