Cork.
_Grimesdyke; Grimes Graves_ (Vol. v., p. 231.).--As J. F. F. has
repeated Blomefield's account of these curious pits (commonly known as
_Grimes Graves_, in Weeting parish, Norfolk), it is right to add some
more recent information respecting them. An investigation was made there
last month, by digging a trench through the middle of a pit, and at the
depth of about three feet an oval fire-place of flints was discovered,
containing numerous bones of oxen, &c. One of the smaller pits was then
similarly treated, and we found the same proofs of habitation. No stone
implements were discovered, but further researches may bring some to
light. Blomefield's statement that it is a Danish camp is quite without
foundation, and his "form of a quincunx," in which he supposed the pits
to be, could have existed only in his own imagination, stimulated by the
learned labours of Sir Thomas Browne. There can be no doubt now that
they were dwellings of the British, similar to the pits on the coast at
Weybourne. That _Grime_ was a Danish leader, "Præpositus," &c., is also
open to doubt. When so many British earthworks are designated by this
name, what is more likely than that the Saxons, not knowing whose hands
had erected them, superstitiously ascribed them to the _grim_ spirit,
the Devil?--whence _Grimsdyke_, the Devil's ditch, &c. Neither this
opinion, however, nor Mr. Guest's (a "boundary") seems applicable to a
Hundred, as _Grimeshoo_, unless as being so full of Grime's operations.