The foundations of a third wall, which appeared quite
sound, lay at a depth of 4 feet beneath one of the floors, and of
course at a considerably greater depth beneath the level of the
ground. A large flint was wrenched out of the wall at about a foot
from the base, and this required much force, as the mortar was
sound; but behind the flint in the middle of the wall, the mortar
was friable, and here there were worm-burrows. Mr. Joyce and my
sons were surprised at the blackness of the mortar in this and in
several other cases, and at the presence of mould in the interior
of the walls. Some may have been placed there by the old builders
instead of mortar; but we should remember that worms line their
burrows with black humus. Moreover open spaces would almost
certainly have been occasionally left between the large irregular
flints; and these spaces, we may feel sure, would be filled up by
the worms with their castings, as soon as they were able to
penetrate the wall. Rain-water, oozing down the burrows would also
carry fine dark-coloured particles into every crevice. Mr. Joyce
was at first very sceptical about the amount of work which I
attributed to worms; but he ends his notes with reference to the
last-mentioned wall by saying, "This case caused me more surprise
and brought more conviction to me than any other.
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