82 THE PAST AND FUTURE OF THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
record of past work, but on a fair promise of a still brighter
future.
Notes.
Pictsbury Ramparts.—In the "Observations on the site of Camu-
lodunum," by the Rev. Henry Jenkins ("Archaeologia," vol. 29,
p. 243, 1842), Pictsbury is styled Pitchbury. Mr. Jenkins thinks
the camp originally British, but considers it probable that it after-
wards became one of the stations established by the Romans in the
neighbourhood of Camulodunum, and identifies it Ad Ansam.
Destruction of a large mound at Wormingford.—Though Pictsbury
Ramparts were intact when Mr. Jenkins wrote (1842), he mentions
the destruction of a large mound of extreme interest at Wormingford,
six years before that time. He remarks :—"A large mound in the
parish of Wormingford, close to the Decoy and to the banks of the
river Stour, was removed about six years ago, that the earth might
be spread over the lower part of the field, and many hundreds of
urns were then discovered, placed in parallel rows like streets." Mr.
Jenkins supposes these urns to have contained the remains of the
men of the ninth legion who were cut off by the Britons during the
revolt of Boadicea. Wormingford is on the south, or Essex, bank of
the Stour, and six miles (in a straight line) N.W. of Colchester,
Pictsbury Ramparts being midway between them.
Notes on Boulders and Pits with Roman (?) Deposits, near Roxwell,
Essex.—It is well known that the white chalky boulder clay of this part of Essex
contains numerous large boulders of many kinds of rock, but it is seldom one gets
the opportunity of examining these in situ. This spring, when digging a drain
across an open field, we came across two of these erratic boulders, each weighing
not less than a ton. They were about 2 ft. from the surface, and lay within 10 yds.
of one another, the drain passing through both. They are nearly circular, and
measure rather more than 4 ft. in diameter, and vary from 18 in. to 2 ft. in thick-
ness. Mr. B. 13. Woodward, F.G. S., has kindly identified them for me as Septarian
nodules from the Kimmeridge clay, containing the following fossils : Ammonites
[biplex (?)], Exogyra, Virgula, and crystals of calc spar. The material of the rock
is exceedingly hard, but easily breaks into sections where the calc spar intersects it.
In the same field we dug through several of the mysterious holes filled with black
earth mingled with charred wood and pieces of pottery. These, as a rule, are not
found in the regular boulder clay but in the alluvial soil in the valleys. They consist
of a circular cavity about 5 ft. in diameter at the surface and 2 ft. at the bottom, some
being as much as 5 ft. deep, but most of them about 3 ft. They are always filled
with black soil, with which is generally mixed lumps of red burnt earth, pieces of
charred wood, and broken pottery. Three years ago when levelling some soil in
a meadow we found a Roman coin in one of them, or at all events in the soil
above; the man who found it was doubtful of its exact locality. The coin was
one of Trajan's, and is in good preservation. This year we dug up a piece of
millstone from the same kind of soil about 18 in. from the surface which has since
been identified as a piece of Nieder Mendig stone used by the Romans for mill-
stones. There were also several Roman tiles in the same place.—Reginald W.
Christy, Roxwell, March 24th, 1887.