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THE "SALTING MOUNDS" OF ESSEX.
this would be no slight task, and it adds to the difficulty in account-
ing for them, for if they are only the sites of salinae the object of
excavation where no foundation was wanted is a little obscure in
these days.
A point worthy of notice is the existence of these mounds far up
freshwater rivers, where the water is never more than brackish and
often fresh, by no means the position suitable for salinae in ordinary
circumstances; and the absence of mounds on the open seaboard is
singular.
It is very difficult to determine the original outline of the mounds.
One in Mersea is fairly circular, with a diameter of about ninety
yards, and several give indications of having been round, but as so
many have been partially carried away for agricultural purposes it is of
course quite possible that the original outline is in no case preserved.
There can be, I assume, little doubt about the antiquity of these
mounds : the chief questions are as to their origin and precise age.
Two of them at least were cultivated during the Heptarchy, and
possibly many others. One has yielded traces of Roman pottery,
and upon another I picked up a worked flint scraper.
I have tried for some years to collect traditions and popular
opinions about these mounds, and they vary greatly, as one would
expect, nor do they throw much, if any, light upon the subject.
Some say that they were Saxon or Danish potteries; others, that
they were Roman brickyards. Others again maintain that they indi-
cate camp-sites of Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, who was so cruelly
defeated not far off, or of Alfred the Great when stationed there
to resist the Danes; while others assert that the Danes brought
their dead to be buried there, and that the broken pottery consists
of the shattered vessels of the departed heroes. All these fancies
are equally unsatisfactory.
In the catalogue of the glass at the South Kensington Museum is
the following notice : "In 1295, English records speak of the glass-
painters being among the chief tradesmen, particularly at Colchester,
where the sand is of a suitable kind, and the salt marshes would
furnish an abundance of plants whose ashes yield the necessary
alkalies." I quote this instance of an extensive industry going on
in the marshes long ago, but I hardly think it has anything to do
with the formation of the mounds, as they give many indications
of being much older; yet perhaps it is a fact not altogether to be
lost sight of.