THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 223
flints, some of them faced, and a few pieces of hewn oolite (Rutlandshire). The
mortar is of a very coarse description, containing a great proportion of yellow
sand. In the cesspool were found the bones of the domestic fowl, the horse, hog,
sheep, and deer, and also part of the antlers and other bones of a large species of
stag, and a full sized human skeleton, with that of a child and the fragments of
middle age pottery, together with a few pieces of rude Roman vases, plainly
indicating that although the work is of a mediaeval character, the Romans had
previously been occupants of the locality. This compartment was the only one
which retained its original dimensions, the others having been broken up more or
less. Leading from these foundations and in the direction of the Mound is an
elevated ridge, which in making a trench through was ascertained to be a raised
causeway, composed of shingles on coarse gravel to a considerable depth. By the
side of this three human skulls and parts of skeletons were discovered, but very
slightly covered with earth, as if the result of strife and a hasty interment. The
surfaces of the teeth (which were sound) of these skeletons were ground down quite
flat and even, as if from masticating very hard and unground food—amongst the
poorer and hardest livers such instances of abrasion could not be now found. The
Mound itself is an object of much higher interest, as by comparison with the
Barrows (four in number) at Ashdon, Essex, called the 'Bartlow Hills,' it is not
unlikely that this may turn out to be a Roman (or earlier) Tumulus, of that order
called a Long Barrow. The masonry on the top is of the same date, workmanship,
and materials as those already described, with now and then a fragment of Roman
material—the index of some former castrum and one decidedly of early Norman
date. It would not at all accord with modern notions of security and strength to
place walls of immense thickness and weight (as the remains indicate them to
have been) upon a newly raised mound of loose earth ; therefore, it is but a fair
inference to draw, that the hill existed compact and firm, from the length of time
it had taken to consolidate, ages before it was burdened with the coronal of
massive walls of which little more than the foundations now remain. The hills at
Bartlow were ascribed by tradition to the Danes, until they were opened about
eighteen years ago by the late Mr. J. Gage Rokewood, and demonstrated to be
undoubtedly Roman.6 Those who have visited and examined these barrows will
have observed that they were evidently cast up principally from the ground around,
and will not fail to notice, most distinctly marked, the line which divides the
natural earth from the artificial mound ; and taking advantage of this defined
appearance the explorers were enabled to go direct to the cist which in all these
four instances was ascertained to be deposited on the natural level and the earth
raised over it. A glance at the mound at Bishop's Stortford will suffice to show
that the same base line is distinctly to be traced, varying a foot or two above the
pathway around it. This point is in a fair way of being elucidated, as the owner
of it, Mr. William Taylor, has engaged at the leisure time of the year to tunnel
it from end to end."
Mr. Taylor regretted that the systematic excavations hinted at in the concluding
paragraph of Mr. Clarke's notes had not yet been carried out, but in digging at
the "Cottage" a few years ago more foundations were brought to light, and it was
found that some of the walls of the present house were of the same kind of flint
work. The present house appears to have been built when the "prison'' was
pulled down in Elizabeth's time, and was first used as an ale house, being still
open as such by the sign of the "Cherry Tree" at the beginning of this century.6
Mr. Taylor said :—"There was a cherry orchard there, and my father, the late
Wm. Taylor, has told me that he remembered as a boy paying a penny to go in and
eat cherries. I believe that the 'dungeon' was under the front part of the
Cottage, and was no doubt used as a cellar, but was afterwards filled up when the
5 See "Archaeologia" xxv, 1, and xxvi, 300.
6 "The Prison called Bishop's Hole or the Convicts Prison which served as a gaol to the
parishes under the Bishop's Bailiffs, and was last used fay the Monster Bonner, is a cellar in the
ale house below the hill, the wall three feet thick.''—Camden's "Britannia,'' 1586.