144
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
their roads pretty much on straight lines, I think a glance at this map will
satisfy you that, taking into consideration the distance of 31 miles from London
and the now undisputed fact that Colchester is the ancient Camulodunum, there
can be no doubt we are honestly entitled to say that we are now standing
upon the site of the ancient Caesaromagus. But there is other evidence of the
fact. In the year 1849 my attention was called to an old wall which had been
discovered in excavating the ground close to where is now a building known as
French's Slaughter-house, in Moulsham. It was apparent that this was Roman
work, and upon obtaining the assent of the owner of the property, I and others
proceeded to excavate the site, and at length were rewarded by finding the
remains of an undoubted Roman dwelling of a superior order. I submit an
enlarged plan showing the walls of the various rooms, and upon the table is a
cabinet containing various articles found during the excavations. A full descrip-
tion of this building is "given in the first vol. of the "Transactions of the Essex
Archaeological Society." No doubt this dwelling—with its tessellated pavements
and its decorated plaster walls—was the residence of a person of superior degree,
probably the Roman commandant of the district ; and the remains of ladies'
ornaments, and the position of the dwelling upon a gentle slope, no doubt
surrounded by gardens, suggests that it might have been the residence of people
of advanced civilization, and we should not probably be very far wide of the
mark if we fixed its date at about the year 200. Again, some few years ago several
Cinerary Urns were dug up in the nursery grounds belonging to Mr. Saltmarsh ;
and again, I have upon the table a Cinerary Urn, containing burnt bones,
which was given to me by the late Mr. Thomas Greenwood, and which,
he informed me, was dug up in Moulsham, although I omitted, I regret
to say, to identify the exact spot at the time. We have thus direct and
positive evidence that the Romans both lived and died here. Furthermore,
if you will examine the tower of Chelmsford Church you will find con-
siderable remains of Septaria and Roman bricks—the two materials used by
the Romans in these parts in all their building constructions. No doubt many
other Roman remains have at different times been found and destroyed, for it was
no uncommon thing, when we were excavating the Roman villa before alluded to,
to be told "Oh ! I have often found fragments of pottery like that, but I never
thought they were of any value."
I should mention here that I believe a portion of the south wall of the nave of
Broomfield Church to be part of an original Roman building, and there is at one
quoin one of the largest Roman bricks I have ever seen ; the length being I foot
11 inches, the breadth 11 inches, and the thickness 21/2 inches. There are in
almost all the churches in this neighbourhood old Roman bricks which have
probably done duty in several buildings, and which prove, at any rate, that brick-
making was brought to great perfection here in the time of the Romans.
Some Roman Urns were also found upon Mr. Soper's estate, Little Waltham,
at the junction of the Dunmow and Braintree roads with the Chelmsford road.
Although I do not claim for Chelmsford that it was a fortified or walled town,
yet I think it is pretty clear that it was a town of some importance during the
Roman period. If, therefore, we could produce a photograph of Chelmsford
as it appeared from 1,400 to 1,800 years ago, we should see the nucleus of a town,
with probably some few dwellings of a superior character, perhaps a temple,
possibly baths and other public buildings, with numerous other dwellings more
or less substantial, some, no doubt, of a quasi-military character. The rivers,
instead of being allowed to meander over the rich pasture lands, would