288
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
accounts of the research in the "Archaeologia," vols. xxv, xxvi, and xxviii. The
domestic and sepulchral antiquities discovered by him were Roman, consisting of
pottery, glass, glass urns, a bronze vase, a signet ring, with a sepulchre of brick
and cinerary deposits, as well as a coin of the Emperor Hadrian.6 The mem-
bers ascended the highest tumulus, and Mr. Fitch read some extracts from
Mr. Gage's papers in the "Archaeologia," and from Lord Braybrooke's "Antiqua
Explorata," referred to above, and Mr. Edward Charlesworth, F.G.S., read for
the author the following :—
Notes on Bartlow Hills, Essex.
By Joseph Clarke, F.S.A.
Tradition, however strange or vague it may at first sight appear, has generally
a nucleus of truth, distorted it may be, and often difficult to unravel or to trace to
its source. It has been handed down by tradition that the Tumuli called Bartlow
Hills were thrown up over the dead warriors slain in a battle (prior to A.D. 1020)
between the Saxon King Edmund Ironside and the Danish King Cnut, the
latter of whom was victorious. But it was a monstrous stretch of credulity to
suppose that, after one of these desolating battles, labourers could be found to cast
up such stupendous monuments. In the years 1832-4-5 the smaller tumuli were
opened, and the three larger ones pierced to the centre, under the direction of Mr.
John Gage (afterwards Rokewood), who published the results in the "Archaeologia"
of the Society of Antiquaries of London. The deposits then discovered were of a
Roman-like character, and the conclusion was that they were cast up as memorial
monuments over some of the chiefs of that conquering people. But after much
thought and consideration of the customs of that nation, a doubt arose that the
tumuli might not be Roman after all. The Romans were at no time the inhabit-
ants of Britain any more than the British are the inhabitants of India. They
sent their legions (without women) to hold the island in subjection, but not as
permanent residents ; they changed them often, as the British at the present day
change their regiments in India. After occupying Britain about four centuries,
the Romans entirely evacuated it in the reign of Honorius. Nations adhere to
their ancient customs with great tenacity. The Romans cast up no barrows; they
burned their dead and buried their ashes. A soldier's remains were generally
accompanied by a broken tile to denote the legion to which he belonged, or a piece
of Samian ware or a coin to denote his affinity. Some few coffins of lead, believed
to be Roman from their ornamentation, have been found at Colchester and Bow.
A very plain one was found at Chesterford, Essex, and is now in the Saffron
Walden Museum; it had been enclosed in thick wood, bound with iron ; from the
thinness of the plates of the vertebrae the skeleton was judged to be that of a young
or deformed person. Several coffins of marble have been exhumed from a great
depth, these all bear inscriptions, generally to young persons. In the British
Museum is one with a medallion portrait of a youth. The Saxons buried their dead
entire with their weapons and ornaments, not very deeply, but with no inscriptions.
One remarkable instance of the tenacity of customs is in a Saxon urn found in
Norfolk, with a Roman inscription to a young wife. The British alone raised
tumuli, leaving in them no indication of their age or occupants. Of the four
larger hills, the one nearest Bartlow (in the grounds of R. A. Hoblyn, Esq.), now
6 Many of the Bartlow relics were destroyed in the fire at Easton Lodge in 1847. A few of the
relics, Mr. Clarke writes, which were raked from the ashes of the fire, are in the British Museum,
among them the bottomless, handless, body part of the beautiful bronze vase with all the enamel
burnt out.