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NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
rumbling. P.C. Batten, who was on duty near All Saints' Church, Springfield,
was very much afraid the meteor was descending directly upon him.
October Rainfall at Chelmsford.—Mr. F. Chancellor has communicated
to the papers particulars of the rainfall in Chelmsford during the month of
October for the past twenty-five years. In October just elapsed Mr. Chancellor
registered 3'6o inches of rain, this being exactly the same amount which was
registered in 1875. The driest October experienced during the quarter of a
century was that of 1879, when only 073 inches was registered ; and the wettest
by far was October, 1880, when 6.26 inches of rain fell. In 1876 the register
marked 0.91 inches, and in the other years it varied from 1.97 to 4.18. The
rainfall for last month was heavy at Chelmsford, though not so much rain fell
there as in other parts of the county. At Ramsey, near Harwich, 7.21 inches
was registered, while 5.19 inches fell at Sudbury.
Celtic Vases at Great Clacton.—In June last, as some workmen were
digging gravel on Mr. P. Smith's farm at Bull Hill, Great Clacton, they found
four vases about three feet from the surface. Unfortunately the workmen were
not aware of the value of their discovery, and took no pains to get the vessels up
without injury, or to save the pieces. Mr. Smith managed to save the least
injured, and has presented it to the Colchester Museum. No note was taken as
to their position or contents, but it appears to have been a Celtic burial of the
usual character. A large vase, accompanied by smaller drinking and food vessels,
was found, but there are no indications of a tumulus. The vase sent to the
Museum is six inches high and four and a-half inches wide at the mouth, orna-
mented by numerous depressed rings formed by a twisted thong. The inside is
very smooth, and the fragments of flint in the composition of the paste are
rather smaller than usual. It is well burnt, and is of a red colour.
Dutch Tobacco Pipes.—The queer little tobacco pipes (called "Dutch-
men'' by the country people) that one finds in excavations near sites of ancient
settlements and old banks in parts of Essex may be worthy of a passing note.
They are often found when repairing the sea-walls at Mersea and elsewhere, and
I have one dredged up from the estuary of the Blackwater, Mr. Bernard Smith
("Notes and Queries," June, 1854) said of them :—"The pipes found in such
abundance in the bed of the Thames, and everywhere in and about London, I
believe to be of Dutch manufacture. They are identical with those Teniers and
Ostade put into the mouths of their boors, and have for the most part a small-
pointed heel, a well-defined milled ring around the lip, and bear no mark or name
of the maker. Such were the pipes used by the soldiers of the Parliament when-
ever they encamped." The late Mr. Charles Keene (of "Punch") was very fond
of smoking out of these pipes, and some months ago Mr. H. Savile-Clarke gave
some interesting reminiscences of the Keene pipes in the "Pall Mall Gazette" :
—"When first I met Mr. Charles Keene, a good many years ago now, at the
studio of a friend in Danes Inn, he was smoking one of those curious little clay
pipes so familiar to all who knew him. We hid some talk about it, and I under-
stood him to say that such pipes were the earliest made in this country, and that
they were often found when turning up any part of the foreshore of the Thames.
They have a very small bowl like a thin barrel, and a thick stem ; with a curious
little heel under the howl, so that the pipe can be put down without spilling any
of the ash. The smallness of the bowl was, of course, due to the high price of
tobacco in the days when these pipes were first used.....It may be
noted that the bowls of these pipes are very thick, while the bore of the genuine