NEAR THE RAILWAY STATION AT HARLOW, ESSEX. 61
Mr. Gould, in his paper, gives the whole of the "Gentleman's
Magazine" account, but only mentions the date of that in "Archaeo-
logia." The descriptions of the supposed earthwork are equally
brief in each case, and are as follow. In "Archaeologia" we read :
" There is a field called Standing Groves, situated a mile South
(sic) of this town, near the river Stort, of an oval form, rising
gradually all round to the centre, about 20 ft. high. In digging into
this hill, a few years since, the workmen discovered some very strong
walls, which they were not able to penetrate."
In the "Gentleman's Magazine" the account is as follows :
" Near Harlow, Essex, are the remains of a Roman station, not
yet noticed by Antiquaries. The castellum, or place of strength,
appears to have been in the neighbouring parish of Latton on an
elevated field, which was formerly almost surrounded by the waters
of the river Stort. The works are not now visible, but a few feet
below the surface are the foundations of very strong walls."
There is an obvious misprint in the account in "Archaeologia"
in the use of the word South instead of North. And the distance
from the town is too great. The mound is about half a mile N.N.W.
of the centre of the town, which is small and very compact in form.
The supposed earthwork is shown on the map of the Geological
Survey (47 S.W.), as consisting of London Clay and as surrounded
by the alluvium of the Stort. Above the alluvium it rises in the
centre to a height of about 25 ft. It stands about 300 yards west
of Harlow Railway Station, and is about 400 yards long, its greatest
breadth being about 180 yards. Its plan is oval, and it is correctly
described in "Archaeologia" as "rising gradually all round to the
centre." The longer axis of the oval has a direction nearly north-
west and south-east (See Map, Fig. 1).
The geological formations visible at the surface within a radius
of two or three miles round Harlow, are the London Clay, the
Glacial Sand and Gravel, and the Boulder Clay; the first-named
occupying a very small space here and there in the river valleys ; the
second a much larger area in the flanks of the valleys ; and the third
capping the plateaux between the valleys. Through these strata the
Stort has cut its way, and is now, after the fashion of rivers, con-
tinually tending to change its course laterally, to eat away the bank
on one side of its channel, and to deposit alluvium on the other,
where the current is sluggish. It is not uncommon to find here and
there, in the course of rivers like the Thames and Lea, an alluvial