64 GEOLOGICAL NOTES ON A SUPPOSED EARTHWORK
great size, at the edge of the alluvial flat, though it was dry from the
want of rain. But I saw nothing to suggest anything but farmer's
work for farming purposes.
We have seen that both "Archaeologia" and the "Gentleman's
Magazine" mention the existence of the foundations of very strong
walls somewhere about this hill. But neither writer seems to have
seen them or to know whereabouts they were placed. And it is
much more likely, it seems to me, that they were the remains of old
farm buildings, rather than part of any ancient military structure.
For any kind of fortress, pre-historic, Roman, or mediaeval, must
have left its mark on the contour of the slopes of the hill. If,
again, we look at the positions of the neighbouring camps men-
tioned in "Archaeologia" and the "Gentleman's Magazine," and
compare them with that of this Harlow mound, we find that they
really increase the evidence against the supposition that the latter
was ever a fort. For the ancient fortresses at Walbury and Stan-
Fig. 3.—Outline of the Harlow Mound. (From near the Railway Station.)
sted Mountfitchet are both on Glacial Gravel, while the Castle at
Bishop's Stortford is close to the river, at a spot where the alluvial
flat is very narrow. In each of these three cases their artificial
shaping is very manifest ; in each a good water supply was obtain-
able. The Bishop's Stortford Castle Mound is, of course, the only
one of the three with which the Harlow Mound can fairly be com-
pared, but the visitor to the two mounds will soon see that any
resemblance between them is of the most superficial kind. They
both rise from the alluvial fiat of the Stort, and there any likeness
between them ends.
The Harlow mound is 400 yards long, that at Bishop's Stortford
may be 60 to 70 yards. Then, as we have seen, the former is an
extremely slight and gentle eminence, its height being about 25 feet
at its highest point above the alluvial flat, and its contours perfectly
natural. The Bishop's Stortford mound, on the other hand, instead
of presenting natural contours, is as steep-sided as any railway
embankment, and equally suggests an artificial origin. Its height,
too, is considerably greater than that of the Harlow mound. It is