EXPLORATION OF SOME "RED-HILLS" IN ESSEX, 175
is from a drawing made from the point of view of a boat in the
channel at low water, by H. A. Cole, in August, 1896.
The excavations were made (by the kind permission of Mrs.
Harvey, the owner) on two days in August, 1892, and the
working party comprised my brothers, B. G. and H. A. Cole,
Mr. Charles Wilson, and myself. We were assisted in the
digging by Mr. David King, the well-known postman of the
island. A very long cut, 2ft. 6in. wide, was made, extending in
a westerly direction from the extreme outer margin of the "hill"
to the centre. As far as we could judge we went down to the
solid clay, below the alluvium, as at Burnham. After removal
of the purely surface soil, the whole heap was found to consist
of burnt rubble with the usual large intermixture of the rude
FIG. 3.—POTTERY FRAGMENTS (ROMANO-BRITISH) FROM RED-HILL ON
BOWER HALL FARM, EAST MERSEA.
thick pottery. There was no evidence of stratification; the soil
worked evenly and homogeneously from top to bottom. We
were at once struck with similarity between the objects found
here and at Burnham. There were the "T-pieces," the wedges
(F. and G., Fig. 2), and the very small proportion of hard ware
(shown at Fig. 3, J. to M.) which appears to be like the other
examples, Romano-British. At Fig. 2, the objects F. and G.
are from this Red-hill. The object E is like the "T-pieces" in
material and shaft, but it has a circular boss or foot, as shown.
This piece was found by Mr. G. E. Vaughan several years
after the date of our exploration, at the natural section formed
by the Pyefleet, at low water, washed out of the clay, with