230 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Paulson, F.L.S., Mr. Edwin E. Turner and Mr. W. Cole and Mr. Percy
Thompson, Hon. Secretaries.
On reaching the island at East Mersea, a visit was first made to the
celebrated mound or Barrow, on the grounds of Mr. C. Brown. The
mound is well known to the readers of the Rev. Baring Gould's wonderful
story of Mehalah as "Grim's Hoe," where a poetic legend of its sup-
posed Danish origin is related, but Mr. Gould has since stated that he had
no genuine foundation for the story. The mound was opened by the
Morant Club in 1912, under the direction of Mr. Hazzledine Warren, who
in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society (vol. xiii. N.S. 116-
139) has given a most interesting account of the discoveries then made.
He is of opinion that the Barrow was the tomb of some important per-
sonage or petty ruler of British race, but living under Roman influence.
Preparation had been made for the inspection of the tomb. The
interior was entered by a tunnel, and the chamber was found to be
built up of seven courses of flanged roofing-tiles. The chamber is 18
inches square and 221/2 inches high. In it was found a leaden casket,
within which was a beautiful glass vessel containing cremated human
remains. The only cover were two wooden boards still in good preser-
vation. The urn and casket have been placed in the Colchester Museum,
but carefully-made models of them have been placed in the tomb, and
the tunnel, etc., has been made permanent.
Mr. Warren and Mr. Kenworthy took the greatest pains to inform the
visitors of all particulars of the exploration, but it is quite unnecessary to
repeat these here, as the reader should refer to Mr. Warren's excellent
monograph mentioned above. The interment is one of the most interesting
known in England, and few have been investigated with equal care. From
the evidence both Mr. Warren and Mr. A. G. Wright (curator of the Col-
chester Museum) are disposed to put the approximate date at some
time within the Flavian period, between A.D. 60 and 96.
A move was then made to the "Saltings" by way of the old Roman
causeway known as the "Strood," which connects Mersea with the main-
land, and some hours were spent in "herborizing" on this wild land.
In Mehalah is an excellent word-picture of the district :—" A more
desolate region can scarce be conceived, and yet it is not without beauty
In summer the thrift mantles the marshes with shot satin, passing through
all gradations of tint from maiden's blush to lily white. Thereafter a
purple glow steals over the waste, as the sea lavender bursts into flower,
and simultaneously every creek and pool is royally fringed with sea aster.
A little later the glasswort, that shot up green and transparent as emerald
glass in the early spring, turns to every tinge of carmine."
The excursion afforded an excellent opportunity for an ecological
study. All the plants given in Tansley's Types of British Vegetation, as
commonly represented in a general "Salt-Marsh Association," were
growing abundantly on the saltings near the Strood, viz.—Spergularia
marginata, S. salina, Aster tripolium, Artemisia maritima, Limonium vulgare,
Statice maritima, Plantago maritima, Atriplex portulacoides, Salicornia
europaea, Suaeda maritima, Triglochin maritimum, and Glyceria maritima.
Atriplex portulacoides grew on the drier banks of the creeks, and some
very luxuriant specimens of Inula crithmoides were seen on the outer
face of the sea-wall.