2
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
In classical antiquity, graffiti appear in many places, but usually
on walls, and often they are of such a nature as to be quite unre-
producible to a squeamish audience—many of those at Pompeii,
for instance, are of this description. I do not propose to pursue this
psychological by-path into later times and to our own day, except
to say in passing that the generally coarse and brutal Middle
Ages seem to have been singularly free from the production of such
graffiti.
I shall consider the simple record of name and date, occasion-
ally the rewarding sentence, perhaps a rough sketch of an object,
familiar enough to the scribbler, but often remote from our own
experience today.
For example, this Ship (Plate 1) must have been seen by some
lad at Rainham nearly four hundred years ago, for it is recognis-
ably a "cog", a small trading vessel of Tudor times, and the out-
line is cut in the plastered wall of the Roodloft stairs in Rainham
Church. The ship is sometimes stated to be of the fourteenth cen-
tury, and indeed it is rather primitive in type, but the plaster on
which it is scratched is apparently no older than late sixteenth
century, at most. It has been brought to my notice by a member
that it is most unusual for the drawing of a ship to show the
anchor, cable, and the whole of the hull; moreover, there are no
yards to be seen on the masts, and these prominent features are
rarely omitted. The suggestion is that this ship was careened on
the Thames foreshore for scraping and repair when she was so
spiritedly drawn four centuries ago.
Nearly all graffiti are the work of amateurs in the art of lettering
or designing on hard surfaces, except those very special graffiti
known as "Mason's Marks", about which I do not propose to
talk today. Therefore we shall not look for practised skill in the
examples we may meet. I suppose the professional stonemason
may sometimes fall in love and cut his girl's initials with a pre-
cision that dismays the rival swains, but I cannot say that I have
ever recognised the hand of the professional, except perhaps in a
very well-formed name cut on the steps of Barking Abbey ruins,
and dated 1946. The name, a. t. smith, bears all the signs of being
cut by a modern engineering draughtsman.
By the way, why do we instinctively recoil from this piece of
barbaric desecration, and yet find interest and even value in what
must have been a similar piece of hooliganism four hundred years
ago ? It is not easy to answer this question, and perhaps it may de-
serve some thought at odd moments—I will leave it at that.
Where, in Essex, are we likely to find graffiti ?
In the main, in three places: on church doorways, walls, and
window sills; on the parapets of stone- or brick-built bridges; and,
of course, on brick walls, often of inns.