Journal of Proceedings. lxxxvii
Mr. Joshua Clarke's house, " Fairy Croft," was the next visited.
Here Mr. Clarke exhibited many fine botanical and ornithological works
and his own copy of the late Mr. Gibson's ' Flora of Essex.' It was
interleaved with beautiful coloured drawings of the various plants,
forming a volume which made all the botanists present break the tenth
commandment. The illustrations proved to be by Mr. Clarke himself,
whose love of painting is exemplified also in the extraordinary wealth of
pictures which his house contains. Every room seems full of them ; the
staircase and hall are hung with paintings, and almost every picture is good.
Great interest was shown in his splendid collection of humming-birds
and birds of Paradise (supposed to be the finest private collection in
England), and in his long series of stone implements. These are not all
of equal value, but some of them are exceedingly fine, especially the
Danish implements, and a basalt axe, which was found at Chesterford,
whither it must have been brought from a long distance as an article of
merchandise.
From Mr. Clarke's house a walk was taken, partly along the Repell
earth-works, to Mr. Gibson's garden, where Mr. Murray Tuke pointed
out the site of the ancient cemetery which has been so fully described
by Mr. Ecroyd Smith in the paper in the Essex Archaeological Society's
' Transactions,' above referred to in the account of the earth-works. A
large number of skeletons were found placed in graves cut down to the
depth of about a foot into the chalk, which here lies within two or three
feet of the surface. The first discovery of human remains was in 1830,
as noticed by Lord Braybrooke ; but it was not until 1876 that a careful
examination of the spot was made by the late Mr. G. S. Gibson, when
about 150 skeletons of both sexes, and children, were disclosed. The
ornaments found belonged to the so-called Anglo-Saxon period. These
were not the earliest indications of man's work found, for some of the
graves trenched upon pits, more or less circular in form, excavated in the
solid chalk. Mr. Tuke pointed out one of these pits, but stated that so
far as he knew there were no subterranean workings such as those alluded
to by Mr. Ecroyd Smith in Essex Arch. Transactions [see some
remarks upon these supposed pits by Mr. T. V. Holmes, in Supplement i.
to this volume of ' Proceedings,' posti]. On the occasion of our visit
but very few of the graves were exposed ; but in the library (where the
whole party was received with the most graceful and hearty welcome)
there were on view numerous examples of the skeletons which were
found in the graves, and some ornaments found with them.* Perhaps
the most noticeable feature—certainly that which first struck all the
visitors on Monday—was the extraordinary beauty and soundness of the
teeth of these old inhabitants of the spot; and this peculiarity was
noticed by Lord Braybrooke in his account of the first find of
skeletons.
The Museum was then visited under the guidance of the Trustees'
* These skeletons and ornaments are now (1801) in the Museum.