ROMANO-BRITISH SETTLEMENT AT CHIGWELL. 15
material while the ware was soft. In some cases pounded quartz,
etc., has been used for the purpose, in others the required
roughness has been obtained by the insertion of iron scoria.
The ware was too brittle for the grinding of hard matter therein,
and the cook possibly used a stick or wooden instrument in
treating the material, whether vegetables, fruit, or what not. It
is interesting to note that in a mortarium found at Silchester
(now in the Reading Museum), were plum, cherry, and bird-cherry
stone's, showing that a sweet dish had been compounded therein,
or maybe that the cook threw the stones into the vessel to get
them out of the way.
DARK GREY WARE, ETC.
(Tray No. 2.)
This ware (in some instances almost black) is chiefly of
interest from the simple form of ornament used in its decoration.
It, and the light grey ware shown with it, exhibit line and stipple
ornament, the latter apparently obtained by some sort of roulette
or wheel-tool.
Next to anything they teach as to the customs of the old
inhabitants, a great interest to us in all the " finds " lies in the
question they suggest—where did the people live who required a
cemetery a third of a mile in length ?
All the pottery, etc., has been found on the line already
indicated, but this may be from the mere accident that gravel has
been dug along this line. Possibly, if the ground to the eastward
had been excavated for any reason, it might have yielded some
remains.
On the west of the gravel line the land is subject to the
overflow of the Roding, and little likely to have been selected for
burial purposes.
Assuming that the remains are confined to this north and
south line, and bearing in mind that the Roman plan so frequently
was to bury along a course parallel to the approach-road to a
settlement, we come to the conclusion that the "town" must
have been situated directly north or south of the line of the
cemetery.
Close north of it we find a little brook valley (at an angle to
the river Roding), which was probably in early days a swamp or
small lake. Looking to the south end of the line we have the
old manor house of Woolston or Wolverston, an interesting place,