EXPLORATION OF SOME " RED-HILLS IN ESSEX, 171 



and another. Barber had known the Red-hills about 28 years. 

 He told us that it was then about half an acre in extent, and 

 that hundreds of loads of soil had been taken away. He also 

 said that in making the foundations for the shed " a number of 

 coins were found, one silver, and quantities of pot, some of them 

 whole, and pieces of bone." A carpenter named Baker, of 

 Southminster, found the silver coin. Of course, I give these 

 particulars wholly on hearsay. 



Judging from what we saw, and were told, the red-hill had 

 "been much interfered with, and very great quantities of the 

 burnt rubble taken away. It was consequently very shallow, 

 and only one of our cuttings afforded anything like a good 

 section. We made four trenches : — 



No. 1 w r as 16ft. long and 2ft. Sin. wide. We dug down to 

 the apparently undisturbed clay (? London Clay) first finding 

 .a thin layer of sand at a depth of about 2ft. 6in. The reddish 

 .burnt rubble appeared to be very uniform throughout. 



No. 2 trench was 20ft. long and 2ft. 6in. wide. The sur- 

 face soil was thick, about 2oin., and much may have been cast 

 over the " hill." Then came 3m. of burnt red clay and sand ; 

 •iin. charcoal ; 2in. burnt clay ; another layer of charcoal, very 

 thin ; then 2in. burnt clay, and finally about ioin. sand over the 

 •clay bottom. 



In No. 3 we went down about 2oin. finding red-earth below, 

 h\it we could not get a section to the bottom because a burrow 

 had been cut through the part years ago, apparently as a shelter 

 for hares. 



Our last trench (No. 4.) was icft. long, 2ft. 6in. wide, and 

 about iSin. down to the undisturbed clay. The soil here, after 

 the superficial surface layer, was of the red burnt-earth kind, 

 which apparently had been sifted ; it was quite fine in grain, and 

 •contained little or no pottery. 



It will be gathered from the above that the " red-earth " 

 formed by far the greater part of the " hill." This substance 

 was quite like the burnt clay now-a-days prepared for making 

 paths and roads during suburban building operations. 

 Interspersed with this burnt rubble, in all the cuttings 

 excepting No. 4, were vast numbers of fragments, mostly quite 

 small, of a very coarse and thick pottery, presumably made 

 from the same kind of clay (see specimen drawn at A, Fig. 1). 



