•JHK I)i:\i:lopj\ii<:nt of architkcturf. in i'.sskx. 167 



At each of the places mentioned as lying on the foregoing roads, 

 remains of the Roman occupation have been found. Colchester 

 undoubtedly was one of if not the chief Roman town in East Anglia, 

 and the remains of the wall with which the ancient town was 

 surrounded and defended gives us an excellent example of the 

 Roman mode of building. Finding no stone in the county but an 

 abundance of clay, they set to work to manufacture a substitute for 

 stone and well they succeeded, for the hardness and durability of a 

 Roman brick is proverbial ; but probably they found that the manu- 

 facture of bricks with which to carry up the whole building would 

 involve not only a great expense but very considerable delay. They 

 therefore utilised material which was ready to hand and required no 

 manufacturing process. I refer to the pebbles and flints which are 

 found throughout the county, and to the small hard calcareous 

 boulders found in the clay, and also on parts of the coast, especially 

 at Harwich, which they called Septaria. The mode of construction 

 of their walls was as follows : having carried up the foundations for 

 three or four feet in rubble work, that is, with pebbles and flints and 

 septaria mixed with mortar composed of good lime and sand, with a 

 certain admixture of ground bricks or burnt clay, they bedded there- 

 on two or three courses of their bricks, which were about half the 

 thickness of the bricks of the present day ; they then carried up the 

 next three or four feet with rubble work as before described, and then 

 repeated the courses of bricks, followed again by rubble work and 

 hands of bricks until the wall was completed. This was the mode of 

 construction adopted in the Colchester wall, and similar construction 

 was adopted in building the walls enclosing the great camp at 

 Bradwell-juxta-Mare ;also in the walls of the Roman villa at Chelms- 

 ford, in the south-west wall of the nave of Eroomfield Church, 

 which I believe to be a fragment of a Roman building, and I think 

 I may venture to say that this mode of construction is found in all 

 buildings in this county which can be verified as of the Roman 

 period, and it therefore becomes practically a test of Roman work. 

 From the numerous remains of undoubted Roman pottery and other 

 matters, which have been found from time to time throughout the 

 county, and especially at Colchester, indicating a very considerable 

 population, it has been to many a matter of surprise that there are 

 so few Roman buildings left to us ; but it must be remembered that 

 the habits and religion of their successors was so different, that 

 certainly no Roman temple would stand a chance of existence when 



