79 



ANCIENT REMAINS AT EPPING, ESSEX. 



By C. r.. SWOKDKK. 

 \ R fad January joih, iSg2.\ 

 /^.\ December 191I1, 1891, hearing that some Roman tiles had been unearthed 

 ^^ by workmen employed in moving clay for brickmaking in a field called 

 Solomon's Hoppel, the property of S. Chisenhale Marsh. Esq.. of Gaynes Park, 

 I went to the spot at once. The land is now in the occupation of Mr. Styles, 

 whose grandfather opened the ground for brickmaking about 100 years ago. Unfor- 

 tunately, the men had already destroyed nearly the whole of two walls which were 

 about twenty feet long, two feet high, and two feet apart. At one end the walls 

 were returned, and the intermediate space was floored with concrete-like material 

 so hard that the pick was broken by the workman when trying to get through it. 



Part of the floor had a layer of flint stones, but these were all removed and thrown 

 into a heap with broken tiles, so that no particulars of position could be taken. 



The remainder of the space between the walls was filled up with ashes and 

 wet clay, the whole being about three feet below the surface, and in a bed of clav 

 wliich had not been moved. The walls consisted of layers of tiles of various 

 thicknesses from one to two inches, the intervening substance seeming more like 

 cla)- than mortar, that nearest the ashes being harder, but both tiles and mortar 

 were very soft and brittle, so that not a sinole whole tile was saved ; however, a 

 few were carefully put together, from which the following dimensions were taken, 

 but they varied slightly in size and thickness. Length fourteen inches, width ;it 

 one end twelve and a-half inches, the other end ten and a-quarter inches, upon each 

 side a flange two inches high e.xiends nearly the whole length, but cut off one and 

 a-half inches from the wide end, and two inches from the other, evidently for over- 

 lapping, but no sort of projection to hang the tile upon a lath could be found. 



These are roofing tiles, the projecting flange? of adjoining tiles being covered 

 by a semi-circular ridge-tile, which bound them together and excluded the wet ; 

 nearly all bear a hand-mark upon one side, but scarcely two are alike. Many 

 bear the impression of the foot-prints of dogs, goats, etc. Besides these were 

 fragments of flue pipes marked with lines in various designs ; no whole pipes 

 could be found, and these pieces were built into the walls. 



A fragment of a lipped circular vessel in dark ware of Roman make was also 

 found. 



Mr. Styles gave me a small vessel of red ware which was found a few years ago, 

 wliich having been played with by children is somewhat worn at one end, so that 

 the shape cannot be very well determined ; but it is cup shaped, five and a-half 

 inches in diameter, one and three-quarter inches deep inside, the lip having knife 

 marks radiating irregularly from a hand moulded ridge to the outer edge. Below 

 the lip the sides are contracted in a cone shape, the surface showing that a knife 

 was used in a perpendicular direction to form it. Just below the lip are three 

 lines not e:|uidistant, and below these some straight cross lines, evidently, like 

 the others, cut with a knife ; the bottom gives only slight signs of being some- 

 what enlarged for the foot or pediment. 



Mr. Franks, of the British .Museum, considers this uni(jue example to be false 

 Samia!i ware, of British or Roman local make. 



About forty years since a large quantity' of burnt earth was removed from this 

 yard to an adjoining farm, having been discovered about fift)' feet from the spot 

 whe-e the remains above described, which I look u[) m as a kiln, were unearthed. 



