244 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 



end of the journey was near. In the midst are situated the two little villages of 

 Virley and Salcott, which fiice one another from opposite sides of Salcott 

 Creek. 



At Virley the Rev. E. ^Musselwhite and Miss Alusselwhite, who took great 

 interest in tlie visit, joined the ramblers, and a walk of nearly a mile over the 

 saltings, brought all to their destination, the site of the Red Hills on Copt 

 Hall Marsh. To quote the excellent report of the meeting in the columns of the 

 Essex County Standard, " here the marsh showed a large circular area slightly 

 raised and composed of reddish earth plentifully strewn Avith fragments of 

 primitive pottery. The rabbits of Wigborough had made the most of this oasis 

 of light soil in the impenetrable clay desert of the marsh and their burrowings- 

 had served a useful purpose in exposing a good deal of the subterranean condition 

 of things. Nettles, which appear to abhor a heavy soil as much as the rabbits 

 do, had also found their opportunity and were giowing profusely in this isolated 

 circle of lighter earth." 



' ' There is a story of Cuvier that when appealed to by the Academicians as to 

 whether a crab might be defined as a red insect that walked backwanis, he replied 

 that the definition was an admirable one, and he could only make three correc- 

 tions — a crab was not red, was not an insect, and did not walk backwards. In 

 somewhat the same spirit it was cynically objected by one of the paity that the 

 red hills are neither hills nor red ! 



" Strictlv speaking the objection is unanswerable, \et the name is not now to 

 be altered, and an investigation of the interior of these strange remains of primitive 

 times would show that the title is not so unreasonable as it would seem at first 

 sight. The reddish earth and the really red pottery fragments of which they consist 

 extend often to a depth of eight feet, at which the original substratum of London clay 

 is reached, showing that the works are really mounds, though buiied by the slow 

 sepulture of time. Close by many of them, an actual mound, some feet in height, 

 is often met with, the jmrport of which must remain a m\stery until eithei" public 

 or private munificence provides the necessary means for a thorough investigation 

 of the interior. Dotted about on the marsh lands of Essex these red-earth hills 

 are met with in no small number, and hundreds have been mapped out by the 

 energies of the late Mr. H. Slopes and Mr. AV. H. Dalton, and later still more 

 completely by Dr. Laver, ^Ir. E. A. Eitch, and ^Ir. W. Cole, who have almost 

 exhausted inquiry for the purpose of locating all the examples of red-earth hills 

 that are known to exist in Essex." 



The President, in the course of a few remaiks, refeired to the late jSIr. Henry 

 Stopes' address at a meeting of the British Association, on " The Salting, 

 ^lounds of Essex " ; and Mr. W. Cole said that all that seemed to be known of 

 these mysterious mounds was contained in a contribution by the late Mr. Stopes- 

 to the Essex Naturalist. iSIr. Cole recounted various hypotheses which had. 

 been put forward to account for their existence. One explanation was that they 

 were old salt works ; but that was discountenanced by their jiosition inland ;. 

 whilst another view, supported by the fact that they were always found above 

 high water mark, was that they were the sites of reluges made to protect cattle 

 against Hoods. iSIr. Cole, however, favoured the hypothesis that they were the 

 sites of very early pottery kilns, for in them were found three or four kinds of 

 pottery, some of which appeared to be Roniano-Biitish. He had brought over 

 from the Essex Museum a selection of pottery which he had obtained in exploring 

 Red Hills at Burnham (in company with Mr. Fitch) and at East and West 



