QIIJB — A VISIT TO EECULVER. 



333 



southern tower. Numerous holes were seen inside the walls, in which 

 birds had built their nests; some of them contained young, of the 

 starling especially. T picked up in this tower a few human bones 

 from the churchyard, collected by the people who had charge of the 

 place, and brought away with me an axis, a clavicle, and a temporal 

 bone, in the usual condition of graveyard specimens. 



I now descended to the ground and visited the E-oman encamp- 

 ment, at least the remains of it, walking round as much of the old 

 wall as is visible at its eastern and southern faces. It was still very 

 perfect, although in some places undermined, and portions had fallen 

 outwards in some places. Many fragments of genuine Eoman brick 

 were observed, which had been built in by the E-omans. Occasionally 

 Homan coins are found about here, generally much defaced and in 

 bad condition. Grold rings and other articles are now and then 

 picked up at the base of the exposed wall of the old graveyard, and 

 not unfrequently the end of a coffin becomes exposed, and its contents 

 are soon rifled with the object of finding jewellery. 



As an object of antiquity, the remains of the old church are well 

 worthy of preservation. I lingered about E-eculver for some hours, 

 and retraced my steps to Herne Bay. From E-eculver, and indeed all 

 along the coast to Herne Bay, the high land of the east end of 

 Sheppey is a prominent object in the distance. Shoeburyness, on the 

 opposite side of the Thames, can also be seen. South of this place is 

 Herne, which gives its name to what once was a bay. Herne Bay 

 has nothing to boast of but the sea and its long pier, the termination 

 of which shows where the line of coast at one time extended, as we 

 may infer from the Admiralty charts of the present day, which I 

 think very accurately indicate the former position and boundaries of 

 the land by tlie presence of the shoals of clay and sand. The point 

 of attraction about here is certainly Be- 

 culver, but the inhabitants do not appear 

 to know it. 



About halfway to Eeculver, I picked up / 

 on the top of the clifi" an undoubted flint- / 

 im[)lement in a broken condition, but still /.,^ 

 suiliciently distinct to point out its real ■ 

 nature. It strongly resembles many of \ 

 those I have seen, both in colour and shape. \ 

 The latter is shown in the annexed woodcut. 

 It is not the first time that flint-implements 

 have been found at Eeculver, as in the 

 ' Geologist ' for J uly they are referred to, in 

 a review of J\Ir. Evans's paper on ' Fur- 

 ther Discoveries of Flint Implements in the 

 Drift.' 



The train wliich brought me down to Fig. 2.— Suiall Hint iinplonu-nt. 

 Herne Bay left for London at half-past 



seven, having allowed me eight liours to wander about a part of the 

 coast, which will am[)ly re])ay a visit. 



