Volume 1

The gentleman's magazine library : being a classified collection of the chief contents of The gentleman's magazine from 1731 to 1868. Romano-British remains / edited by George Laurence Gomme.

Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The gentleman's magazine library : being a classified collection of the chief contents of The gentleman's magazine from 1731 to 1868. Romano-British remains / edited by George Laurence Gomme. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    by the accomplished draughtsman Mr. A. F. Sprague, for publication in the Journal of the Essex Archaeological Society. I am, etc. H. W. King. P.S. Since my visit to East Ham I have been informed that two more leaden coffins have been disinterred. Hazeleigh. [1838, Part II., p. 433.] I send you an extract from the Chelmsford Chronicle: “ Ancient Remains.—On the 2nd April some labourers, whilst land- ditching in the middle of a field of twenty-five acres, upon Jenkin’s farm in the parish of Hazeleigh, in this county, and in the occupation of Mr. Hart, of Woodham Mortimer Hall, discovered a stone coffin, about 4 feet from the surface. Impressed with a notion that it con- tained hidden treasure, they hastened to satisfy their curiosity by breaking the lid, but to their mortification it was found to contain the remains of a human body, which had in all probability been in- terred in it centuries ago. Mr. Hart subsequently examined it, and found the skull and other parts of the skeleton ; the coffin or box was 4 inches thick, and about 6 feet 9 inches long.” I was informed that the lid of the coffin was 2 feet below the sur- face of the earth. The coffin was placed east and west, containing a female skeleton. I have examined the stone coffin, which is of shell limestone, but the bones, etc., have disappeared, and no urns, but some small frag- ments were found outside, which from their forms are undoubtedly Roman. I send you a section of the coffin, showing the shape of the lid. In the map of the Roman Roads by Andrews, 1797, I find a road from the neighbourhood of Widford, through Great Baddow, Dan- bury, and Woodham Mortimer to Maldon, commanding extensive views towards the north and south. From the high hill of Danbury signals could be seen from Stock, Billericay, Langdon Hill, etc. An ancient British coin, supposed to be of Boadicea, was found at Wood- ham Walter. Some labourers in the employ of Mr. Joslin Bulwer, of Ramsden Bell House, whilst mole-ploughing in Stoney Hills Field, upon Wool- shots farm, in that parish, about 2 feet from the surface, lately found a stone coffin, resembling the former, excepting that, in the absence of a lid, this appeared to have been arched over with flints. It con- tained the skull and other bones of a skeleton, with several teeth. A piece of lead was torn up by the plough near the spot, but no in- scription was visible. The singular circumstance of two discoveries of the kind has excited an interest in the respective neighbourhoods, and has induced a great many persons to visit the spots, for the pur- pose of inspecting them. J. A. R.
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