ANCIENT EARTHWORKS tion the fact of the banks having been thrown up at some period subse- quent to the construction of the Roman building 1 now hidden beneath, and the existence of a deep and wide fosse or moat on the north side and partly on the east. DUNMOW (LITTLE). Wright refers to ' a square area, surrounded by earthworks which are very high on the southern side ' to the south of the church. We judge these to be simply remains of the Dunmow Priory fishponds. In a field sloping towards the Stane Street were found some pits containing numerous fragments of pottery and much charred matter. EPPING. Remains of mounds exist in the neighbourhood of the town, but in the absence of proper exploration it is impossible to say that they are other than hillocks thrown up in modern times, though the opinion has been expressed that they are ancient tumuli. FELSTEAD. Here is an ancient dam across a valley about a mile north of the village. It is intersected by the Dunmow and Braintree branch of the Great Eastern railway and is about 150 yards long, about 35 feet broad at its base, 10 feet at its top and 20 high at its highest part. It has been suggested that it forms the dam of a lake constructed in prehistoric times. HATFIELD BROAD OAK. Within the forest, at or near Portingbury Hill, there are the remains of a defensive enclosure (now little more than ditches and a slightly raised platform with shallow moat) so indistinct in parts that it is difficult to classify the work. Salmon, writing in 1740, says of it: ' In Beggars-Hall Coppice on the Forest, in the Way to Stane- Street, is a small Spot of Ground called Porting-Hills, and Portingbury- Hills. At a little Distance from that, the traces of a larger circular Entrenchment, with what Intention made does not appear.' HOCKLEY. Plumborough Mount has been claimed to be of Danish origin, owing its existence to Canute's great victory over Edmund Iron- side in 1016. The memorable fight took place at Assandun, now Ash- ingdon, the neighbouring parish. In Benton's Rochford Hundred an alternative suggestion is made that the mound ' may have been thrown up for the purpose of signals in con- nection with the comes littoris Saxonici' in Roman days. A careful examination might tell whether to either of these or to earlier days this barrow belongs. It appears wholly artificial, its base being about 90 feet in circum- ference and its summit though lowered, 16 feet above the round hill upon which it stands, forming a conspicuous landmark. Partly in this parish but on the northern side of the Crouch are groups of small barrows ; for description of these see Woodham Ferrers. MALDON. A tumulus situated in Mountfield is described by Mr. E. A. Fitch, 1 who says it is ' doubtless Saxon or Danish, and stands 1 Possibly it is to these banks the following entry in the Pipe Roll refers: ',50 ad faciendum Ba/fiam etna Caittllum de Coltcntria' (19 Hen. II. 1172-3); but it may relate to an outer bailey being then constructed. 1 MaUon and tht River Blot/Heater, p. 37, ed. 3 (1898). I 35 39
