of sepulture. Prof. Rolleston states that the urns from Frilford and Long Wittenham were the only ones he had seen recorded in Berkshire. To these we have now to add those of Reading; but at Frilford, as at Reading, inhumation was practised at the same time. It appears that there are records of similar finds of urns in about thirteen English counties, viz., Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire, Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and the Isle of Wight;" to which may be added Berkshire, Sussex, and Kent, although the last two appear to have used inhumation at a prior period, showing that paganism was earlier superseded in those counties. As Christianity opposed itself to the practice of cremation, the new discoveries which are continually turning up (and will to a yet greater extent as the country becomes more thoroughly broken up under the exigencies of an increasing population), serve to show, with those already made, how completely England was overrun with pagan Teutons. The dual practice of cremation with inhumation, with relics, and without orientation, observed in many burial-places, particularly in the northern counties, evidences that the one was, so far, as pagan as the other. Authorities have not been wanting who have advocated that the two forms were coexistent in time and place. There is no doubt of their co-existence in place; but if they cannot be correlated in time, inhumation, although accompanied with pagan accessories, would appear to indicate that those who practised it were becoming more in sympathy with the Christian form. 1 Scientific Papers and Addresses, vol. ii, p. 597. 2 Ibid., p. 598. 3 Life of Julian (Neander), English translation, p. 108; Archeologia, vol. xxxvii, p. 467; Horce Ferales (Kemble), p. 95. 4 Hora Ferales (Kemble), p. 918; Archæologia, vol. xxxvii, p. 456; Saxon Obsequies, p. 11, Neville. TWO PREHISTORIC WEAPONS RECENTLY FOUND IN ESSEX. BY B. WINSTONE, ESQ., M.D. (Read 4th April 1894.) I HAVE placed on the table two prehistoric implements, one from Epping, the other from North Weald, an adjoining parish. They are similar to bronze and stone implements found in other parts of the kingdom, and do not, therefore, claim any description. There are, however, circumstances connected with the district in which they were found, possessing (I venture to believe) archæological interest. The bronze weapon was found in North Weald. Mr. Francis Hart took it off a heap of old iron gathered on Caines Farm, a large farm in the occupation of his father. Unfortunately there is no procurable information as to when, or on what part of the farm, it was found; but as it had been carelessly thrown on the heap of metal, there is trustworthy circumstantial evidence of its having been turned up during some agricultural operations. North Weald parish touches Epping Forest, the remains of a forest extending at one time over the whole county. Epping Forest was a royal forest, the kings of England hunted in it, and stringent laws were made for the protection of the deer. It is due, we may assume, to the forest rights possessed by the Crown until quite recent times, that two ancient earthworks of great interest have been preserved. They are known as Ambresbury Bank and Loughton Camp. Each is a British earthwork or oppidum,-places of refuge for the primitive inhabitants. Ambresbury Bank, although now close to the road, was originally in the heart of the Forest. It encloses. 12 acres, and must have been the stronghold of a large tribe, for it would take many warriors to man the ramparts enclosing 12 acres. In the valley of the river Roden, which it dominates, there is abundant pasturage for the maintenance of numerous cattle. Excavations have demonstrated its having been made long ago, long before our era commenced. The Essex Field Club, under the management of Mr. Cole, made, a few years ago, a cutting through the whole height of a portion of the Bank enclosing the space or camp. Every spadeful of earth excavated was sifted, and the find was pieces of earthenware or pottery. They were submitted to. General Pitt-Rivers for identification. He said they were of British manufacture of a very crude and coarse character, and belonged to an early prehistoric date. Excavations have also been made, under Mr. Cole's superintendence, at Loughton Camp, a much smaller and less well-defined enclosure. A cutter, or stone chisel, and many flint chips were found. As the crow flies, Loughton Camp is about two miles. distant from Ambresbury Bank. At one time there were the remains of a path or trackway (keeping along the high ground) from the high ground a little above Loughton Camp to Ambresbury Bank. From Ambresbury Bank, the way known by the name of the Mill-ride, as it left the Forest by the manorial windmill, continued on the south side of the Purlieu Bank across Bell Common (at the back of the town of Epping it is known as Hemnel's Street, being in a manor of that name) to North Weald, where the bronze instrument was found. It is said that roads keeping to the high ground, along ridges of hills, and having by their sides, or near to them, moated Found on Cains or Cannes Farm, North 1 in, tapering to a sharp point. earthworks or mounds, have the characteristics of ancient British roads; i.e., trackways of the primitive inhabitants. There is at present a road (once a turn pike road) a continuation of the road of which I have been speaking, through North Weald to Ongar, and in one direction by Writtle, where some have placed Cæsaromagus (an important Roman station), to Maldon; and in the other, through Fyfield and the Rodings, to Dunmow, where other antiquaries have located Cæsaromagus. The road has the characteristics of an ancient British road, for it keeps along the ridge of hills, and has by its side, or near to it, moated mounds. At one time there were three, but now only two. The Guardians wanting work for the unemployed, had the largest, and the best preserved, levelled, and part of its site taken into the new Union Workhouse garden. Of the remaining, one is in the grounds of the estate called "The Grove' turned into an ornamental mound; and the other at the back of brick and tile-works, where Roman tiles have been found. It may be reasonably supposed that as it retains features of a British trackway, it has taken the place of the way by which communications were kept up between the tribes who occupied Ambresbury Bank and Loughton Camp, and those of North Weald and the country beyond it. There are two Wealds, North and South, several miles apart. The name "Weald" is said in county histories to be derived from a Saxon word meaning wood or forestland; but I venture to suggest that the inhabitants were British, called by the Teutonic immigrants Wealh, Wealas, or Walla, words signifying strangers or foreigners. It may have been first applied to designate the British, who occupied the ground, by the Alamanni or Bavarians settled in the locality, of whom I shall have to speak further on. The county was covered by woods, therefore to designate a settlement of any kind as being in a wood would be so vague as to give rise to the idea that the origin of the name had not been known to later Saxon writers, so they used the word familiar to them. In South Weald there is an earthwork said to be Roman, but answering to the description of a British oppidum. From Ongar to Dunmow the road passes through Fyfield, a place of no interest to us beyond there having been found there, in the middle of the last century, prehistoric remains, with which the bronze dagger on the table was probably closely connected. Mr. Gough, in his edition of Camden (1789), writes: "At Fyfield, by Ongar, in 1749, were found a great number of celts, with a large quantity of metal for casting them; 50 lb. of which, with several of the instruments, the late Earl Tilney gave to Mr. Letheuillier. One Glascock, a farmer, and horseleech of some eminence, bought the celts altogether for five shillings, fancying them gold; and by his idle talk about them betrayed them to the lord of the manor, who claimed them all." As the Cannes Farm, on which the instrument on the table was found, is not more than six miles from Fyfield, it is probable it was manufactured there; but whether it was lost on the land at the time, or one of those found in 1749, there are no means of ascertaining. The arrangement for fixing the handle differs from that in the bronze instruments usually found. They have the butt-end prolonged like scythes, sickles, chisels, etc., of the present time, so as to go through the length of the handle, whilst the one on the table has the butt-end flattened out. The handle must have been formed of two pieces of wood, through which passed the rivets, which were then bound or riveted together to fit the handle to the hand; or a groove cut in a piece of wood properly shaped, so as to admit of the insertion of the flat end, and made fast by the rivets. In the British Museum are some daggers of a similar pattern, one found in the Thames at Kingston. In Sir John Evans' Ancient British Instruments there is a drawing of one found at Coveney, near Downham Hithe, in Cambridgeshire, so like the one from North Weald as to give rise to the supposition that they came. out of the same manufactory; the more especially as Fyfield is not very far from Cambridgeshire. As coal does not exist in Essex, wood had to be used for fuel; it is, therefore, readily understood why works such as those at Fyfield should be placed where wood was abundant. But the bronze must have been brought from a distance, for neither copper nor tin is found in Essex. Mr. Gough says that the metal given to Mr. Letheuillier weighed 50 lb. Although it is not stated to have been one lump, no other conclusion can be arrived at, for Mr. Letheuillier was an archæologist, and connected |