A HISTORY OF ESSEX in a commanding position between the Saxon camp at Maldon, and within sight of the Danish camp and settlement at Danbury (Danes' town) ; it is probably contemporaneous with these and with Purleigh Mount.' Other tumuli which existed in this part of the county have been ruthlessly destroyed, though traces of some are indicated on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map 1 while one on Northey Island in the parish of St. Mary, Maldon, remains intact. STOW MARIES : Barrows. See Woodham Ferrers. TILBURY (WEST). South of the hall garden is a fosse or ditch with a broad bank on its outer side formed by the ridge of a steep hillside rising abruptly above the Thames valley. This fosse, about 250 feet long, and a return piece of 72 feet on the west, are the only vestiges of antiquity that we see here. Some assert that a Roman ' camp ' was here, while others have claimed that the work was constructed as a defence to the camp of Elizabeth, when that queen rested at West Tilbury the night before her celebrated review of her troops on August 9, 1588. As Mr. Thorne indicates * a contemporary chart exists, which shows the camping ground to have been adjacent to the church and hall. Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell, writing in 1885, referred to outer earthworks and a slight ridge bordering the hilltop ' which may have been of a very early date,' but these evidences seem to have disappeared, owing perhaps to the gravel-digging which is in progress. TOTHAM (GREAT). On the southern tongue of this parish and in Heybridge (on the northern side of the Blackwater) were tumuli known as the Barrow or Borough Hills ; few or no traces remain, though the mounds were formerly considerable in number. Salmon thought them the graves of Saxons or Danes slain in war- fare, but nothing was found, or at all events, recorded, to enable us to fix an approximate date. WIGBOROUGH (GREAT). Salmon and all his copyists mention the small tumulus near the church as possibly thrown up to cover those who were slain in some battle which may have taken place here, and he sur- mised that the wasting of their bodies caused the mound to sink to its low level ! WOODHAM FERRERS, STOW MARIES AND HOCKLEY. A large group of barrows or mounds remains on the northern side of the river Crouch, within the parishes named. Gough mentions ' 24 barrows grouped in pairs and most of them surrounded by a ditch,' erroneously assigning them to Woodham Mortimer parish. Upon examination in about 1868, Mr. (now Sir John) Evans inclined to think them comparatively modern, and the late Mr. H. W. King wrote : ' If the earthworks were really what Mr. Evans regards them, they were probably hastily thrown 1 Mr. E. A. Fitch expresses the opinion that two tumuli shown on the Ordnance Survey are of quite recent construction. 3 Environs of London, p. 614. 306
