ANCIENT EARTHWORKS up during the middle of the i7th century, when the Dutch attempted more than once a landing on the neighbouring coast.' Mr. E. A. Fitch thinks that they date back at least to Saxon or Danish times. WORMINGFORD. The Rev. Henry Jenkins, writing in 1842, speaks of a high artificial mound on which the farm house at Garnons was built and which he conjectured formerly protected the passage or ford of the river Stour, and that from it the parish of Wormingford, anciently Withermundford, took its name. 1 In a footnote in Archeeologia he men- tions that a large mound in this parish, close to the Decoy and to the banks of the river Stour, was moved about 1836 in order that the earth might be spread over the lower part of the field, and many hundreds of urns were then discovered, placed in parallel rows like streets. Other tumuli, barrows, etc., than those above-mentioned remain, but not generally of sufficient size or importance to need detailed reference among these are examples at Birdbrook, Little Canfield, East Donyland, Latton, Lawford, Margaretting, Messing (in Coneyfield Wood), Mersea Island (about a mile from the ancient causeway ' The Strood,' which connects the island with the mainland), Ockenden, Prittlewell, Sturmer, Tendring and Tolleshunt Major. Two low tumuli, which proved to have been used as burial places in Romano-British time, formerly existed in Norsey Wood near Billericay, and are fully described in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society. Boundary banks and dykes of ancient date are occasionally found, as the Devil's Ditch at Wethersfield, or recorded by place-names, but these we cannot here enumerate. It remains only to record two most interesting groups of works, viz. the Red Hills and the Deneholes with these our task is con- cluded. THE ' RED HILLS ' Under this cognomen are known the mysterious low mounds which abound on the borders of creeks and rivers of the Essex coast. They rise to the height of from 2 to 5 feet, have an area vary- ing from rather less than half an acre to about 30 acres, and are clearly artificial, as the material is largely of burnt earth, while mingled therein we find pieces of coarse pottery and some broken brick. That they were of early date is manifest, as one is intersected by a creek formed since, while another has yielded Samian ware and other remains of the Roman period,* and a Roman coin was found on one on Wallasea Island. Another evidence of great age may be the fact that the artificial material extends through the accumulated surrounding 1 Mr. J. H. Round (Commune of London and other Studies') says that the 'Domesday name it Wide- mondcfort, obviously derived from Widemond, the name of an individual.' 1 See fragments, found in a Red hill at Burnham, now in Stratford Museum. 307
