556
THE WINDSOR MAGAZINE.
of the Maplins at low tide than old Walter
White, who toured much of England on
foot in the middle of last century and de-
scribed what he saw in several books which,
though apt to be prosy, were well known in
their day and widely read.
the year. It is marked on all the maps of the
Ordnance Survey in exactly the same way
as the land roads. How ancient it may be is
hard to ascertain ; but old Harrison, whose
admirable "Description of England" was pub-
lished in 1577, in Holinshed's "Chronicle,"
Though the sur-
face of the Maplins
is as brown as sand
can be, scarcely an
inch below it is as
black as the marsh
mud of the Essex
coast, the blackness
being due. of
course, to the decay
of organic matter.
On it, at low tide,
countless sea-birds
seek their food.
Here, too, fish are
taken in large
quantities, mainly
by means of the
"kiddle" or
"kettle," a very
ancient contriv-
ance, now practi-
cally obsolete
elsewhere. It con-
sists of a net,
generally about
one hundred and twenty yards long and
three or four feet wide, which is set up on
the shore, supported on stakes, and arranged
in the shape of a V, the point being directed
towards the sea. As the tide rises and
covers the sand, the fish advance towards
the shore, some of them passing behind the
net. As the. tide falls, these find themselves
within the jaws of the V and ultimately
right in its point. This is provided with a
"purse," in which the fish collect, to be
removed by the owner of the kiddle as soon
as the tide has fallen. A kiddle is, in fact,
a kind of fixed seine-net. It was largely
the proved antiquity of the right of the
lord of the manor to grant permission to
set kiddles which decided the great law
case in reference to the manorial rights
over the Maplin Sands—a case which, after
occupying the attention of the Courts for
eleven years, was taken to the House of
Lords, where, after a hearing extending
over seventeen days, judgment was given
by Lord Herschell on May 12, 1892.
"The Broomway" across the Maplins is,
as has been said, a permanent and very
ancient road, used regularly at all times of
says of Fowlness that "at a dead low
water, a man may (as they saie) ride thereto,
if he be skilful of the causie "—that is, the
causeway, or road. Again, the Broomway
is shown quite unmistakably, and much as
it is to-day, on the fine manuscript map
of Essex made for Queen Elizabeth by John
Norden in 1595, and now in the British
Museum. Probably, however, the road was
ancient even when Harrison wrote, three
centuries and a half ago. Possibly, indeed,
it had a Roman origin, for remains thought
to be Roman have been found on Fowlness
Island.
However this may be, the Broomway
starts from a spot on the coast about three,
miles from Shoebury Station, five miles and
a half from Southend, and in the parish of
Great Wakering. Here the land road ends
and a paved way over the sea-wall, known
as "Wakering Stairs," gives access to the
sea road. Formerly the Broomway was longer
than it is now; for it then left the land, not
at Wakering Stairs, but at a point bearing the
undignified name of Pig's Bay, which is two
miles or more farther south and nearer
Shoeburyness. It is so shown on Chapman