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Mehalah
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Mehalah
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| The book "Mehalah" was written
by the reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. of East Mersea. It contains many references
to Salcott and Virley. For example:
"Whether the coastguard were bought to shut their eyes or were baffled by the adroitness of the smugglers, cannot be said, but the taverns found no difficulty in obtaining their supplies as often and as abundantly as they desired. The villages of Virley and Salcot were the chief landing-places, and there horses and donkeys were kept in large numbers for the conveyance of the spirits, wine, tobacco and silk to Tiptree Heath, the scene of Boadicaea's great battle with the legions of Suetonius, which was the emporium of the trade." "The tide was up in the morning, and Mehalah and her mother, in a boat with sail and jib and spritsail, flew before a north-east wind down the Mersea Channel, and doubling Sunken Island, entered the creek which leads to Salcot and Virley two villages divided only by a tidal stream, and connected by a bridge. The water danced and sparkled, birds were on wing, now dipping in the wavelets, now rising and shaking off the glittering drops. A high sea-wall hid the reclaimed land on their left. Behind it rose the gaunt black structure of a windmill used for pumping the water out of the dykes in the marsh. It was working now, the great black arms revolving in the breeze, and the pump creaking." September 2006
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