16
NOTES ON THE SAFFRON PLANT.
injunction "Thou shalt not make to thyself the likeness of anything
in heaven above or in earth beneath.'' Eight saffron heads will be
seen in the spandrels of the arches in Walden Church, exactly
opposite the north porch.
Another incident connected with the name of the town may amuse;
there is a phrase "Saffron Walden, God help me," heard all over the
kingdom, in the wilds of America, and even in Australia. When the
almshouses were re-established in the reign of Edward VI. the reci-
pients of the charity had but a miserable pittance, and had a licence
from the King to beg. As this was soon after the Reformation, when
so many priests were reduced to mendicity, and were wandering about
holding out their hands, "A poor priest, God help me!" so the licensed
recipients of the Walden charity, when asked where they came from,
exhibited their licences with "Saffron Walden, God help me!" and
seeing that this freed them from prison, other beggars adopted the
cant words. In a manuscript that I have on the dissolution of
Tiltey Abbey, near Thaxted, Father Thomas, a favourite priest,
was allowed 4s. 6d. a week from the parish of Thaxted, the others
were reduced to beg their subsistence. Deo adjuvante floremus
appears to be a Latin parody of the beggars' phrase.11
Notes on the Geology of Chelmsford and neighbourhood.—London
Clay is worked at Broomfield and Widford for drain-pipe and brick-making, where
it is found about five or six feet from the surface. At Widford it abounds with
crystals of selenite, which are apt to cut the fingers of the workmen. Among the
organic remains found are sharks' teeth and the vertebrae of fish, crustacea, a large
Nautilus, and two species of Fusus. Stems of plants and wood bored by Teredo
are not uncommon. It is interesting to note that of Palm-fruits (Nipadites),
usually so common in the London Clay, not a single specimen has hitherto been
recorded. The fossils of the London Clay at Broomfield are nearly identical with
those found at Widford. The so-called "coprolites" abound at the former place.
"Brick-earth," containing Gryphaea incurva and G. cymbium, is worked in many
places [Mr. Horace B. Woodward, F.G.S., of the Geological Survey, informs us
that this so-called "Brick-earth" is the "Chalky Boulder-clay;" brick-earth of
ordinary character being worked at Moulsham.—Ed.] The Drift-Gravels at
Broomfield contain many Ventriculites. Among them are Ventriculites radiatus,
V. quincuncialis, V. striatus, Brachiolites convolutus, and B. raccmosus. Flint
casts of Echinoderms and shells are common. Among the rocks found are
sandstones and limestones of various ages, granite, syenite, and conglomerate. In
the Drift-gravel at Broomfield a flint "scraper" has been found, and in the Valley-
gravel near Admiral's Park, about 150 yards from the river Cann, several worked
flints, including an arrow-head, have been discovered. In the collection at the
Essex and Chelmsford Museum are some very fine teeth of Elephas primigenius.
They were discovered in making the railway at Widford, and were probably
derived from the gravel. One of the specimens weighs twenty-eight pounds, and
is in beautiful preservation.—F. Challis, Chelmsford, February, 1886.
11 I also can recall the proverbial use of this phrase. My mother would sometimes quote a
saying of my grandfather's, who was a Norfolk man, descriptive of any importunate person:—
"He's only a Saffron Walden God-help-us."—W. Cole.