john Norden's map of essex.
45
somtyme a castle : it is seene farr of, and hath most large and pleasant
perspecte." Of Stansted Mountfichet he says:—"Ther are nere Stan-
sted streete the ruynes of an ancient castle vpon the topp of a mounte,
wch is not vnlike to be the seat of the Mountfichets, and the place it
selfe, called Mons fixus, whence the tooke their name." Concerning
Walden he remarks, "the towne standeth muche vpon Safron, whereof
muche might be spoken concerninge the secretes of the nature therof.
There are the ruynes of an ancient and stately castle, wherin are yet
to be seene sundrye deepe and horrible dungions or prisons."
The MS. was dedicated to "the Righte Honorable my singuler
good Lorde Sir William Cecill" (the great Lord Burleigh), but in spite
of Norden's persistent industry and Court employments, he like
many another worthy, seems to have fared poorly. During the
greater part of James's reign he lived at Hendon, and he died in or
about the year 1626.—Ed.
Melilotus arvensis, Wallr (Loud. Cat., 7th edit. ; M. officinalis, Desr.
8th edit.) at Walthamstow.—I had found this plant at Clapton, and thinking
that it would probably occur on both sides of the Lea, Mr. Paulson and myself
searched for it at Walthamstow. On the railway banks near St. James's Street
Railway Station on the 17th August last (1886) Mr. Paulson was fortunate in dis-
covering several plants. They had all been mown off, hence the specimens
gathered were not very fine, but, being in fruit, their identity was beyond question
—J. T. Powell, Lower Clapton.
Supposed Occurrence of the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus, L.) at Mal-
don.—During the last fortnight a large eagle has several times been seen haunt-
ing the Upper (Northey) Island in the Blackwater. I have been away from home
and have had no chance of seeing it myself, but I am pleased to say I have not
heard that it has been secured, although in very dangerous quarters, and trust it
may get safely away even if we are not to know whether it be an osprey or an
earne that has visited us. About a dozen years ago Clark shot an osprey in this
same locality, and two or three gunners who saw that and our present visitor suppose
them to be the same species.—Edward A. FITCH,F.L.S.,Maldon,7th January, 1887.
Bones of Palaeolithic Man.—In my paper on the "Evidence bearing upon
British Ethnology," I have stated that "no bones of Palaeolithic Man have been
found in Britain." Mr. Worthington Smith has kindly reminded me that in this
statement I seem to have overlooked the claim of Mr. Henry Prigg to the dis-
covery of a portion of a skull, which may be of Palaeolithic age, near Bury St.
Edmunds, A full and well-illustrated account of this discovery appears in the
"Journal of the Anthropological Institute," Vol. xiv., p. 51 (1885). This
fragment of a skull was found at a depth of 71/2 feet from the surface, in loam,
occupying the upper part of a "pocket" eroded in the surface of the chalk, which
is at, or close to, the surface, except where these pockets occur. In other pockets
were found grinders of Elephas primigenius, and flint implements of paleolithic
type. Though the antiquity of the contents of a pocket is a more uncertain
thing than that of the contents of an old river-terrace, there can be no question of
the very high antiquity of Mr. Prigg's specimen ; and the locality in which the
bone was found is so near the northern border of Essex, that the matter cannot
fail to interest members of the Essex Field Club not already acquainted with it
Of course the evidence of so small a fragment can have no ethnological bearing.
T. V. Holmes, F.G.S., January, 1887.