6o
ALLUVIAL AND OTHER RECENT DEPOSITS AT FELSTEAD.
to face with a difficulty which can be best answered by saying that
the road to the continent was an open one. Let those who are
sceptical as to great lengths of time imagine how long it would take
these leisurely travellers to come say from Southern France. The
distribution of the mollusca in England alone is a standing argument
against speed emigrative movements.
In conclusion, I would say that the study of this deposit is clear of
the difficulties attending other surface deposits in the neighbourhood,
for the reason that we know of its derivation, and that it has been
laid down by agencies at present at work. This cannot be said of
any of the other Post-Glacial beds. It is true that the Geological
Survey recognises others, viz., Plateau gravels, Brick-earths, "Clay-
with-flints," etc. They are Post-Glacial in the sense that they over-
lie Boulder-Clay, but we cannot suppose any of our present agencies
adequate to their formation, and it seems almost certain that some of
the upland brick-earths at least were a product of glaciation. The
alluvium is a piece of the pastoral poetry of life following the dreary
tragedy of the glacial desolation.
Stratford Bakers.—"Previous to 1443 there were no bakers' shops in
London. Before that date the inhabitants of Stratford were bakers for the whole
city: they sold their bread, which was brought in carts, every day except on
Sundays and great festivals ; and they were ordered to stand—three in cheapside,
two in Cornhill, and one in Gracechurch Street. The Stratford baking finally
ceased in 1568. In the year 1512, there being a great scarcity, the Stratford
bakers were severely handled by the famishing populace. In the latter part of
the reign of Henry VI. the citizens purchased the ancient fabric called Leadenhall,
and under the direction of Sir Simon Eye, it was converted into a public granary."
—From "The Mirror" (vol. xi., page 74), February 2nd, 1828.
A Pleasant Ride in Essex.—A gentleman well-known in the neighbour-
hood sends us the following:—"To lovers of the picturesque, and to amateurs of
ecclesiology and the kindred sciences, our county, especially on its western side,
offers much that is interesting. A ride through Broxbourne, Parndon, Harlow,
Bishops Stortford, Stanstead Montfitchet and Newport, to Saffron Walden, is
well worth taking. To those who are lovers of that rural beauty of landscape so
peculiar to England, each turn in the road offers a pleasant surprise. Broxbourne,
with its avenues and its peaceful stream ; Parndon, with the noble ruin of Nether
Hall; Stanstead Montfitchet, the very name of which recalls the Norman rule;
Newport, with its perpendicular church, its quaint cottages, and its Cromwellian
history. Finally, Saffron Walden, away from the main line and the beaten tract,
with its world-known mansion at Audley End, its ruined Castle, and its mag-
nificent Church. Walden is a thriving place, in spite of its camparative isolation ;
but it is also of the 'old times' sufficiently to make it interesting, and not the
least interesting about it is the comfort and care bestowed by mine hostess of the
'Cross Keys.' The Museum, the some-time 'Sun Hotel'—now a private house,
the church, the maze, the castle, the pell ditches and the park are all worthy of
the strangers' attention, and if he can spare time to visit Ashdon and its immense
sepulchral mounds, the crowning point will have been reached. The road is a
capital one for the tricyclist, and the accommodation at Walden most reasonable."
From the "Woodford Times."