74
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Old Wanstead Church.
(Circa 1710)
Drawn by L. Knyff, Engraved by J. Kip. Pulled down 1790.
Field Meeting at Wanstead, Saturday, April 21st, 1888.
A VERY pleasant afternoon was spent by a large body of the members in the
neighbourhood of Wanstead, under the guidance of Mr. Walter Crouch, F.Z.S ,
one of the Vice-Presidents of the Club.
The assembly was called at Leytonstone Station, at about 3 o'clock, and the
party walked to the "Triple Avenues" of Lime trees, being the remains of an
intricate series of avenues planted on the forest about 150 years ago by Sir Josiah
Child, as adornments and approaches to his mansion at Wanstead. Here by the
kind invitation of Mr. W. Mosson Kearns, a visit was made to Lake House,
formerly a banqueting hall to Wanstead House ; it originally stood on an island
in a lake of over 20 acres, which was drained about 70 years ago. The large
dining room, with the fine chimney piece carved in fruit and flowers by Grinling
Gibbons, and the well preserved wall paintings in panels of quaint Watteau-like
subjects, with damsels and swains and gaily tinted birds, were carefully inspected,
and a few remarks upon the house and its traditions were made by Mr. Crouch.
A literary interest attaches to the place, for here, he who sang "The Song of the
Shirt," Thomas Hood, the great punster and humourist, but greater poet, lived
from 1832 to 1835. Mr. William Tegg relates that it was in this house
"I proposed to Hood to write the novel of 'Tylney Hall' for my father, much
of the scenery and description being taken from Wanstead and its neighbourhood."
Here also Hood wrote the little poem called the "Epping Hunt," which
describes with an exuberance of rollicking humour, the famous Easter Monday
Stag-hunting on the forest. Tom Hood, in his memoir of his father, speaks of the
old house and its "pleasant wilderness of a garden, infested by hundreds of
rabbits from the warren close by. From the windows you could catch lovely
glimpses of forest scenery, especially one fine aspen avenue." On the lawn the
visitors were shown two very old cherry trees, on one of which may be seen a
brass plate, stating that Hood wrote under it his greatest poem. Tom Hood the
younger was born in this house, January 19th, 1835, and was christened in the
parish church, where the register may be seen. Mr. Crouch paid a tribute to his
genial worth, having had the privilege of knowing him for some years before his
early death in 1874. He concluded by asking the members to accord a hearty
vote of thanks to Mr. Kearns, who knew the elder Hood, and though too unwell