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THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Cambridge road. Dr. Laver suggested that this was probably the commencement
of the Roman road which is well-known to have run between these towns, but the
course of which can only be traced distinctly in Essex as far as Ridgwell. The next
entrenchment visited was Grymes Dyke, running from the Colne at a ford near New
Bridge Mill, Bergholt, to another ford on the Roman River, near Stanway Hall,
where it disappears. It is now covered with trees, and the ditch converted into a sunk
bye-road for some distance. This entrenchment,forming the boundary of the borough
of Colchester, the parishes of Lexden and Stanway, and the manor of Stanway,
was, Dr. Laver suggested, the western boundary of British Camulodunon, the
other boundaries being the Roman River and the Colne (see ante), and he said
that if this were so, it was easy to understand the necessity for the large army (of
30,000 men at least) which the Roman commanders brought against the important
British stronghold when it was besieged and taken by Claudius. Dr. Laver further
pointed out that Grymes Dyke in all probability was adopted also by the
Romans as the western boundary of their colony of Camulodunon, inasmuch as
east of it Roman remains abound, but that outside the rampart, on the west,
no relics, or next to none, of that age have been found.
Way was made through pleasant lanes, from whence could be seen many
attractive woods bordering the distant fields, then over the Roman River and so
by the scattered village of Birch, where there is a heronry (to be described in Mr.
Fitch's forthcoming paper on "Essex Heronries") ; and where near the church
is a large Mound with a trench, popularly stated to have been the site of Birch
Castle, built by the Garnons in Norman times, but which is probably of earlier
date, and which may have some connection with the entrenchments on Lexden
Heath. Thence to the village of Layer Marney, where, at "The Tower," the
members were most kindly received by Mr. and Mrs. Maclean, who had provided
an excellent "afternoon tea" for their refreshment. Dr. Layer was assisted in
the task of demonstration here by Mr. A. B. Mitchell, of Clapton, whose measured
drawings and sections of Layer Marney Tower and House obtained the second silver
medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1886. These drawings were
reproduced in the "Builder" for April 3rd and 10th, 1886, and in the former part
of that journal is a carefully written description of the buildings, sketch of the history
of the Marney family, etc., with figures of the brasses, arms, etc., to which the
reader is referred (and also for additional details to Park's "Domestic Architecture.")
Layer Marney Hall was built about 1506 by Sir Henry Marney, 1st
Lord Marney, K.G., Captain of the Guard to Henry VIII., and it is, perhaps,
as good an example as exists of the English country mansion at the time when
it was passing from the castellated to the domestic stage. It appears never to
have been finished as originally designed. The great gate-tower, which rises to a
height of nearly seventy feet, forms an imposing object when viewed from the
south, and from its roof can be obtained fine views over the estuary of the
Blackwater and surrounding country, with the sea in the distant horizon. It
consists of a central block of three stories in height, flanked on either side by an
octagonal tower on the south, and two square turrets on the north. These towers
are again flanked by smaller semi-octagonal turrets, some seven feet less in height
than the principal ones. The great four-centred archway on the ground-floor gave
access to the courtyard within, and in the north-western turret is a fine wooden
newel staircase from which all the rooms are approached, and on the principal
landing of which is a door of communication with the only perfect part of the
courtyard buildings still remaining.