THE GREAT FLOOD IN ESSEX.
205
been able to embody in this paper all the notes sent me, for fear I
should occupy too much space, but none the less have I been able
to gather valuable information from much that I have not actually
Sketch outline map of Essex to illustrate the details of Table B, The sign — denotes under
4 in, of rain ; 4- over 4 inches ; 0 over 5 inches.
quoted, and to form therefrom a more correct general idea. I have
also made use of the accounts published in the "Essex County
Chronicle," the "Essex Weekly News," the "Essex Times," and the
"Woodford Times," and I am, therefore, indebted to the conductors
of those papers.
Wren's Nest in a Dead Crow.—"Some three years ago a carrion crow
was shot and hung up as a warning by a keeper at Lexden. By a bit of wire it
hung and swung in the wind undisturbed till last spring, when a pair of wrens,
probably of a facetious turn of mind, built their nidus, or eligible freehold resi-
dence, within its hollow carcase, making substantial walls and foundation for their
home of well-seasoned oak leaves. I will not say the walls were as thick as those
of some houses in Colchester, for that might draw me into a libel action, like the
famous one tried at Chelmsford a year or two back, but they were certainly an
inch-and-a-half thick. Mr. and Mrs. Wren spent a happy summer in this retreat,
and Jenny laid her eggs there and reared her young. The couple then left this
country residence, and it was discovered by a gamekeeper, or some other 'two-
legged bird,' as the saying is, and the mansion was sold by private contract to
Mr. G. French, of the Railway Tavern, who, I believe, has it now on view."—
From the "Essex Standard."