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THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Field Meeting at "The Grange," Bishop's Stortford, and in the
River Stort District.
Wednesday, July 18th, 1888.
An excursion to the rivers Lea and Stort had long been suggested as a very suit-
able plan for a Field Meeting, and on receipt of Mr. and Mrs. Mann's very
hospitable invitation to the Club to visit them at "The Grange," to see the hawks,
and hear about falconry and falconers, it was resolved to combine the two visits in
one day's meeting. It was soon found, however, that time would forbid the pro-
jected journey by water up the two rivers, and it was therefore arranged that
the Lea should be reserved for the scene of a future excursion, and that the journey
by barge should be down the Stort, from Bishop's Stortford to Harlow.
The "directorship" of the meeting was undertaken by Mr. T. J. Mann, Mr.
Edward Taylor, F.L.S., and Mr. W. Cole, while Prof. Boulger acted as Botanical
Referee, and Mr. T. V. Holmes was the authority on the very meagre features of
geological interest in the district.
A large number of members journeyed down to Bishop's Stortford by the 8.45
a.m. train from Liverpool Street Station, and others joined at the stations en route,
or, like our President (who slipped away from his mayorial duties at Maldon to
attend the meeting), travelled from various parts of Essex and met us at Stortford.
On the way, Mr. T. V. Holmes was able to point out some of the more salient
geological features of the landscape as seen from the carriage-windows, and he
has favoured us with the following notes :—
" From Liverpool Street to the spot between Clapton and Tottenham, at which
the railway crosses the alluvium of the Lea, the houses are too thick to allow the
natural shape of the ground to be seen ; the strata over or through which the
railway passes being gravelly. But from Tottenham to the junction of the Lea
and Stort, the traveller sees east of him the alluvial flat of the Lea, from half-a
mile to more than a mile in breadth, and beyond it higher ground composed of
London Clay. The railway keeps pretty close to the western border of the Lea
marshes, and to the eastern edge of the broad spread of old river gravel, a few
feet above the level of the marshes, and almost as flat as they are. On this old
river gravel are Tottenham, Edmonton, Ponder's End, Waltham Cross, Cheshunt
and Broxbourne, those old and populous villages whose inhabitants witnessed the
famous ride of John Gilpin. Thus immediately eastward are scarcely any houses
whatever, the country consisting of rich green pastures ; while westward, on the
very slightly higher gravel plain, are many buildings both old and new. From the
junction of the Stort and Lea to Bishop's Stortford, the scene is much changed.
The breadth of flat pasture land is much diminished ; there is scarcely any old
river gravel, and the higher ground, which approaches the stream much more
closely, is composed not of London Clay but of overlying beds of Glacial Driftage,
consisting of sand and gravel, capped by Boulder Clay. The scenery is extremely
pleasant, and a great improvement on that of the Lea below Broxbourne. And
as the scenery of the Lea between Tottenham and Broxbourne is as uniform as the
geology, so the views on the Stort resemble each other for the same reason, and
possess the same general character alike at Sawbridgeworth, Roydon, or Harlow."
On arrival at Bishop's Storford we found that our host had provided full carriage
accommodation for the transit of the large party to his house, and thus many for
the first time caught a glimpse of this ancient and "fair market town," now