THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
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that is not of Roman origin ; the Romans used it and drew their camp within it;
but at Wallbury, Oldbury (near Ightham), and other similar places, we never find
the slightest Roman remains, such as were always met with where Roman soldiers
were stationed. If we consider these places as British, they can be well understood.
They are sufficiently extensive for a large population, and for the protection also
of cattle and horses ; in short, I think we may recognise in them British oppida ;
and this view is identical with that of my friend Mr. Charles Warne, who has
studied so closely and so successfully the ancient earthworks of Dorsetshire."
Tea was served on board the barge near Harlow Mill in excellent style by Mr.
Glasscock, of Bishop's Stortford, and after votes of thanks had been most heartily
passed to the conductors, to Mr. Marshall Taylor, and others, for their labours in
connection with the meeting, the company bade "good-bye" to their kind friends
from Bishop's Stortford, and made for the railway station to catch the 8 o'clock
train from Harlow. The town is noted for the fair held on Harlow Bush Common.
Roman coins and other antiquities have often been found there, and a quantity of
Roman tile is built into the south side of the church. Harlowbury Chapel, now
used as a barn, "is a small and almost perfect Norman structure, picturesquely
overgrown with ivy. It was probably built originally as a halting-place for the
Abbots of Bury St. Edmunds on their way to and from London"—so says Mr.
Christy in his "Handbook for Essex." But there was no time to spend in further
antiquarian sight-seeing, and to some of us Harlow will be more vividly associated
with the story in one of Thackeray's "Roundabout Papers," which Mr. T. V.
Holmes recalled to our memory as an appropriate anecdote with which to close
the story of the Club's doings on the Stort. In the paper styled "On a Medal of
George IV." Thackeray remarks :—
"During the Exhibition time I was stopped by an old country woman in black,
with a huge umbrella, who, bursting into tears, said to me, 'Master, be this the
way to Harlow in Essex ?" 'This the way to Harlow ? This is the way to
Exeter, my good lady, and you will arrive there if you walk about 170 miles in
your present direction,' I answered courteously, replying to the old creature.
Then she fell a-sobbing as though her old heart would break. She had a
daughter a-dying at Harlow. She had walked already 'vifty-dree mile that day.'
Tears stopped the rest of her discourse, so artless, genuine, and abundant that—I
own the truth—I gave her, in I believe genuine silver, a piece of the exact size of
that coin which forms the subject of this essay [a half-crown]. Well, about a
month since, near to the very spot where I had met my old woman, I was accosted
by a person—a person in black, a person in a large draggled cap, a person with a
huge umbrella—who was beginning, ' I say, Master, can you tell me if this be the
way to Har——,' but here she stopped. Her eyes goggled wildly. She started
from me as Macbeth turned from Macduff. She would not engage with me. It
was my old friend of Harlow in Essex."
A Stinging Ichneumon.—One June 25th I was taking a few Ichneumons off
the heads of Heracleum sphondylium with my fingers, as is my usual custom, when
a female Paniscus testaceus, Gr., gave me such a prick that I was glad to relin-
quish my hold upon it. Upon capturing it a second time to make sure of the species,
the sting was repeated, and the top of my first finger twinged smartly for over an
hour. Mr. John B. Bridgman records ("Entomologist," xi., 35) that a female
Cryptus obscurus, Gr., gave him as sharp a sting as a wasp would have done.
Although I have captured many hundred ichneumons, I think this is the first time
that I have been seriously attacked by one.—Edward A. Fitch, F.L.S., Maldon.
Q 2