27
FIFTY YEARS AGO IN ESSEX.
By HENRY LAVER, M.R.C.S., F.L.S., F.S.A., etc., Vice-President.
[Read April 28th, 1888.]
I propose giving some reminiscences of a district in Rochford
Hundred, with which I have been familiar for half a century,
noticing the alterations which have occurred in the mode of living and
employments of the inhabitants, and also the changes in the vegeta-
tion, in the animals and birds, &c.
The earlier days of our existence appear to us to have been, in
comparison with the present, golden days, over which time and fur-
ther experience of this world have thrown a charm and colouring
which leads us to look on the present time as in every way inferior
to the past. These views may be, and probably are, very incorrect;
but how many who have had a happy childhood will agree with the
assertion that the present is equal in any respect to the past ? Do we
not constantly hear of the "good old times" ? Is not this the same
idea, embodying about as much truth as the notion that the world
has sadly deteriorated since our own happy childhood, the recollec-
tion of which, time has so kindly gilded with delightful memories ?
If the present is an improvement on the past, which it probably is
so far as humanity is concerned, the same cannot be said for the
other and lower orders of creatures in this country, who are being
slowly, but surely, driven out and exterminated by the increasing
numbers of mankind, and consequently a more general and diligent
cultivation of the country. My object in this paper is to show how
far this increased cultivation and so-called improvement has affected
the district I have named during the years my memory carries me
back.
I shall begin by noting the changes that have taken place in the
vegetation of the district mentioned. The hedges fifty years ago
were wide, full of trees, old pollards, and rank vegetation, and there
were many woods which are now grubbed up, and their places occu-
pied by wheat and other crops. Under the different animals men-
tioned, I shall be able to show how injurious these alterations have
been to the well-being—nay, even to the existence—of many kinds;
and much as we, as naturalists, may deplore the extermination, I fear
that rapidly-growing population renders it inevitable.
I do not think that the inhabitants have much increased in my