THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 159
slur upon the taste and intelligence of the dwellers within the walls of this ancient
town, once the great centre of Roman civilization in Britain,]
St. John's Abbey Gate was next visited, and glancing at its superstructure of
modern "renovation," Dr. Laver humorously but vigorously denounced the
architects who had carefully obliterated all traces, save one, of the round shot that
had been used to pound at the gateway during the siege of Colchester. At the
ruins of St. Botolph's Priory a longer stay was made, Dr. Laver in the course of
his remarks, calling special attention to the series of interlaced arches, composed
of Roman brick, in the west front, (a rare form of ornamentation, in use in Roman
times as it occurs on some specimens of Samian ware in the Museum), and it was
not only very effective, but was structurally useful also in diminishing the weight of
the wall. He said that the Priory was probably built about noo, and was there-
fore one of the oldest priories in England, and that the debris of Roman buildings
was largely used in its construction.
[Those who desire to read a good general sketch of the history of Colchester, are
referred to Rev. E. L. Cutts's little volume in Freeman's "Historic Towns"
series, published by Longmans, Lond., 1888.]
At five o'clock tea was served at the "Cups Hotel," and immediately afterwards
the 100th Ordinary Meeting of the Club was held in the large Assembly room,
the President, Mr. E. A. Fitch, in the Chair.
Mr. Rowland T. Cobbold was elected a member of the Club.
Dr. Laver exhibited a quartz implement from Lanarkshire ; it was of the form
known as a miner's hammer, used for crushing the ore, which were to be met with
in almost every Roman lead mine. Also a case full of flint "scrapers" and
implements from Walton-on-Naze, referred to in Essex Naturalist (vol. ii, p.
187); and specimens showing the curious manner in which the "spat" of oysters
attaches itself to any foreign bodies in its neighbourhood—e.g. a whelk (dredged
up, living, off the coast of Holland) with eight large oysters and a number of
smaller ones sticking to the shell, and the neck of an old fashioned decanter similarly
covered. He also distributed to the members specimens of earth from Burmah
containing crystals of ruby.
Mr. J. C. Shenstone exhibited, on behalf of Mrs. Boby, an ancient barometer,
bearing the inscription "Isaac Rubelow Fecit, Londoni, 1719." Mr. Shenstone
remarked that Torricelli's discovery leading to the invention of the barometer
was made in 1645 ; Periers' observations that the height of the column of
mercury in a tube with one end sealed varied in different states of the weather
were made about 1651, and Boyle's proposal to utilize the barometer to measure
the heights of mountains about the year 1665 ; it was therefore somewhat sur-
prising that so perfect an instrument, and one differing so little from the instru-
ments at present in use, should have been made at so early a date. The tube is
of that form known as the syphon barometer. It is made of quill tubing and is
provided with an arbitrary scale, a length of 3 inches, commencing about 271/2
inches above the level of mercury in the cup, being divided in 36 degrees, inscribed
as follows :—