206
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
in others brick porches, and in several brick towers, and the fashion went so far
that, not many miles from where we are standing is a church which is altogether
built of brick, even to the font; it is called Chignall Smeely, but the common
people give it the appropriate name of 'Brick Chignal.' The tower of Fryerning
Church is a very fine architectural composition, although it will not bear com-
parison with its neighbour at Ingatestone for grandeur ; still the upper story with
its three two-light and one single light belfry windows and its machicolated
parapet, is very fine. The staircase is carried up in an external turret, and has
a somewhat abrupt termination. The staircase itself is a very good and curious
piece of work, the steps being formed of brick, and the soffits consisting of a series
of brick arches, starting from an octagonal brick newel."
In the vestry attention was called to a recently discovered palimpsest brass,
engraved on one side with the effigy of a lady, date about 1420, while on the
other side is a figure of about 1530. In the churchyard was noticed the tomb of
the Disney family, One of whom, John Disney, Esq., F.S.A., founded the Disney
Professorship of Archaeology at Cambridge.
The rain still continued, but the party pressed on to Mill Green, a stretch of
furze-covered common-land, about 200 acres in extent, which under more favourable
circumstances would have been a most attractive place for the naturalists of the
party. Mr. Christy led some of the members to a hedge-bank on the edge of the
common, where he discovered, in 1879, a great quantity of fragments of ancient
pottery, as described by him in the "Transactions of the Essex Archaeological
Society," ii, (n.s.) p. 357. Mr. Fitch noticed several plants of cowslip (Primula
veris) in the woods, and the lousewort (Pedicularis sylvatica) on the common,
neither being given for the locality in Gibson's "Flora," but the wretched weather
prevented any search being made for plants or insects.
The same cause upset all the plans that had been made for the inspection of the
"High Woods" under Mr. Christy's leadership. These woods probably formed
part of the ancient Forest of Essex, and were royal forests. Mr. W. R. Fisher,
in his "Forest of Essex" (p. 17) says :
" The history of Writtle (as a Royal forest) is almost the same as that of
Hatfield to the time of the grant to Humphrey de Bohan (in the reign of Edward
II.). At a forest court held in 1250, a memorandum was entered of liberties
claimed by Isabella de Brus under the king's grant; and there were then separate
foresters, Verderers, and regarders, for the half-hundred of Chelmsford in the parts
of Writtel, beside woodwards of several woods. In the reigns of Henry III,
Edward I, and Edward II, land was held by the serjeanty of keeping the Forest
of Writtle, and whoever held it was on account of it to discharge the bayliship."
Many hundreds of acres of woodland still remain, chiefly lying in the parishes
of Writtle, Blackmore, and High Wood. Some members visited Monken Barrow
Farm, where they inspected the remains of the "Hermitage" or "Bedeman's
Berg," said to have been founded by Robert, a monk, in the reign of King
Stephen. The remains consists of a small piece of wall, in which Roman bricks
and fragments of Roman mill-stones (Nieder Mendig lava) may be observed The
ruin is preserved, in order that the land may not become titheable. Close at hand
is an ancient wells and the remains of ah extensive fish pond. On the wall, Mr.
Fitch noticed a specimen of Eupithecia pumilata, the only entomological observa-
tion of the day. But the whole district is full of interest for the naturalist and
archaeologist, and much regret was expressed that the Club's first visit to it should
have been under such unfavourable circumstances. In one of the woods were
numbers of Spanish Chestnut and Mountain Ash trees.
Then Writtle Park (known also as the "King's Park" in the days when it