THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 213
In replying, Mr. Tower said that Mrs. Tower and himself had experienced great
pleasure in welcoming the Club.
On quitting Weald Hall, on the homeward journey to Brentwood to catch the
evening trains, time did not allow of a visit to the Church, which has been almost
wholly rebuilt, with the exception of the massive embattled perpendicular western
tower of Kentish Ragstone, built about 1505, which forms a conspicuous object in
the landscape. Probably no other Essex church so far removed from the sea has
a Ragstone tower.
A small party of members of both Societies did not stay at the Hall, but made
their way, for tea, to the "White Hart" Inn, at Brentwood, in all respects the most
notable house displaying this sign in Essex. It is thus mentioned in the "History
of Essex by a Gentleman" (1772) : "This inn is very ancient. Mr. Simonds, in
his Collections, saith, he was informed from the master, who had writings in his
custody to shew it, that it had been an inn for three hundred years, with this sign ;
that a family named Salmon held it two hundred years; that there had been
eighty-nine owners, amongst which were an earl of Oxford, and an earl of Sussex."
Mr. Miller Christy writes in his "Trade Signs of Essex," that "in its best days it
was a coaching inn of great importance, and is still by far the best hotel in the
town. Mr. H. W. King has ascertained that it was in existence under its present
name in the time of Queen Elizabeth; but looking at the house itself, he believes
it to be of still earlier date, perhaps of the 15th century, or even earlier. It is
certainly one of the best examples of an old-fashioned inn, with a central courtyard
and galleries running round it, now remaining in England."
The party, by kind permission of Dr. C. R. Taylor, were afforded an opportunity
of visiting the brickyard north of the railway station where there are sections of the
passage beds between the London Clay and Bagshot Sands. The sections show
an alternation of sands, loams, and clay, but they are not so extensive as in a brick-
yard east of the station road which was open at the time the Geological Survey was
made (See "Geol : London Basin" p. 322).
References to Geology of the District.
Geological Map, Sheet 1 N.W.
Ordnance Map, New Series, Sheet 257.
Whitaker, W.—"Memoirs of the Geological Survey," vol. iv, "Geology of the
London Basin" (1872), and "The Geology of London and Part of the Thames
Valley"(1889).
Monckton, H. W., and Herries, R. S.—"On some Bagshot Pebble Beds and
Pebble Gravel" and "Proceedings of Geologists' Association" vol. xi, pp.
13—23 (containing many local details).
Manx Shearwater at Hatfield Peverel.—On August 24th, my brother, Mr.
Percy Wood, of Hatfield Wick, when driving from Baddow to Hatfield Peverel
along the bye-road, about seven o'clock in the evening, captured a Manx Shear-
water (Puffinus anglorum, Temm.). The bird was on the road, probably in
search of food, and a lad with my brother had little difficulty in securing it alive,
although it had burrowed into the grass in the bank, and when caught showed
considerable "fight," making free use of its beautiful bill. The bird having been
handed over to me, and seeing that it was a good specimen, I took it to the
Zoological Society's Gardens at Regent's Park, where it is now in the safe keeping
of Mr. Bartlet. Mr. Bartlet remarked at the time I left it with him, that it was
somewhat unusual for a specimen to be found so far inland, but the recent gale
may have driven the bird from the coast. He further told me that they found
great difficulty in keeping the Manx Shearwater in the gardens, by reason of the
bird's sea-water loving nature.—J. M. WOOD, CE., 113, Balfour Road, Highbury
New Park, N., August 31st, 1889.