236
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Prof. Meldola, Mr. White, Mr. W. Cole, Mr. Greatheed, Mr. Dalton, Mr.
Gillham, Rev. W. L. Wilson, and others, and a vote of thanks was passed to Mr.
White for his services as Delegate from the Club at the Newcastle meeting, and
for the report of the proceedings given by him that evening.
The Secretary read, on behalf of Mr. E. Brunetti, a paper on "Collecting Diptera;
with remarks on the Diptera of Epping Forest."
Remarks on the subject were made by Mr. Cole, Prof. Meldola, and Mr. White,
and thanks were voted for the paper.
A paper set down on the agenda—"Notes on the Pleistocene Deposits at
Felstead, Essex," by Mr. J. French, was withdrawn for the present.
The meeting concluded with the usual Conversazione, at which exhibitions were
made by Mr. Wire, Mr. White (a very fine series of photographs of the Roman
Wall at Hexham), Mr. French, Mr. Gillham, Mr. Cole, and others.
Saturday, November 30th, 1890.
The 109th Ordinary Meeting was held at the Loughton Public Hall at
7 o'clock, the President, Mr. E. A. Fitch, in the Chair.
Mr. James B. Crosfield was elected a member.
The Librarian read a list of numerous and valuable donations to the Library,
and votes of thanks were passed to the donors.
As Auditors of the Treasurer's accounts Mr. Walter Crouch was elected on
behalf of the Council, and Mr. C. Ridley on behalf of the Members.
Mr. W. White exhibited a living larva of Zeuzera aesculi, given to him by Mr.
Corcoran, who had found it in a branch of a sycamore tree in his garden. Mr.
White called attention to the chitinous scutum, or thoracic segments, with several
rows of minute serrations, which evidently assist progression. He stated that the
larva exuded from its mouth, when irritated, a colourless fluid, which he had tested
with litmus paper, and found to be strongly alkaline.
Mr. Cole mentioned that he had generally observed that the larva of Z. aesculi
was fatal to the life of the branch into which it burrowed ; unlike the larva of the
Goat-moth, which was not so fatal, although a much larger insect-
Mr. Fitch stated that he had found as many as a dozen larvae of Z. aesculi in as
many yards of a white-thorn hedge at Maldon when it was being cut down.
Mr. Cole exhibited some fragments of Pottery from deposits found in 1888 near
the Hole Farm, Sible Hedingham, in a roadside bank, by Mr. Edward Bingham,
of Castle Hedingham, who was practically conversant with pottery manufacture.
Mr. Bingham, who considered the remains to be those of a Romano-British pottery
kiln, had sent a drawing of the section of the deposit, and some restorations of the
shapes of the vessels of which the fragments may be supposed to have formed part,
together with a letter dated, July 24th, 1888, from which the following extracts
are taken :—
" Pressure of business has prevented my replying to your inquiry till now, and
for the same reason I am obliged to defer for a time a complete examination of the
spot in question, with a view to a full report, so that the few following remarks are
all I can adduce at present.
" I must premise that in the external appearance of this 'Romano-British Kiln'
there is nothing at all inviting to a casual observer, and no doubt passers-by have
for centuries noticed nothing but the apparent effect of a sharp fire having recently
been made on the roadside bank. I enclose a very rough sketch of this bank,
explaining that when the lane was made it was sunk in this part to a depth of
4 or 5 feet below the old level, and thus cut across the centre (as I suppose) of the