THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
295
concludes: "I am strongly inclined to the opinion that flaying was not a specific
punishment for any particular offence or class of offences, but was an arbitrary
mode of inflicting the penalty of death in such instances as the above, where the
vindictive excitement of the occasion could not be satisfied by any ordinary modes
of punishment."
The Secretary read for the author, Mr. Joseph Clarke, F.S.A., "Notes on some
plants peculiar to Essex, and of some plants of Saffron Walden and neighbour-
hood" (see ante, pp. 274-6).
Mr. Edward Charlesworth, F.G.S., exhibited a large number of flints from the
Chalk quarries of the Saffron Walden district in illustration of some remarks upon
the same. Unfortunately, time did not permit the speaker entering into full
details, but Mr. Charlesworth has communicated the following summary of his
observations :— 
" 1st—With the single exception of a bivalve shell (Inoceramus), shells of all kinds
are rare, both in Saffron Walden chalk and flints.
2nd—Sharks' teeth and fish remains of any kind are entirely absent.
3rd—Sponges, principally of the kind known to geologists as ventriculites, occur
more frequently than in any other parts of the kingdom known to me where Chalk
is quarried. But the Saffron Walden sponges are always encased in flint and this
investing stone has to be broken to bring the enclosed sponge into view.
4th—The current belief among geologists is that when shells and flints form
together one stone, the shell or fragment forms a nucleus round which the silex
particles now presented to us in the shape of a flint stone have accumulated. But
I find this long current belief to be totally contradicted by the Saffron Walden
flints. For such of these flints as are associated with shells, in forty-nine cases
out of fifty have the shells on the outside of the flint or only partly imbedded in it.
5th—Shells on the surface of flints if steeped in dilute hydrochloric acid will
be found to have parted with their carbonate of lime, and in its place white flint
(silex) substituted. But if a shell in the inside of a flint be so tested, it will be
found to show no such substitution of silex for lime, or a very trifling quantity,
the very reverse condition of what might be expected.
6th—Saffron Walden sponges in union with flint do form nuclei, round which
the flint accumulates. But the nodule thus formed, if nodule it can be called,
presents this peculiarity. The aggregation of flint is uniform in its thickness and
it follows the shape of the enclosed sponge. But when a shell, or bit of coral is
entirely enclosed in a flint, there is nothing seen in the shape of the flint to say
whether any fossil is enclosed in it or not.
7th—Many of the Saffron Walden flints are peculiar in this. They consist of
two flints joined by flat surfaces, and between the surfaces is a white powder
consisting partly of chalk and partly of silex. Sometimes the pieces have slipped
so that the margins do not exactly meet. At a rough guess this peculiarity is
shown by one in every five hundred flints.
8th—Another peculiarity in many of the Saffron Walden flints is a circular hole
about half an inch in diameter occurring in flints of all sizes and in any part of
their mass. These curious holes appear to be coeval with the flints in which they
are seen, and not to be the result of any subsequent action."
Owing to the necessity of catching the return train, Mr. Maynard's paper on
the Maze at Saffron Walden (see ante pp. 244-7) was hurriedly read, and votes
of thanks having been passed to the readers of papers, many of the members
hastened to Audley End station to catch the Doncaster express, which was
specially stopped for them. Others remained at Walden, and visited during the
evening and next day some of the interesting spots in the neighbourhood, includ-
ing (under Mr. Joseph Clarke's guidance) the chalk-pit in which Erucastrum
inodorum is found.