THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
105
account of his advanced age. The principal features of the church were pointed
out by the Rev. W. J. Kenworthy, who called particular attention to the Norman
columns, the Decorated tower, the Early English arches, the Late Perpendicular
windows, the piscina, the rood stair, and the "squints" on each side of the chancel
arch. At the invitation of the venerable vicar the party visited his residence and
inspected a goodly collection of old china, and many prints, pictures, &c. A mile
or thereabouts from the church is the stately Italian mansion of Felix Hall in its
extensive park, verdant with springtide herbage, and surrounded with forest trees.
Here indeed was a spot where the members might have roamed for hours with
pleasure and profit, but time and a heavy shower of rain drove the party into the
Hall, the residence of R. B. Colvin, Esq., J.P., High Sheriff of the County, and
the much-respected Master of the East Essex Hunt. In the absence of Mr.
Colvin, his sister, Mrs. Watson, entertained the visitors with light luncheon,
exhibiting an earnest interest in the welfare of every member, and subsequently,
ably assisted by the Rev. Kenworthy, conducting the party through the various
apartments of the Hall stored with the valuable collection of Italian marble
busts, vases, urns, &c., purchased by the late Lord Western, at considerable
cost, about the year 1825.
Most of the works of ancient Greek and Roman art in the Hall were
described, and many figured, in Canon Marsden's "Descriptive Sketches"
issued by the Essex Archaeological Society in 1864.
Among the many beautiful objects pointed out by Mrs. Watson and Mr.
Kenworthy, were some very fine Greek and Etruscan vases ; casts from the
sculptured frieze of the Parthenon, or great national Temple of Minerva at
Athens ; numerous busts of Minerva, Ariadne, Lycurgus, Roma, Germanicus,
Annia Faustina, a remarkably fine example with its agate drapery. Historically
interesting were the three busts of the Emperor Augustus, representing him at
the ages of twelve and sixteen and also in the prime of life. The plaster casts
of busts are numerous, and the large marble tazza and candelabra came in for
a full share of admiration, as did the exquisitely worked mantelpiece in the
reception room. The mosaic Medusa's head in the entrance hall, which once
adorned the villa discovered on the Via Appia, about four miles from Rome,
also attracted much interest. Several sarcophagi, with their bold sculpturing and
ancient inscriptions, were pointed out and explained.
After warmly thanking Mrs. Watson for her kind and graceful reception,
the party retraced their steps through Kelvedon village for about a mile and a
half, passing en route within a few feet of the well at Mr. Fuller's brewery, a spot
where the Boulder Clay was recently bored to the extraordinary depth of 160
feet (see Essex Naturalist, vol. i., p. 189). The "Knight Templar's
Terrace" was noticed by Mr. Fitch as now occupying the ground on which stood
the old Inn described by Capt. A. Hamilton in Trans. Essex Archaeological
Society (N.S.) vol. i, pp. 153—8. The way led across the new bridge built in
1788 and attention was called to the seven brick arches of the old bridge, marking
the more southern site of the old Roman road, and also to the "Sun Inn" with
its quaint sixteenth century carved woodwork (see illustrations in "Pictorial
World," November 21st, 1889). Then down the way known as World's End
Lane on the opposite side of the road for a short distance, till the Gravel-pit in
"Barrowfield" (No. 7 on Ord. Map of Inworth parish) was reached. Here Mr.
Hills, jun., and Mr. Beaumont, on behalf of Mr. Raven, the owner of the field,
exhibited several relics of Anglo-Saxon days which had been found in the course