THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 103
were glistening with the bright golden buttercups and speckled with daisies and
cuckoo-flowers. The bordering coppices were voiceful with birds and the min-
gled hum of insects, while overhead the clear blue sky, on either side glimpses
of thatched and red-tiled cottages embowered in flowers, beyond white mansions in
undulating timber-studded parks, and further yet (and later in the afternoon) the
wooded heights of Brentwood and the forest, all blended into a succession of
rural pictures, scents and sounds delicious, such as English (and Essex) lanes in
spring can alone furnish forth. The early white butterflies were busy in the
gardens and meadows, and flitting along the banks of Sisymbrium or "Jack-by-the-
Hedge," were seen numerous "Orange-tipped" butterflies, which so well deserves
the rustic name of "Wood-lady" as one of the prettiest of English insects.
Of Theydon Bois little need be said on the present occasion. Mr B. Winstone
published in the first volume of the Essex Naturalist (pp. 153-159) an enquiry
Timber Porch of Theydon Garnon Church (Winter).
From a Drawing by H. A. Cole.
into the origin and true pronunciation of the word "Bois," in which much
local information was given. The church is comparatively new, having been
built in 1844; but a few years later it required rebuilding, being found unsound,
and the present building, close by the Green, dates only from 1851. The old
churchyard may still be seen near Theydon Hall on the way to Abridge ; but the
church itself was pulled down, being far away from the village. It was very
small, dedicated to St. Mary, and a small engraving of it was done by John
Ogborne,
Theydon Hall, near the church, belonged to the Meggots and Elwes of
Suffolk, and it was here that John Elwes, the well-known miser, lived. John
Strype, the antiquary, was curate of Theydon Bois for a short time in 1669, and
then went to Low Leyton, of which he remained vicar for sixty-eight years.
Crossing the railway, the lane was followed to Theydon Garnon Church,
shortly before reaching which a halt was called at a spot where Mr. I. Chalkley