154 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
On the motion of Mr. Crouch, which was seconded by Professor Meldola, a
cordial vote of thanks was passed to Mr. John Gaspard Fanshawe for the
permission so freely given to visit Parsloes, and the meeting concluded by
Professor Meldola tendering the thanks of the Club to the Directors of the day.
The return ramble, as the evening shadows fell, was made across the fields and
market gardens by Upney Lane to Barking Station, and on the way the site of
"Jenkins" was pointed out. This was an earlier estate of the Fanshawes, and of
far greater importance, being valued at the death of Thomas Fanshawe in 1600,
at nearly £2,000 a year. It passed out of the family in 1705. The house, which
is described by Smart Lethieullier, as "a very large, old timber house, moated
round, with gardens, etc.," was pulled down later on. The large fishponds and
traces of the terraces alone remain to mark the spot of this erstwhile important
manor. The modern house is known as "Manor Farm," the earlier name of
"Jenkins" being now entirely forgotten.
British Woodlands.—It appears from a recent return that ten years ago
the woodland surface of Great Britain was computed at 2,458,000 acres. By the
year 1888 the acreage thus occupied had risen to 2,561,000 acres, and the measure-
ments taken in 1891 show a further advance to 2,695,000 acres. Of the 134,000
acres thus added to the approximate woodland area of Great Britain, 96,000
acres are assigned to England, 31,000 acres to Scotland, and 7,000 acres to
Wales. The largest woodland area to be found in England is the county of
Hampshire, with 122,574 acres; Sussex, with 122,073 acres comes second; while
the four counties of Hants, Sussex, Surrey, and Kent possess between them
nearly a fourth of the English woods and plantations. These four counties have
upwards of 11 per cent. of their surface thus occupied. In Scotland, Inverness-
shire has no less than 169,000 acres of woodland, this being the largest area of
woodland in Great Britain.
The Porbeagle Shark (Lamna cornubica) near Harwich.—A specimen of
this shark, eight feet long, was exhibited in our market on Saturday last, October
8th. It is said to have been taken off Harwich, in a fishing net. On the east
coast it seems to be much more rare than on the southern and western coasts, and
the occurrence may therefore be worth recording in The Essex Naturalist.
—Henry Laver, F.L.S., Colchester.
[It is probable that the fish referred to by Dr. Laver is that noticed as follows
in the "Essex County Standard" for October 8th :—"On Sunday afternoon, Oct.
2nd, the fishing lugger 'Elizabeth Mary,' of Shoreham (Captain Eli Haylor),
came into harbour and brought with her a young shark which the crew captured
in their net while fishing for mackerel about 10 o'clock on Saturday night, and at
a distance of three or four miles from the Longsand Light. The men feeling
something heavy in their net, five of them were obliged to hold on, and with
great difficulty they managed to draw in their net and found to their astonish-
ment that they had landed a shark, which they found upon measuring to be
between nine and ten feet in length and several feet in girth, and weighing quite
five cwt. In the encounter with the animal their gaff was broken and their net
damaged to the extent of about £1. The shark had four rows of teeth, and
altogether looked a most formidable customer to tackle. On Monday morning
some of the crew of the lugger took the animal up to Ipswich for exhibition pur-
poses, and if possible to find a customer for it."]