98 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
The botanists and entomologists of the party found here much employment
among the spring flowers and insects. The beautiful Demoiselle dragon-flies
and other water-loving creatures were abundant, and every one was glad to see
an occasional Wood-lady, or Orange-tipped butterfly, one of the loveliest of its
kind, flitting over the flowers.
The members returned to the Sewardstone Road by Mill Lane, and thence
northward past Sewardstone Lodge and Luthers, to the Royal Oak, a quiet, road-
side inn, where the usual high tea had been prepared. This welcome refreshment
was partaken of by nearly forty members.
The return walk was by the footpath nearly opposite the inn, via Sewardstone
Green and the old forest way, Bury Path. On the hill slope a halt was called to
view the beautiful prospect of the Lea Valley over into Middlesex, with the
Alexandra Palace and many a tall spire denoting the numerous villages on the
high river terraces, glistening under the rays of the setting sun.
Subsequent to the above meeting, the following remarks by a writer signing
"S.J.A." were printed in the "Waltham Abbey Times" for May 26th, having
reference to Mr. Crouch's observation, that about Alfred's period the Lea at
Waltham was probably a tidal estuary. Under the heading of "The River Lea in
Saxon Times" the writer says :—"I have read with much interest your report of
the meeting of the Essex Field Club, and particularly that part of it referring to
Sewardstone and the River Lea, for the country thereabouts is a favourite haunt
of mine, and the historical associations of the spot have an attraction for every
student of the doings of men in the distant past, and that famous 'voyage' to
Ware of the Scandinavian cattle-lifters in the days of Alfred the Good was one of
the most remarkable. The 'great' men of history were so seldom good, that
when referring to our Saxon King, who 'died much bewailed of his subjects,' I
can't make up my mind to call him Alfred the Great, although his military
achievements are to be considered among the greatest of his age, and his
engineering skill as exhibited in his 'drainage works' at Sewardstone must
have impressed other people besides the Danes with proper respect for his.
greatness.
" It seems the Danes had constructed at Ware a kind of depot for plunder of
all sorts. Whether they were going to or returning from it when they found
themselves left high and dry, does not appear ; but the question is, how did they
manage to sail to Ware ? The explanation generally given is that in those days
the River Lea was a tidal estuary as far as Sewardstone and perhaps beyond ; but
unless there has been a vast change in the relative levels of the Sewardstone
marsh and the high water mark in the Thames, a tidal estuary at Sewardstone
could not have existed—and there is much to show that no such change has taken
place within the last thousand years at any rate. Of course we know that in the
pre-historic times the bottom of the Lea Valley must have been covered with
water, and ages before Roman, Saxon, or Dane was heard of, the pre-historic
savage—the very Ancient Briton—dwelt in the woods on the hill sides, or made
his home in the tangled jungle by the lake shore. We know he was there, for be-
neath (? or rather in the river-gravels.—Ed.) the marsh we find his weapons of
flint and bone. But we must not confound him with the Ancient Briton of Caesar,
for he had been dead and gone thousands of years before the legions of Rome
were seen on the Kentish hills. But to return to the question of the tidal estuary.
Sewardstone marsh, near the mill, is about thirty-six feet above high-water level