THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
99
at the point where the Lea joins the Thames (Bow Creek), and that must have
been much the same at the time of the Conquest, for we read that 'the Bastard
burnt the village of Southwark' when the Saxon-cockneys crossed the river to
oppose him, and there could have been no 'village of Southwark' if the high-
water level in the Thames had been much above what it is at present. Hardi-
canute, the Dane, died at Lambeth, Harold was crowned there ; and in 1191,
Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, built a chapel on the site of the existing
palace, and that is very few feet above high-water level in the river. Moreover,
the wooden bridge over the Thames, which was carried away in a violent hurri-
cane in the year 1090, was probably at a lower level than either of the bridges
that succeeded it, and it is pretty certain that the river bank on the Essex Marshes
was in existence at that time, for the same storm caused the river to overflow the
marshes. Then we have at the Tower, the Traitor's Gate, with the stairs to the
water, indicating clearly that the water level was much the same when they were
built as it is now. In fact there is nothing to show any material difference
in the level of high water at London since the Conquest, and no reason to suppose
it was different in the time of Alfred, and so there could have been no tidal
estuary at Sewardstone, unless the bottom of it were from thirty to forty feet below
that of the mill pool. But the general level of the marsh is much the same now
as it was before the Conquest. There can hardly be a doubt about it. The town
of Waltham is said to have been built in the time of Canute—the Canute of sea-
side fame—and if the tidal estuary extended to Waltham in his time the surface
of the water in it, at high tide, would be between forty and fifty feet below the
level of the town. And so we must give up the theory entirely. How, then, did
the Danes sail up to Ware ? Now, before the Lea Navigation was constructed
there was of course much more water in the old river than at present; it was
much wider and generally deeper ; but in Saxon times it was still wider and
deeper, for the country was covered with a dense forest, and the rainfall must have
been much greater than at present. The 'ships' of the Danes were open boats,
with a kind of covered 'bunk' at each end ; they seem to have been about forty
feet long and eight or ten feet wide, and did not probably draw more than three
feet of water. On the shallow 'fiords' of Jutland the Danes of our day use a
long punting pole, with which they are exceedingly expert, and drive their boats
along at a speed that is quite astonishing. Might it not be that they learnt the
trick from their ancestors, and might it not be that their ancestors, or some of
them, 'sailed' up to Ware by the help of punting poles ?"—S. J. A.
Excursion to Bicknacre, Danbury, and to Maldon.
Saturday, June 17th, 1893.
A VERY pleasant whole-day Field Meeting was held on this date, under the
direction of the President, Mr. F. Chancellor, and of Messrs. E. A. Fitch, J.P.,
F.L.S., Charles Smoothy, Walter Crouch, F.Z.S., Edmund Durrant, and H. A.
Cole (in the absence of his brother, Mr. W. Cole, the Hon. Secretary, through
illness).
Leaving Chelmsford railway station in brakes, the party proceeded first to
Great Baddow. Here, in the few minutes allowed, Mr. Chancellor pointed out
the chief points of interest about St. Mary's Church, stating that the tower, nave,
aisles, and chancel were probably built in the time of Edward II., but later
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