NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
An Ancient Pit at Little Dunmow, Essex.—Referring to my note on
an ancient pit at Coggeshall (Essex Naturalist, vii., p. 68), Mr. Hastings
Worrin, of Bourchiers, Little Dunmow, has been good enough to inform me that
when land-draining in one of his fields some time ago the workmen dug through
a number of black places in the clay containing a good deal of pottery in small
fragments, and what appeared to be charred wood. The field is called Great
Calthorps, and is numbered 107 on the Ordnance Survey (Sheet xxiv., 14). It
slopes towards the Roman Road from Colchester to Bishop Stortford, but the pits
were some distance from the road. In this field Mr. Worrin found, some years
ago, a bronze fibula.—G, F, Beaumont, F.S.A., Coggeshall.
Chigwell Moat.—It has been suggested that the site of this moat is such as to
render it improbable that it surrounded a dwelling-house of the ordinary character.
If, however, the evidence of field-names counts for anything, it would seem that
Chigwell Hall once stood there; for, in the Tithe Map of 1838—for an oppor-
tunity of studying which I am much indebted to the Vicar of Chigwell—the field in
which the moat is, figures as "Little Hall Field," while the two immediately
abutting on it were known as "Great Hall Field" and "Park Meadow." In later
days, the house (now pulled down) just below the pleasant playing-fields of the
Chigwell Grammar School, was known as Chigwell Hall ; but the ancient "site
of the manor" is probably to be sought within the moat.—W. C. Waller,
Loughton, September, 1893.
The Joslin Museum.—In continuation of the remarks in the present volume
(ante, p. 69), we are very pleased to learn from a recent notice circulated by the
Committee that this valuable collection will now be secured for the Colchester
Museum. Mr. Joslin originally asked £2,000 for his treasures, but in the event
of their being purchased for Colchester promised a donation of £300. He has
since reduced his terms to £1,300 nett cash, and will hand over the collection to
the Committee on payment of that sum, subject to a further £200 being paid in
four years' time at the rate of £50 per annum. Of the amount immediately
required upwards of £1,100 has already been promised, and as active measures
are being taken to secure the balance the Committee expect to be in a position to
complete the purchase within the year of office of the present Mayor, Mr. Gurney
Benham, who has taken so active an interest in the effort to secure this mag-
nificent addition to the treasures of the Castle Museum. We heartily con-
gratulate the Committee on the approaching success of their labours. To adapt
a journalistic phrase, "other towns in Essex, please copy" !—Ed.
A Harmless Mnemonic—A useful hint was given me by an esteemed
botanist at a recent meeting of the Essex Field Club, and I think it would be well
to publish the idea in The Essex Naturalist for the benefit of others. In
common, no doubt with many, to whom natural history is an occasional rather
than a constant study, I have found that the names of plants have an inconvenient
way of being edged out of my brain by the crowd of everyday matters which have
to do business in that centre. The suggestion made to me was that the best
mnemonic was a study of the meanings of the names as far as possible. I have
applied this principle with gratifying success, and find it of great assistance, while
it also adds considerable interest to the study of botany and tends to prevent,
moreover, those glaring "false quantities" and mispronunciations which even
fairly good botanists sometimes let slip. Who, for example, could forget that