196 LOCUSTS IN ESSEX.
He was descended from a good Essex family ; was possessed of untiring in-
dustry, patience, and accuracy, and became a most competent and learned archae-
ologist and herald, especially devoted to Roman and Mediaeval antiquities.
The wanton destruction of sepulchral monuments which took place in the
earlier years of Church restoration, at Leigh and other places in Essex, raised his
indignation ; and in consequence he determined to visit and describe all the
churches in the county. After over forty years' work, the results are embodied in
five folio volumes of MS., with all the armorial bearings coloured, and this work,
with an illustrated copy of Morant's Essex, containing many hundreds of his pen
and ink drawings, and extra prints, are, with other valuable MS. collections, be-
queathed by him to the Essex Archaeological Society To the "Transactions"
of this Society he contributed nearly fifty papers, besides plates and etchings.
For several years he was hon. secretary to the Antiquarian Etching Club,
which existed from 1849 to 1853, and for this work alone he etched thirty-nine
copper plates. He was also a constant contributor of etchings to Mr. Roach-
Smith's "Collectanea Antiqua." He wrote numerous articles for "The East
Anglian," and other magazines and newspapers. He was also well-known as a
staunch churchman, a lecturer on Ecclesiastical Art and Antiquities ; and was a
fair Welsh scholar, and an enthusiastic admirer of the wild romantic scenery of
Wales.
For forty years he occupied a position in the Bank of England, retiring in
1877, when he returned to Leigh.
His wife, who was the daughter of Mr. Jonathan Wood, of Hadleigh Castle, to
whom he had been married for forty-seven years, died in 1884, and was buried in
the "God's acre" of Hadleigh church. The great interest they ever took in this
Early Norman church is evidenced by several beautiful stained glass windows,
which were placed therein in memory of Mrs. King's parents, herself, and the
wife of her eldest son. Here also the remains of Mr. King were laid to rest on
the 20th of November last.
Walter Crouch.
"LOCUSTS IN ESSEX."
A NEWSPAPER scare has recently been in circulation consequent upon the
discovery of considerable numbers of dead locusts in some foreign hay im-
ported into the Ongar and other districts in Essex, and the subject was deemed of
sufficient importance to justify a question by Major Rasch in Parliament. Mr.
Thompson, Editor of the "Essex County Chronicle," brought the matter for-
ward at a meeting of the Essex Field Club on November 25th (p. 181), and
subsequently I received a letter, accompanied with specimens, from Mr. R. H.
Muglestone, of "Little Clayden's Farm," East Hanninglield. There was some
doubt as to the country from which the hay was exported ; it was at first stated
to come from Russia, but, subsequently, Mr. Herbert Gladstone mentioned in
Parliament that the Agricultural Department had received no information of
the "importation of locusts in Russian hay, and inquiry had led the President
of the Board of Trade to think that the paragraphs which had recently ap-
peared in the newspapers were based on the fact that Argentina hay frequently
contained a large number of dead locusts."
I submitted specimens, kindly sent to me by Mr. Muglestone, to Mr. W.