200 NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
to say to it ; it was, I suppose, veritably a too hard nut to crack. I ought
to say that the coconut and the boxes are only about four paces from the
window, which is constantly occupied by children, both of a younger and older
growth, but none of the birds mind breakfasting in public. As my garden runs
alongside a park, perhaps I may have a greater number of 'feathered friends'
than most people."
My brother has handed me a rapid sketch of one of our happy "assemblies"
in the garden rose-bush, as watched from his study window, and I can heartily
recommend members of the Club to follow our example, and to secure the
pleasure of a constant succession of Christmas parties, far merrier and less costly
than the usual run of such entertainments.—William Cole, Buckhurst Hill.
Birdcatchers.—A hint from Russia appears in a late number of the
"Athenaeum" :—"The police of Kiew found some birdcatchers, who were on
their way to Moscow with six hundred nightingales in cages. The bird-
catchers were captured and fined, and their little victims were taken to the
Botanic Gardens and released. It is said they rose in the air in song, which
was responded to by the other birds around." It would be well if the bird-
catching propensities of the Whitechapel visitors to the Epping Forest district
could be checked in the same manner.—I. C. Gould, Loughton.
Dannetts Hill (See Essex Naturalist, supra, p. 86).—This name, under
a slightly different form, occurs in a document of 1617 (Excheq. B. and A. ; Jac.
I., Essex, No. 252). The king at the time was setting up a "fishing" claim to
various estates within the Forest, and, among them, to those of Thomas Botheby
and Robert Lee [Leigh], claiming to be owners in Chingford. Many place-
names are given, including "Dannyor Hill alias Chingford Common alius Ching-
ford Waste" ; and "Chingford Halke alias Chingford Common or Waste."
Elsewhere, under date Feb. 13, 1620-1, we learn that three acres on Dannetts
Hill had recently been enclosed (Lett. Pat., 18 Jac. I.) Half a century later,
Lady Elizabeth Botheby, widow, of Friday Hill, claimed to appoint a sworn
woodward of all her woods called Larks and Danhurst Hill, within the manor
and Forest, and thereof showed a charter ; she also claimed assize of bread and
beer and free-warren at Danhurst Hill and Dovehouse field—a somewhat curious
limitation of her right, and one possibly due to careless drafting (Excheq. Plac.
Forestae, Tr. Rec, No. 6—Regard Roll).—W. C. Waller, Loughton.
Stulpway.—The question was raised by Mr. W. C. Waller, in Essex
NATURALIST, vol. vi., p. 207, what was a "stulpway" ? In Harrod's "Report
on the Records of the Borough of Colchester (1865) I find :
"In the 3rd and 4th year of Richard II. a sufficient piece of land is granted
to place three stulps, which are Anglicised "spores," for "spars" or "posts," to
support a certain vine ..."
The same word appears in 4th and 5th of Edward II.:
"Hugh de Stowe raised two stulps under his vine."
Taking "stulp" as equivalent to post, it is an open question whether
"stulpway" refers to a road made corduroy fashion, that is, with trunks laid
across the track, or to a road marked out by posts, or possibly raised above the
surrounding soil, and supported by trunks of trees at the sides.
Compare '.' stump-road," such as that ancient way from Coopersale to Thorn-
wood Gate, which was part of the old road to Newmarket in pre-coach days.—
I. C. Gould, Traps Hill, Loughton.