NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
157
'mental aberration' ; in fact, I think it should be counted unto her for righteous-
ness. Her physical condition made it absolutely necessary that she should be
constantly fed on light diet. When this was presented to her she invariably
indulged in a string of expletives worthy of the Nelsonian time, and ended up by
stoutly declaring that she would not eat 'Culch.' After having satisfied her
amour propre by this vigorous protest, she ate her food most heartily, and became
quite good-tempered whilst under the immediate beneficent influence of the afore-
said 'Culch.'"
Mr. Horace Hart, Printer to the University of Oxford, and Controller of the
Clarendon Press, says that the word "Cutch" is not known to him "or to any
other East Anglian ; whereas 'Culch' is thus dealt with by Dr. J. A. H. Murray, in
Part 8 of the great 'Oxford Dictionary,' in course of issue from the Clarendon Press :
" Culch or 'Cultch.'—The mass of stones, old shells, and other hard material,
of which an oyster-bed is formed. 1667 Sprat "Hist. R. Soc." 307 The Spat
cleaves to stones, old oyster-shells, pieces of wood, and such-like things, at the
bottom of the sea, which they call Cultch. 1774 E. Jacob 'Faversham' 83 A
dredge full of Cutch instead of oysters. 1863 C. R. Markham in 'Intell. Observ.'
IV. 424 Paved with stones, old shells, and any other hard substances . . so
as to form a bed for the 'oysters, which would be choked in soft mud. This
material is called Culch. 1891 W. K.Brooks 'Oyster' 103 Oyster shells . .
form the most available Cultch, and are most generally used.' "
[We shall be very glad to receive any information from our readers as to the
suggested use of the word "Cutch" in the sense of Oyster Spat.—Ed.]
Periodicity ?—Some years ago a pond by the side of the Mersea Road, near
Colchester, was very lively in the summer and autumn with newts. One summer
more recently I noticed this pond swarming with stickleback. How they found
sustenance it is difficult to imagine, for they were in such vast numbers that a cart
passing through the water slaughtered them like a veritable car of Juggernaut.
This year I visited the pond and found quantities of young newts again, but not a
single stickleback.—Charles E. Benham, Colchester.
"Sand-Pit Plain," Epping Forest.—I cannot but regret that the
Editorial Note on page 56 of the preceding number of The Essex Naturalist
was not printed in block rather than in diamond type. Living, as I do, close to
Sand-pit Plain, this "ride" is a constant eye-sore. It is true that, within the
last few years, its hideous rigidity has been somewhat modified ; but I cannot help
thinking that Nature might still be artfully assisted to recover herself. In my
opinion, given for what it may be worth, bays or recesses, such as those referred
to on page 59 of the report, will serve to obliterate the artificiality of that uncom-
promising road. Would it not be possible to break it up and give it curves, with
plantations of thorns, among which sapling oaks, beeches, and hornbeams might be
sprinkled ? And would not it be possible to make the approach to the Forest from
Baldwyns Hill less formal and rectangular ? Without a plan it is difficult to
make clear what one means ; but my own notion would be to plant up the present
entrance, which is utterly impassable in winter, and to cut a narrower fresh one,
more or less diagonally, and on the curve, through the grove of young growth
which has sprung up from the stools of trees felled now some thirty years since.
And, while one is suggesting, perhaps it might not be inopportune to add that the
so-called "reservoir" in Staples Road looks as if it would benefit by receiving
some such addition, in proportion to its area, as that recently accorded, and with
such brilliant success, to the Connaught waters.—W. C. W.