STRAY NOTES ON ESSEX.
139
STRAY NOTES ON ESSEX.
From the "Gentleman's Magazine Library" l
I NEED hardly remark that the "Gentleman's Magazine Library" consists
of a classified collection of the chief contents of the "Gentleman's Magazine"
from 1731 to 1868, and is edited by Mr. G. L. Comme, F.S.A. The volume here
noticed consists of 353 8vo pages, of which 157 are devoted to Essex. References
are also given to articles on Essex subjects which have appeared in other
volumes of the series, such as those on prehistoric antiquities, folk-lore, etc.
On the whole, the matters touched upon in this volume are of interest rather
to members of the Essex Archaeological Society than to those of the Essex Field
Club. But there is much to attract the attention of those who are devoid of any
specially archaeological tastes. Among Essex names of places is Ugley. Of this
we learn from Mr. J. H. Sperling (1858), that the singular name of this village
"proved so distasteful to the vicars of Ugley, that they have made several attempts
to get the name changed to Oakley, which they contend is original and correct."
This view is in all probability the right one, and as we can only suppose the
corrupt name to have been affixed by the residents in the neighbouring villages,
it seems a hard thing that the vicars should have been unsuccessful ; for "Ugley''
appears on the newest ordnance maps.
In The Essex Naturalist, vol. iii., pp. 27-35 (1889), appears a paper by
Mr. H. Laver, styled "Fifty Years Ago in Essex." Among other matters, Mr.
Laver touches upon the prevalence of ague in certain parts of Essex in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and its rarity at the present day. In this
volume of the "Gentleman's Magazine Library" there is a short account of
Fobbing, the date of the communication being 1829. The writer remarks that
although Fobbing "stands upon a high hill, the ague is very prevalent there.
The population of this parish is about 450, many of whom are carried away every
year by the above-mentioned malady. . . . There are several farms scattered over
the marshes, of which there is a great abundance : to these marshes the ague is
principally attributed." Some remarks about Southend are dated 1812. The
writer states that "towards the latter end of autumn the interior of this hundred
is subject to the ague, but the immediate coast is not liable to this unwelcome
guest, but is even the winter's asylum of the more opulent of the neighbouring
residents of Rochford and its nearer vicinity." We learn that Southend was not
known as a bathing place forty years before 1812, that the bathing was good, hut
dependent on the state of the tide, and that the warm baths "though confined in
accommodation, are not objectionable, otherwise than the attendants do not abound
in official assiduity." Also that "the company of this place chiefly consists of
families who live in the contiguous part of the country, and of those who migrate
for a short time from the metropolis." In an earlier account of Southend (1794)
we have a description of the Septaria nodules in the cliffs, and we learn that daily
coaches go to London, and that "a regular post of four days in the week has been
appointed by the Postmaster General."
Under the heading "Hainault Forest," we have a description of the celebrated
Fairlop Oak as it appeared in 1793 and in 1806. And there are details, written in
1802, of another huge oak at Hemstead.
1 "The Gentleman's Magazine Library," English Topography, Part IV. (Durham, Essex,
Gloucestershire). Eliot Stock, 1893.