THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
211
the landscape ; many barges trade from this place, conveying malt, bricks, and
gravel to London, and returning laden with barley, coal, or other merchandise.
Before the New River was formed, the water from the Chadwell Spring used to
flow into the Lea near where the bridge is now built. Below the town is the
navigation cut, which rejoins the old bed of the stream near St. Margarets. The
portion of the river thus cut off is very beautiful as it winds its sinuous way,
fringed with pollard willows, through the rich meadows. These are the waters
which old Izaak Walton loved so well and described so happily in his perfect
pastoral 'The Complete Angler' ; here he assisted at the destruction of that
'villainous vermin,' the otter; and here he caught that wonderful chub—that
chub with the white spot on his tail, that we all wot of so well. These waters
Amwell Church, from the Lea. [Drawn June 6th, 1896.]
are still famed for their fish, they are strictly preserved, and with others in the
neighbourhood are known as the Amwell Magna Fishery."
Mr. Webb gave a brief discourse on deck on the records for Essex Mollusca
which he had registered for his paper, "read" later in the day and illustrated
his remarks by reference to his own collection which was displayed in the cabin.
Soon after Amwell Church was seen nestling among the trees on the high
ground on the right, a picture of which Mr. H. A. Cole had drawn for the
circular. "Here," again to quote Mr. Croft, "is a copious spring (Emma's
Well), the waters of which reinforce the New River, and here are the remains of
very considerable earthworks, surmised to be those made by King Alfred during
his campaign against the Danes. Nearly opposite, on the left bank of the river,
is a field called 'Garrison Field,' where a quarter of a century ago a rampart