178 COUNTESS OF WARWICK'S RECEPTION.
Soon after half-past ten o'clock, a start was made in a large number of
wagonettes, for Hatfield Forest, permission to ramble through it having been
given by Col. Archer Houblon. The route was by Hatcham Bank and
Woodside Green, to the gate of the Forest opposite "Wallwood Piece," where
the conveyances were quitted, and the woodland ramble commenced.
It was the third visit of the Club to the Forest, and some information
respecting its history and natural history will be found in the reports of
former meetings in the Essex Naturalist (vol. iii., pp. 225-226 and vol. iv.,
pp. 218-225). The Forest comprises about 1,000 acres; it was anciently a
royal demense, and originally no doubt formed part of the great Forest of
Essex. Hatfield is a corruption of the Saxon "Heethfield," land covered
with heath or underwood. The Forest contains many fine oaks and other
trees, notably some grand hawthorns which could scarcely be matched any-
where for size and beauty. From many branches hung abundant stores of
mistletoe, a very welcome botanical sight. Hornbeams, which are so
characteristic of the older Essex woodlands were also seen. The whole
tract is beautiful and picturesque, especially when the numerous fallow deer
are seen bounding along in the distance. Details of the small herd
of Red Deer, all the offspring of a single hind hunted into the forest in 1875
and lost by the hounds, will be found in the Essex Naturalist, vol, i., 189.
By the lake near the "Grotto," built in the "elegant" style of the 18th
century, with quaint ornamentation worked in flint and shells (figured in a
former report), Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., gave a brief address on the
Geology of the district, more particularly alluding to the Chalky Boulder
Clay, which covers so much of the surface in the district. In the cottage
hard by was seen a specimen of a Gyr-falcon recently trapped by the keeper
in the forest.
Some fine specimens of the bivalve Unio pictorum (or "Painter's-mussel'')
were taken from the lake by Messrs. Hughes and Webb; this species is
recorded in Mr. Webb's paper (emit p. 78) on the authority of Mr. Hughes
and Mr. Miller Christy, but was not noticed on the previous visit of the Club,
while Unio tumidus, then noted, was not found on the present occasion.
Thence, under the guidance cf one of the foresters, a man still of fine
physique and great strength, though he has been employed in these woods for
fifty-six years, the party went to visit what is left of the Doodle Oak. There
is little more of it than there is left of the Martyr's Oak at Brentwood, but it
is secured within a space guarded by iron railings, and beside it grows an
oak, sprung from one of its own acorns, which bids fair to become a magnifi-
cent tree. The word "doodle" is significant ; it means a limit, or boundary,
or landmark—much as in the word "dole-stone," for instance. It is, perhaps,
the oak from which Hatfield derived its name of Hatfield Broad Oak ; at any
rate, the remains bear a striking resemblance to the drawing given in Young's
Agriculture in 1813. Within a few yards of the decaying tree, and inside
the enclosure, stands a successor, believed to have sprung from an acorn
dropped from the parent oak.
A visit was also paid to "Beggars Hall Coppice'' in which is a circular
entrenchment, and a small spot of ground called "Porting-hills" or "Porting-
bury-hills" ; nothing is known of these remains, nor has any attempt yet
been made to ascertain their nature or period of construction.