THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
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indeed throughout the day many bright impromptu lecturettes, which were
much appreciated by those present. The tower and nave of the Church date
from 1199. The Church was enlarged in 1522, and again in 1856. The
south chancel aisle, or Chantry Chapel, was inspected with great interest.
This portion of the Church was built, or at any rate completed, in 1535, and
richly endowed, but two years later by the Act of Henry VIII. suffered
confiscation, with the other chantries and free chapels all over the kingdom.
The original roof remains and is one of great beauty. The carvings are rich
and deep and the oak bosses show the armorial bearings of the Grocers'
Company and other benefactors. Other bosses have religious symbols, and
the letters M.R. crowned, on a shield. This chapel formerly was used as a
school, and it was there that John Ray, the naturalist, and Challis, the
astronomer, and other eminent men began their education.
Having viewed the Church, the party was cordially received at the
Vicarage by Mr. and Mrs. Kenworthy, and some time was occupied in
inspecting the pictures and objects of Vertu with which the house is filled.
Roman relics and mediaeval curiosities have a little museum to themselves.
In the courtyard were displayed Mr. Kenworthy's collection of neolithic
remains and bones of animals obtained from the excavations in the valley of
the Pod or Brain, where he has discovered a Lake-settlement of early man of
Neolithic age.
At one o'clock the party dispersed for luncheon and to view the town,
re-assembling again an hour later at the Vicarage, where wagonettes were in
waiting to take them to the pits.
No attempt can here be made to describe the many interesting geological
sections pointed out by Mr. Kenworthy. This will be done in papers to be
subsequently published. The Drift series from the Westleton Beds upwards
may be seen in existing excavations. The valley of the Pod Brook at the foot
of Skitts Hill and Mr. James Brown's pits were visited, and it was here that
the most valuable discoveries had been made by Mr. Kenworthy —viz., a
Fascine Lake-dwelling in the alluvial deposits of the river, containing abundant
remains of human occupation and bones of animals, wooden and flint tools,
&C, &c. This most interesting station will be described by the discoverer
in the next volume of the Essex Naturalist. On the slope of the hill to the
south of the pits Mr. Kenworthy had found in the Brick-earths bones of
Mammoth and Palaeolithic flakes. The next stopping-place was at a gravel
pit on the Coggeshall road about half-a-mile from Braintree, belonging to
Mr. Parmenter. It is on a tongue of land (about 220ft. O.D.) dividing the
Pant from the Pod River, and is about 45 feet deep. Chalky Boulder-Clay,
10 or 12ft. curiously mixed up with the wreck of Mid-glacial beds and lumps
of London Clay ; then the Mid-glacial beds above contorted gravels, and at
the bottom Westleton Sands. Such a deep and fine section has not been
exposed in the neighbourhood in the memory of the workmen. Although so
deep, water has not yet occurred. Mr. E. T. Newton, Mr. T. V. Holmes,
and Mr. W. H. Dalton, made remarks on this section, which was greatly
admired and declared to be alone worth a visit to Braintree.
Before returning to the town a visit was paid to Mr. S. C. Parmenter's
grounds at " Mount House," where an embankment was pointed out which
appeared to have formed part of an ancient camp.