34 ESSEX AS A WINE-PRODUCING COUNTY.
Mr. Scott recommends that the plasterwork should be
renewed with cement plaster brought flush with the surfaces of
the timber work ; that barge boards of suitable design should be
substituted for those now in position ; and that the rough-case
should be removed from the old chimney stack, and the brick
work pointed.
We may now, therefore, hope to see the old Lodge skilfully
repaired, to become one of the principal objects of interest in the
neighbourhood. The additional space afforded to the Museum
will permit of a more systematic and complete representation of
the natural history and antiquities of the Forest. The Club has
petitioned the Epping Forest Committee to establish some
efficient means of warming the building by means of hot water,
and to give our Curator the use of a room or rooms for work and
storage. It is also very desirable that the Museum should be
lighted up during the dark afternoons in winter. If these things
are done, the building will be vastly more suitable to its purpose,
and it will need only a little perseverance and co-operation of
those interested in the Forest to render the Epping Forest
Museum worthy of its setting in the midst of one of the finest
recreation grounds in England.
ESSEX AS A WINE-PRODUCING COUNTY.
By MILLER CHRISTY, F.L.S.
SEVERAL months since, Mr. Walter Sergeant, of Dunmow,
writing to one of our leading county papers,1 raised the
question:—Has the vine ever been cultivated in Essex to any
large extent for the purpose of making wine ?
We are safe, I think, in answering this question by a direct
negative. At the same time, there can be no doubt whatever
that, in early times, viniculture was successfully carried on at
not a few places in Essex. Of this, we have clear evidence in
the fact that many fields and pastures in various parts of the
county still retain (though sometimes in a corrupted form) the
name of "The Vineyard." Moreover, written records proving
that the vine was once cultivated in our Essex valleys still exist
and will be noticed hereafter.
1 See The Essex County Chronicle, Dec. 9th, 1898.