48 WARRANT FOR PAYMENT OF FOREST OFFICERS.
door grapes have nowhere ripened, being on the average no
bigger than large peas, and are as sour as can be." As a rule,
however, growers of these outdoor grapes have, in Essex, much
less to fear from the deficiencies of our climate than from
the wasps, which attack the grapes with avidity as soon as they
begin to ripen.
Nevertheless, as has already been said, there seems room for
doubt whether our Essex climate is now good enough to ripen,
in an average year, grapes sufficiently for the purposes of wine
making. It is one thing for a few grapes to ripen when pro-
duced by a vine trained to a brick wall which catches and
reflects all possible rays of the sun's heat ; but it is quite
another thing for grapes to ripen when grown upon poles in vine-
yards in the only manner possible when the grapes are required
in large quantities lor wine-making.
The foregoing does not profess to be anything like a
complete review of the subject treated. Further research would
bring to light many other old records and interesting forgotten
facts tending to elucidate the subject ; but enough has been
said to establish the fact that, in early times, viniculture was
carried on more or less extensively in our county.40
40 I have to thank Mr. Bickley, of the British Museum, and Mr. William Cole,
F.L.S., for kind assistance and advice in reference to portions of the foregoing paper.
WARRANT FOR PAYMENT OF FOREST
OFFICERS IN 1728.
By I. CHALKLEY GOULD.
[Read February 25th, 1899].
THE presentation of this document to the Epping Forest
Museum by Mr. Brown enables us to compare it with
a similar Exchequer Order, dated the 14th January, 1741, already
in our collection and exhibited at Chingford.
The description given of that document in The Essex
Naturalist (vol. ix., p. 73) renders it unnecessary to do more
than indicate the points of difference presented by our new
acquisition.
It will be seen that this warrant is of earlier date, viz.,
30th October, 1726, and opens with the order to pay out of "his