180
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED
. . . We walk and dream— and miles of profoundly solitary woods,
and old solitary Jager-houses, and primitive villages in deep remote glens, and
antiquated towns in rarely visited regions, rise before us as we go." How
changed is all this now!
The whole article (some eight columns) is full of interest, and was written
in view of a Bill in Parliament for the enclosure of Epping and Hainault
Forests. The concluding paragraph is as follows :—"The Commissioners of
Woods and Forests may, perhaps, think they are acting quite poetically in
saying with Milton, in 'Cornus.' 'To-morrow to fresh fields and pastures
new' ; but 'fresh fields and pastures new' obtained by the destruction of the
only metropolitan forest, would be a metamorphosis which the London public
would never cease to deplore,"
At that date (1851) and later, the writer, though then a mere boy, can well
remember yet, the Forest district as it was; having frequently accompanied
his grandfather in various drives; when the "Cherry Pie House" in Wan-
stead "Town" and the Eagle at Snaresbrook, were the most quiet and
primitive of inns, for the entertainment of "man and beast"—where hundreds
of acres of land now built over were dense and open forest, which extended
beyond the High Stone nearly up to Leytonstone and right away to Bush-
wood ; while the triple avenues of the latter stretched nearly as far as Cann-
hall.—Walter Crouch, Wanstead, May 10th, 1901.
Ancient Boat found about 1830 in the Lea River Deposits near
Temple Mills.—In connection with the finding of the so-called "Viking
Ship" at the excavations at Walthamstow (ante p. 151 and plate III.) it may
be interesting to recall the account of the discovery of an ancient boat given
in Robinson's History of Hackney.1 It was found (circa 1830) in excavating
the East London Company's Reservoirs a little to the north of Temple Mills,
between those marshes and Lea Bridge. The boat lay at a depth of about
4 feet below the surface of the marsh; it was "embedded in a stratum of
black-clay with shells intermixed: this stratum continues of the same quality
to the depth of 5 feet; above the boat there was a stratum of yellow clay
about 4 feet deep. The bottom of the boat was decayed, and at the end
nearest the bow it was very imperfect, and broke into pieces when it was
attempted to take it out of the place of its deposit, but left an impression from
which a sketch was taken. Its dimensions were 20 feet from head to stern,
6 feet wide, and 18 inches deep ; it was what is termed clinker-built, the joints
being made tight with a cement in which cow-hair was used." A plate of
sections is given, with a plan of the river, showing the spot at which the
boat was lying. The details of the sections are examined by Mr. Whitaker in
his Geology of London, vol. i., pp. 473-4. Maitland (History of London) talks of
a boat having been found in "Stanstead" at the erection of Stanstead Bridge,
but Camden in his Britannia fixes the point near the place where the boat is
above stated to have been unearthed, by saying that the boat was found,
"north of Temple Mills."
1 The History ami Antiquities of Hackney, in the County of Middlesex, By Wm. Robinson,
LL.D., F.S.A., 2 vols., Lond., 1842.