262
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
"Conductors." But in spite of these adverse conditions more than 50
members and visitors attended, and Mr. Primrose McConnell, B.Sc, F.G.S..
and Mr. I, Chalkley Gould efficiently acted as leaders.
The party assembled at North Weald Station about 10 minutes to 3, and
Mr. McConnell at once led the way to the Ongar Park Woods, where the
keeper was in attendance.
Ongar Park Woods are portions of the old Forest of Essex, considerably
changed by long years of planting and management as game woods. They
formed part of the "Purlieus" of the Forest, for the history of which Fisher's
Forest of Essex, pp., 159-170 should be consulted. Very considerable
information respecting the natural history of these woods will be found in the
reports of previous visits, in our Journal of Proceedings, vol. ii., pp. xliii.-xlvi.
("From Epping to Theydon Garnon") and Ibid, vol. iv., pp. civ.-cviii. In
the latter report, some editorial remarks on the Purlieus will be found (p. cvii.,
foot-note). The late Mr. English there gave many details of the entomology of
the woodlands, and Prof. Boulger of the botany.
On the present occasion, Mr. McConnell called a halt at the "Eight
Wents" and remarked that it was almost exactly 18 years since the Club
had visited Ongar Park Woods, The place where they were standing at the
moment was the meeting point of eight "Wents" or "Wonts," rides which
radiate in straight lines outward like the spokes of a wheel. The Ordnance
Map showed that these were at mathematically exact distances from one
another ; one of the rides, however, had within the last thirty years been
allowed to grow up and become obliterated, in the interests of game
preservation. The centre point had at one time been occupied by a spruce
fir tree—long gone however. The height above sea level of this centre point
was 340 ft., so that it was thus the third or fourth highest point in Essex.
Ongar Park Wood was a remnant of the ancient Forest of Essex,
and was continuous with Epping Forest, though now for many generations
it had been private property. The district of Ongar Park was one
of the seven "Purlieus" of the Forest of Waltham (which included
what is now Epping Forest) and the name was common to several of the
present day farms and woods of the neighbourhood— such as the speaker's own
farm, Ongar Park Hall, also Ongar Park Lodge, Ongar Park Grove, etc.
The prevailing timber tree of the Wood was hornbeam, but many other
species were quite common, and some specimens of the Wild Cherry
(Prunus cerasus) and of the American locust-tree (Robinia pseudacacia) were to
be found.
The late Mr. English had collected some specimens of rare moths—such
as the "Camberwell Beauty" and the "Great Emerald," in these rides
in bygone years.
The geological formation of the ground over which they had come
was largely Glacial Drift on the top of the London Clay, with small patches
of the Chalky Boulder Clay of East Anglia. The surface soils were thus
composed of the corresponding gravelly, marly, and clayey material; the two
first being the basis of most of the arable fields in the neighbourhood, while
the clay is mostly in permanent grass land. The heathy portion they had
crossed was given on the Geological Survey map as "Pebble Gravel."