46 TEE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
number of new members bad been elected, as would be seen by the Year Book
and reports of the meetings.
The annual meeting then ended.
After the annual meeting the Ordinary Meeting (the 254th) was held.
New Members.—Mr. John French, of 182, High Street, Waltham Cross,
Herts., and Mr. Eliot Hinder, Bank House, Woodford Green, were elected
members.
Sanderling from St. Osyth.—The Curator exhibited a specimen of the
Sanderling (Calidris arenaria) presented in the flesh by Mr. George H. Cross,
of Lee Wick, St. Osyth ; shot on the beach there.
Eggs of the Carrion Crow.—He also exhibited a clutch of eggs of the
Carrion Crow (Corvus corone) from Chigwell, presented by Mr. John B. Smith,
and Mr. Christy remarked that this bird was becoming commoner near London
owing probably to the abundance of food.
Large Pike from Birch.—Mr. Cole also announced that the Right Hon.
James Round had sent to Mr. Pettitt, for preservation for the Club, a large
specimen of the Pike (Esox lucius) caught in the lake at Birch Hall.
Vase from the Romano-British Settlement at Chigwell.—It was
also reported that Mr. A Reader, of George Lane, Woodford, had presented
to the Forest Museum an urn found in or near to the settlement described by
Mr. Chalkley Gould in No. 2 of the Museum Handbooks.1 The vessel was
probably a Cinerary Urn, and was very similar to the one in Mr. Gould's
collection at the Forest Museum, which contained calcined human bones.
Charcoal Burning in Epping Forest.—Mr. Christy presented for the
Epping Forest Museum a flamed copy of an engraving depicting "Charcoal
Burning in Epping Forest," taken from the Illustrated London News of
November 8th, 1879. The picture is thus alluded to in the journal (p. 443) :—
" Some tracts of woodland in the Epping and Hainault Forest districts of
West Essex, not above fifteen miles from the heart of busy London, are devoted
specially to the growth of the hornbeam, a tree which is scarcely known in many
other parts of England. Its wood is the best material for charcoal, and the
commercial value of that substance makes it well worth cultivation. The process
of burning, which is performed on the spot, or near it, when the trees have been
cut down, is a peculiar branch of rustic industry, and those employed in this
business, often dwelling through a long summertime in simple huts or booths,
where they lie m readiness to tend the fires beneath the heaped masses of wood
covered with pieces of turf, have their characteristic features and ways. It is a
work requiring great experience, as well as incessant vigilance during many days
and nights, before the perfect charcoal can be extracted and deposited in the
bags, to be carried away and ground. The appearance of a burning heap, with
jets of flame and puffs of smoke issuing from many crevices in its sides, cannot
easily be forgotten by those who have seen it at night."
It may be interesting to add that the Conservators have recently decided to
revive the custom of charcoal burning in the Forest.
Bones of a Mammoth at Wrabness.—Mr. Christy also exhibited some
rather fragmentary bones of a species of Elephas obtained by himself and Mr.
Wilmer the bank of the Stour river, near Wrabness Point, during a late visit
there. He said that there appeared to be many more bones, but not having the
1 Notes upon the Romano-British Settlement at Chiswell, Essex. By I. Chalkley Gould,
Chingford ; Epping Forest Museum, 1895.