114
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
day "ramble, the morning party assembling at Chigwell Lane station at
about 11 o'clock, and the afternoon party at Loughton Station about half-
past two. The previously unsettled weather prevented members from
attending in large numbers, but fortunately for the party Chigwell was
spared even a shower throughout the day. The "conductors" were Mr.
Wall, Mr. Robert Paulson, F.R.M.S. (Botany), Mr. W. Cole (Entomology)
and Mr. H. Warren, F.G.S. (Geology). For much information concerning
Chigwell, and the interest taken in the village by Charles Dickens, the
reader is referred to the report of a visit by the Club on 25th July 1881,
at which meeting Mr. Fisher Unwin read a paper on the village and its
memories (Journal of Proceedings of the Essex Field Club, vol. II., pp.
xxxiv.—xl).
The early party on leaving Chigwell Lane walked across the Roding
Valley to Rolls Park (three-quarters-of-a-mile), the house and park
having been kindly thrown open to the Club on this occasion by Mr. and
Lady Sybil Smith, who at present are in occupation of the estate. The
house is in the main a seventeenth century mansion with eighteenth century
additions ; the oak-panelled hall and grand staircase with massive carved
balustrade are especially worthy of note. The "Harvey Room" contains
a series of oil paintings, of dates ranging from the mid-seventeenth to
the mid-eighteenth centuries, framed in decorative plaster panels on the
walls. Some time was spent in the house and park, and the Club after-
wards proceeded through the village to the well-known Grammar School,
which was open by the courtesy of the Rev. Canon Swallow, Head Master.
In the unavoidable absence of Mr. Swallow, Mr. Simkins received the
visitors, and gave a short account of the history of the School, which was
founded in 1629 by Samuel Harsnett, Archbishop of York, who had been
vicar of Chigwell, and whose fine monumental brass, dated 1631, will be
seen in the Church close by. William Penn, founder and governor of the
State of Pennsylvania, was one of the early pupils of the School.
At the Church (St. Mary), the party was received by the Vicar, the
Rev. F. A. Murray. Mr. Howard Wall gave an interesting account of the
building and its history. It has been changed very considerably since
the Club visited it in 1881 ; it is now quite a model village church with
every aid to reverent worship. From Mr. Wall's remarks the following
details may be quoted.
The old nave, now the south aisle, has a good Norman door-way,
with a cloistered avenue of yews leading to it. The steeple with a copper-
covered spire has a fine oak bell-cage, supported by heavy timbers, de-
tached from the brick-work, and dates from 1500.
The four-bay arcade, built in 1480 to allow entrance to the north aisle,
now opens into a noble nave, built in 1887, 70 feet long by 25 feet 6 inches
wide and chancel 30 feet long and 22 feet 6 inches wide, designed by Mr.
Blomfield ; the opening from the old chancel to the new is pleasingly
and cleverly designed. This new part of the church is beautifully de-
corated from designs of Mr. Bodley, who also designed the pulpit ; there.
are three good windows by Powell, Kemp and Burlingson respectively.
The very large brass to Archbishop Harsnett (1631) is in perfect pre-
servation, and ranks with only one other post-Reformation brass in the
country as of special interest, the effigy being vested in full canonicals.