316 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
this country, was given authority over all other houses of the Order in
England. The rules of the Order were simple, and Mr. Benham mentioned
the fact that one of their customs was that their "Rule," consisting of
seven chapters, was read over weekly in their assembly hall, one chapter
on each day in the week, whence the term "Chapter House" for their
place of assembly. The revenues of the priory in early days were about
£52 a year, and even at the value of money in those times it must have been
a difficult matter to provide for the thirteen canons who formed the Priory
at Colchester. At the Dissolution in 1536, the yearly value of the Priory
was stated to be £134. All traces of the Priory buildings had been destroyed
and nothing was left but the nave of the church, which being "parochial"
had to be spared. The chancel, however, was destroyed and no trace of
it remains.
This venerable ruin, a remarkable example of Norman workmanship
with Roman materials, is now happily scheduled under the Ancient Monu-
ments Act, and is evidently well-cared for by the Government Department
concerned with its preservation.
From the Priory the visitors proceeded by the line of the old Roman
Town Wall to the Castle Park. Here Councillor A. M. Jarmin, F.R.Hist.S.,
Deputy-Chairman of the Colchester Corporation Museum Committee,
gave a most interesting description of the recently excavated foundations
of a street of Roman houses, which existed on the upper promenade of the
park where the bandstand is now placed. Mr. Jarmin referred to the
discovery, during these excavations, of remains of yet older Roman build-
ings under the tesselated pavements and foundations, these older build-
ings showing distinct signs of having been consumed by fire, the theory being
that they were the buildings destroyed by Boadicea in her devastation
of the Roman Colony about a.d. 60. The exterior of the Castle, built
circa 1076 a.d. by Eudo Dapifer, or Chamberlain, to William the Conqueror.
was next inspected, Mr. Jarmin describing the interesting features of
the fortress. The dwarfed Sycamore tree, over a century old, growing
on the summit of the Castle ruins, and said to have been planted to com-
memorate the Battle of Waterloo, attracted some attention from the visi-
tors by reason of its stunted condition, due to its unfavourable position.
St. Helen's Chapel in Maidenburgh Street, a chapel served by the monks
of St. John's Abbey in Pre-reformation days, afterwards used as a Friends'
Meeting House, then as a school, a circulating library, a furniture store,
and now (since 1886) restored to sanctity as a church house, for the clergy
of the Rural Deanery, was next inspected.
The old house in West Stockwell Street, now converted into two
residences (Nos. 11 and 12) in which resided the authoresses of "Twinkle,
twinkle, little star," "My Mother," and other familiar nursery rhymes,
bears a tablet on the facade :—
In these houses /
lived /
Jane and Ann Taylor /
Authors of Original Poems /
for Infant Minds, &C. /
1796—1811. /
From here the two sisters removed, in August, 1811, to Ongar.