320 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
visitors were received by Alderman Wilson Marriage, who described the
interesting features and contents of this Tudor building.
In thanking Alderman Marriage, Mr. Gurney Benham remarked on
the indebtedness of Colchester to Mr. Marriage for his public spirit in having
restored and preserved, so carefully and effectively, the Siege House
premises. Mr. Benham also remarked on the interest of the East Mills,
observing that the business of which Mr. Marriage was head was almost
unique in point of antiquity. Some London businesses boasted of being
established over fifty or a hundred years. The East Mills at Colchester
had been established over a thousand years and had carried on business
continuously since Saxon times and possibly even from earlier days.
Mr. Jarmin also remarked on the historic interest of the mills, which,
as he observed, had not been overlooked in the Colchester Pageant of
1909.
The President thanked Alderman Marriage for his kind reception of
the party.
Some considerable interest was manifested by members of the party
in a small pencil sketch by Constable, of the East Bridge, Colchester, in
Alderman Marriage's possession. Above the sketch is faintly written in
pencil: "East Bridge Colchester July 27 J.C.," and the back bears an
endorsement by the present owner, stating that the sketch was originally
in Miss Isabel Constable's collection and afterwards in that of his brother.
Edward Burgess Marriage, who sent it to Alderman Marriage in 1912.
On Monday morning a brief visit was paid to St. Martin's church, Col-
chester, where Mr. George Rickword, F.R.Hist.S., gave a careful and
interesting account of the ancient structure.
At 10 a.m. the party proceeded by char-a-banc to Dedham, where
they were met by Canon Rendall, Litt.D., of Dedham House.
The Dedham visit commenced with a description by Canon Rendall
of the "Square," the old market-place at Dedham, its present houses and
its previous configuration.
The interesting and ancient bay and say trade weaving factory—
now a group of cottages—was next visited and the original design and
uses of this typical specimen of an early "factory" were described and
illustrated by Dr. Rendall in a lucid and interesting manner.
The party spent a long while examining, under Canon Rendall's
guidance, the handsome and in many ways remarkable parish church of
Dedham. The details of the late Perpendicular architecture of the church
were described, and the "Easter Sepulchre" tomb, often inappropriately
called "the founder's tomb," was also examined and elucidated. The
notable sculptured portrait monument of the famous 17th century preacher,
John Rogers, in the chancel is one of the most interesting objects in Dedham
Church:
Here John Rogers waits expecting,
That which he preached, the Resurrecting.
Of him Dr. Rendall gave a picturesque account, mentioning how his
early morning discourses or "lectures" in Dedham church from 8 to 9
a.m. on Tuesdays (the market day), attracted crowded congregations,
numbering at least 1,200, men arriving there on horseback from Ipswich
and other towns in the neighbourhood, and even from Cambridge.