96
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB—REPORTS OF
MEETINGS.
SPRING RAMBLE IN EPPING FOREST (636TH MEETING).
SATURDAY, 30TH APRIL, 1927.
This field meeting was planned for the double purpose of a Spring
Ramble in the Forest, and in response to a kind invitation from Mr. and
Mrs. James Dietrichsen to visit them at "The Pollards," Loughton.
Some 35 members availed themselves of the opportunity.
The party assembled at the Club's Forest Museum at Queen Elizabeth's
Lodge, Chingford, at 11 o'clock, and after a brief inspection of the museum,
set out, in glorious sunshine, across Chingford Plain for the woodlands.
The route followed was roughly along the course of the Cuckoo Brook
and northwards to Fairmead Bottom, thence back across the open hawthorn
scrub, which now covers so much of the former cultivated ground on the
Loughton side of Fairmead, past the Forest Superintendent's residence, to
Warren Hill.
The coming of spring was evidenced on every hand. Most of the
bird-migrants were returned, and willow-wrens and chiff-chaffs were
singing everywhere ; cuckoos, redstarts, blackcaps, nightingale, swallow,
long-tailed tits, carrion crow and many great tits were heard or seen.
One deer was glimpsed in the thickets.
The usual woodland flowers, such as Lesser Celandine, Greater Stitch-
wort, Ground Ivy, Goldilocks, Wood Sorrel, Cuckoo Flower, Bluebell,
and other common but ever welcome wildlings, were noted during the
ramble, and among the trees Crab, Blackthorn, Whitethorn and Holly
were seen in flower.
A magnificent unpollarded Beech, standing in a small clearing, was
seen in full leaf, much in advance of its neighbours, and presented a
spectacle which attracted general admiration. A convenient pile of felled
hornbeam poles was taken advantage of to serve as a lunch station, while
enabling the visitors to feast their eyes on the tender green of the young
beech foliage before them.
The huge ancient oak at Fairmead, dead for many years past, was
visited, and the site of Fairmead Lodge close by was pointed out to
strangers of the party.
The prehistoric cooking site on the banks of the Cuckoo Brook, visited
a year before (see Essex Naturalist, xxi., p. 303) was revisited on this
occasion.
At Warren Hill a fine alien maple, a native of the Mediterranean area,
Acer monspessulanum, was seen standing on open forest land, a relic, of
course, of old-time enclosure, and young White Beams and Sweet
Chestnut were found flourishing in the plantations made some 35 to 40
years ago.
At 3.30 o'clock the party, reinforced by later arrivals, made its way
to Albion Hill, where Mr. and Mrs. Dietrichsen cordially welcomed the
visitors at "The Pollards."
Tea was served on the terrace overlooking the extensive sloping
grounds of nearly ten acres, which afforded splendid views across to