188
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Accordingly Mr. Hatley and I set out to explore. We walked
from Dunmow, through High Roding and Aythorpe Roding,
and across the fields to Hatfield Broad Oak. After a short stay
we continued on foot until we reached Bishop's Stortford. The
charm of the district held us, and we determined to come again
for a longer stay.
The opportunity was not forthcoming for another five years,
but in that time the desire to make a study of the region gradually
took shape. At Whitsun last year I undertook to conduct a
week-end party to Hatfield Broad Oak in connection with the
S.W. Essex branch of the Geographical Association. Thus in
the Spring of 1928 three visits were paid and a further one in
August, when, armed with 6 inch maps, Mr. Hatley and I
enjoyed the peaceful intimacy of field and hedgerow and the
mellow beauty of ancient farmhouse, village church and moated
grange. So interested had we become in the district that it was
quite natural to conceive the idea of undertaking some part,
at any rate, of a regional survey. The habit of thinking in terms
of regional study is one which grows, for from such study the
individual secures ever widening interest in nature and in man.
My own introduction to the value of regional survey work
was a paper on Saffron Walden given by Mr. George Morris at a
meeting of the Essex Field Club.1 The inspiration of that
meeting has remained with me ever since and led me to combine
the field studies of the naturalist with those of "man and his
work" which are fostered by modern geography. Geology
became, for me, a background for geographical thought, while
biology and architecture were both considered in relation to
man. Thus I approach regional survey as a geographer and
naturalist rather than from the sociological side.
Regional study and survey have been developed in this
country through the influence of two pioneers, the late Prof.
Herbertson (geographer) and Prof. Patrick Geddes (historian
and sociologist). It is held by many that the development of
any district should be based upon a wide view of its relations
to surrounding districts and of all its internal economy. Such a
view involves comprehensive knowledge of the region, its natural
physical features, the geological structure and surface soils,
climatic characters, the lines of communication, and some insight
1 Essex Naturalist, vol. xix., Regional Survey of Saffron Walden, 28th February, 1920.