314
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
by the lecturer, an earlier tower was re-fronted) circa 1469 and the chancel
arch dates from about 1420.
The registers were produced for the visitors' inspection and the entry
of Coys's burial, which runs :—
" Mr. William Coys of Stubbers was buried Mar : 9 : 1626."
was read with curious interest.
After a thorough examination of this interesting edifice and its many
beautiful and historical monuments, lunch was taken at Mr. Evans'
invitation in the rectory garden adjoining the church. Before leaving,
our President expressed the warm thanks of the party to Mr. Evans for'
his kindly services.
A somewhat hurried cross-country walk brought the visitors, at
2.30 o'clock, to "Stubbers," where they were welcomed by Mr. and Mrs.
Champion Branfill Russell, who very kindly conducted us over the house
and through the extensive gardens. "Stubbers" is of special interest
to botanists on account of its former association with one of our early
British horticulturists, William Coys, who resided here and cultivated many-
foreign plants in his garden—a famous one in its day, well known to Gerard,
the herbalist, to Goodyer, Lobel and other botanists of the time: no fewer
than 324 different kinds of plants were recorded by Goodyer as growing here.
Here our pretty little Ivy-leaved Toadflax (Linaria cymbalaria), now so
widely distributed throughout the country, was for the first time grown
as a garden plant in England, and examples of it were seen by us still
growing on the older walls with a direct pedigree of over three centuries'
length. In this garden, too, the Yucca first flowered in this country in
1604, and was figured by Lobel in 1605. The garden was greatly altered
at the end of the 18th century, but, according to Dr. Gunther's investi-
gations, Coys's garden "almost certainly coincided with the present
Mulberry garden at the S.E. corner of the house."
The house itself was practically rebuilt in the late 18th century, but
vestiges of Coys's house are to be seen in the late 16th century brickwork
of the east and west walls. The adjacent brick outbuilding is late 17th
century, and the large timber-framed barn is 16th century, so that
memories of Coys are still in evidence. Mr. Champion Russell, the present
owner, is the modern representative of a family which has been seated
here for over two centuries in succession to the Coys family.
In the gardens the formally trained lime avenue, believed to date
back to Coys's time, a bush of the earliest known "double" rose, a yellow
Scrophularia (S. vernalis L.) and a tall "Witch Elm" (Ulmus glabra)
are other reminders of William Coys.
Coys supplied seeds of many rare plants to John Goodyer, who refers
to him in warm terms as "the most worthie English Herborist, my very
good friend, Mr. William Coys" and again as "my worthie friend and
"most diligent observer and preserver of simples."
Coys also studied the art of brewing beer, then a comparatively new
national drink, described in 1542 quaintly as follows :—"Bere is made
of malte, of hoppes, and water ; it is a naturall drynke for a Dutche
man. And nowe of late dayes it is moche used in Englande to the
detryment of many Englysshe men."
Taking leave of our kind host and hostess, the party proceeded.