THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 95
the party assembled at Chigwell Lane station punctually at 10.46 o'clock,
and botanical collecting was enthusiastically started even before the
railway premises had been quitted. Before a hundred yards had been
traversed, forty-six species of wild flowers had been recorded and by
shortly after noon this total had been raised to some 130 species: to effect
this result, of course, the humblest weed had to be included, the despised
groundsel and ubiquitous Chickweed ranking equally with the more
attractive and rarer forms. Altogether, the botanists had a very happy
and successful morning, and although progress through the fields towards
Abridge was necessarily rendered slow by reason of their enthusiasm,
non-botanical members of the party were content to enjoy the peaceful
surroundings of the Roding valley, all unsuspicious of the discomforts
which awaited them later on,
Lunch was taken, as usual, al fresco; and then, as Piggott's Farm was
neared, the trouble began. Rain, at first slight, but growing heavier
and heavier, became persistent and compelled shelter in a cartshed of the
farm. Some timid members of the party remained as tenants of this
shed for over two hours.
During a temporary lull, it was decided to push on for Theydon
Garnon church (our next objective) by road, and to abandon the projected
continuance of the ramble by field path; but a renewed pitiless downpour
thoroughly soaked the unfortunate party, which finally arrived at the
church in a deplorably bedraggled condition: all were glad to discard
some at least of their dripping garments in the church porch and to seek
sanctuary in the sacred edifice.
At 3 o'clock precisely, the hour previously appointed, the rector, the
Rev. M. Persse-Maturin, arrived and, taking his station at the reading-
desk, welcomed the visitors to his church and gave a most interesting
account of the history of the fabric. He reminded his hearers that prior
to the Dissolution the church was served by priests from Waltham Abbey,
who stayed in the recently-demolished Priest's House in the churchyard,
using it as their "week-end cottage." This cottage, unhappily, fell into
a ruinous condition some twenty years back and the £600 necessary to
restore it not being available, the structure was sold and the fine oak
beams have been built into a new house in Beulah Road, Epping : one
relic from the old cottage has, however, been preserved, in the shape of
an elliptical-headed oak tudor door frame, which is now utilised as a book-
case and is placed in the Church.
After remarking that traces of fishponds still exist near the church
and referring to the magnificent Priest's Walk which leads from the
road to the churchyard (a fragment of the mediaeval road, long since
disused and in part obliterated, from Harlow to London), Mr. Maturin
directed attention to the noble red-brick West Tower, erected by Sir
John Crosbie in 1520, which bears a quaintly worded stone tablet in
memory of the builder, bearing his shield of arms. The West Door is
the original one, and like that leading to the belfry, is liberally studded
with iron nails.
The north aisle and porch are a later addition and bear the date of their
erection, 1644, worked in the brickwork of the eastern gable: the oak
arcade between this aisle and the nave, also of date 1644, is an almost