210
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB—REPORTS OF
MEETINGS.
EARLY SPRING RAMBLE AND VISIT TO THE
EPPING FOREST MUSEUM, CHINGFORD
(759TH MEETING).
SATURDAY, 4TH APRIL, 1936.
The Club's Museum in Queen Elizabeth's Lodge, Chingford, had been
rearranged during the preceding twelvemonth by the assiduous labours
of our members, Mrs. Hatley and Mr. Ross, and new cases were provided
for exhibits hitherto inadequately displayed. A visit of inspection was
accordingly arranged for the above date to enable members to see what
had been done to improve the little Museum : a ramble through the
woodlands was included in the itinerary, and was joined by fifteen
members, whilst some forty members and visitors later assembled at the
Lodge for the ceremony of inspection.
The woodland walk was undertaken in bright sunny weather, but
with a bitterly cold north-east wind blowing. Fortunately for the party,
the route taken, from the place of assembly at the "Wake Arms," was
along the Verderer's Path, following the western slope of the Forest,
which formed an adequate screen from the cold blasts which swept the
countryside generally.
Owing to the cold, very little bird-life was observable, no single summer
migrant being seen or heard on the occasion: a couple of mallard flying
overhead, some tits, and a flock of wood-pigeons, being about all the
birds noted. For the same reason plant-life was late in flowering, only
catkins of birch, hornbeam and sallow, and a few coltsfoot flowers and
blackthorn blossoms, being as yet in evidence.
Much interest was taken in Mr. Main's discoveries of the larvae and
chrysalids of the beetle, Nebria brevicollis, these being obtained by digging
the bare ground where small telltale mounds of excavated earth showed
the position of the underground cells in which the larvae and pupae were
awaiting the summer.
Several fine specimens of the aethalia of the myxomycete,
Reticularia Lycoperdon, were noticed on the tree trunks.
At 2.30 o'clock the whole party assembled outside Queen Elizabeth's
Lodge, when Mrs. Hatley gave a brief account of the history of this fine
Tudor building and referred to its probable original purpose as a "great
standing" for viewing the deer in Elizabethan times. Entering the
building, a detailed inspection of the reorganised exhibits which now
completely fill it was made, Mrs. Hatley and Mr. Ross describing the
various objects ; an hour and a half was enjoyably spent thus.
Before leaving, the Hon. Secretary voiced on behalf of the company
their appreciation of Mrs. Hatley's and Mr. Ross's devoted labours, and
Mr. Ross made a suitable reply.
The party then adjourned for tea at the Royal Forest Hotel adjoining.