2
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
In Gibson's Flora of Essex (1862) localities for the Water-
Violet in South-West Essex are Epping Forest" (W. H.
Lister of Upton): "in a pond near Woodford, and in a ditch
"near Harrow Bridge, Stratford" (J. F. Freeman of Stratford);
this bridge was close to where Grove Bridge has recently been
built over the City Mill River, a branch of the River Lea.
It is interesting from these old records to realise that this
beautiful Primulaceous plant has been well known in the Forest
for over a hundred and fifty years. A fine illustration of the
Water Violet is given in Curtis's Flora Londinensis, vol. i. (1777);
he writes "this singular plant abounds in most of our watery
"ditches, particularly such as divide the meadows, . . . .
"among a variety of other places it may be found in a ditch on
"the right hand side of the Field Way leading from Kent Street
"Road to Peckham."
When we see how the growth of Greater London is con-
tinually encroaching on the habitats of our wild flowers, we may
well be thankful that Epping Forest provides a sanctuary where
such a plant as the Water-Violet is able to survive.
ENCLOSURES: ESSEX AGRICULTURE, 1500-1900.
By RUPERT COLES, B.A., Ph.D.
[Read January 30th, 1937.]
(With 6 Text Figures).
THE study of the history of enclosure in Essex is rendered
rather difficult by reason of its early date, for the subject
concerns the later Mediaeval period as much as the age now in
question, viz., the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. The
former period is one of which documentary, or any other,
evidence relating to this subject is very scanty indeed. In
the later period, however, it is possible to acquire some detailed
knowledge of enclosure within the County "where most en-
closures be" (Tusser), and, by an analysis of this available
information, to trace the progress of enclosures in earlier times.
Any attempt to trace the early progress of enclosure within
Essex must involve a preliminary consideration of the basis
of enclosure, and, in this connection, some mention of field
systems is inevitable. The characteristic features of the British,