56
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
A visit was next paid to Earls Colne Church, with its fine 15th century-
tower. The church has been much restored in modern times and has
been furnished with excellent oak pews with carved bench-ends by the
liberality of the late Mr. Reuben Hunt.
The site of Colne Priory was also visited, by courtesy of Mr. R. J. Hunt;.
only a very few fragments remain of the priory, built into a modern screen-
wall of the present house. The dovehouse still remains and was inspected
by the party ; ten tiers of nesting holes, making 300 in all, occur in this
small oblong dovehouse, which, from its shape and small height, had no
need for a central revolving ladder to reach the nests.
A visit was also paid to Colneford House, by permission of Major F. C.
Watson, O.B.E., M.C., etc., in order to inspect the elaborate external
T
pargetting, which is dated 1685 and bears the initials G E, of George and
Elizabeth Toller, who owned the house at that date.
Leaving Earls Colne in the homeward direction, the small but very-
interesting church of Bradwell-juxta-Coggeshall was visited en route.
The large marble monument on the N. wall of the chancel to Sir William
Maxey (1653) has a long inscription recording that "his constant course
"was to call them [i.e., his children] up by 5 of ye Clok in the Morning
"and cause them to demaund his Blessing upon their knees," preliminary
to private prayers and Bible-reading; a proceeding which must have been
most trying to the patience and filial affection of the family.
London was reached after 9 o'clock after a long, somewhat tiring, but
altogether happy day's excursion.
During the ramble the botanists of the party were busily noting the
wild flowers met with, which numbered in all 144 species, and included
several notable finds, including Silene noctiflora, Linum catharticum,
Euonymus Europaeus, Circaea lutetiana, Chlora perfoliata, Ophrys apifera,
Habenaria chlorantha and Iris Pseudacorus.
Of the birds, nightingale, cuckoo, willow warbler, Chiffchaff, green
woodpecker, yellowhammer, and pheasant were cither seen or heard.
FIELD-MEETING AT BLACKMORE AND FRYERNING
(778TH MEETING).
SATURDAY, 26TH JUNE, 1937.
Some 40 members assembled at the parish church of St. Lawrence
Blackmore, shortly before 11.30 o'clock and listened to a brief account of
the fabric given by our conductor, Mr. John Salmon, who pointed out that
the existing church is but the nave of the original Priory Church, the
former Monks Choir having been destroyed at the Reformation, its site
being now part of the grounds of the adjoining house, " Jericho." Various
fragments of mouldings of Norman and Early English date are built in
the present E. wall of the church. The fine aislelike timber W. Tower,
erected in the 15th century, masks the original Norman west front of the
building, which front, with the westernmost bay of the nave, are the only
remaining portions of the Norman church. The unusual dormer windows
in the roof were commented on, their utilitarian value in lighting an
otherwise dark interior being recognised. The alabaster effigies on an
altar-tomb in the S. chapel, representing Thomas Smith, 1594, and wife