THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
171
Of birds, Miss Dofort reported having seen or heard 32 kinds, including
Reed Bunting, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Nightingale, Swal-
low, Swift, Green Woodpecker, Cuckoo, Turtledove, Kestrel and Black-
headed Gull.
By the Chelmer a Mute Swan was seen sitting on its nest, with its mate
mounting guard beside it.
Mr. Graddon recorded a fine specimen of the myxomycete, Perichaena
corticalis.
Our host's house, "The General's Orchard," was reached at 5 o'clock,
and here the party was most cordially welcomed by Mrs. Bull and tea
dispensed in the garden; after which, some of the visitors went for a
further walk to hear nightingales singing in the nearby woods.
At 6.30 o'clock, Mr. Salmon having thanked our host and hostess in the
name of the party for their kindly hospitality, Little Baddow was left
and the drive continued by way of Danbury to Sandon, where the church
was visited and its features described by Mr. Bull. This church offers
so many points of interest that it is difficult to differentiate them, but
special mention must be made of the sturdy brick battlemented W. Tower,
the charmingly mellowed brick S. porch with its brick vaulted soffit, both
these of early 16th cent. date, the fine oak pulpit of the late 15th cent. and,
not least, the Norman pillar-piscina from the earlier church which stood
here, another relic of which is the fragment of zigzag moulding now built
in above the easternmost window of the north aisle internally. Externally,
many Roman bricks are used in the walls, as quoins and elsewhere, as
are also masses of the indurated gravel known as "pudding stone." Four
scratch-dials may be seen, two of them on the jambs of the priest's door,
two on the angle buttress of the chancel wall: a low-side window is also
present.
The return journey was begun at shortly after 7.15 o'clock, after a most
successful and enjoyable day.
VISIT TO THE "CONSTABLE COUNTRY" AND
DEDHAM (792ND MEETING).
SATURDAY, l8TH JUNE, 1938.
A long two-hour journey from town by a fast main-line train (to accom-
plish 60 miles!), on a hot day, not unnaturally exhausted the 30 members
who assembled at Manningtree station and excused the flight of most of the
ladies of the party to seek frigid refreshment at the hands of an itinerant
vendor.
Proceeding through poppy-laden fields commanding a fine view over
the estuary of the Stour, Lawford church, dedicated to St. Mary, was soon
reached, and here the rector, the Rev. C. E. Fynes-Clinton, M.A., received
the party and described the building, whose Chancel constitutes a magni-
ficent example of Decorated (14th century) architecture. The eight
windows in the N. and S. walls are grouped within richly ornamented
wall-arcades and are lavishly enriched with carved foliage and figures.
Equally noteworthy are the piscina, the triple sedilia and the ogee-headed
priest's doorway, all alike decorated with human and animal figures (now,