THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 189
The route lay along Nag's Head Lane, a mile-and-a-haif long rural lane
as yet unspoilt by much building and with its roadside verges yielding many
wild flowers : this led to Tylers Common, where lunch was taken and a visit
paid to the old-time mineral spring, now choked by brambles and almost un-
recognisable.
A cross-country walk, with an incursion into a wood, added to the goodly
number of plants already noted on our way. At Great Warley, after an un-
expected but very welcome cup of tea at the "Thatchers Arms" inn, a visit was
made to the beautiful modern church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, built by
Mr. Evelyn Heseltine in 1902 in memory of his brother, Arnold Heseltine
(1852—1897). The church bears on its exterior many scars from bomb splinters,
but the glass in the windows had fortunately been removed and replaced by plain
glass before danger arose.
The normally extensive view from Warley Gap was unfortunately hidden by
haze.
A further fieldpath and a long two-mile road walk brought the party to
Brentwood town at 5 o'clock. Tea was taken at Norris's Cafe in the High
Street, after which the party dispersed.
Our botanical conductors listed a total of nearly 140 plants actually seen in
flower during the ramble, the more interesting being Ranunculus sceleratus,
Chelidonium majus, Spergularia rubra, Euonymus europaeus, Lathyris Nissolia,
and a fine series of Tragopogon minus.
A Common Lizard was seen (but not secured !) on Tylers Common.
Birds were not much in evidence, but "the voice of the turtle was heard"
and cuckoo, willow-wren, swift, martin and other common birds noted.
BOTANICAL RAMBLE—LOUGHTON TO EPPING (827th MEETING).
SATURDAY, 25TH JULY, 1942.
A cross-country ramble with botanical intent was organised on the above date
under the leadership of the Hon. Secretary.
Assembled at the Loughton Bus Garage at 10.45 o'clock, the party of 22
persons proceeded up the Lower Road (the old road to Newmarket until about
1772) to Goldings Hill, past the site of the Manor House, destroyed by a land-
mine on a night of November, 1940. Here a remarkable sight was a clump
of the Great Bulrush (Typha latifolia) growing superbly in a water-filled bomb-
crater which was made on that disastrous occasion. So soon does Nature
embellish with floral decoration the scars created by insensate man !
By Clay Lane (noting Judas Tree and Tulip Tree) through a wheatfield and
over rolling grassland, the party reached Debden Green, where the guide pointed
out a magnificent specimen of Zelkova crenata, a rarely planted tree in this
country : Members who attended the Club's visit to New Hall, Boreham, on
May 21st, 1938, will remember another example in the grounds of that institution.
By further fieldpaths, which afforded fine views over the neighbouring forest
to the left and across the Roding valley to Lamborne to the right, Birch Wood,
a wood thrown into the Forest in recent times in exchange for numerous roadside
wastes in Loughton parish, was reached, and so, through the farmyard of Birch
Hall Farm and along a delightfully shaded private lane, the forest was entered
at Jack's Hill, Theydon Bois. From this point the route lay wholly through
the woodlands, the party visiting Ambresbury Banks, one of the two Early Iron
Age camps in the forest, and thence traversing Epping Thicks with its fine full-
grown beeches ; one of these giants lay uprooted in a large bomb crater, but this
region of the forest appears to have suffered little from enemy action as compared
with the Loughton district, where large craters and devastated trees surrounding
them are numerous.
Arrived at Bell Common, the party visited two of the ponds on or near the
common, which yielded additional flowering plants to the recorders' list.
Tea was taken at the "Bell Inn" on the Common.
At a formal meeting held after tea, with Mr. D. J. Scourfield, I.S.O., in the
chair, Miss Lois E. Light, of Dunkery Lodge, Southminster, Essex, was elected
a member of the Club.
Miss Prince, aided by Miss Hilbert, acted as botanical recorders, and succeeded
in noting over 120 plants in flower ; of these, the more noteworthy were Nymphaea
alba, Hypericum humifusum, Malva moschata, Ononis spinosa, Circaea, lutetiana,