HENRY DOUBLEDAY, EPPING NATURALIST 313
The possibility of further subsidences in this area in fields
near roads bearing heavy traffic may well be expected, particularly
with the potential heavy traffic from Kent to Essex, and vice-
versa (Dartford-Purfleet Tunnel) which will be passing through
this area in the next few years.
References
Holmes, T. V. (1889). On some recent subsidences near Stifford, Essex.
Essex Nat., 3: 183-188.
Holmes, T. V. & Cole, W. (1887). Report on the Denehole Exploration.
Essex Nat., 1 : 248.
Henry Doubleday—The Epping
Naturalist*
By Robert H. Mays
In writing about Henry Doubleday, it has struck me what a
good deal students of Natural History owe to this man, whose
name is now not so familiar as that of so many other contem-
porary naturalists, as he published very little, and lived such a
retiring and uneventful life. I will try briefly to outline his
background at Epping and his early life, although records are
particularly scanty of his school-days, and of his personal relation-
ships of those early years. He came of Quaker stock whose roots
were strong in Essex, his parents being Benjamin and Mary
Doubleday, who lived in a house in Epping formerly known as
the Black Boy Inn. The family established a grocery and hard-
ware business in Epping in the year 1770.
We do not know much about the Black Boy Inn which is
now demolished, although we know it must have been fairly
extensive as it was valued for rating in the year 1831, at £26 per
annum, Benjamin Doubleday paying £2 12s. Od., that is, a rate
at 2s. Od. in the pound. It was on a Sunday, 1st July 1808, that
Henry was born, and it was the home where he was destined to
spend practically the whole of his life. Some three years later
another boy was born, Edward, and he also achieved some fame
in his own sphere, but he unfortunately died young—at the age
of thirty-eight. There were no other children, and neither
married.
There was a small Quaker school at Epping, which Henry
and Edward both attended, which was run by a man named
Isaac Payne, and it is said that there they received a sound
classical education. It was, at any rate, a popular school for
*Extract from a Paper read at the Essex Field Club meeting on 20th
February 1960.