xxiv Journal of Proceedings.
Thursday, June 28th, 1883. Field Meeting.
Some of our Members had a very enjoyable excursion to Ware, Hert-
fordshire, on this afternoon, at the invitation of the Hertfordshire Natural
History Society, being the first Field Meeting of the Club outside the
borders of its own county. The members arrived at "Ware at two o'clock,
meeting there a large detachment of their Hertfordshire confreres, the
united party numbering about seventy. The meeting was under the
direction of Mr. Alfred Fowell Buxton, Vice-President, and Lieut. Croft,
R.N., F.L.S., Hon. Secretary of the Hertfordshire Society, and Prof.
Boulger, Mr. W. Cole, Mr. Meldola, Mr. Lockyer, and Mr. T. V. Holmes
officially represented the Essex Field Club. A walk was first taken up
Chadwell Hill to the New River head, to view the supposed earthworks,
which popular traditions associate with the incursions of the Danes, up
the River Lee, in the time of Alfred. The county histories all suggest
the existence of the remains of a large camp near this spot, but no
accurate surveys having yet been made it is impossible to say whether
the structures pointed out to the party are even artificial. A very pretty
view over portions of the Lea Valley was obtained from this spot, and
the flora observed was, as Prof. Boulger pointed out, that characteristic
of a chalk sub-soil in June, including many species not uncommon, but
little known to the residents in Mid-Essex. On the slopes of the
escarpment were to be seen the beautiful Sun-cistus, or Bock-rose,
with its delicate yellow flowers and irritable stamens, and the Purging-
flax (Linum cartharticum), a treasure to the village herb women. Here
were picked up specimens of the great edible snail (Helix 'pomatia),
which is so valued as an article of food in France, and was, indeed,
long considered a delicacy in England, as Ben Jonson records (" Every
Man in his Humour "):—
" Neither have I
Dressed snails or mushrooms curiously before him."
And Martin Lister notes in 1678 that in his time they were boiled
in spring-water, and "when seasoned with oil, salt and pepper, make
a dainty dish." An interesting discussion took place in ' Nature'
during 1883 as to the supposed identity of this species with the snails
which were objects of such loving care with the gastronomic Romans,
and the tradition that it was introduced into Britain by the conquer-
ing legions to supply their luxurious tables. Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys says
in all probability it was not even known to them, because another
species (H. lucorum) takes its place in Central Italy. Helix pomatia has
not been found at Wroxeter or York, or in any other part of England or
Wales where the Romans built cities, or had important military
stations. Among the debris of an extensive Soman villa, discovered
in Northamptonshire, in which the shells of cockles, oysters, mussels,
and whelks abounded, not one of H. pomatia occurred, although at