Journal of Proceedings. xxv
Woodford, a few miles distant, that species is plentiful in the living
state. And in a subsequent number of 'Nature' another excellent
zoologist, the Rev. L. Blomfield (better known to English naturalists
as Leonard Jenyns), agrees in considering the shell as indigenous to
the country, and not introduced by the Romans. It has never been
found either living or dead in the neighbourhood of Bath, which the
Romans occupied for more than 400 years. Thus another of the
fond traditions which ascribe all mysterious things, camps, trees, and
molluscs, to the Romans, seems to be exploded, and patriotic
naturalists may now honestly claim the big snail as their own. Our
conductors then led the way to Widbury Hill, back through Ware,
famous among towns for producing the largest output of malt in
England, but not to be commended for permitting its record in
Shakespeare to be sullied by the sale, for the value of only a few
quarters of malt, of the "Great Bed of Ware," which now finds a
resting-place in the elysium of 'Arry and 'Arriet, the "Bye House."
Plenty of flowers were noted as we walked up the lanes, and through
the farmyard towards Easneye. Traveller's Joy and White Bryony in
the hedges, with here and there Purple Vetches (Vicia cracca), White
and Bed Lychnis and Bagged Robin; on the banks the Musk Mallow
(Malva moschata) and Veronicas, and in the ditches Meadow-sweet,
"Forget-me-not," and Comfrey. As to the hedgerows it might truly be
said "It was roses, roses all the way." In Garrison Field, Widbury
Hill, Mr. Buxton pointed out the ancient trenches and earthworks.
At the time of our visit they were thickly overgrown with brushwood,
but they are clearly artificial, and are well worthy of a careful examina-
tion, which it is to be hoped will be undertaken ere long by the Hertford-
shire Society. As a matter of considerable interest in connection with the
remains of early occupation which appear in the neighbourhood, it
may be recorded that our archaeological members picked up many flint
"flakes" and "cores" in the fields near, and in Easneye Park. Here
Professor Boulger pointed out Bartsia (Odontites) verna, and plenty of
Veronica buxbaumii, Best Harrow (O. arvensis), and Bladder-campion
(Silene inflata). A delightful walk by the River Ash led the party to
Easneye (more correctly Isneye) Park, a charming estate, which appears
to be as full of interest to the antiquary as to the botanist and
ornithologist. Although it was enclosed and emparked by the Abbot
of Waltham as early as Edward III.'s reign (1330) no residence appears
to have been erected thereon, and when Mr. Thomas Buxton purchased
the estate it was a thick woodland, probably in its primitive condition ;
the prevalence of Hornbeam trees on the gravels seems to hint at its
being an outlier of Epping Forest. The mansion was built in 1869 under
the direction of Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, the author of that magnificent
temple of science, the British Museum of Natural History. Mr. Alfred
Buxton pointed out a supposed tumulus or barrow in the Park, about
which he was very desirous of obtaining information, and hoped to have