Journal of Proceedings.
xxxi
good deal of wood-carving in the church, said to have been the work of a
former rector, and in the south wall of the chancel is a window contain-
ing five pieces of curious and valuable stained glass—in the upper
compartment one representing the smooth ways of sin, the rugged
and thorny paths of virtue, and the adoration of the Magi; in the
middle is the Crucifixion; in the two lower, the Nativity of our
Lord, and Jesus walking on the sea, with St. Peter sinking in his
approach towards Him. There is an old German or Flemish inscription
under each, and it is said that the glass formerly belonged to the chapel
of some foreign convent, and was brought from Basle, in Switzerland,
in 1817.
It was difficult to withdraw the party from the study of this antique
building, but Mr. Walker ultimately gathered all around him in a field
near the church devoted to the growth of root-crops, where Mr. Kemsley
had kindly caused some workmen to make an excavation, providing the
geologists with a fairly typical exposure of the chalky Boulder-clay.
About a foot below the soil the original untouched moraine revealed
itself. The chalk pellets and sediment prevailing largely over the
brownish-coloured clay with which it was mingled, and the "churned
up" aspect of the material was well seen. Among the constituents were
the umbones of Gryphaea dilatata, and an unrecognizable species of
Terebratula. Mr. Searles Wood* was quoted to the effect that here in
Essex the chalky boulder-clay presents the same Pelagic features as it
does along its northern margin—where it is cut off by denudation
through central Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, Northampton and Leicester-
shire—and along its south-western margin in Buckinghamshire, where
it is similarly cut off by denudation. "Even in the detached tracts
occurring through south and central Lincolnshire, and as far away as
the small outliers north of Gainsborough, the material of the deposit is
so identical with that on the brow of the Thames Valley, that baskets of
clay taken from either extremity on this area could not be distinguished,
although these extremities are 140 miles apart. Therefore, the abrupt
termination of the chalky boulder-clay on the northern brow of the
Thames Valley, with the tertiary beds of this part complete beneath it,
is to be ascribed to denudation only."
In good time the "Beehive Inn," at Lambourne End, was reached,
where a substantial tea awaited us, and at its conclusion an ordinary
meeting (the 40th) of the Club was held for the proposal and election of
members, the President, Professor Boulger, in the chair. Mr. C. Cutchey
and Mr. George Nicholson were elected members.
The President said he had been asked to say a few words to the
members on the occasion of this their first visit to Hainault Forest.
The remnant of the Forest was very small, but in their walk from
Theydon they had seen a considerable part of what was once one of the
*On the Structure of the Post-glacial Deposits of the South-east of England,"
Quart. Journal Geol. Society, June 19th, 1867.