civ Journal of Proceedings.
Monk Wood and Sand Pit Plain, to Loughton. In the swamps the
Money-wort was seen growing with the Marsh Penny-wort (Hydrocotyle)
and the Lesser Spear-wort (Ranunculus flammula). A wild Peartree
was an object of some interest, as was also the sight of the ground under
some black Poplars, near Keeper Luffman's cottage, covered with the
woolly catkins, as if with snow. A halt was made at the cottage to in-
spect the skin of one of the exceptionally dark Forest Deer, and to thank
the keepers for their help ; and then, passing through a grove of unpol-
larded hornbeams, and listening to the note of the green woodpecker, the
party entered the ancient beech-grove of Little Monk Wood. Noting the
large beech at Foxearths and measuring another close by, within the
ancient earthwork known as Cowper's Camp (explored by the Club in
1883), which proved to be 101/2 feet in girth, a descent was made
across the bottom of Debden Slade, where a nightingale was heard and a
nightjar seen on the wing ; and so to Loughton, as Pepys would have
said, and home, after a very enjoyable afternoon.
Saturday, July 19th, 1881. Field Meeting, and Fiftieth
Ordinary Meeting.
On this occasion the Club paid a visit to the pleasant wooded country
lying at the north-east of Epping, including the most northerly parts of
Epping Forest—a district well worthy of being explored.* The weather,
which had been very unpropitious for a day or two beforehand, and even
in the morning of Saturday, cleared up in the afternoon, and the ram-
blers were favoured with sunshine and clear skies, only varied by a
single brief shower.
The Members assembled at North Weald station at about half-past
three, and walked thence to Ongar Park Woods, under the guidance of
Mr. James English, who was well acquainted with the district as a
hunting ground for the botanist and entomologist, his recollections run-
ning back nearly forty years. At the opening to the wood, the sides of
a disused marl-pit showed a nice section of the Chalky Boulder Clay,
which is found in many parts of this district, and furnishes that kind of
chalky soil congenial to the growth of plants (such as Clematis) which
do not occur on the clays and gravels to the south of Epping. A little
further on the party passed between two trees from one of which de-
pended all that was left of two jays, whilst from the other hung the
mortal remains of a number of stoats. This " gamekeeper's museum "
hardly afforded unmixed satisfaction to the lookers-on. The jay is a
beautiful bird, whose brilliant plumage one would grieve to see the last
of. But gamekeepers have no pity for it, and they kill it at sight as the
* A sketch of the botany, &c., of much of the ground traversed, will be found in
vol. ii., pp. xliii.-xlvi., of our 'Proceedings,' in a report of a ramble "from Epping
to Theydon Garnon," taken by a few Members of the Club on August 1st, 1881.