Journal, of Proceedings. cvii
the address the attention of our entomologists was attracted to the
numerous specimens of the pretty little " Purple Hair-streak Butterfly "
(Theela quereus) flitting round the tops of the oaks under which the
party was sitting.
As it was now nearly six o'clock the order was given for return, and
the way led through more tangled woodland portions of Epping Forest,
in which the fruiting catkins of the hornbeam, several inches long, with
their leaf-like bracts, attracted much attention from Mr. Boulger's late
audience. There was not time to do more than point out the remains of
portions of one of the old purlieu banks, which marked out the com-
mencement of the " purlieus " or free or exempted places on the borders
of the forest, which, though not parts of the forest, were not entirely dis-
charged from the rights of the crown.*
On the bank we noticed bushes of the Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathar-
ticus), and on the walk across the plain to Epping plenty of the Rest-
harrow (Ononis campestris) and Pedicularis sylvatica were seen.
After tea at the" Cock Inn," an Ordinary Meeting (the fiftieth) was held
for the proposal and election of Members, the President in the chair. The
following were elected :—Rev. C. L. Acland, M.A., Rev. F. de Quincey
Marsh. B.A., Messrs. W. G. Benham, J. Chilton. J. J. Eastick, J. E.
Greenhill, Collinson Hall, R. F. Harcourt, E. B. Knobel, Sec. R.A.S., R.
Martin, Edwin Rose, H. Frank Rose, D. W. Stable, LL.B., J. Youngman
Thurlow, B. H. Wall, L. W. Westall, and W. Westall.
Cordial votes of thanks were given to Mr. Capel Cure for granting the
Club permission to assemble in Ongar Park Woods : to Mr. W. S. Chisen-
hale Marsh, the owner of Gaynes Park, for a like permission very freely
granted ; and to Mr. Hugh Miller, of New Farm, for permission to wander
in the Hill Hall Woods, also very freely given ; and to Mr. English, to
whom the President said they were much indebted for his guidance. He
* See for history of the purlieus W. R. Fisher's ' Forest of Essex ' (1887), pp.
159-170. The perambulations of Epping Forest do not mention the purlieus,
" except that those of 1030 and 1011 refer by name to the purlieu hedge and purlieu
bank at Theydon Green, Epping and Thornwood Common, but only as forest
boundaries without the names of the adioining purlieus ; the banks were the bound-
aries between the forest and the purlieus, and not the external boundaries of the
purlieu. Part of the purlieu bank still remains at Epping, and is under the special
protection of the Conservators of the forest [Epping Forest Act, 1878, s. 7 (3)], and
this, and the ' Purlieu Farm,' on the east of Epping Thicks, are believed to be the
only remaining traces of the purlieus of this forest" (Fisher, too. cit.). In Grif-
fith's ' Companion to the Almanack ' for 1871, the subject is thus alluded to: "In
the reign of Edward I. purlieu banks were erected to mark out the bounds of the
forest, one being placed between Epping and Coopersale, which excluded the whole
of that parish and part of Theydon Bois from the forest. Part of this purlieu
bank is still visible on Bell Common, and may be traced from the road (leading
from the turnpike to Theydon Bois) along the common to the field situated between
Hemnall Street and the high road, thence through this and adjoining field to the
' Duke of Wellington,' and so on to the bottom of the town; all the houses on this
side of the town being built upon the purlieu bank, and are copyhold with only one
exception. ... It is about 581 years since the erection of this purlieu bank, during
which time the town of Epping has by small degrees been increasing in size."