50 THE MAMMALS, REPTILES, AND FISHES OF ESSEX.
Mr. H. M. Wallis says (Zool., 1879, p. 264): "In 1822, one
was killed in the Waltham Woods, near Chelmsford, by Mr.
Thomas Gopsill, of Broomfield." Mr. Harting, writing in
1880, says (Trans. Essex Field Club, vol. i., p. 95), the last
killed in Essex, so far as could then be ascertained, was
trapped in April, 1853, by Mr. Luffman, head keeper to Mr.
Maitland, in one of that gentleman's covers at Loughton.
This specimen was examined by Mr. English, who afterwards
recorded (Journ. of Proc. Essex Field Club, vol. iv., p. lxiv)
having seen another in the forest near Ambresbury Banks, on
July 20, 1883. From all accounts, it would appear that the
Marten does still remain in the Forest, other evidence
corroborating the accounts of Mr. English. Mr. E. A. Fitch
records (Essex Nat., vol. iv., p. 153) the existence of undoubted
Martens in Hazeleigh Hall Wood, although he himself failed
to capture an individual. The same gentleman reports another
instance in Epping Forest, although about this last some
mystery appeared to hang (Essex Nat., vol. iv., p. 126). They
are not found in any great numbers.
Daniel, in his Rural Sports (1812, vol. i., p. 608), says :
" When taken young, the Marten is easily tamed, and is
extremely playful and good-humoured. Its attachment, how-
ever, is not to be relied on if it gets loose, for it will imme-
diately take advantage of its liberty and retire to the woods,
its natural haunts. A farmer in the parish of Terling was
famous for taming this animal, and had seldom less than two
in his keeping. Some years since [from 1801], one used to
run tame about the kitchen of the Bald-Faced Stag inn, in
Epping Forest. . . . The most ever met with by the com-
piler was in the large woods near Rayleigh."
There were supposed, at one time, to be two species of
British Martens ; but Mr. Alston has since satisfactorily
proved (Zool., 1879, p. 441) that we have in this kingdom a