18.
reproduction of the same area from an O.S. sheet of 1801,
this indicating the farm buildings differently, and with
no name. A larger scale was needed, and the E.R.O.
produced a book of Loughton Parish setting out "Rent
Charges in Lieu of Tithes in 1850" which included plans
on a scale of about twenty inches to a mile, so that
Doves, though unnamed, was portrayed in reasonable
detail. The 25 inch O.S. Sheet of about 1870, shows
the buildings, modified, but apparently still standing,
again not named. The status of the farm would seem to
have declined after 1800, for its neighbour Pigotts is
named on every map of the area I have seen on any scale,
of any date.
The Rent Charge book brought into focus the farm as it
was 125 years ago. It brought to life one THOMAS
DOSSON, and what he paid for every field, sized in
acres, rods, and perches, to the notable local landowner
William Whittaker Maitland. It was particularly
attracted to a strange self-contained grassy-hedgy
broadening of the track as it led into where the farm
buildings had once stood, for the strip seemed to be
almost intact in 1974. For this tiny haven of one rod
and eight perches Dosson paid one shilling and ninepence
each year. In 1850 it must have teemed with its daily
rural activity. But Rhomas Dosson did not live here at
Doves, and I have found no reference at all so far to
the premises as such. The tenant farmer was proving an
elusive man. Kelly's and White's County Directories of
mid-nineteenth century years did not help much at
first, for his name did not appear with those of other
gentleman farmers of Loughton. I then recalled that he
was also the tenant of another local landowners, Mrs.
Hall-Dare, an Irish lady who appeared on the scene
earlier in the century to become lady of the manor of
Theydon Bois. Sure enough, when that parish was
consulted his name was included with those of other
farmers as early as 1848 and as late as 1868. The
rector of the present parish church allowed me to search
the records of births, and marriages, and deaths between
1717 and 1900, but the name of Dosson does hot occur. I