200 NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTF:D. 



to say to it ; it was, I suppose, veritably a too hard nut to crack. I ought 

 to say that the coconut and the boxes are only about four paces from the 

 window, which is constantly occupiei by children, both of a younger and older 

 growth, but none of the birds mind breakfasting in public. As my garden runs 

 alongside a park, perhaps I ma}- have a greater number of ' feathered friends ' 

 than most people." 



My brother has handed me a rapid sketch of one of our happy " assemblies " 

 in the garden rose-bush, as watched from his stud}' window, and I can heartily 

 recommend members of the Club to folio a' our example, and to secure the 

 pleasure of a constant succession of Christmas parties, far merrier and less costly 

 than the usual run of such entertainments. — WiLl.IAM Cole, Buckhurst Hill. 



Birdcatchers. — A hint from Russia appears in a late number of the 

 " Athenaeum " : — " The police of Kiew found some birdcatchers, who were on 

 their way to Moscow with six hundred nightingales in cages. The bird- 

 catchers were captured and fined, and their little victims were taken to the 

 Botanic Gardens and released. It is said they rose in the air in song, which 

 was responded to by the other birds around." It would be well if the bird- 

 catching propensities of the Whitechapel visitors to the Epping Forest district 

 could be checked in the sam.e manner. — I. C. Gould, Loughton. 



Dannetts Hill (See Essex Naturalist, supra, p. 86). — This name, under 

 a slightly different form, occurs in a document of 1617 (Excheq. B. and A. ; Jac. 

 I., Essex, No. 252). The king at the time was setting up a " fishing " claim to 

 various estates within the Forest, and, among them, to those of Thomas Botheby 

 and Robert Lee [Leigh], claiming to be owners in Chingford. Many place- 

 names are given, including " Dannyor Hill alias Chingford Common alias Ching- 

 ford Waste"; and "Chingford Halke alias Chingford Common or Waste." 

 Elsewhere, under date Feb. 13, 1620-1, we learn that three acres on Dannetts 

 Hill had recently been enclosed (Lett. Pat., 18 Jac. I.) Half a century later, 

 Lady Elizabeth Botheby, widow, of Friday Hill, claimed to appoint a sworn 

 woodward of all her woods called Larks and Danhurst Hill, within the manor 

 and Forest, and thereof showed a ch;irter ; she also claimed assize of bread and 

 beer and free-warren at Danhurst Hill and Dovehouse field^a somewhat curious 

 limitation of her right, and one possibly due to careless drafting (Excheq. Plac. 

 Forestae, Tr. Rec, No. 6— Regard Roll). — W. C. Waller, Loughton. 



Stulpway. — The question was raised by Mr. W. C. Waller, in Essex 

 Naturalist, vol. vi., p. 207, what was a "stulpway " ? In Harrod's " Report 

 on the Records of the Borough of Colchester " (1865) I find : 



" In the 3rd and 4th year of Richard II. a sufficient piece of land is granted 

 to place three stulps, which are Anglicised "spores," for "spars" or "posts," to 

 support a certain vine ..." 



The same word appears in 4th and 5th of Edward II. : 



" Hugh de Stowe raised two stulps under his vine." 



Taking " stulp " as equivalent to post, it is an open question whether 

 " stulpway " refers to a road made corduroy fashion, that is, with trunks laid 

 across the track, or to a road marked out by posts, or possibly raised above the 

 surrounding soil, and supported by trunks of trees at the sides. 



Compare " stump-road," such as that ancient way from Coopersale to Thorn- 

 wood Gate, which was part of the old road to Newmarket in pre-coach days. — 

 I. C. Gould, Traps Hill, Loughton. 



