A NATURALIST IN ESSKX A CENTURY AND A-HALF AGO. II3 



Woodfordicnses "),'-' we find Kalm meeting George Edwards, of 

 Stratford, " the great ornitho/ogiis,'" and referring to that naturalist's 

 work with its " matchless copperplates." 



On page seventy-four, et set/., we have an elaborate account of 

 the manufacture of vitriol from iron pyrites found near Harwich. A 

 long and appreciative description of our Essex Elm trees occupies 

 much space. " In My Lord Tilney's garden . . . there were 

 high and long a//ees made only and solely of elm." 



At Chelsea he sees 



" the collection of plants which the great Historic i^ Natnralis, Joh. Rajus or Rayi 

 himself collected and arranged, and with his own hand wrote the names under." 



Kalm mentioned that Ray's collection was given by him to 

 Samuel Dale, author of " Pharmacologia," afterwards it was borrowed 

 by Dr. Sherard, who was said to have cut out or clipped any rare plant 

 which he wanted for his o*vn collection ! Mr. Lucas shows in a note 

 that this mutilation took place between 1718 and 1722. A descrip- 

 tion of the country between London and Woodford must be 

 quoted : — 



"The whole way there is nothing else but a succession of beautiful houses, 

 fertile arable fields, and verdant meadows. At all the houses there was commonly 

 a garden full of various beautiful trees. . . . The whole of the land was 

 divided into inclosures, which were all surrounded by hedges of all kinds of 

 planted trees, especially hawthorn, sloe, dog-rose, blackberry-bushes, holly 

 Agrifo/ium, together with a number of other trees w^hich had come to grow in 

 the hedges. . . . London's many towers appeared in the distance. 

 The roads are full of travellers, on foot and on iiorseback, in wagons and carts, 

 who travel backwards and forwards, so that one often has, as it was, to steer 

 through them." 



Under date March 7th, 1748, Kalm refers to Epping Forest : — 



" Immediately to the nortii and east of Woodford there lies a beautiful forest. , 

 . . . The forest is high-lying. Rabbits and roe-deer are said to abound in it, 

 though we did not see any when we passed through it. Nor did we find any 

 plants in this forest in flower, excepting the trees named below, otherwise the 

 ground was everywhere green. The trees had not been allowed to grow high, but 

 after they had obtained a height of 9 to 12 feet they had polled them for firewood, 

 or some other purpose. They had afterwards thrown out many branches, and 

 thus made a crown." 



2 Writing of Richard Warner, Knlm says : " Few can be compared to him in a peculiar 

 disposition to be of service in all things, both to natives and foreigners. He had travelled inuch, 

 had a deep insight into nearly all sciences, but particularly horticulture, in which his principal 

 pleasure consisted. In his garden were nearly all the trees and bushes that could endure the 

 climate of England, and these stood the whole year out in the fiesh air and under the open sky.' 



