nERlFORDSniUE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. XXXIX 



sub-stratum of the country, it was completely covered up over a 

 large area by the glacial gravels and brick-earth which were here 

 seen, and to the presence of which tlie luxurious growth of the 

 trees in the neighbourhood was interred to be due. 



From Cole Green the members proceeded by Letty Green to 

 "Woolmei's, where they were received by the owner, Mr. W. H. 

 "NYodehouse, who showed everything of interest in his grounds. 

 Some tine old trees, yews, pencil or red cedars, cedars of Lebanon, 

 pollard and other oaks, and, gi'owing on the banks of the Eiver 

 Lea, a splendid horse-chestnut, attracted attention ; but the chief 

 ol)ject of interest was the well-known spring, which, rising in a 

 wood about a quarter of a mile from tlie house, pours into the Lea 

 a constant supply of Avater, calculated at 300,000 cubic feet or 

 2,000,000 gallons in 24 hours. The water issues into a large 

 round pool, about 24 feet deep, from numerous interstices which 

 must communicate with, or be the openings of, crevices extending 

 for considerable distances, and perha]js in various directions, in the 

 Chalk, and thus collecting the rainfall of a large area. 



From the pool, and the picturesque wood in which it is situated, 

 Mr. Wodehouse conducted the party to the meadow in front of his 

 house, where his famous prize cows — the " Countess " and her 

 descendants — were seen ; and by the splendid lime-tree avenue 

 leading to the Essendon road Woolmers was then left, and a path 

 taken to the village of Essendon and its church, which had a 

 peculiar interest to the members of the Society fi'om its having for 

 many years been the scene of the labours of the late Rev. R. Holden 

 "VVebb, one of the authors of the ' Flora Hertfordiensis.' 



Hatfield Park Kiln was then visited, by permission of the 

 Manpiis of Salisbury, and here Mr. J. Logan Lobley described the 

 section exposed. This spot was, he said, on the northern edge of 

 the London and Hampshire Tertiary Basin, the junction of the 

 Chalk with the Tertiary beds above being here seen ; neither the 

 highest beds of the Chalk, the Maestricht beds, nor the lowest beds 

 of the Tertiaries, the Thanet sands, were however present. On 

 the top of the Chalk were green -coated flints (the colouring due to 

 silicate of iron), these flints being present in this position whether 

 the Chalk was covered by the Thanet sands, or as here by the 

 sands of the Woolwich and Reading series. Above these beds the 

 basement-bed of the London Clay was seen, above this the lowest 

 zone of the true London Clay, and above again far more recent 

 gravels of glacial or post-glacial age. 



The park was then entered, and after noticing on the way 

 Queen Elizabeth's Oak, the "Vineyard" was visited. Although 

 vines are no longer cultivated here, it is on record that when 

 the gardens were first laid out upwards of twenty thousand vines 

 were planted ; now, however, the peculiar beauty of the place is 

 due to the avenues of trained and clipped yews, and the turfed 

 slopes and terraces, with the River Lea expanded into a fine 

 sheet of water at the bottom. The gardens are on the opposite 

 side of the river. 



