HERTFORDSHIRE NATTTRAL HISTORY SOCnOTY. XXXI 



rang:c of Imildings used by James the First as a country residence. 

 lu the gardens of this once royal residence, the grounds of which were 

 3^ acres in extent, was seen an old mulberry-tree, said to be the 

 second planted in England, the first being iu the grounds of Christ's 

 Colleae, Cambridge. The leaves of this tree were noticed to be of 

 two kinds, the lower ones being lobed or deeply cut (vine-shaped), 

 and the upper entire, a difference which was conjectured to have 

 been occasioned by grafting. 



After leaving this old palace the party proceeded to "The 

 Eookeiy," where Mr. and Mrs. Henry Fordham kindly provided 

 luncheon, after Avhich Mr. Fordham exhibited an extensive collec- 

 tion of the local flora, including several rather rare species from 

 Royston Heath. 



The well-known Eoyston Cave was then inspected. It is a 

 circular domed chamber, about 25^ feet iu height and 17 

 feet in diameter, excavated in the chalk in the south-east angle 

 of the two main roads, and is entered by steps and a sloping 

 passage from a house at the side of the road. An account of the 

 cave, of its discovery in 1742, and of its probable origin before the 

 Christian era, is given by Cussans in his ' History of Hertfordshire,' * 

 and in greater detail by the late Joseph Beldam, F.S. A., in a pamphlet 

 on ' The Origin and Use of the Eoyston Cave.' 



The position in which the ancient Eoyston Cross stood, near the 

 Cave at the junction of the Ermine Street and the Icknield Way, 

 was pointed out, but all that remains of the structure is the boulder 

 which foz'med the footstone of it, a description and brief history of 

 ■which has already been given in the Society's ' Transactions.' f 

 The boulder is now in the garden of the Institute, where it was 

 inspected. The museum of the Institute was also visited ; and a 

 collection of local antiquities, formed by Mr. Edmund Nunn, was 

 examined at his residence. 



In a slight shower of rain a start was made for the Heath, some 

 of the party driving (the greater part of the way), and others 

 walking to one of the highest points, distinguished by seven tumuli, 

 fi'om one of which, 391 feet above the sea-level, and commanding 

 an extensive view to the north and west, Mr. H. George Fordham 

 pointed out the main features of the physical geography and 

 geology of the surrounding country.;]: 



Eoyston Heath, an area of unenclosed chalk-clown of about 400 

 acres, lies on the slope of a range of hills of the Lower Chalk, on 

 the outcrop of that bed. Along its north-west edge runs the road 

 from Iloyston to Baldock and Hitchin, a part of the Icknield Way 

 which for about five miles forms the boundary of the county of 

 Hertford. From this road the Heath, varying in width from a 

 quarter to nearly three-quarters of a mile, rises to the south-east, 

 sometimes extending to the summit of a ridge of variable height 



* Odsey Hundred, p. 103. 



t ' Trans. Watford ]Vat. Hist. Soc.,' Vol. II, p. 249. 



J I am indebted to Mr. Fordham for the tollowiug summary of his remarks 

 and some other portions of the report of this meeting, — Ed. 



