hertfordshire natural history society. ixui 



Moths. 



LiONivoiLs; Geomf.tu.t: (continued) 



Bt pin/us hipHUiiHS NitHii'ria pitlrcrai la 



GEOMKTu.Ti Fidonia autoiiinria 



liumia crcclegata Larentia didyitiata 



Venelia maculata Melanippe rivnta 



lodis laciearia ,, suhtnstata 



AcidaUa remutata ,, moiitanata 



Cabera pusaria NoCTU.Ti 



Slrenia clathrata Euclidia Mi 



Before separating, the members had tea on the Green, when 

 notes of the results of the afternoon's work were compared and a 

 few species were examined and their names determint'd and added 

 to the list of those recorded at the time of observation or collection. 



Field Meeting, IGth June, 1883. 

 BERKHAMPSTEAD. 



Since Berkhampstead was last visited by the Society, about two 

 months before the present occasion, death has removed from this 

 sphere of his labours the author of the ' Histoiy and Antiquities 

 of Berkhamsted,' the Rev. J. W. Cobb, vicar of the parish, who 

 then accompanied the members, and a sense of loss in the. absence 

 of his genial welcome was felt by those who now so soon again 

 visited this town. 



From the station the canal was first crossed and then followed 

 for some distance by the side of one of the most extensive of the 

 many water-cress beds for which Hertfordshire is famous. At the 

 foot of St. John's Lane this bed was crossed by a wooden bridge, 

 and at a little distance up the road in the adjoining nursery-grounds 

 (Messrs. Lane & Sons) a spring was seen rising in a well known 

 as St. John's Well, the water from which flows down by the side 

 of the lane. Now and then a number of bubbles rose with the 

 water from the spring (or springs, for there are several) at the 

 bottom of the well, sometimes in very rapid succession. These 

 were thought to be of carbonic-acid gas, but how it was generated 

 in the chalk through which the water percolates before rising here 

 was discussed without any sufficient cause for the phenomenon 

 being suggested. 



The well is on the site of a former hospital for lepers which was 

 known as the hospital of St. John the Evangelist, and Mr. Littleboy, 

 who had the direction of this meeting, stated that in an inventory 

 taken in tlie year 1545 this hospital was mentioned as " Ye over 

 Spittle Howse," the meadow below being still called the " Spital 

 Mead." At St. Julian's near St. Albans there was once a similar 

 hospital, and in St. Stephen's church close by are small windows 

 still called the " Lepers' windows " through which those atflicted 

 with leprosy were allowed to gaze upon the altar. 



The party then walked through Berkhampstead and up the hill- 

 side to the " Cross of the Oak," examining on the way the remains 



