SESSION 1897-98. xxxi 



The very wild tlowcrs and wild fruits -vrcre different, while the 

 pearcli for ehaleedoiiii's and fossils among the flints, with which 

 the woods were bestrewed, afforded amusement to my solitary 

 wanderings and pleasui'e in showing upon my return what I had 

 found." He also remarks : " The village, which was in two parts 

 — one on the hill and the other below — was very picturesque, 

 Avith old timbered houses, and a glorious old elm-tree of towering 

 lieight on the village-green. The upper village is now destroyed, 

 and the whole merged into the grounds. My recollection of the 

 whole distiict is of a little paradise. The hills, valley, river, trees, 

 flowers, fruit, fossils, etc., all seem encircled in a kind of imaginary 

 halo. I fancy that I never saw such wild flowers, or ate such 

 cherries or such trout as there. There I terminated my childhood, 

 and thence I emerged into the wide world, in the prosaic turmoil 

 of which I have ever since been immersed." 



Both Latimer and Chenies formerly bore the name of Iselham- 

 sted, becoming known, from the names of their owners, as Latimer's 

 Iselhamsted and Cheyne's Iselhamsted. Between the two places, 

 near Latimer, but on the south side of the river and therefore in 

 the parish of Chenies, remains of a Roman villa have been discovered, 

 a description of which has been given by the Rev. Bryant Burgess.* 

 A historical account of " Latimers or Latimer" has also been 

 given by him, f The following extract from it, which well portrays 

 the condition of the district in Roman times, is of sufficient interest 

 in relation to our county to reproduce here. 



*' "When this Chiltern district was an almost unbroken forest of beech, tlie 

 narrow valleys througli which the streams (larger then than now) spread fertility 

 and offered pasture tor tiocks and herds, were chosen by early settlers for their 

 homes. In the days when, built on the bank of the little river Ver, Verulani 

 was a famous Roman city, and some Italian centurion or colonist had built his 

 villa by the stream at Wycombe, and others in the Boxmoor valley and near 

 Hemel Hempstead, a spot close to the stream at Iselhamsted was chosen by 

 one of the same race for a residence of no mean dimensions. With a constant 

 supply of water for the bath from the river Chess, and an abundance of fuel for 

 the hypocaust in the overhanging woods, a villa, or range of buildings, some 

 200 feet in length, was built to face the morning sun. Coins of the second and 

 third centuries found among its walls suggest that it was inhabited at the 

 time when the Proto-mart\T of England was beheaded on the site of St. Alban's 

 Abbey at a distance of- only twelve miles." 



The ruined church of Plaunden, which is in Herts, was next 

 visited. It has already been described in the report of a previous 

 field meeting.;]: After inspecting it the party returned to Chenies 

 to keep the appointment made to meet those who could not come 

 in the morning. The opportunity of inspecting the Russell Chapel 

 in the Church of 8t. Michael, by the kind permission of the Duke 

 of Bedford, attracted a considerable number, and so much time 

 was devoted to this, and to a visit to the old mansion near it, now 



* " The Roman Villa at Latimer, Bucks," in 'Records of Buckinghamshire,' 

 vol. iii, p. 181 (1867). 



t Ih., vol. vi, p. 27 (1887). 



X 'Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc.,' Vol. Ill, p. Ixiv (1886). 



