22 THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



Easters and the districts of Roxwell, the Chignalls and 

 Pleshey, all included in the Saturday country. 



The Roothings stand second only to the Holderness in 

 Yorkshire, amongst the plough countries of England. The 

 district extends over about 12,000 acres, distributed amongst 

 the eight parishes of High Roding, Aythorpe Roding, White 

 Roding (with the hamlet of Morell Roding), Leaden 

 Roding, Margaret Roding, Abbess Roding, Beauchamp 

 Rodincr, and Berners Rodin^. 



In their centre, at Leaden Roding, stands the King 

 William Inn, the half-way house on the road from Ongar to 

 Dunmow. Near here is Leaden Wood, the most important 

 covert of the district, purchased from Lord Dacre by the 

 late Mr. Loftus Arkwright, and now the property of his son. 

 North of Leaden Wood lies Lords Wood, and at a greater 

 distance we come to Dobbs Wood, the property of Mr. 

 F. J. Matthews ; High Roding Bury, and High Roding 

 Springs. Not very far from these, on the borders of the 

 district, lie Poplars and Broomshawbury. To the south of 

 the district are Margaret Roding Wood, Berners Wood, 

 and Skreens Wood, the two latter belonging to the 

 Bramston family. 



Arthur Young in his "General Survey of the Agricul- 

 ture of the County of Essex," published in 1807, describes 



