27 



The Middlesex Home of Clausilia biplicata. 



By Alfred Sich, P'.E.S, Read September 22nd, 1910. 



The name of the ground was Corney, and rather over one 

 hundred years ago the Earl of Macartney Hved there. It was pro- 

 bably he who planted the beautiful trees and made the shrubberies. 

 At a later date my father occupied the ground. It was a rectangular 

 plot enclosed by four old brick walls. Almost the whole length of 

 the north wall was covered with ivy of a luxuriant growth, which in 

 early days I used to beat, generally accompanied by my earliest 

 entomological field-companion, a nephew of the late J. C. Dale. I 

 have never since seen such clouds of moths, mostly common 

 Geometers, as we used to disturb from that venerable ivy. The east 

 wall was also pardy ivy-covered, but, owing to a line of trees and 

 shrubs which intercepted both sunlight and rain, it was not attractive. 

 The south wall faced the river. In front of this wall was a withy 

 holt, containing, besides the osiers, several water-loving plants, 

 some with golden, others with purple blossoms, such as Caltlia 

 pa/iistris, Cardami)ie at?iara, Lythriim salicaria. On the other side 

 of this lush green withy bed flowed the waters of the silver Thames. 

 This spot was the haunt of the kingfisher, the redshank, and the 

 sedge warbler. One could see all these because a high terrace ran 

 behind the wall, and in one place there was a stretch of open 

 railings. 



On the terrace were Norway pines, Italian pines, with huge cones, 

 and lilacs. On the green slopes below there were three or four tall 

 and graceful Scots pines, and an ilex with a curious long horizontal 

 branch, on which one could lie and dream away a whole summer 

 afternoon. Here and there in the grass were patches of yellow bed- 

 straw, masses of sweet-scented blossoms in their season. Further 

 back was an immense sycamore, a deodar, and out in the long grass 

 a veteran holly in its last days. Further back rose, perhaps, the 

 tallest tree in the grounds, a magnificent, specimen of the occidental 

 plane, in whose branches the wood-pigeons nested. To the east of 

 this rose a fine solitary larch. Behind these was a large spreading 

 oriental plane, two tulip trees of great size, perhaps the largest in 

 England, a liquid-amber, pink and white thorns, a large crab, a 

 Spanish chestnut, another ilex, and a horse-chestnut. These trees 

 were not all clustered together, but long stretches of grass lay between 

 them. Between the Spanish chestnut and the crab there was a 

 remarkable spot in the grass which, somehow, on September 



