CHAPTER ELEVEN 

 ESSEX AND SUFFOLK 



THElateMr. Harry Quilter, in arather"quaint 

 and curious" volume which he styled What's 

 What, has left on record his disapprobation of 

 the county of Essex, which he describes as an 

 "undesirable locality" in which to buy or rent 

 a country house. His objections seem to have 

 been founded chiefly on an inconvenient rail- 

 way service from London, and the presence of 

 a clay soil when the difficulties of transit have 

 been overcome; with, among other unattrac- 

 tive features, a scanty population, out-at-el- 

 bows as regards the upper classes, dull and 

 suspicious in the lower strata of society. 



These animadversions strike us as what Mr. 

 Perker would have called "harsh words." The 

 county is less unattractive than the tints on Mr, 

 Quilter's palette would incline one to believe. 

 Objections to it there may be; it is sufficient 

 to the present purpose that Essex yields us a 

 good store of dovecotes. 



One of the most interesting is certainly that 

 which stands near the stables at Dynes Hall, a 

 house near Great Maplestead. It is of timber 



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