118 
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 
drove back to Audley End station, passing through the grounds of Lofts 
Hall en route , and left for London by reserved carriage on the 9.27 express, 
which was stopped by special arrangement to pick them up. 
VISIT TO STAPLEFORD TAWNEY AND THEYDON 
MOUNT.—THE 409th MEETING. 
Saturday, 2oth July 1912. 
The main object of the Meeting was to visit, by kind invitation, our 
member, the Rev. Lewis N. Prance, M.A., F.S.A., at Stapleford Tawney, 
and incidentally to inspect several places of interest in the district. 
Situated many miles from any railway station, both Stapleford Tawney 
and Stapleford Mount are the most charming of rural parishes and amply 
repay the trouble which is necessary to reach them. They stand on very 
high land overlooking extensive stretches of valley and woodlands, and 
also contain many features of internal interest. The visitors were con¬ 
veyed in brakes from Theydon Bois and Brentwood stations to the church 
of St. Mary, Stapleford Tawney. The Rev. L. N. Prance, who is the 
rector of both parishes, met the visitors at the church, the interesting 
features of which were explained by him, and by Mr. Sworder, of Epping, 
and Mr. Percy Thompson, one of the hon. Secretaries of the Club. 
Outside the south porch there stands a coped stone coffin of unusual 
design, which is one of the finest examples of its kind in Essex. It was 
discovered during the restoration of the Church in 1861 buried beneath 
the floor of the nave. It is in a perfect state of preservation. It has been 
described and figured by Mr. Miller Christy in the Trans. Essex Archaeo¬ 
logical Society, vol. VII., pp. 371 and 39 2 * A second mutilated stone- 
coffin, without a lid, was discovered at the same time, and now stands 
outside the north wall of the church. The perfect coffin probably owes 
its good preservation to the fact that it has only recently been brought 
out into the open air, and the suggestion was made that some form of pro¬ 
tection from the weather should be given to this ancient relic. 
The visitors were entertained to lunch at Tawney Rectory, by the 
kindness of Mr. Prance, and spent a considerable time in investigating 
his well-stocked garden, Mr. Prance being an ardent horticulturist. Then 
a walk across the fields was taken to Theydon Mount and the charming 
little Church of St. Michael was visited, under the rector’s guidance. It 
is dated from 1611, and is built in picturesque Jacobaean brickwork;, 
the quaint south porch is of moulded red-brick. The unusual shaped 
openings which admit light to the Tower stair should be noticed. In¬ 
ternally some large and elaborate Monuments to the Smijth family are 
noteworthy, and the Font, an old Italian lavabo of coloured marbles and 
white alabaster, is unique. Some curious garlands of flowers or paper, 
with several pairs of gloves or mittens, suspended from the roof of 
the nave, have attracted much attention in the past, and were described 
in the report of a Club Meeting at the Church on 28th May 1892 (Essex 
Naturalist, vol. VI., p. 105), and further notes were printed in the same 
volume on pp. 99 and 117. They were probably funeral garlands used at 
the burials of maids, and they are alluded to by many old writers and 
in ballads. 
