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THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 
Mr. W. Cole, as Curator, gave some account of the structure and history 
of the building, and of the efforts of the Essex Field Club to establish a 
museum there. He explained the plan of the Museum, which at present 
was but very partially carried out, owing to want of funds, and more par¬ 
ticularly of an annual income to obtain the help of an assistant to the 
Curator. On every hand the visitors expressed their warm approval of 
the objects and design of the Museum, and their desire that the plans 
could be fully carried out. 
The party subsequently made a tour of the Forest, and after tea at 
High Beach proceeded to Abridge and Chigwell, where they visited the 
Grammar School and the Church and the “ King’s Head ” Inn, famous 
for its memories of Charles Dickens and “ Barnaby Rudge.” 
The Union members returned to Hampstead by road ; the others went 
homewards from Loughton Station. 
VISIT TO LEEZ PRIORY AND CHIGNAL AT JAMES 
(425th MEETING) AND TO MR. CHRISTY’S MUSEUM 
OF ANCIENT DOMESTIC APPLIANCES. 
Saturday, 2ist June 1913. 
The assembly was called at Chelmsford railway station, about half¬ 
past ten, and brakes being in attendance, the party was conveyed by 
Broomfield, Little Waltham and Little Leez, to Leez Priory, a distance of 
about eight miles, through extremely pretty country. Several small pits 
in Glacial Gravel and Sand were seen : the shallow pit near Chatham 
Green (at about 193 feet O.D.) shows very coarse gravel and ferruginous 
sand, with Bunter sandstone and quartzite pebbles. 
A halt was called at Little Leighs Church, small but very interesting ; 
it was probably, in Mr. Chancellor’s opinion, one of the earliest churches 
erected by the Normans after the Conquest. The most interesting monu¬ 
ment is a beautifully designed canopy over a niche in the north 
wall of t the chancel, in which lies the effigy of a priest, in Eucharistic 
vestments, cut out of a single block of oak. The architecture and vest¬ 
ments point to a period about the middle of the 14th Century. The figure 
is probably that of a much-loved rector of the parish, who added the 
chancel to the old Norman nave, and whom his parishioners wished to 
honour by this somewhat unusual form. There are other examples of a 
similar kind at Clifford, in Herefordshire, etc. A minute description of 
the monument is in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 
Vol. ii., by the Rev. F. Spurred, M.A. Another very interesting object m 
the church is the font, which is Early English. 
The company were then driven to Leez Priory, the home of our member 
Mr. M. E. Hughes-Hughes. The Priory is an extremely interesting and 
beautiful Tudor mansion, on the right bank of the little river Ter, nestling 
in a green hollow. 
The existing buildings consist chiefly of the two Gatehouse Towers 
and domestic buildings, forming a portion of the greater courtyard of 
the immense Tudor mansion, built by Baron Rich in the early 16th century, 
and the present owner has spent much loving care and money in restoring 
