IN NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE. 
43 
in the same neighbourhood, and larger boulders of plumpudding- 
stone. ^ 
Although not within the county, an unusually large and 
important boulder which stands on the side of the high road near 
Newport, in Essex, is sufficiently near the borders of the county 
to be legitimately referred to in this paper. The information I am 
now able to give with respect to it is supplied to me by Mr. 
George E. Linney, of Saffron "Walden. He writes as follows 
“The boulder stands by the road-side on the high-road from 
Cambridge to Bishop’s Stortford, and may be dotted on the 
Ordnance map as 225 yards south of the entrance to the Short- 
grove demesne on the side nearest to Newport. It is about a 
mile from Audley End Station. Dimensions (above ground):— 
Height, 6 feet. Width at top, 3ft. 6in.; at bottom, 6 feet. Thick¬ 
ness, 2 feet. General shape regular. The top leans a little south¬ 
ward. Sides nearly flat, and bearing marks of laminae. I easily 
cut small pieces, the way of the strata, but the main body of the 
stone is very hard. Near the top on the south side a large piece 
of iron has been driven in very deeply, and bears marks of having 
been heavily struck with a hammer. The country people tell us 
that 4 the stone grows slowly round this iron, and will soon 
cover it entirely! 5 In the neighbourhood of Arkesden there is 
another boulder smaller than this, and composed of the Hertfordshire 
conglomerate. Of this same material are some in the garden of 
Mr. Edward Gibson, taken there many years ago by his father. 
They now form a rockery. Mr. Joshua Clarke also has some, 
which are conglomerates too, and have been got in the neighbour¬ 
hood. The Newport one is unique in the neighbourhood. I can 
only hazard an opinion that it looks to me much like Millstone-grit, 
such as I have been accustomed to see in Yorkshire and Derbyshire.” 
In reply to an enquiry as to the existence of any local history or 
tradition attaching to the Newport boulder, Mr. Linney also writes : 
“ I have made all enquiry from those who are likeliest to know, 
and have sought the histories of local interest through. I cannot 
learn anything of the boulder at Newport. There seems to be 
an opinion in the minds of some that it was put there as a mark for 
the Lepers’ Hospital, which was done away with by Henry the 
Eighth.” The height of the boulder above sea-level is about 180 
feet. 
LIST I. 
Boulders of more than 2 feet in one dimension. 
64. Rounded and muck worn, without any particular regularity of shape. 
When moved, the lower portion of the surface, where it had not been 
exposed, was much less worn, and rather uneven. Sandstone : corre¬ 
sponds in character with hand-specimens of Millstone-grit. 2ft. lOin. 
by 2ft. 8in. by 2ft. Oin. 
68. Worn and smoothed slab, showing lines of bedding, and weathering iron- 
red. Coarse, deep red, ferruginous sandstone , with rounded grains: 
Neocomian. 2ft. Oin. by 2ft. Oin. by 1ft. Oin. 
* ‘ Trans. Watford Nat. Hist. Soc.,’ Yol. I, p. 172. 
