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THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB—REPORT OF 
MEETINGS. 
EASTER VISIT TO SAFFRON WALDEN (546To MEETING). 
APRIL 13TH TO‘I7TH, 1922. 
The third Easter excursion of the Club was, like its predecessors, voted 
a great success by the Members who constituted the party; this success 
was chiefly owing to the untiring care and energy of our Member, Mr. George 
Morris, B.Sc., F.R.A.I., who acted as local organizing secretary and also 
as conductor to the party. 
The visitors, whonumbered twenty-one, assembled on Thursday evening 
at headquarters, the Rose and Crown Hotel, an ancient hostelry of the 
town mentioned in a poeticitinerary of the 17th century, and probably dating 
from the 14th century. The oldest part of the present building dates from 
the end of the 16th century. By special arrangement the whole party 
were accommodated under its hospitable roof or in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood. 
On Friday morning the party started in brakes from the Hotel at 9.30 
and, after passing the old Park and the Lion Gate of The Mansion at Audley 
End, crossed the Cam by the bridge erected by Robert Adam, in 1771. Here 
the view of the west park, with its stream and the red brick bridge in the 
woodland beyond, was enjoyed. A few minutes brought the visitors to 
the first alighting place, whence a short walk brought them to a gravel 
pit in the river terrace, where they were able to inspect, im situ, a tusk of 
the mammoth (Elephas primigenius,) which had recently been uncovered 
and left for their inspection. The condition of the specimen, unfortunately, 
did not allow its preservation, but photographs were obtained by members 
of the party ; some 5 feet length of the tusk was exposed, at a depth of 11 
feet from the surface. Subsequently the members had an opportunity of 
inspecting two molars of mammoth, and teeth of Rhinoceros, from the same 
pit, which are preserved in the Museum at Audley End. 
Proceeding from here, a halt was called at Uttlesford Bridge, and our 
leader pointed out the Myrtle Hill above the bridge, which was known in 
old records as the Mutlow (Moot Llaw) Hill, and was probably the meeting 
place of Uttlesford Hundred. 
At the entrance to Newport a halt was made to inspect the “‘ leper stone,” 
a tabular mass of sarsen standing by the roadside. These masses are scattered 
over the country-side, increasing in number westward as the county boundary 
is approached, and showing, in many cases, a transition to Hertfordshire 
conglomerate or “‘ pudding stone,’ and they are probably the remains of 
a Tertiary formation now completely eroded. Tradition assigns the leper 
stone as the place where food was left in medieval times for victims of the 
disease who had been driven from the community to the waste beyond ; 
but our leader pointed out that the medieval hospital of St. Mary and St. 
Leonard stood opposite this spot and probably gave the name to the stone. 
In the wall behind are sections of dressed and moulded clunch which formed 
responds and pillars in some medieval building, probably the cloisters of the 
aforesaid hospital. 
At the entrance to the village the party dismounted and walked through 
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