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aspect. Essex does not indeed present the picturesque beauty of the West of England, neither does it fatigue the eye with the almost unvarying flatness of Huntingdonshire, but there are many parishes through which the Roding rolls that would compare most favourably with other counties, which may have a higher reputation for some fanciful or trivial reason. Cultivation in the valley of the Roding has been carried on with ability and energy, whilst the hunting fame of the district is well-known.

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Peas for culinary purposes were grown in this district within a reasonable distance of the London markets. This fact is confirmed by a catalogue, published in 1731, by a well known writer on Horticulture. He writes from the Flowerpot, against the Court of Common Pleas, in Westminster Hall; he also had a garden at Millbank, not far away. Stephen Switzer, for, it was he, was almost the originator of the seedsman's catalogue, such a common fashion to-day. In suggesting garden peas, he says:-"Sow Essex Roadings for a general crop, the first sown in February, the last the middle or latter end of May."

What will Witham say after this? The Roothings seem to take first place.

The prominent mention of the river by Drayton, the poet in his Polyolbion may be quoted as showing his opinion of the Roding in 1622, when it was pure and bright, and before its degradation set in. He says:

For Essex is our dower, which greatly doth abound,
With every simple good, that in the Isle is found;
And though we go to wrack, in this so general waste,
This hope to us remains, we yet may be the last.
When Hatfield taking heart, where late she sadly stood,
Sends little Roding forth, her best beloved Flood;
Which from her crystal fount, as to enlarge her fame,
To many a Village lends, her clear and noble name.
Which as she wand'reth on, through Waltham holds her way,
With goodly oaken wreaths, which makes her wondrous gay;
But making at the last into the wat❜ry Marsh,

Where though the blady grass unwholesome be and harsh,

Those wreaths away she casts, which bounteous Waltham gave,
With bulrush, flags, and reed, to make her wondrous brave,
And herself's strength divides, to sundry lesser streams,

So wantoning she falls into her sovereign Thames.

What would Drayton say to-day if he walked down from Easton Park alongside the river till he reached the Crooked Billet, at Creek's Mouth, near Barking? He dare not now refresh. himself from the stream on his way as he could have done in the days of James the First, and he would have continued his excursion in an unhappy, disgusted frame of mind, till he took refuge and refreshment at that well-known hostel. He would hardly have trusted the spring water there, after his toil for hours by the side of an open ditch, but would have needed some stronger potion.

The length of the Roding from its source to its junction with the Thames at Barking Creek is about 34 miles, and its drainage area is 317 square miles. These figures give a conception of the importance of the river as a factor during a wet, inclement season, when floods occur in its lower sections, bringing trouble and distress in their train. In this case, if the water from the forest above is met by the tidal wave from below, the resistance of the bank is tested. If the banks or "walls" as they are named, give way, then the meadows are overflowed, the houses surrounded, and the results are lamentable.

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The tide ascends beyond Ilford. Consequently there is serious danger if an exceptionally strong north-east wind prevails at the time of spring tides, and a full quantity of flood water coming down, meets the flowing tide. To protect the lowlying land from the inroads of Thames water, the Roding has been embanked as far as Ilford. A commission of sewers called the Dagenham and Havering Commission controls these levels, and banks, as well as the sea

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walls next the Thames, and the authority of this Court has been continued by Royal warrant from the time of Henry VIII. There is reason to believe that though the records of the commission commence with the Tudor monarch, as the figure-head in their history, earlier patents were passed in the reigns of Richard II. and Edward IV. for the repairs at least of Thames walls. But the embanking and draining which now preserve the meadows seem to have been done by Kings of the Saxon period, because many of them go by the name of King's Meads, some being granted to the several

parishes as common all the year, or common after mowing time. Or, it may be that the Romans, whilst they were masters here, embanked this country from the sea, since they had the natives to work for them, who according to our history made heavy complaints of the hard labour, and the stripes with which they were kept to it. More likely still these works were carried out piecemeal at intervals by different and successive authorities, one stretch of land and then another being reclaimed from the water, as the old walls and counter walls seem to imply. Work done in this way is more laborious, more expensive, but is frequently the only course that can be pursued with success.

Abutting on the banks of the Roding, and in close proximity to the stream, was an imposing edifice, the Nunnery of Barking. It was founded by Erkenwald, Bishop of London, son of Annas, King of the East Angles, who was at the head of the diocese in the year 675, and began this house soon after his consecration. It was the second nunnery in England, that of Folkestone being rather earlier. This nunnery of Berkyng, or Barking, was of the order of St. Benedict, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St. Ethelburga or Aldburgh; the first Abbess was sister of the founder. What the original of the house was, history does not disclose, but we have a few interesting peeps at long intervals. By an early charter, several estates were bequeathed to it by Hodilredus, father of Sebbi, King of the East Saxons, with the consent of the King. A facsimile of this charter (which exists in the British Museum Cotton MSS. Augustus II. 29) is printed by Lysons (Environs of London, iv., 59). The following is a translation :—

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour, as often as we make any offering to your Society and to your venerable house, we are giving back to you what is yours; we are not giving you our own. Wherefore, I, Hodilredus, Father of Sebbi, of the Province of the East Saxons, with his full consent, his own free will, and in sound mind and full intention, grant unto you Hedilburga Abbess an augmentation of your Monastery which is called Badenham. I make it over in perpetuity and transfer from my rightful ownership to yours the land which is called Ricingboa, Ducanham, Augenlaberthan, and also the field and wood called Widmansfelt, including the forty tenants which are close to it, together with all that belongs to them, the fields, the woods, the meadows, and the marsh, so that you, as well as your successors, may have and hold them with full power to do with them the same whatever you wish. This deed was made in the month of March, and a sufficient number of witnesses were asked to subscribe to it. Should anyone attempt to contravene or mar this parchment let him know before the omnipotent God and Jesus Christ His Son and the Holy Ghost, i.e., the undivided

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Trinity, that he stands condemned and cut off from all Christian society. This deed of gift, nevertheless, in its own entirety shall continue firm, and the gift never to be cancelled. Moreover, the boundaries of this land are those as here described. If anyone desires to enlarge this gift may God enlarge his goods and his possessions, together with his companions for ever, Amen. I, Sebbi, King of the East Saxons, in testimony hereto have signed my name. I, Hodilredus, the donor, have signed; I, Erinwaldus, Bishop, have given my assent and signature; I, Wilfred, Bishop, have given my assent and signature; I, Hada, Bishop likewise. I, Garda, Resident and Abbot, sign with full consent; I, Erebaldus, Presbyter and Abbot, consent and sign! I,

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Hacona, consent and sign; I, Hova, consent and sign. King Sebbi x his mark, King Sigebert X his mark.

Archdeacon C. J. Smith gives an account of a Latin charter of A.D. 695, which if not the identical one, must be very nearly contemporaneous, as the signatories are with little exception the same. It relates to a gift of Erkenwald, who styles himself" Bishop of the Province of East Saxons," and is plainly one of the signatories of the former deed just alluded to. It runs thus: "I give to my most dearly beloved sisters in Christ dwelling in the monastery, which is called Bercingas "

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