Essex has been much under-rated by many people who, deterred
by the bad approach through the eastern suburbs of London, have never troubled to explore it 1 But the love of Essex, to those who know it intimately, amounts, in the words of Mr. Fred Roe, " almost to a religion." Even the marshes of the estuary and the coast have, for the seeing eye, their own beauty and romance, and, for the rest, the county is not nearly so flat as is commonly supposed. It is generally undulating, and the views from Danbury and Laindon, both at, considerable elevations, are among the finest in the Home Counties. Many of the Essex villages, again, with their broad high streets, their ponds and their
greens," are very picturesque, and they are particularly rich in ancient churches and inns, in the domestic architecture of the last three centuries, and, near the sea, in relics of smuggling days. Mr. Roe, whose volume is charmingly illustrated by his own pencil, deals pleasantly and authoritat- ively with all these things in Essex Survivals (Methuen, 21s.). Other Essex features which he notices are the strange luminosity of its atmosphere, which Constable did not exaggerate ; its unspoiled rural peace, when once London is left behind ; and the tenacious hold which, in spite of wireless and the motor 'bus, the old country habits and superstitions maintain among a people who continue to regard their Suffolk neighbours as " foreigners."
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