A substantial topographical dictionary first published between 1870 and 1872, edited by the Reverend John Marius Wilson. It contains a detailed description of England and Wales. Its six volumes have a brief article on each county, city, borough, civil parish, and diocese, describing their political and physical features and naming the principal people of each place.
The following is a description of the High Country parishes. Note the error for Greensted, which the dictionary confused with Greenstead, near Colchester.
THOYDON-MOUNT, a parish in Ongar district; 2¾ miles SE of Epping railway station. Post town, Epping. Acres, 1,500. Real property, £2,586. Population 154. Houses, 36.
Hill Hall is the seat of Sir W. B. Smijth, Bart. The living is a rectory, annexed to Stapleford-Tawney The church is good.
STAPLEFORD-TAWNEY, a parish in Ongar district; 3½ miles ESE of Epping railway station. Post town, Romford. Acres, 1,633. Real property, £2,587. Population 273. Houses, 47. The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory, united with Mount-Thoydon, in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £740.
Patron, Sir W. B. Smyth. The church is good. Charities, £18.
GREENSTEAD, a parish in Colchester district; near the river Roding, 1 mile W by N of Ongar railway station, and 8 NNW of Brentwood. Post town, Ongar. Acres, 1, 498. Real property, £1, 209. Population 125. Houses, 27. The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £280.
Patron, the Bishop of London in Trust. The church is one of the most ancient in England; was thoroughly restored in 1848; has a gave formed of half trunks of oaks, set upright, and close to one another, and supposed to have been erected as a temporary shrine for the body of St. Edmund; contains monuments to the Smyths, the Cleeves, and the Ords; and was found, at its restoration in 1848, to have a well preserved ancient piscina.
STANFORD-RIVERS, a parish, with a village, in Ongar district; 1¾ mile SW by S of Ongar railway station. It has a post-office under Romford, and contains Ongar workhouse. Acres, 4,386. Real property, £6,990. Population 992. Houses, 172. The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £1,007.
Patron, the Duchy of Lancaster. The church is good; and there are an Independent chapel and a national school.