a market-town of the hundred of Lexden, in the county of Essex, forty-five miles from London, on the river Blackwater. It was a few years ago a manufacturing town for baize and other woollen goods, now chiefly made in Yorkshire. It has a good market on Saturdays. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 2469, in 1811 to 2471, in 1821 to 2896, and in 1831 to 3227.