6 SHORT HISTORY OF ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
position Fund was authorised by the Council, the secretary
being empowered to buy two dozen chairs for the meeting room
out of it!
In the following month (November) a committee, the Pre-
historic Monuments Committee, was appointed to draw up a
List of the pre-historic remains of Essex, with Meldola as its
Chairman. No record exists of its labours to-day.
On April 24, 25 and 26, 1884, the Club participated officially
in the opening ceremonies of the new Lopping Hall at Loughton,
by arranging a special three-day exhibition of natural history and
archaeological specimens in the Small Hall there.
During October and November, 1884, the exploration of the
Deneholes near Grays was undertaken, and this was resumed
three years later (in September and October, 1887) ; an exhaus-
tive report of the investigations was published in the Club's
journal in due course.
During the first five years of its existence, the Rules of the
Club were repeatedly altered, as experience suggested, and
were again and again reprinted ; this meant a considerable ex-
pense which with more forethought might have been minimised.
In 1885, Meldola and White's Report on "The East Anglian
Earthquake of April 22, 1884" was published, a guarantee fund
of some £54 being got together for the purpose. This was the
Club's "Special Memoir, No. 1." The book met with a poor
reception, however, and the guarantors lost their money.
At the next Annual Meeting, in 1885, Professor Boulger was
succeeded in the Presidential Chair by Mr. T. V. Holmes, F.G.S.
It is interesting to note in the Council Minutes of March, 1885,
that enquiry was to be made as to a new process for reproducing
photographs as book-illustrations ; this was, of course, the now
universal half-tone process.
Another raid on the Life Composition Fund has to be re-
corded. In March, 1885, the Librarian was authorised by the
Council to take £10 from this Fund for the purchase of bookcases.
It was also decided to institute paid popular lectures by special-
ists, at a fee not exceeding three guineas per lecture, at some
of the ordinary meetings of the Club; this practice became very
frequent and was not entirely discontinued until many years
later. The conductors at the field-meetings also were frequently
offered a fee for their services, usually one guinea being paid.