10 SHORT HISTORY OF ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
The total cost of producing the book was estimated at £230,
and it was confidently thought that 250 subscribers at one guinea
could be obtained ; accordingly the offers both of the Biblio-
graphical Society and of the Essex Archaeological Society were
accepted on March 19, 1894, But nothing came of the scheme,
and the proposed volume never appeared. It would be interest-
ing to know what has become of the manuscript.
In 1894, and again in 1895, the Club gave active support to
the Verderers of Epping Forest against an uninstructed press
campaign, which condemned the policy of thinning adopted
by the Conservators—a policy which, in the opinion of the present
writer, who has been familiar with the Forest for over forty years,
has been abundantly justified by the marked increase in the
scenic beauty of the Forest through the opening up of vistas and
by the vigour of the trees at the present time.
On July 28, 1894, the Club passed a Resolution of Protest
against a proposed alteration of the County boundaries, whereby
three parishes would be lost to Essex and given to Cambridge-
shire. The opposition to the proposal was successful, and the
County boundaries remained intact.
In 1895 Mr. David Howard, J.P., F.C.S., F.I.C, succeeded
Mr. Chancellor in the Presidential Chair, an office he was destined
to hold for six years in succession.
The Chelmsford Museum scheme was not progressing well.
At the beginning of 1896 the Museum was still unopened, although
the Club was expending some £40 per annum in rent and other
outgoings. About this time, too, dissensions arose between
the officials of the Club and the Chelmsford members, the former
complaining that subscriptions from local sources (that is to say,
from former subscribers to the old museum) were not forthcoming,
whilst the latter considered that there was unduly long delay
in opening the museum, which delay, it was alleged, had alienated
local interest. To meet the objection, the Club's honorary secre-
tary made the somewhat curious suggestion that the Library
of the Club, then at Chelmsford, should be taken back to the
old quarters at Buckhurst Hill, and that the new Museum should
be opened on one day and evening in each week, but only to
members and their personal friends.
This proposal was not acceptable to the Chelmsford members,
who regarded it as infringing the agreement for amalgamation,