156 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Mr. Durrant and Mr. Chancellor having replied, the meeting resolved itself into
a conversazione.
[Many members of the Club stayed in Chelmsford until Monday, and visited the
Churches at Ingatestone, Fryerning, and Writtle. They also inspected the site at
Mill Green, where Mr. Miller Christy discovered remains of ancient pottery in
1872 (see Trans : Essex Archaeol: Soc. N.S. vol. ii, p. 357). A quantity of
pottery was found, including portions of a large amphora.
Those who stayed in the town until Monday were almost "snowed up" in the
great-snowstorm of Sunday night and Monday morning, February 10th and 11th.]
Meeting at Colchester, Saturday, March 30th, 1889.
The second "Winter Meeting" of the session was held at Colchester on this day,
under the leadership of our Vice-President, Dr. Henry Laver, F.L.S., F.S.A. It
was the third visit of the Club to the ancient Camulodunon, the first being on
August 4th, 1884, when Mersea was also visited, and the second took place on
May 21st, 1888, Lexden, Layer Marney, &c., being included in the programme.
It is unnecessary to give here any sketch of the town, as many particulars will be
found in the circulars of these previous meetings, and in the Secretary's full report
of last year's gathering, in the Essex Naturalist (vol ii., pp. 115—126).
The members assembled at 2 o'clock at the Castle, where they were received by
the Rev. C. L. Acland (Hon. Curator to the Museum), Dr. Laver, and the excel-
lent and painstaking Curator, Mr. J. Spalding. Mr. Acland began by calling
attention to the Yelloly Watson collection of [ores and minerals, which was, he
said, in many respects a very good one. The late Mr. Watson was for many years
connected with the "Mining Journal," and therefore he had had exceptional oppor-
tunities for acquiring good specimens, and he took great delight in sending all of
them to this Museum. They came into his (Mr. Acland's) hands for arrangement,
simply, he supposed, because he knew absolutely nothing about minerals. He
had, however, verified them as far as possible, and they were arranged on the lines
of the Jermyn Street Museum. Turning to the collection of shells given to the
Corporation by the late Mr. J. T. Ambrose, Mr. Acland observed that they were
arranged by Dr. Bree, who during his life wished that there should be no inter-
ference with that arrangement. He should be very glad indeed if some competent
authority would now go through them and see if they were correctly arranged.
Dr. Laver pointed out the collection of Mammalian Tertiary fossils, dredged up
off the coast in the North Sea, which had been contributed to the Museum by the
late Dr. Bree. The magnificent collections of Roman and British Antiquities in
the Museum have been commented upon in former reports.
Leaving the Castle, the party proceeded to Holy Trinity Church, where Dr.
Laver pointed out the monument to Dr. William Gilberd, the first writer on
electricity. Gilberd was, said Mr. Laver, one of the great men of the world—the
greatest man that Colchester, and probably Essex, had ever produced. He was
physician to James I. and to Queen Elizabeth, and his great work, "De Magnete,"
was published in 1600. His knowledge of electricity was equal to all that was
known on the subject up to the early part of this century. He laid the whole
foundation of our present knowledge of it, and one of his immediate disciples de-
scribed a mode of insulating a wire, and sending signals along it, which might be
used for the purpose of conveying messages any length that they could insulate the
wire. Queen Elizabeth thought so much of Gilberd and his work that when she died
she left him a legacy, so that he might carry on his experiments with the magnet.
In his book, which would be exhibited at the evening meeting, he described
the variations of the compass in Nova Zembla, and showed the dip of the compass