THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
241
be glad if specimens are sent to me in a tin box with damp moss,
and data respecting the habitat, soil, nearness to sea or brackish
water, and the like, addressed, "The Grove," Idle, Bradford, York-
shire.
(To be continued.)
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Second Joint Meeting of the Club and the Ipswich Scientific
Society, at Ipswich, and on the Orwell and Stour Rivers.
Friday and Saturday, July 24th and 25th, 1891.
Directors:—Henry Miller, M.Inst.C.E. ; Dr. J. E. Taylor, F.L.S., F.G.S. ;
E. A. Fitch, F.L.S.; E. M. Holmes, F.L.S.; Walter Crouch, F.Z.S.;
G. H. Hewetson, and W. Cole, F.E.S.
THE meeting in June last year, for the purpose of dredging in the Estuaries
of the Orwell and Stour rivers, having been so successful and pleasant,
the Council, with the kind and hospitable co-operation of the Ipswich Scientific
Society, arranged to repeat the experiment, with some additional features. A full
account of the previous meeting, with lists of the objects of marine zoology and
botany found, was printed in the Essex NATURALIST, vol. iv., pp. 169-173.
Ipswich ("Gipes-wic," A.S. Chronicle, A.D. 993) is a fine example of an
English town, containing abundant evidences of antiquity and continuity of
history, and many interesting buildings and churches. The building known as
"Sparrowes House" is perhaps the most remarkable specimen of ancient domestic
architecture to be found in the eastern counties (see "In and About Ancient
Ipswich," by Dr. J. E. Taylor). The centre of attraction for the naturalist is, of
course, the Museum, in which are local collections of very considerable scientific
importance. It was largely promoted by the Rev. W. Kirby, the celebrated
entomologist, and by the late Prof. Henslow. It is famous for its collection of
fossils from the Red and Coralline Crags of the eastern coasts, which was
augmented in 1877 by the late Sir Richard Wallace's gift of the Rev. H.
Canham's fine collection, the result of twenty years' labour. There are also
excellent botanical and bird collections, shells and crustacea, and a good series of
flint implements, principally found in Suffolk by Mr. S. Fenton. Dr. J. E.
Taylor is the Curator, and under his able management the Museum has
become the centre of scientific activity in Suffolk.
Members of the Club assembled in Ipswich on the Friday afternoon, coming
by road and rail. The management of the meeting was again in the hands of
the Secretaries of the two Societies, Messrs. G. H. Hewetson and W. Cole, the
former most kindly undertaking all the local arrangements. The "East Anglian
Daily Times" gave excellent accounts of the two days' meeting, and we cannot do
better than repeat the opening words of the reporter :—"Between men engaged
in scientific pursuits, whether professionally or as a form of recreation—and the
women too, happily enough—there is a kind of freemasonry which places them
all upon a common footing of sympathy and good comradeship. No society is
more democratic, in the best sense of the word ; and in none other are more
friendly relationships established without any deference to political or religious