242
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
differences. The study of nature, like the poet's 'one touch' of it, makes the
whole world kin. It was the underlying, if unexpressed, apprehension of this
fact, we think, which left so many pleasant memories of the joint meeting of the
Essex Field Club and the Ipswich Scientific Society, and led eventually to a
repetition of the programme during the present summer. Members of the now
famous Essex Society expressed an earnest wish for another visit to Ipswich, the
local Society were delighted with the opportunity of giving them an enthusiastic
welcome, and the introduction to a day's outing assumed the form of a social and
scientific 'reception' at the Ipswich Museum on the previous evening. Arrange-
ments for this preliminary gathering were made in a spirit of heartiest hospitality
by the Committee of the Ipswich Scientific Society. The President for the year
(Mr. Henry Miller, jun.), Mr. G. H. Hewetson, Hon. Secretary, and Mr. F.
Woolnough, welcomed the company upon their arrival, and were the more active
organisers of the proceedings ; but they were assisted in various ways by others
of their colleagues, including Mr. J. Napier, Mr. E. P. Pidley, Mr. W. Vick, and
Mr. F. W. Wilson.
" The visitors at once proceeded to the room occupied by Dr. J. E. Taylor, who
acted as guide, philosopher, and friend to all inquirers, and showed the way with
pardonable pride around the Museum which he has in great part created, and for
which the borough is rightly famed. In the Doctor's room, Mr. W. Vick showed his
remarkable collection of photographs of one hundred people over seventy years of age,
which make a curious study in character and facial expression, together with many
good views of scenery and places of interest in the neighbourhood, which were seen to
advantage through two or three graphoscopes. Dr. Taylor exhibited a group of
carnivorous plants, Sundews (Drosera) and Butterwort (Pinguicula), of which he
gave an intensely interesting account ; and his sanctum was, as usual, full of objects
which arrested the attention of the naturalists and geologists."
Dr. Taylor afterwards led the way upstairs into the principal room of the
Museum, and proceeded to give, in his inimitable style, a most interesting dis-
course upon the Essex and Suffolk Red Crag formations, demonstrating each
statement by aid of the magnificent collections of Crag fossils which were con-
tained in the cases around. At the close of the address the Mayor of Ipswich
proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the demonstrator, which was carried by
acclamation. Dr. Taylor replied in a happy speech, complimenting the Essex
Field Club upon the high position it had attained among natural history societies.
The remainder of the evening was occupied in examining the collections, and
in partaking of the refreshments which were hospitably provided in the Art Class-
room. The members of the Essex Field Club present on the Friday evening
were not so many as were desired ; but those who went down to Ipswich on the
Friday were delighted at the kind reception accorded to them by the Council and
members of the local Scientific Society,
On the Saturday morning the Conductors and members of both Societies
assembled punctually at the landing-stage on the New Cut, and (after being
reinforced by the Field Club members who travelled down by the 8.5 a.m. from
London) embarked on the Great Eastern Railway steamer, the "Stour," for a
day's dredging in the estuaries of the Orwell and Stour rivers.
Whilst awaiting departure alongside the steamer, Mr. Walter Crouch pointed
out the numerous borings of a most destructive mollusc, the Teredo, which was well
in evidence on the landing-stage ; and before the start other interesting forms were
to be seen on board, alive. These had been taken on the previous day from