THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
45
Wire, Mr. Elliott, Mr. Sauze, Mr. Avery, Mr. Bewers, Dr. Pridie, Mr. W. Cole,
Mr. B. G. Cole, Mr. A. Sheldon, Mr. S. Foot, Mr. Bruce Cook, Rev. C. G.
Savill, Mr. Cornish, Mr Chatfield, Mr. H. A. Cole, Mrs. Yeates, Miss Bentley,
Miss Cole, Miss J. E. Cole, Mr. T. Hay Wilson, and many others.
The Chairman said that the scheme was by no means a new one. Ten years
ago several of the gentlemen present that day were invited by Mr. Buxton to go
to "Knighton" to talk over a proposal to found a museum in that very room.
Various reasons prevented the scheme from being carried out. Most of those
reasons had been removed during the last ten years, and at the present time there
seemed to be no difficulty in the way. The Epping Forest Committee had
given conditional consent for them to use that room—not in perpetuity, but to
allow them to place a local museum there. They could at any time withdraw
their sanction, but such a thing was not likely to happen if the museum was suc-
cessful. The people who were specially asked to consider and support this
scheme were not the scientific people, but people who might be classed as "open-air
naturalists ; "they did not pass much time in the laboratory or study in dissect-
ing specimens, but observed these subjects in the open air. This would be the
line of study taken up, he thought, by those in the neighbourhood who would
support that museum. The museum would be managed by the council of the
Essex Field Club, who have also the management of the museum at Chelmsford,
and specimens would be continually changed from one museum to the other.
Most small museums soon become tiresome from their sameness, but in this
museum they hoped to have a constant supply of fresh subjects of interest, so
that it would never be dull. If the museum met with a good start, and every-
thing was carried out properly, there would be little fear but that the Epping
Forest Committee would give them such support as they could. Mr. Cole had
been working very hard in bringing forward this scheme—he had drawn up the
proposal and given them the details which were laid before them, and Mr. H.
A. Cole had furnished them with capital illustrations. The illustrations of
Queen Elizabeth's Lodge—both inside and out—were pictures which they would
all be glad to keep.
Mr. W. Cole said they proposed to keep the museum entirely local, to repre-
sent, from a geological, antiquarian, and natural history point of view, the
Epping Forest district ; and nothing would be taken into the museum except
from that district. They also desired that the specimens should be exhibited in
an educational manner, not merely by a series of cabinet specimen-, but by
specimens having some teaching purpose, and illustrated by drawings, diagrams,
maps, and so on. They proposed to take in antiquities, drawings, and paint-
ings, and that the grand staircase should be furnished with movable frames,
so that a constantly changing series of drawings and paintings might be
received. Ah to antiquities they already had considerable collections. Two of
the most interesting collections they had were the objects obtained during the
Club's exploration of the Forest camps. Then they had in their hands at present
collections of fungi preserved by Mr. English, and the wild flowers of the Forest,
and insects, and illustrations of the work of prehistoric man, both in the Forest
and the Lea valley. All these would form interesting exhibits as a commencement,
and there would be no difficulty in adding to them as time went on.
Mr. Cole read letters from Sir Wm. Flower, Director of the British Museum
of Natural History and Mr. McKenzie, Superintendent of the Forest, who was
prevented from being present, but hoped that th: meeting would be successful.
Sir Wm. Flower wrote :