28
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
tion of the Council of the Club, are the same as last year, viz. : Sir H. E. Roscoe,
M.P., F.R.S. ; Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S. ; Mr. J. C. Shenstone ; Mr. J. Spiller ;
F.I.C., &c. ; Mr. F. Chancellor, J.P., F.R.I.B.A. ; and Prof. Charles Stewart,
M.A., F.L.S. It is unnecessary to refer to the important services rendered by
these gentlemen, as the Council understands that the subject will be alluded
to by the President in his Address this evening.
Library.—The main portion of the Library has been removed to Chelmsford,
but those books and pamphlets more immediately treating of Epping Forest have
been retained for lodgment in the Forest Museum at Chingford. A report on the
library must again be deferred, but the Council is pleased to say that Mr. W. C.
Waller has consented to serve as one of the Librarians with Mr. Durrant. It
is anticipated that a full report on the Library may be ready for next Annual
Meeting, and this will include a list of the more important donations recently
received.
Central Museum.—The work of reconstructing the contents of the Central
Museum, has steadily progressed during the year. All the cases have now been
made serviceable, although at a considerable cost of time and money. The
selection of suitable specimens from the mass of incongruous material found in the
old museum has also needed a large amount of time and labour, and is by no
means yet completed. A cottage has been hired at a rent of £6 per annum for
the temporary reception of these specimens pending selection, and a sub-com-
mittee has been appointed to make the final selections in cases of doubt. All this
work will be recorded in a full report on the Museum when the arrangements are
completed.
The Club collections at Buckhurst Hill, with the exception of those purely
local ones, kept for exhibition in the Forest Museum, have been removed to
Chelmsford, The vast amount of work in connection with the above has
prevented as much progress as could be wished being made in arranging,
labelling, and cataloguing, the collections in hand, but a fair beginning has been
made, and the curatorial work, now that carpentry and cabinet-repairing have been
cleared out of the way, will be pushed on during the summer.
The amount of the capital expenditure has been kept within the limits of the
£160 subscribed, but, as mentioned in last year's report, much more money will be
required, and the Council trusts that those gentlemen who promised subscriptions,
and upon the faith of whose promises the work was taken in hand, will now render
the much needed aid. If the county collections are to be made worthy of the
Club, it is absolutely necessary to spend a considerable sum in having a series of
local birds and animals preserved, skeletons and other educational preparations
made, and suitable appliances for the due display of these. Only one considerable
piece of expenditure is absolutely necessary in the way of fittings, and that is the
series of wall-cases, to be fitted up the staircase of the museum, for the display of
the valuable educational series of geological specimens now in the possession of
the Club. These are estimated, with tablets, to cost £25, and the Curator begs to
make a strong appeal for funds to provide these fittings, as without them his
plan of arrangement of the educational collections will be incomplete. To pro-
vide a series of Essex mammals about another £25 would be required. If these
two series could be arranged, the museum would become one of very considerable
educational importance. The materials for arranging many of the other col-
lections are in hand, or can be procured by means of the balance of the Capital
Fund, but the above, although of great interest, are beyond our present means.