THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 101
The Opening of the Epping Forest
Museum at Chingford.
Saturday, November 2nd, 1895.
To quote from the report of this meeting in
"Nature" of November 7th, "the opening of
this Museum. . . . . . .was in every respect
an interesting ceremony, and marks a period in
the history of the Essex Field Club, of which this active
Society may well feel proud. Two or three years after the
foundation of the Club in 1880, an informal meeting was
held at the residence of Mr. E. N. Buxton, with a view to
starting such a local collection, but the Conservators at that
time had not long been in charge of the Forest, and they
did not see their way to giving house-room for the
Museum in the old Lodge known as "Queen Elizabeth's."
The founders of the Club, however, have never lost sight of the desirability
of having such a collection in the Forest district, and in February, 1894, a
Special Meeting of local residents and others was convened, and a local sub-
committee formed for the purpose of forwarding the scheme. A subscription
list was opened, and a sufficient sum raised to warrant another application to the
Conservators for the use of Queen Elizabeth's Lodge. This was granted, and the
Banqueting Room, which from time immemorial has been unoccupied and devoid
of fittings, has now undergone transformation into a Museum, which was declared
open to the public as part of Saturday's proceedings."
It is unnecessary to enter into full details here as to the progress of the fitting
up of the Museum, as they will be given by the Hon. Curator (Mr. W. Cole) in
his report to the Club at the Annual Meeting in March next. A pamphlet1 had
1 "A Short Account of the Epping Forest Museum." Chingford, November, 1895. On sale
at the Museum. Price, 1d.