THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
103
Rev. W. L. Wilson, Mr. G. E. Vaughan, Mr. J. H. Wilson, Mr. A. Lockyer (Hon.
Treasurer), Mr. W. C. Waller (Hon. Librarian), Mr. R. J. Sheldon, Mr. B. G.
Cole, Mr. H. A. Cole, and Mr. W, Cole. Among those present may be noted :
The Epping Forest Committee and the Corporation were represented by Mr-
Richard Clarence Halse (Deputy), Chairman of the Committee ; Mr. J. Snowden
(Deputy), Mr. Cox (Deputy), Mr. Francis McCarthy, C.C, Mr. A. Double,
C.C, Mr. Jas. Salmon, F.S.S., Mr. S. Elliot Atkins (Deputy), Mr. Oliver H.
Davis (Deputy), Mr. Graham King, Mr. J. Douglas Matthews (Chairman of the
Library Committee), Mr.. Chas. Welch (City Librarian), and Mr. A. Stanier
(Minuting Clerk) ; with Mr. F. F. McKenzie (Superintendent of the Forest).
The Verderers present were Mr. E. North Buxton and Mr. P. Gellatly, and the
Members of the Club and guests present included Sir William Flower, F.R.S.
(Director of the British Museum of Natural History), Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S.,
Prof. Boulger, F.L.S., F.G.S., Mr. J. E. Harting, F.L.S., Alderman W. W.
Glenny, J.P. (Vice-Chairman of the Essex County Council), Mr. F. Chancellor, J.P.,
Mr. A. Smith Woodward, F.G.S. (of the Geological Department, British Museum),
and Mrs. Woodward, Hon. Canon Pelham, Rev. W. C Waller, Rev. J. E. Symus
(Headmaster of the Bancroft's School), Rev. W. Allen, Mr. J. A. Clark, Mr.
Walter Crouch, F.Z.S., and Miss Dora Crouch, Mr. H. G. Day, Mr. Llewellyn
Hatton, Dr. J. E. Harting, Dr. F. J. Smith, Mr. G. Shakespeare Smith, Mr.
Bruce Cook, Miss M. T. Bentley, Mr. A. Wilde, Mr. Benjamin Winstone, Mrs.
and Miss Howard, Miss Double, the Misses Cole, Miss Gibbs, Mr. J. Avery, Mr.
A. Stanier, Mr. E.J. Wythes (Copt Hall, Epping), Mr. Graham King, Mr. J.
Conquest.
In opening the proceedings, the President, Mr. Howard, said that on behalf of
the Essex Field Club, it was a great pleasure to him to have the honour of
welcoming the Chairman and so many Members of the Epping Forest Committee
and of asking Mr. Halse to open the Museum, of which they had made a begin-
ning in the adjacent house. It had been a matter of very great interest, and one
which many of them had wished for many years to see, and its existence was
now entirely owing to the very considerate way in which their application for
the use, at any rate for a time, of the adjacent building, the Elizabeth Lodge,
had been met by the Epping Forest Committee, and to the untiring zeal and
energy of their Secretary, Mr. William Cole. It was a very considerable
matter to make a Museum worthy of its purpose. To get a number of ill-
considered odds and ends together, and put them on mouldy shelves or in dusty
cupboards, was not to make a Museum. A Museum must mean something, or
it was worse than useless. It was their desire to make it representative of the
Natural History, Geology, and History of Epping Forest in its widest sense, and
to make the collection worthy of the opportunities of this great forest. From an
educational point of view, as well as merely from the point of view of enjoyment,
had this Museum been founded. He wished it to be clearly understood that they
wanted a great deal of help. They wanted collections, specimens, and money.
They had been nobly helped in many directions, and were thankful for that help.
Their endeavour would be to make the Museum worthy of its object, and to
forward the carrying out of the ideas under which it had been begun.
The Rev. A. F. Russell, speaking for the Local Committee, supported Mr.
Howard in the welcome he had given the Forest Committee that day ; they were
extremely glad to see them. As Mr. Howard had pointed out, the idea of the
Museum in Queen Elizabeth's Lodge was no new one. Some twelve years