THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
21
can be received. These conditions, which are in strict accordance with the
Rules, are set out in the letter of acceptance which is sent to each
donor as follows :—
" Conditions as to Acceptance of Donations to the Essex Field
Club Museums.
" The Council and Director will take every possible care of accepted
specimens and collections, and will make due acknowledgment of the kindness
of the donors, but they reserve to themselves the power of exhibiting or storing
them in cabinets or otherwise, in ways most useful for the purposes of the
Museum ; to place them in any Branch Museum belonging to the Club ; and
to exhibit them on loan in any part of the County of Essex. They also
reserve right to remount or re-arrange the specimens or collections ; to
incorporate them with other collections, and to dispose of duplicates by
exchange or otherwise as may be thought best in the interests of the institu-
tion considered as a Local and Educational Museum."
The Council wish to point out the absolute necessity of such stipulations
being laid down and of liberty to deal with collections and specimens being given
to the Curator, if the Club and he are to be held responsible for the scientific
arrangement of its Museums, so as to avoid the errors and dangers so
commonly observed in the curating of old so-called "Local Museums." And
it is of the greatest importance that these rules should be at once clearly and
firmly laid down, now that the Club is asking for the co-operation of out-side
bodies in the carrying on of the Museums
The Epping Forest Museum.—The remarks given above with regard
to deferring a full report equally apply to the Forest Museum. Several very-
important questions in connection with it still are unsettled, and as future
plans so much depend upon these questions, any definite statement of policy
with regard to the future of the Museum must of necessity come later.
The success of the idea, and the interest shown in the Museum is clearly
proved by the attendance. Quite 10,000 people have visited the Museum
since its opening on November 4th, 1895. And a large number of schools,
both public and private, have met in the Museum. Among the scientific
bodies that have held meetings there, we may mention the British
Archaeological Association, the Geologists' Association, the Selborne Society,
the Toynbee Hall Natural History Society, the City of London Entomological
Society, the North London Natural History Society and several others. The
Epping Forest Committee have visited it on several occasions, and have
expressed their approval. Notwithstanding the large number of visitors of all
classes, not a single specimen or case has been injured, although the Museum
has been open every day, including all the Bank Holidays.
The Hon. Curator has on many occasions, at the request of the
principals of Schools and Secretaries of Societies, given short demonstrations
of the various collections in the Museum, and Mr. Chalkley Gould has also
given his services in this way. The Council suggest that gentlemen specially
acquainted with the several subjects exhibited might render excellent service
in this way—"Afternoons at the Museum" might thus be made very instructive
to the visitors.