22 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.
to Mr. H. I. Coburn for the great care and attention he has given, as Hon.
Solicitor to the Club, to the legal and other arrangements in connection
therewith ; also to Mr. W. C. Dare, the Hon. Counsel, to whom the draft
agreement was submitted for settlement. They also record thanks to the
members of the Sub-Committee of Arbitration, and particularly to Mr. W. C
Waller for the labour he has bestowed in the matter in the office of Hon.
Secretary to the Sub-Committee.
It would be premature to give now anything like a full report on the
Museum. The Curator will in a few months' time draw up a report for
presentation to a meeting of the Club, and will embody in it the main details
of the proposed arrangement of the collections. This cannot be done
usefully until the building is in a more advanced stage.
Some donations to the Museum should, however, be acknowledged at
once. Mr. W. H. Dalton, F.G.S., has presented the whole of his valuable
geological collections, and has moreover devoted a considerable time to the
classification of the specimens and will continue to do so as opportunity
offers ; Mr. J. C. Shenstone has presented his Herbarium, consisting largely
of Essex plants, which number about 700 specimens ; the Rev. J. W.
Kenworthy has presented specimens from the supposed Forest Bed at Clacton
and has placed his Braintree collections of the remains of animals and flint
implements, Sc, on loan, to form a temporary exhibition of the works of
Neolithic Man and his surroundings and animal contemporaries ; Mrs. Bree
has, through Dr. Laver, presented the collection of the bones of Pleistocene
Mammalia from the North Sea, made by her husband, the late Dr. C. R. Bree,
of Colchester. This collection has not vet been received, but will come into
our possession very shortly. Other donations have been received or are
promised, and will be recorded in the report to be presented as above indicated.
In accordance with the terms of the agreement, the Council have
established a "Museum Purchase Fund" to raise the money required
(estimated at £1,000) for the fitting up and equipments of the Museum.
A full statement of this Fund has recently been placed in the hands of the
members, and Council await the result, in the hope that the members of the
Club and the public generally will support an institution which might be
rendered one of great interest and educational value.
The Council cannot refrain from congratulating the Club on the fact that
an Essex Museum of Natural History in the true sense of the term will soon
be established. The Museum at first will probably fall far short of the wishes
of the promoters, but the arrangements made will permit of its rapid growth
and development ; above all, the risk of decadence will be minimised, as
the annual grant will permit of continuous work being carried on. In a few
years time the County Museum will, it is confidently anticipated, be worthy
of its name by containing sets of specimens fairly representative of the
natural history of a most interesting district.
Meetings.—Eleven meetings were held during 1898, which were well and
sometimes numerously attended. They have all been reported in full in our
Journal and therefore but few remarks are necessary. As in former years it is
our pleasing duty to acknowledge kind hospitalities. At the meeting on July
23rd, the Mayor of Colchester, Mr. Alderman J. N. Paxman, entertained the
Club at his beautiful seat, Stisted Hall, and on October 1st the Vicar of