THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 75
sufficient guarantee of the interest in our work taken by many of
the leading men of science of our time. Reverting to the past,
we find that we have had on our list of members Charles
Darwin, whose life-work formed the subject of my presidential
address in 1883 (Trans. E.F.C, vol. III., 59), Sir Antonio Brady
(Ibid., 94), George Stacey Gibson and John Eliot Howard whose
life and work were referred to by Prof. Boulger in his presidential
address for 1884 (Trans., vol. IV., 1 and 8); Prof. John Morris,
the geologist, referred to by Mr. T. V. Holmes in his presidential
address for 1886 (Proc, vol. IV., clxxxiii.); the Rev. Thomas
Benson, the botanist, and Lt.-Col. Champion Russell, of whom
notices appear in the Essex Naturalist for 1887 (vol. I., 138-
139),1 by Mr. E. A. Fitch and Mr. Walter Crouch; E. G.
Varenne, of Kelvedon, whose life and work formed the subject
of a memoir by Prof. Boulger in 1890 (Essex Naturalist, V.,
42) ; Sir Richard Owen ; Sir William Flower, whose biography
written by Mr. Crouch was published in 1900 (Ibid. XL, 243) ;
General Pitt-Rivers, whose biography was written by Mr. Reader
(Ibid. 245); George James Symons, the well-known meteorolo-
gist, of whom an obituary notice appears in the last part of the
Essex Naturalist (XII., p. 57) and Mr. T. Hay Wilson, of
whom a notice from the pen of Mr. T. V. Holmes appears in the
same part (Ibid. 60).
The actual work accomplished down to the present time
will be found in the nineteen volumes of our publications ; five
volumes of Transactions and Proceedings, and, commencing in 1887,
eleven volumes of the Essex Naturalist together with the
three volumes of Special Memoirs. It is not only by the number
of printed pages, however, that our work will be judged in the
future. A study of the contents of these nineteen volumes will
show that we have on the whole kept faithfully to the programme
as set forth in our original Rules: —
"The investigation of the natural history, geology and archaeology of tie
County of Essex (special attention being given to the fauna, flora, geology
and antiquities of Epping Forest) ; the publication of the results of such
investigations. &c."
Under the various headings adopted in this earliest definition
of our functions, I now propose to pass in review the more
important pieces of work which have been placed upon record in
1 I gave an account of Col, Russell's work as a photographer in 1888 (Essex Naturalist
III. p. 117.)