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CONFERENCE OF THE EAST ANGLIAN NAT-
URALISTS' SOCIETIES, VISIT TO DUNMOW
AND TO LADY WARWICK'S SECONDARY
AND SCIENCE SCHOOL AT BIGODS.
Thursday, June 6th, 1901.
This meeting was designed to admit of a visit to a very
pleasant district; to hold a second preliminary Conference with
the representatives of the East Anglian Natural History
Societies, with a view to combined action in the future ; and to
visit "Bigods" at the kind invitation of the Right Hon. the
Countess of Warwick.
The London-side party travelled by the 9.10 express from
Liverpool Street, slip carriages being detached at Bishop's
Stortford, where the assembly of all attending the meeting (a
large party) was called at the Chequers Hotel at about half-past
ten. Here carriages were awaiting the party, and no time was
lost in getting on the road to Easton Park and Dunmow. An
excellent report of the meeting was given in the London Standard
on June 7th, and we cannot do better than quote a few para-
graphs, making some corrections and additions where the
reporter fell into error or was unacquainted with the facts :—
" For some time there has been a feeling that it would be well if some-
thing could be done to bring about combined action on the part of the Natural
History Societies in the three counties which constitute East Anglia in the
widest sense of the term. In 1898 a Conference between the members of
these Societies was held at Witham, and since then a good deal has been
written on the subject. Yesterday, a second Conference took place at
Dunmow, which was arranged by Mr. W. Cole, F.L.S., the Secretary of the
Essex Field Club [also by Prof. Meldola, the President], and it was preceded
by an excursion through one of the prettiest parts of the district under con-
sideration. Essex and Norfolk have well-established Societies, each publish-
ing a record of work, with distinctive features. The Suffolk Natural History
Society in Bury has no publication, and this is also the case with the Ipswich
Scientific Society. The two first-named bodies have a pretty large member-
ship, and for their benefit a very pleasant excursion was arranged. An early
start was made from Liverpool Street Station, whence the ride through the
Stort Valley is distinctly pretty. It has no pretensions to grandeur, but for
beauty of a calm, pastoral kind, it is hard to beat. If it has not the massed
timber of the Midlands, there is a sufficiency of trees to give charm to the
landscape, and the small clumps and lines show up the foliage against a
summer sky with an effect as good as, if not better than, that produced by
thicker planting. One might travel miles before one could see such masses