282 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Prof. McConnell then gave a most interesting address on the agricultural
characteristics of the soils of the district and the methods of cultivation adopted.
He was cordially thanked for this. And Mr Dymond also proposed a very
hearty vote of thanks to Mr. and Mrs. McConnell for their great kindness in so
hospitably receiving the Club, and this was carried with acclamation.
Afterwards the poultry farm and the dairy were inspected, under Mr. and
Miss McConnell's guidance.
In the early evening the party was driven back to Southminster to take the
train home.
VISIT TO AN ORIENT LINER
Wednesday, August 5TH, 1908.
It was a happy inspiration, wrote the Editor of the East Anglian Daily
Times, from which we take this report, that led Mr. Fred D. Green, one of the
managers of the Orient Line, to invite the members of the Essex Field Club to
inspect the comparatively new twin screw s.s. Orontes, at present berthed at
Tilbury Docks. True, it is somewhat unique in the history of a society of this
description to devote an afternoon to studying the details of a great ship, but, as
an apt reminder came in the programme, Essex, with its fifty odd miles of sea and
estuarine margin, is clearly a maritime county, and Essex people must always be
interested in all that pertains to the sea.
The assembly was called at Tilbury Docks at about a quarter to two o'clock,
and the visitors, to the number of over seventy, who responded to the invitation
were received on board the Orontes by their genial host, who, with the aid of the
Captain and Officers, conducted batches of the party over the vessel.
The Orontes which has been specially designed and built for the mail and
passenger trade between London and Australia, is the largest vessel which has
yet taken her place in the service of British mail steamers to the southern
Colonies. Her gross tonnage is 9,023. and her displacement at the load line is
15,450 tons. Her breadth is 58.3 feet, and depth, moulded to upper deck. 38.2
feet. She has accommodation for 323 first and second-class saloon passengers,
besides third class.
The visitors were first shown the first-class dining saloon, upon the upper
deck, about 43ft. square, and were much struck with its dome and "clerestory" of
low arched windows, carried ou mahogany columns, with carved capitals. The
general scheme of decoration was also greatly admired, being of mahogany with
ebony moulded panels and pilasters of Coromandel wood, inlaid with devices in
mother-of-pearl and green shell. The dome is of white mahogany, with a
carved coat of arms at each end—Great Britain and the Commonwealth—
furnished in heraldic colours. The drawing-room, upon the promenade deck,
was also a theme of admiration. The sides are panelled in two heights—below
of bleached Italian walnut, and above of satin wood. The ceiling has white rafters
and interspaces of white painted wood, forming panels, on which are stencilled a
design of stems and leaves in tones of purple and green. The sofas and chairs
are covered with Morris cretonnes ; the curtains are of silk brocade, in blues and
greens ; the floor is laid with bright Eastern carpets. There is a grand piano in a
specially-designed case of bleached Spanish mahogany, and a well-filled book
case. Smoking and writing-rooms are appointed 011 the same lavish scale, and