THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
243
ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR 1922-23.
Presented to the Annual Meeting on 24th March, 1923.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your Council has pleasure in reporting that the work of the Club has
progressed steadily and satisfactorily during the past year, and the attend-
ances both at the indoor and field meetings have been well maintained.
In addition to the usual five winter meetings at Stratford, eleven field meet-
ings and visits to museums have been held ; we have to thank Mr. and
Mrs. Avery, Mr. and Mrs. Briscoe, Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Buxton, Mr. and
Mrs. Keeves, Mr. and Mrs. G. Morris, and the Librarian to the Leyton District
Council for kindly hospitality extended on these occasions.
We have to deplore the loss by death of several eminent Members since
our last annual meeting. Professor G. S. Boulger and Mr. Thomas Vincent
Holmes, both past presidents of our Club, Mr. Thomas W. Reader, a valued
Member of Council, and last, but not least, our founder, Mr. William Cole,
have all left us during the year. As regards our founder, your Council pro-
poses to provide a suitable memorial to his memory with monies in its con-
trol, being the balance of subscriptions made to the deceased's Pension
Fund.
The present membership of the Club stands at 310, consisting of 17
honorary and 293 ordinary members.
During the year a change has taken place in the personnel of the Strat-
ford Museum. Mr. Hardy, the capable and energetic assistant, has resigned
on leaving for Canada, and a successor, Mr. Frank Jane, has just been
appointed. Structural alterations to the Curator's room and Library have
just been necessitated by an extension of the adjoining College.
Many accessions have been made to the collections during the past
twelve months ; especially noteworthy among these is the fine collection
of British Lepidoptera bequeathed by the late Mr. William Cole, and a large
number of books, comprising 43 bound volumes and 7 pamphlets, pre-
sented by the executor of the late Mr. T. V. Holmes. The Library now
includes some 4758 bound volumes : 87 volumes have been bound during
the past year, and 20 others rebound or repaired.
Our Pictorial Survey of the County is growing apace in Miss Greaves'
capable hands. Apart from a large amount of material which has not yet
been mounted, no less than 749 prints or watercolour drawings, 821 photo-
graphs, besides picture postcards, maps and other illustrations, totalling
in all over 2,100 items, are included in the mounted collection of Essex
pictorial records. Messrs. Daymond and Nunn have been generous donors
to the photographic section.
In response to a request made by the organisers of a special Stratford
"Education Week" in June last, the Club co-operated by arranging special
exhibitions and lectures at the Museum and conducted nature-rambles in
Epping Forest : and received the thanks of the promoters lor the help so
afforded.
The Club's museum at Queen Elizabeth's Lodge, Chingford, has been
cared for by the recent appointment of Miss Vera Oxley as honorary assistant
curator.