THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
23
ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.
Presented to the Annual Meeting, March 29TH, 1924.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your Council has pleasure in stating that the various activities of
the Club have been steadily maintained during the past year and the
attendances at the meetings have been satisfactory. In all 16 ordinary
meetings have been held, five of these at Stratford, the others being field-
meetings in various parts of the county or at museums ; the average attend-
ance was 42. Two Parts of the Essex Naturalist have appeared during
the year, the twentieth volume being now completed.
The work of the Club's two Museums, at Stratford and at Chingford,
has progressed steadily, and both the museums and the Club's Library
are in a satisfactory state of advancement. Your Council wishes to record
its gratitude to those members who have contributed specimens to the
Museums, or books, photographs, etc., to the Library ; among these, special
thanks are due to Mr. George Morris for a collection of Neolithic relics from
the Cam Valley, to Mr. Mothersole for a specimen of a cheese press "moate,"
and for Essex prints and books ; to Mr. Walter Fox for sections of timber-
trees and other gifts ; to Mr. F. J. Lambert and Mr. Hugh Main, for living
organisms for exhibition ; to Mr. W. E. Glegg, Mr. Alfred Scott, Mr. E, E.
Turner, and Mr. F. Thorrington for photographs ; to Mr. A. J. Nunn for
books ; to Miss G. Lister for regular weekly supplies of fresh flowers for
the Museum exhibits, in addition to other gifts.
In the above connection, your Council wishes to impress upon members
the advantages (not fully realised by some) which are afforded for borrow-
ing the books in the Library for home reading.
Your Council desires to call your attention to a diminution in the total
membership during the past two years, this being due in part to the loss,
by death, of many old members (some of whom dated from the very foun-
dation of the Club 44 years ago), but also in part to the fact that a con-
siderable number of members, who were defaulters in payment of their
annual subscriptions, have been drastically struck off the roll of member-
ship, in accordance with the Rules. It behoves each Member, therefore,
who has the interests of the Club at heart, to do his or her utmost to
bring forward fresh recruits, of the right order, to make up this regrettable
but unavoidable wastage.
A Committee of your Council has erected a bronze mural tablet in the
Stratford Museum to the memory of the Club's Founder, the late William
Cole, and a framed enlarged portrait of him has been hung in the Curator's
Room : a grave-memorial has also been set up in St. Osyth's cemetery
in memory of each of the brothers and sisters Cole who are there interred.
As regards public activities, the past year is at once a record of success
and failure. On the one hand the Club has succeeded in prevailing upon
the Metropolitan Water Board to treat its Reservoirs in the Lea Valley
as a bird-sanctuary, and the practice of shooting wild-fowl, which was
formerly permitted, has now been abandoned. On the other hand, an
attempt of your Council to induce the Conservators of Epping Forest to