JUBILEE COMMEMORATION MEETING.
53
and the members of the Field Club did not see eye to eye on
certain subjects, but all that is forgotten, and we now work
hand in hand.
In the Forest we have your interesting Museum, housed in
Queen Elizabeth's Lodge at Chingford, and we have those
beauty spots which you find so interesting, and which we hope
to make more and more attractive every year. The Forest is
a great sanctuary of the fauna of Essex—I wish I could say of
the flora as well. We need a Society, on the lines of the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, for the
protection of wild flowers in our forests. Think how
beautiful it would be if the glades in Epping Forest were
again carpeted with primroses and wild hyacinths and
bluebells. As it is, there seems to be something instinctive
in the human being which causes him to want to pluck every
wild flower he sees; and when the flowers have gone, to dig
up the plants by the roots ! Thus our countryside is despoiled.
Perhaps in the future we may see such a Society as I have sug-
gested—for the protection of wild flowers—actually in existence;
but in the meantime I hope that the members of the Field Club
will do all they can to help us to preserve the amenities of the
Forest.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for inviting us to this interesting
gathering, which I hope will be repeated in years to come.
The Chairman then called upon Sir Henry Miers, M.A.,
D.Sc., F.RS., who said: In coming here this afternoon, I
recalled that some four or five years ago I tried to visit all the
Museums in the British Isles. During the visits I paid to many
places it was my habit, on entering the town, to inquire of the
inhabitants where the Museum was. Alas, oftentimes no one
could tell me. I tried the same experiment on arriving in this
district this afternoon. At the station I asked the most un-
promising person I could find where the West Ham Museum
was, and he not only told me but he took me to it. That proved
to me that this Museum does play a part in the life of the people
which museums in some other places do not play.
In my investigation there were two things I looked for—
two ideals which every Museum should strive to realise. (1)
How far is the Museum playing a part in the life of the locality?
and (2) Is it an Institution of real educational value?