REPORT OF COUNCIL 219
from our membership. It would seem fitting here to report that Mr. Scour-
field most generously made a bequest to the Club of the sum of £100.
Our Field Meetings during the year have been varied and full of interest.
The county has been covered by three visits to the coast and marshes, three
meets in woodland, two in open country, one in a typical river valley, one on
the chalk, one on the gravel hills and two devoted to cryptogams. The
average attendance was twenty-five. An innovation has been the holding of
informal Field Meetings on several Thursday afternoons. These are attended
by a smaller number of people but have proved most enjoyable and
instructive.
With regard to the Indoor Meetings it was found possible to issue a
programme in advance. This we believe proved acceptable to members
and certainly appeared to result in increased attendances. These meetings
are fully reported elsewhere in these pages.
Our Museum at Stratford unfortunately remains closed to the public
although available to members under the interim arrangement with the
West Ham Corporation. Through the good services of our Honorary
Curator, Mr. E. E. Syms, the collection is being maintained. He has put in
many hours of hard and dusty work which could only have been entrusted
to one of experience and skill. He also attends on Thursday evenings in
order to give members the opportunity of visiting the Museum and on these
occasions several enthusiastic members are helping him with the repair and
preservation of exhibits. He has also found it possible to arrange for a
number of parties of school children to visit the Museum. War damage
repairs to the building are now being carried out so that the time for a further
effort to get the collection re-opened to the public is rapidly approaching.
Work at the Epping Forest Museum has proceeded steadily during the
past year, although, through the resignation of the attendant, the Museum
is at present only open to visitors by special arrangement. Through the
excellent personal efforts of our Honorary Curator, Mr. Bernard Ward, we
now have a collection of dragonflies representing most of those species known
to have occurred in the Forest. Thanks also to the generosity of Mr. H. W.
Forster the Museum now possesses and has on show the nucleus of a collec-
tion of Epping Forest beetles. Another notable addition to the Museum is
an exhibit demonstrating the new fungus disease on Sycamore from Wanstead
Park, for which we are indebted to Mr. S. Waller. Mr. J. Ross has con-
tinued to render invaluable assistance not only by maintaining the wild
flower exhibit throughout the year but also with helpful advice and con-
structive criticism. Electric light has been installed throughout the building
by the Corporation of the City of London, the fittings and installation having
been chosen to harmonise with the character of the Lodge.
A committee has been appointed to deal with the botanical records of
the county and Mr. W. Howard has been entrusted with the task of checking
and recording the various "finds" made either by individual members or
noted by Club members generally in the course of Field Meetings.
Our Honorary Librarian, Mr. C. Hall Crouch, reports that during the
year 168 books were borrowed by members against ninety-seven for the year
ended March 1949. Accessions have been normal as regard periodicals,
though, owing to the recent arrangement with the Corporation, few new
books have been acquired. This is to be deplored as in many cases such
publications soon become out of print and difficult to obtain. Exchanges
with other societies have continued as hitherto, and gifts include fourteen
volumes from the library of the late Mr. D. J. Scourfield. The Librarian
would like to see more members making use of our library. The collection
of scientific and natural history books is the best in the county and our
collection of Essex topographical works must come within the six best
in the county. Of the collection of some 7600 bound books about 800