64 The Presidential Address.
and several fragments of rude pottery. The survey of the
Camp and its surroundings will, I trust, be shortly completed,
so that the final report may be presented at the next meeting
of the Association at Southport. It is very satisfactory to
know that our labours in the two Forest Camps have been
so far crowned with success that we have for ever dispelled
the traditions which connected these remains with the
Romans. Other excavations will have to be made at some
future time in Ambresbury Banks, and I hope that the
Essex Field Club will not let slip this opportunity of extending
our knowledge of this interesting object of local prehistoric
Archaeology. In the meantime, however, another problem in
the same field of science has presented itself, and the
systematic exploration of the "Deneholes" at Grays will be
the next task which we propose to take in hand. Although
no subscription-list has yet been formally opened, funds for
this purpose are already beginning to come in, and it is
anticipated that early this summer we shall have sufficient in
hand to warrant a preliminary examination of some of these
imperfectly-known prehistoric human workings.
The obituary list for the year includes the name of Mr.
George T. Saul, F.Z.S., of Bow, to whose loss I briefly
alluded on a previous occasion (see page i, 'Proceedings').
Darwin and Modern Evolution.
Our list of honorary members suffers, as I had the sad
duty of announcing at a former meeting, by the removal of
the universally-revered name of Charles Darwin, who breathed
his last on April 19th, 1882, at his residence, Down, Kent, in
the seventy-fourth year of his age. Much has already been
said and written about Mr. Darwin, and I cannot hope to
give you on the present occasion anything beyond a general
sketch of the enormous services rendered to every branch of
natural science by this greatest of philosophic naturalists
during a life of active work extending over more than half a
century. Darwin was born at Shrewsbury in 1809, and on
the side of both his parents came of celebrated lineage. He
was grandson to Erasmus Darwin, the poet-naturalist, and