xcii Journal of Proceedings.
catch the last train, thanks to its being late on this particular night, but
they did not reach home until the small hours of the morning.*
Saturday, April 19th, 1881. Visit to the British Museum
of Natural History.
On the kind invitation of Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S. (Keeper of
the Department of Geology), a meeting was held in the Lecture Room
of the Museum at about three o'clock, when Dr. Woodward delivered an
address on " Flightless, commonly called ' Wingless' Birds, Fossil and
Recent, with a few words on Birds as a Class." The address was illus-
trated by a number of specimens, and a long series of wall diagrams and
drawings on the black board. [It is unnecessary to give any report, as
the address formed the subject-matter of a paper, under the same title,
read before the Geologists' Association on May 1st, 1885, and which was
published in the ' Proceedings' of that body for 1886 (vol. ix., pp.
352-878).]
On the motion of Prof. Boulger, a very cordial vote of thanks was
passed to Dr. Woodward for his most interesting and instructive address.
Under Dr. Woodward's and Mr. Bowdler Sharpe's guidance the
members afterwards inspected the collections of Flightless Birds, both
recent and extinct, in the Zoological and Geological Galleries.
Tea was taken in the South Kensington Museum, in which the
remainder of the evening was spent.
Tuesday, April 22nd, 1884.
At a little after nine o'clock on this morning happened the Essex
earthquake, which was certainly the most remarkable natural phenomenon
that has hitherto occurred in the eastern counties of England; and as a
seismic disturbance cannot be paralleled in Britain for at least four cen-
* It may add to the interest with which visitors will view the quaint town of
Saffron Walden, to know that, in the opinion of Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillips,
Shakespeare may have acted there. He bases his statement (see his privately
printed book ' The Tours of Shakespeare's Company') on an entry in " the
accompte of Mr. Benedicts Growte, late treasurer of the town corporate of
Walden aforesaid, Mr. Robert Newton and Mr. Robert Baker then allso Chamber-
laines of the same towne, taken and allowed the seaven and twentith daie of
December, Anno Domini 1606, and in the yeares of the reign of our Sovereign Lord
James, by the grace of God of England, France, and Ireland, Kinge, Defender of
the Faith, &c., the fourth, and of Scotland the fortith," which entry is as follows:—
"Saffron Walden—Item given to the Kinge's platers, vj. s. viij., &c." " The Saffron
Walden accounts having always been made up to the Sunday after Michaelmas, it
follows that Shakespeare's Company were there at some time between the sixth of
October, 1005, and the fifth of that month in 1608." Mr. George R. Wright, F.S.A.,
to whom we are indebted for this information, adds " Where the Company played,
whether at the Town Hall, or other house in the town, or what Plays were performed,
ought now to be the determined research of Essex antiquaries."—Ed. (1890).