THE CLUB AND ITS WORK. 9
others, Mr. David Howard, President of the Club, being in the Chair.
A very interesting speech was made by Sir William Flower, who most
cordially supported the project.*
The little Museum became popular at once, and was visited by many
thousands of people. It was soon found, however, that the space was
insufficient and that the structural conditions of the Lodge were
unsatisfactory. The Club thereupon approached the Epping Forest
Committee of the Corporation with the suggestion that the Lodge
should be restored throughout, that the first floor should be returned
to its original state as a single large room, and that practically the
whole building should be devoted to the purposes of the Museum.
This proposal was warmly supported by Mr. E. N. Buxton, as one
of the Verderers of the Forest. In April 1899, a report was presented
to the Corporation recommending the restoration, which was agreed
to unanimously by the Common Council. The work was carried
out by Mr. J. T. Oldrid Scott, F.R.I.B.A., and completed in 1900,
at a cost of about £1,200.† The renovated building is now very
much better fitted for the purpose of a Museum, and the most grateful
thanks of all well-wishers of the Forest are due to the Corporation
for so readily and generously agreeing to the proposal of the Club.
From the foundation of the Museum, the whole of the work of
arranging and organizing has been carried out by the Hon. Curators,
Messrs. William, B. G., and H. A. Cole, assisted from time to time
by members of the Club, among whom should be especially men-
tioned the late Mr. I. Chalkley Gould, F.S.A.
(ii) The Essex Museum of Natural History (the Passmore
Edwards Museum) at Stratford.—The Club never regarded the
opening of the Epping Forest Museum in 1895 as the realisation of
its original scheme for the establishment in Essex of a scientifically-
planned County Museum of Natural History on modern lines, and
to this project it continued to give its attention.
In 1891, the Club arranged for an amalgamation of its own
incipient natural history collections with the old-established museum
of the Chelmsford Philosophical Society, then in a moribund condi-
tion, and the Club's property was removed to Chelmsford.‡
The amalgamation did not prove, however, very successful, and
was afterwards rescinded. Thereafter, the Council of the Club came
to recognise that, to establish a really-satisfactory Museum, it was
necessary to secure the co-operation of some permanent public body.
Accordingly, in 1897, a scheme was formulated and put before the
Corporation of Chelmsford, but was declined by that body.§ Then
the proverbial " happy thought " suggested an application to the
Corporation of West Ham, the magnificent Technical Institute and
Library then being reared at Stratford showing clearly their enlightened
interest and energy in educational matters.
Accordingly, at the meeting of the Council of the Club on the
1st June 1897, the Secretary was empowered to make a proposal to
West Ham in precisely the same terms as that previously made to and
refused by Chelmsford. The Corporation, through its Library and
Technical Instruction Committee, received the proposal in a very
* For a report of this meeting, see Essex Naturalist, ix, pp. 101-108.
† The details of the restoration are too numerous to be described here, but will be found in
full in the Essex Naturalist, vol. xi, pp. 31-34, 153-157, and 300-301, and vol. xii, pp. 50-52.
‡ See Essex Naturalist, x, pp. 18-20 and 251.
§ See Essex Naturalist, iv, pp. 234-241, and vol. v, pp. 32-33 and 69-73.