Address read to the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club, at their 

 Winter Meeting, held at the Royal Agricultural College, 

 Cirencester, January 30th, 1856. 



ByT. BARWICK LLOYD BAKER, Esq., of Hardwicke Court, 



President. 



FOB ten years, now, my friends, you have borne, without any 

 serious resistance, the tyrannical sway of your President. During 

 ten years the Club has increased in size, strength, and importance, 

 and has seen others and similar clubs rise on all sides around it. 

 But while you have grown from infancy to strength, your Presi- 

 dent has grown from strength to if not absolute weakness at 

 least to considerably less strength, and feels not unfrequently so 

 overwhelmed by his work (which would be mere play to many 

 men) that he has this year paid far less attention than ho was 

 wont to the duties of his office ; and had it not been for the zeal 

 and attention of the Secretary, the business of the Club would, I 

 fear, have been altogether neglected. 



Do not, I pray you, misunderstand me, and suppose that my 

 interest in the Club has diminished on the contrary, there is 

 hardly a day in the year that I enjoy so much as that of our 

 Cotteswold meetings. But work of a most engrossing and 

 absorbing interest has so much increased upon me of late, that 

 my study of nature in general has of late contracted almost 

 entirely to that of the genus puer species fur. 



Still, unfit as I am for the task, I cannot refuse at our annual 

 meeting to give such account as I can, either from what I my- 

 self had the happiness of seeing, or, far better for you from the 

 descriptions given by others who were present when I was obliged 

 to be absent. 



On Jan. 30, 1855, such members of the Club as did not object 

 to early hours were hospitably entertained at breakfast, by the 

 Principal of the Eoyal Agricultural College, at Cirencester, who 

 has so often and so hospitably entertained us before. Having 

 examined the Museum of the College, and been much gratified by 

 the additions which we found, we adjourned to the Library for 

 our business discussion incident to this one meeting ot the 

 year. 



The following resolutions were then passed, and wo hope they 

 may have resolved themselves ere this into facts. We will 

 " pause for a reply," after reading each resolution, to enquire how 

 far this may be the case. 



It was resolved, then, first, that Messrs. Jones and Buckman 

 should be deputed by the Club to examine Deerhurst Priory, and 

 make a report on the remains of that most interesting relic of 

 antiquity, to be printed at the expense of the Club. 



Resolved, secondly, that Messrs. Lycett and Buckman be re- 

 quested to examine into the present mode of the publication of 



