THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. REPORTS OF MEETINGS. l^J 



PICTORIAL RECORDS OF ESSEX : SCHEME 

 INAUGURATED. 



Saturday, July 8th, 1905. 



On the invitation of the Earl and Countess of Warwick, members of the Club 

 .and many friends, in all about seventy, assembled on this day at Easton Lodge, 

 Dunmow, the Essex seat of the family, for the purpose of inaugurating the 

 " Photographic and Pictorial Survey of Essex." This Association was founded, 

 as a Permanent Committee of the Essex Field Club, on the 17th December 1904, 

 for " the purpose of gathering a permanent collection of photographs, engravings, 

 sketches, and pictures of objects of interest, as well as maps, plans and other 

 documents, selected with a view of giving a comprehensive pictorial history of 

 the County of Essex, and the neighbouring rivers and sea." The general scope 

 •of the scheme upon which the Survey is working was set out by Mr. A. E. 

 Briscoe in a paper published in the Essex Naturalist (Vol. xiii., pp. 1-5), and 

 since reprinted. To this, and to the official Prospectus, the reader is referred. 



Such recognition and encouragement was quite characteristic of Lady 

 Warwick, through whose kindness the privilege ofa meeting in Easton Park was 

 due. The bulk of the party made Bishop Stortford the starting point iu the 

 brakes, but some left the train at Takeley, where the brakes called. 



The weather was gloriously fine, and the drive to Easton Lodge was much 

 enjoyed. In the Park, the visitors had, in addition to the lovely scenery, much 

 wild life to interest them. Hundreds of rabbits skurried to safe quarters round 

 the base of great trees, which formed a noble avenue, and, later, large herds of 

 deer, many possessing fine antlers, herds of cattle, and numerous sheep of special 

 breeds were to be seen. Arriving in front of the mansion, the Countess, 

 accompanied by her son, Lord Brooke, met the party, and gave them a cordial 

 welcome, subsequently escorting them through the house to the lovely and 

 •extensive gai'dens on the north side. The Italian Garden, with its delightful 

 lily pond, was much admired, and after roaming round a large lake, which lilies 

 and bulrushes shared with many varieties of water fowl, the visitors returned by 

 way of the rose garden, which was most beautiful of all. 



Lady Warwick presided at the luncheon, with Lord Brooke in the vice- 

 chair, and at the conclusion of the repast Mr. David Howard. J. P., D.L., 

 proposed the health of the hostess, and expressed the thanks of the visitors 

 individually and collectively for the kindness extended to them. Lady Warwick, 

 in replving, said that she had been requested by Lord Warwick to express his 

 regret at not being able to be with them, but he was at Brest, on a yachting 

 cruise. She was sure the photographic project would be a very useful addition to 

 the work of the Essex Field Club, whose members she was always pleased to 

 welcome at Easton Lodge. 



A meeting was subsequently held in a commodious double tent, amongst trees 

 at the back of the house, furnished most comfortably and having something of an 

 Eastern aspect. Mr. Howard again presided, and said that any of them who had 

 studied history knew how we suffered because records had not been kept, and he 

 often longed in vain for information on various points, The Club would 

 undoubtedly earn the thanks of posterity if it kept pictorial records of passing 

 •events and places of interest in Essex. 



Mr. Miller Christy, the President of the Club, said that the Council of the 

 Photographic Survey was, strictly speaking, a Committee of the Field Club, 



