NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. I35 



remains should be taken in hand quickly, because they are fast disappearing from 

 various causes. 



We have started a Photographic Survey of Essex in an admirable way iinder 

 Mr. Victor Taylor's superintendence, and I think we have every hope that in a 

 few years that will become an important branch of our work. 



There is another little " fad " of mine which I hope to realize during the next 

 few years. I propose to make an attempt to register the voices of eminent men 

 in the county and of those who have presided over the meetings of the Club. 

 Then we have the vanishing speech of the natives ot Essex. School Boards 

 are invading the remotest places in our County and destroying all its peculiar 

 idioms, and I am afraid that the dialect songs of Essex will utterly disappear in the 

 course of a few yearc. I should like to secure some record of these old harvest 

 home songs and native carols on permanent phonographic cylinders or discs 

 before it is too late. I am told that in the Saffron Walden district there is a 

 real witch — or, rather, a woman who believes in witchcraft. Essex was always 

 famed for witchcraft ; and it would be well to register some native "incantations*' 

 while there is yet a chance ! 



In conclusion, the English language is, I think, deficient in expressions of 

 gratitude, and 1 cannot perhaps do more than say again, "I thank you." 

 (Applause.) 



On the motion of Mr. Whitaker, a vote of thanks was passed 

 to Professor Meldola for presiding ; and the guests then 

 separated. 



[Thanks are due to Mr. Edwin C. Davis, Chief Reporter of the Stratford 

 Express, who undertook, singledianded and for a merely nominal fee, the verv 

 arduous task of reporting the foregoing speeches, and did it most admirablv.l 



NOTES— ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



MAMMALIA. 



Whale at Mersea in 1299.— Mr. Miller Christy sends 

 the following extract from The Wardrobe Accounts of King 

 Edward I. (Society of Antiquaries, 1787), page 76 : — 



Ci/sfus circa balenam per vicecom? Essex. — Johanni de la Lee, 

 vicecom' Essex' et Hertford', pro denar' per ipsum solutis diversis 

 hominibus custodientibus quandam balenam captam in insula de 

 Merseye ; uno dolio vacuo empto pro eadem balena infra ponenda ; 

 sale empto pro eadem salienda ; cariagio ejusdem de predicta insula 

 usque Staunford ad curiam ; una cum expens' unius hominis equitio 

 conducentis eadem balena 1 ibidem mense Maii /-o 14 8 



1 ? Eadem balena— sc. eadem balona. 



