2 ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS. 



better than seize the opportunity afforded by the Annual Meeting 

 to plead very urgently on behalf of this part of the work of our 

 Club. 



It should be our proud endeavour to make the little Museum 

 in the old Hunting Lodge an attractive centre of scientific 

 instruction to the multitudes who visit the Forest every season. 

 To do this is by no means an easy matter. It requires much 

 knowledge and great skill, a good deal of labour, and a little 

 money. If the Club undertakes to furnish gratuitously the 

 knowledge, the skill and the labour, surely it is not unreasonable 

 to expect the money to be forthcoming from some other source. 

 As a matter of fact, however, the members of our Club have 

 done much themselves in furnishing funds, but their donations, 

 though generous, are still insufficient for the work at present 

 contemplated. According to a recent estimate the sum of ^200 

 is now required to bring the arrangement of the Museum within a 

 reasonable approach to completeness. With this moderate sum, 

 it is believed that it would be possible to procure such glass- 

 cases and specimens as are urgently needed to make the 

 museum representative of the Natural History of the Forest 

 District. It seems absurd that a work of this importance should 

 be delayed through any difficulty in raising so comparatively 

 trifling a sum ! 



The Museum at Chingford may be regarded as a Monograph 

 of the Natural History of the Forest, illustrated with realities and 

 not semblances— a monograph which may be read by every 

 visitor more readily, yet more profitably, than any illustrated 

 book. Instead of turning over the pages of a volume and 

 admiring the plates, the visitor passes from case to case, seeing 

 in most instances the veritable objects instead of their mere 

 presentment on paper, and learning about these objects many a 

 useful lesson from the descriptive labels, with which they are 

 invariably accompanied. In a " Museum Leaflet," issued by our 

 Club ten years ago, Mr. W. Cole explained the purpose of the 

 Museum to be two-fold ; first, to " promote a love for the out-of- 

 door study of Natural History, etc., among the intelligent 

 visitors to the Forest," and secondly, " to form a store-house for 

 the preservation of authentic series of forest-specimens." (1) Both 

 these objects have been already, to a great extent, fulfilled — 



(1.) A short account oj the Epping Forest Museum. E.F.C. Museum Lea/lets, No. i. 1895. 



