rnK ESSEX i''ii;i.i> clui'.. 



4'; 



L5u\lc.-i Court i> a coinparalivcly inoJeni mansion with recent additions, 

 pleasantly situated, with charming views across the valley of the Weald Brook to 

 Weald Park, Rochetts, and Dao^nams. Here they were most cordially received 

 by Mr. and Mrs. Lescher, who had kindly provided light refreshments, which were 

 very welcome ; and claret cup, tea, fruit, etc., were well discussed, before the more 

 scientific work was conim'jiiced. 



,*>*^ 







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Mine;^.\l Spuing on Tvlek's Co.m.mon. From a Dran'iii; by //. .1. Cole, June J/s/, iSgo. 



Passing up into the Museum, where the collection is now very nicely dis- 

 plaj-ed, an inspection of the birds was made, and then Mr. j. E, llarting, F.L.S., 

 editor of the "Zoologist," gave a short account of the late Mi'. Hoy, and, walking 

 round the cases, pointed out the more inlere-ting specimens, making observations 

 upon them and their habits. 



Mr. J. D. Hoy, by whom this very fine and interesting collection of birds was 

 formed, was born in 1797, and resided at Stoke Priory, Stoke-by-Xayland, which 

 (though close to the Essex border) is in Suffolk. He was a first-rate shot and a 

 skilled bird-preserver. Dr. Bree has declared that "as a working naturalist he 

 was almost unequalled in his day in this country." He collected chiefl}- upon 

 the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, and his collection therefore contains few or no 

 Essex specimens of importance. During the latter part of his life he paid many 

 visits to Holland and German}'. It was during one of these expeditions, when 

 collecting mainly among swamps and marshes, that he laid the foundation ol the 

 illness of which, at the early age of forty-two, he died on October 15th, 1839. He 

 published little lieyond a few notes in various natural historj' periodicals, but 

 Hewitson, Yarrell, and other writers in tie early jiarl of the century received 

 much valuable assistance f.'-om him. On his death his collection passed into the 

 possession of his sister, the late Mrs. Lescher, of Bo3des Court, mother of Mr. .1. 

 F. Lescher. It is contained in 269 separate cases, which were in the entrance 

 hall, but have been re-arranged this year in the museum on the first flojr. open- 

 ing into the conservator}'. 



Although very few of the specimens are local, many of them are of consider- 

 able historic interest The gem of the collection is, of course, the Great Auki 

 one of the seventy-nine specimens known to exist, of which only twenty-two are 



