THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 75 



sufficient guarantee of the interest in our work taken by many of 

 the leading men of science of our time. Reverting to the past, 

 we find that we have had on our hst of members Charles 

 Darwin, whose life-worlc formed the subject of my presidential 

 address in 1883 {Trans. E.F.C., vol. III., 59), Sir Antonio Brady 

 (Ibid., 94), George Stacey Gibson and John Eliot Howard whose 

 life and work were referred to by Prof. Boulger in his presidential 

 address for 1S84 {Trans., vol. IV., i and 8); Prof. John Morris, 

 the geologist, referred to by Mr. T. V. Holmes in his presidential 

 address for 1886 {Proc, vol. IV., clxxxiii.) ; the Rev. Thomas 

 Benson, the botanist, and Lt.-Col. Champion Russell, of whom 

 notices appear in the Essex Naturalist for 1887 (vol. I., 138- 

 139),' by Mr. E. A. Fitch and Mr. Walter Crouch; E. G. 

 Varenne, of Kelvedon, whose life and work formed the subject 

 of a memoir by Prof. Boulger in 1890 (Essex Naturalist, V., 

 42) ; Sir Richard Owen ; Sir William Flower, whose biography 

 written by Mr. Crouch was published in 1900 {Ibid. XL, 243) ; 

 General Pitt-Rivers, whose biography was written by Mr. Reader 

 {Ibid. 245) ; George James Symons, the well-known meteorolo- 

 gist, of whom an obituary notice appears in the last part of the 

 Essex Naturalist (.XII., p. 37) and Mr. T. Hay Wilson, of 

 whom a notice from the pen of Mr. T. V. Holmes appears in the 

 same part {Ibid. 60). 



The actual work accomplished down to the present time 

 will be found in tlie nineteen volumes of our publications ; five 

 volumes of Transactions and Proceedings, and, commencing in 18S7, 

 eleven volumes of the Essex Naturalist together with the 

 three volumes of Special Memoirs. It is not only by the number 

 of printed pages, however, that our work will be judged in the 

 future. A study of the contents of these nineteen vohmies will 

 show that we have on the whole kept faithfully to the programme 

 as set forth in our original Rules : — 



" The investigation of the natural history, geology and archaeology of t^ie 

 County of Essex (special attention being given to the fauna, flora, geology 

 and antiquities of Epping Forest) ; the publication of the results of such 

 investigations, &c." 



Under the various headings adopted in this earliest definition 

 of our functions, I now propose to pass in review tiie more 

 important pieces of work which have been placed upon record m 



I I gave an account of Col. Russell's work a; a photographer in 1888 (Essex Naturalist 

 III., p. 117.) 



