I04 THE COMING OF AGE OF 



local museums was again brought before the Club by Mr. 

 Harting in 1881 {Trans. II., 36 ; also Pi'oc. II., xxii.) and we 

 have since had many contributions from other authorities on 

 this subject. I may refer you to the " Introductory Remarks to 

 the Papers on the Museum and Technical Instruction Schemes " 

 prepared when the establishment of our Museum at Chelmsford 

 was contemplated in i8go (Essex Naturalist IV., 234) and to 

 the reprints of valuable papers on local museums by Mr. Rudler 

 and Prof. Traill (Ibid. 242, 252). We may I think flatter our- 

 selves that the original programme so far as concerns the nature 

 of our collections has been faithfully adhered to. That such 

 museums, when properly stocked and arranged, are of great 

 educational value has long been recognized by all who have 

 given attention to the subject, and Sir Wm. Flower addressed 

 the Club on this point at a meeting held at Chelmsford in iSgi 

 [Ibid, v., 71). We have certainly — thanks to the wise policy 

 adopted by our Curator— kept the contents of our museums well 

 within the prescribed limits and have avoided the temptation of 

 converting them into old curiosity shops, a danger foreseen at 

 the outset and evidently familiar to all who have had opportuni- 

 ties of seeing many provincial museums. It may be of interest 

 to quote in this connection a letter from the late Prof. Huxley 

 referring to a scheme for a museum in Manchester which he had 

 been requested to draw up : — 



"I have no hesitation whatever in expressing the opinion that, except in 

 the case of large and wealthy towns (and even in their case primarily) a Local 

 Museum should be exactly what its name implies, viz., 'local'- illustrating 

 local Geology, local Botany, local Zoology and local Archaeology. 



" Such a Museum, if residents who are interested in these sciences take 

 proper pains, may be brought to a great degree of perfection and be unique 

 of its kind. It will tell both natives and strangers exactly what they want to 

 know, and possess great scientific interest and importance. Whereas the 

 ordinary lumber-room of clubs from New Zealand, Hindoo idols, sharks 

 teeth, mangy monkeys, scorpions and conch shells — who shall describe the 

 weary inutility of it ? It is really worse than nothing, because it leads the 

 unwary to look for the objects of science elsewhere than under their noses." - 

 Life and Letters, vol. I., p. 136. 



The history of our own museums requires but very brief 

 recapitulation. The first attempt to establish a Forest Museum 

 dates from 1883, when, at the suggestion uf Mr. Cole, a meeting 

 was held at Knighton in ordar to confer with Mr. Edward North 

 Buxton, with the object of ascertaining whether Queen Elizabeth's 



