THF F.SSEX FIELD CLUB. I05 



Lodge, at Chingford, would be available for this purpose [Pvoc. 

 IV., Ixvi.) Eleven years elapsed before another effort was made 

 and the meeting held at Chingford, on Feb. 24th, 1894 (Essex 

 Naturalist VIII,, 44), may be said to have inaugurated the 

 present state of affairs as regards the Chingford Museum which 

 was formally opened on Nov. 2nd, 1895, by Mr. Deputy Halse, 

 Chairman of the Epping Forest Committee of the Corporation of 

 London (Ibid. IX., loi). The later restoration of the Lodge 

 and the re-arrangement of the museum bring us down to recent 

 history, and I need only add that the Club is greatly indebted to 

 Mr. Cole on the one hand for all the labour and trouble which 

 he has taken, and on the other hand to the Epping Forest Com- 

 mittee, and especially to Mr. E. N. Buxton for the sympathetic 

 response with which our efforts to establish this museum have 

 been met by the Corporation of London. 



The vicissitudes of the central (County) museum are also 

 too well known to require more than a passing reference. The 

 first announcement of Mr. Passmore Edwards' munificent offer 

 to build the museum, which now houses our. collections and 

 library was made by the Secretary at the meeting on Nov. 27th, 

 1897 (Essex Naturalist X., 231), and the foundation-stone was 

 laid by Mr. Passmore Edwards on Oct. 6tn, 1898 (Ibid., 340). 

 The Siibsequent history is traced and the agreement with the 

 West Ham Corporation given in the same volume (p. 337) and 

 further details concerning tlie history of the Museum and its 

 collections are printed in our series of Mnseiim Handbooks (JSIo. 3 ; 

 Oct., 1900). After a nomadic existence of nearly twenty years 

 the Club has at length found its present home, and the future 

 stability of the museum is assured by its association with the 

 Municipal Technical Institute in which we are now assembled. 

 The advantages arising from that association and the part 

 played by the Museum in the work of the Cinb were forcibl}- 

 dwelt upon by the Countess of Warwick in her adtlress delivered 

 at the opening ceremony on Oct. i8th, 1900 (Essex Naturalist 

 XL, 3^3). 



One result of the establishments of our two mi'seums has 

 been the issue of another set of publications, the series of Musemn 

 Handbooks, one of which has been referred to above. It will be 

 admitted that these pamphlets are most useful as popular guides 

 to the various groups of objects contained in our collections, and 



