157 



CONFERENCE OF THE EAST ANGLIAN NAT- 

 URALISTS' SOCIETIES, VISIT TO DUNMOW 

 AND TO LADY WARWICK'S SECONDARY 

 AND SCIENCE SCHOOL AT BIGODS. 



Thursday, June 6th, igoi. 



This meeting was designed to admit of a visit to a very 

 pleasant district ; to hold a second preliminary Conference with 

 the representatives of the East Anglian Natural History 

 Societies, with a view to combined action in the future ; and to 

 visit " Bigods" at the kind invitation of the Right Hon. the 

 Countess of Warwick. 



The London-side party travelled by the g.io express from 

 Liverpool Street, slip carriages being detached at Bishop's 

 Stortford, where the assembly of all attending the meeting (a 

 large party) was called at the Chequers Hotel at about half-past 

 ten. Here carriages were awaiting the party, and no time was 

 lost in getting on the road to Easton Park and Dunmow. An 

 excellent report of the meeting was given in the London Standard 

 on June 7th, and we cannot do better than quote a few para- 

 graphs, making some corrections and additions where the 

 reporter fell into error or was unacquainted with the facts : — 



" For some time there has been a feehng that it would be well if some- 

 thing could be done to bring about combined action on the part of the Natural 

 History Societies in the three counties which constitute East Anglia in the 

 widest sense of the term. In 1898 a Conference between the members of 

 these Societies was held at Witham, and since then a good deal has been 

 written on the subject. Yesterday, a second Conference took place at 

 Dunmow, which was arranged by Mr. W. Cole, F.L.S., the Secretary of the 

 Essex Field Club [also by Prof. Meldola, the" President], and it was preceded 

 by an excursion through one of the prettiest parts of the district under con- 

 sideration. Essex and Norfolk have well-established Societies, each publish- 

 ing a record of work, with distinctive features. The Suffolk Natural History 

 Society in Bury has no publication, and this is also the case with the Ipswich 

 Scientific Society. The two first-named bodies have a pretty large member- 

 ship, and for their benefit a very pleasant excursion was arranged. An early 

 start was made from Liverpool Street Station, whence the ride through the 

 Stort Valley is distinctly pretty. It has no pretensions to grandeur, but for 

 beauty of a calm, pastoral kind, it is hard to beat. If it has not the massed 

 timber of the Midlands, there is a sufficiency of trees to give charm to the 

 landscape, and the small clumps and lines show up the foliage against a 

 summer sky with an effect as good as, if not better than, that produced by 

 thicker planting. One might travel miles before one could see such masses 



