NOTES ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. I5I 



King;s and Chadwell Heath Stations. There they found 12 to 14 feet of 

 Gravel capped by 3 or 4 feet of Brick-earth. The section was very fresh and 

 clear, and the gravel was seen to be very well stratified and uniform in 

 composition.-^ 



MISCELLANEA. 

 The Countess of Warwick's Village Science School. — We have much 

 pleasure in recording further progress in the conduct of this institution, the 

 development of which is being followed with so much interest and hopeful 

 expectation by the friends of scientific education throughout the country. 

 The inauguration of the school at Bigods near Dunmow on July 2gth, 1898, 

 was commented upon in the last volume of the Essex Naturalist (vol. x., 

 p. 376). On Friday, July 28th last, a very large and distinguished company 

 assembled at the School to celebrate the first annual prize distribution. 

 Among the speakers were Sir John Gorst {Vice-President of the Council of 

 Education), Sir John Donnelly, Mr. J. Round, M.P., Prof. Marshall Ward, 

 F.R.S., Prof. Tilden, F.R.S , Mr. Bottomley, Prof. Teegan, Mrs. Brydges 

 Adam and Mr. McCann. The speakers one and all commended the experi- 

 ment as a praiseworthy attempt to solve a most difficult problem. Sir John 

 Gorst's speech has attracted very considerable notice not only by reason of 

 its importance as being the views of the leader of education in this country, 

 but also because of the home-truths which he expressed in humorous and 

 somewhat paradoxical language, as for instance when he said that in England 

 "he did not think we were teaching the right things. He very gravely 

 doubted whether reading, writing, and arithmetic and that most useless of all 

 branches of knowledge, grammar — were exactly the intellectual food upon 

 which to develop the intelligence of country lads and lasses." One great 

 benefit to be derived from Lady Warwick's experiment is that her position 

 thus assumed as a practical educationist is attracting a widespread interest in 

 the problem of how to impart to children real instruction in science which 

 will be useful to them in after life, while at the same time affording a good 

 sound educational training. A pamphlet has been issued by Lady Warwick 

 and Prof. Meldola, F.R.S. (who is so efficiently acting as her scientific adviser) 

 entitled " A Plea for Secondary Rural Education " which all well-wishes of 

 progress in village life should read. The authors sum up the case by saying 

 " We known that our system is sound ; we are confident that such pupils as we 

 hope in time to turn out would sweep all before them if sent on to agricul- 

 tural colleges. Our confidence rests upon the fact that from the beginning of 

 the child's education to the end, the science subjects will never be dropped, 

 but will be carried on the higher and higher stages." Tiie kind of training 

 given at Bigods is probably unique in experiments in elementary education in 

 England. For the first time science is treated as an intregral part of the 

 childls education, not as an "extra," to be taken upon sufferance and dropped 

 at the first pretext. 



Queen Elizabeth's Lodge and the Epping Forest Museum. — The 



news that the Corporation of London had voted a large sum towards the 



3 References to the Geology of Ilford. Geological Survey Map, Sheet i, S.W. Drift 

 Edition. Dr. H. Woodward, Record 0/ Excursions, Lond. Gaol. Assn., p. 173 and Proc. Geol. 

 Assoc, vol. ii, p. 273. VV. Whitaker, " The Geology of London," Mem. Geol. Survey, pp 

 410-415. B. B. Woodward, '-The Pleistocene Mollusca of the London District, Proc. Geol. 

 /I sso.-., vol. xi, pp. 365-371, £88. A. S. Kennard and B. B. Woodward, " Thd I'ost-Plioceace 

 Non-Marine Mollusca of Essex," Essex Nat. x, p. 103. F. C. Spurrell, " Excursion to 

 Ilford," Proc. Geol. .4 ssoc. , vol. xiii, p. 53. 



