president's address, 191 



ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE TYNESIDE 

 NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB, 



READ BY THE PRESIDENT, THE REV. HENRY BAKER TRISTRAM, 

 MA., F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., MASTER OP GREATHAM HOSPITAL, AT THE 

 FOURTEENTH ANNIVERSARY MEETING, HELD IN NEWCASTLE-UPON- 

 TYNE, THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 18G0. 



Gentlemen — The duties which, devolve upon the President of 

 the Tyneside Field Club are such that the reminiscences of a 

 year of honourable office can be alloyed by only one regretful 

 pang — that caused by the consciousness of deficiencies and 

 shortcomings during the occupancy of the chair. 



And first among my duties in retiring before a worthier suc- 

 cessor, I have to express to the members of the Club my deep 

 sense of the honour they have conferred upon me — an honour 

 more prized by the naturalist than rank or academic distinction ; 

 and also my gratitude for the gallant manner in which they have 

 proved themselves worthy scions of their border forefathers, and 

 daunted neither by distance nor weather, have responded to every 

 call, and joined in every foray, have ransacked the recesses of 

 the marches, and levied black mail from the sea; and, finally, 

 have returned from each peaceful raid with a rich booty of speci- 

 mens, health, and knowledge. But as no prudent general will 

 overtax the strength of his troops at the commencement of a 

 campaign, so my invaluable and indispensable aide-de-camp, your 

 secretary, reconnoitered only for an expedition to Ovingham 

 wherewith to open the season, and there, on the 31st May, we 

 held our First Field Meeting. The members alighted at 

 Stocksfield station, and visited the remains of Bywell Castle, and 

 the twin churches of Bywell, St. Andrew's, and St. Peter's. 

 Both these churches, as well as that of Ovingham, contain 

 Saxon traces, and probably there is no other locality in England 

 where, within a morning's walk, three ecclesiastical edifices could 

 be visited, stamped with the impress of the Anglo-Norman 

 architecture. The tower of St. Andrew's, with its contracted 



VOL. IV. PT. III. 7. 



