304 



Dinner took place at the Mitre Hotel, where the party were joined by the 

 following members : Mr. Thomas Blashill, Rev. J. H. Candy, Rev. Thos. Wood- 

 house, and the following visitors : Mr. H. Blashill, Rev. E. DuBuisson, Mr. T. W. 

 Garrold, Mr. R. Greenhow, Mr. J. G. Morris, Rev. J. J. Parsons, and Rev. J. 

 Taylor. 



The President, Mr. Chandos Wren Hoskyns, read his address as Retiring 

 President for 1S64. 



The following papers weie read : — 



On the Forest of Dean Meeting, on Tuesday, June qth. 1863, by Mr. 



R. M. Lingwood. 

 On the Pontrilas Meeting, on August iSth, 1863, prepared by Mr. J. E. 



Smith, and read by Mr. Lingwood. 



On the Malvern Meeting, on September 7th, by Dr. Bull. 



On the Earthquake of Tuesday, October 6th, 1863, prepared by Mr. 

 ' E. J. Isbell, read by H. C. Key. 



It was resolved that notice be given to the Herefordshire Philosophical 

 Society of the intention of the Club to give up that portion of the Museum occupied 

 by them on August ist. 



THE ADDRESS 



Of the retiring President, C. Wren Hoskyns, Eso., read before the members of 

 the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, at their Annual Meeting, held in 

 Hereford, on Thursday, March 17th, 1864. 



Gentlemen of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, 



I am afraid to say how many years have passed since I was standing one day 

 in a Bookseller's shop in Warwick, when a gentleman, personally unknown to me, 

 came in and took up a pamphlet from the top of a heap fresh from the Printers, 

 which had my own name on the title page, and contained the first year's Tran- 

 sactions of the Naturalists' Field Club of that county. 



I experienced a very agreeable sensation on seeing the stranger immediately 

 take out his purse, with the apparent intention of buying it. But Capital is 

 proverbially timid, and self-love liable to disappointment. As he looked closer 

 at the title page I had the mortification to observe that his purse gradually;^made 

 a retrograde movement towards his pocket ; the ungrateful action being accom- 

 panied and explained by his utterance of the words, " O, it's only an Annual 

 Address ! " 



As soon as he had left the shop, little aware of the slaughter inflicted upon 

 my hopes in that short pantomime, the publisher, who was himself at the counter, 

 looked across at me with the consolatory smile of 



" the fiend who never spoke before. 

 But cries, ' I warned you,' when the deed is o'er." 



