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actefl as our guide and host throughout the daj', we ran a risk of foi-getting 

 -our scientific vocation, and of indul^jinrj our collective genius rather on the 

 ^'ood things of the table. Yet I was alile to procure an audience for 

 Mr. Theophilus Salwey's paper on the topography and geology of the locality, 

 as well as, somewhat later, for a communication from the Kev. C. H. 

 Middleton, of Lingen, touching the botany and ornithology of the Deerfold 

 district. The hours spent in reconnoitring the " Comus dingle" will not easily 

 be forgotten ; nor yet the woodland drive of half-a-mile out of the Hay Park 

 en route for Ludlow, which, flanked on either side liy a dense array of fox- 

 gloves in full bloom, created the impression as of a fairy glm. Those 

 who desh-ed it had the chance of tracing, on this field day, the Comus 

 Legend from its origin to its denouement, for the Castle of Ludlow and 

 its banquet hall were on the day's programme. Your President attributes 

 his failure of accompanying the section of Woolhopians who visited 

 these to the seductive hospitality of the good folk of Ludlow, which 

 he had reahsed long before that day, both as a schoolboy and a schoolmaster. 

 One practical outcome of this meeting was the shaping of a proposal of the 

 Rev. R. H. Williams, that the Club should offer annual prizes for specimen 

 collection of dried plants, insects, &c., made in the course of each year in any 

 parish connected with the club. This proposal was first broached at the Hay 

 Park, further ventilated at Brecon, and on the day of our fungus feast definitively 

 accepted. I hope we shall be able to announce the terms of it in our transac- 

 tions. Our excursion to Brecon and its neighbourhood on Tuesday, August 

 •26, came off under difficulties. At the Hay Park meeting, a sub-committee 

 connected with the neighbourhood undertook to communicate with the Presi- 

 dent on the feasibility of ascending the Brecon Beacon, and some correspond- 

 ■ence passed on the subject. But before the issue of any programme, it had 

 been made clear to the committee that any such idea must be abandoned, as 

 neither trains nor daytime would allow of its accomplishment consistently 

 ■with a return home at night. I had, at the first meeting of tVe year, proposed 

 Lydney for this day's excursion, and foreseen the difficulties in the way of an 

 ascent of the Beacon. A more modest excui^ion was eventually sul stituted ; 

 and the programme issued was limited to an exploration of the Criig, a hill 

 retaining some vestiges of a British camp, and an inspection of the Pi'iory 

 Church and the CoUege at Brecon. When the day arrived, a murky morning 

 affirmed the wisdom of our low-pitched projects ; and at Brecon station even 

 these bade fair to fail through the absence of our secretaiy, detained, it 

 appeared subsequently, at Sheffield by an accident. No carriages were in 

 attendance ; no dinner had been orderetl ; but, driven to our resources, a party 

 of some 25 determined to make the best of the situation, and, being fortunate 

 in the guidance of Mr. Thomas, a Breconian of long standing and brother of 

 two of our most esteemed members, ascended the Crflg, examined its still 

 visible entrenchments, and besides enjoying a fine survey of the Brecknock- 

 shire moimtains, was able to see at no great distance the site of the old Roman 



