ADDRESS OF THE RETIRING PRESIDENT, 



(JAMES RANKIN", ESQ., M.A.) 



READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, TUESDAY, FEBKUARY 22, 1870. 



GENTLEMEN OF THE WooLHOPE Clcb — The time has now arrived for fulfilling 

 the last of the many pleasant duties which have devolved upon me during 

 my year of Presidency, and I gladly embrace this opportunity to say a few 

 words on some subjects of special interest to this Society, and also to make 

 a few remarks on some topics which have taken \vp the attention of scieHce in 

 general during the last year. 



In the fii-st place it becomes my duty briefly to review the work done by 

 our own Society during the season of 1869. Few, I think, will consider that 

 the Woolhope Society has retrograded, either in prestige or in real work done 

 during the past year ; and I am certain of this, that no one who had the oppor- 

 tunity of joining the excursions of the Club, will look back on those days except 

 as days of enjoyment and of profit. 



The Field days of 1869, in one important element for their success, were 

 singularly fortunate ; the weather — that glorious uncertainty in our climate — 

 was most propitious, and, with the exception of a little haze on the visit to 

 Pontrilas, which rather interfered with the full beauty of the landscape, nothing 

 was left to be desired. 



Thanks to our talented Editor, the physical and social aspects of our field 

 days will appear so fully, so accurately, and so interestingly reported in our 

 forthcoming volume of Transactions, that I feel it quite unnecessary to enter ob 



