Ih^ laoolhop pUuruliBts' ^icld (S^lnb, 



MEETING AT COLWALL FOR THE HEREFORDSHIRE 

 BEACON. 



Tuesday, Mat 28th, 1867. 



They who think that a rainy day has power to " spoil the spirit " of an 

 out-door gathering, should have enjoyed the opportunity of recasting their 

 experience on Tuesday last, the day appointed for the first assemblage this year 

 of the members of the Woolhope Club of Naturalists of this county, under the 

 Presidency of Chandos Wren Hoskyns, Esq. To awake half an hour earlier 

 than usual in the morning with the pleasant thought of a day's stroll over the 

 breezy heights of the " Herefordshire Beacon," and then, on looking out of the 

 window, to find that the sun had overslept himself, and is still rolled up in a wet 

 blanket of dripping clouds, is damping at first — even to a philosopher's feelings 

 — let Dr. Johnson say what he may about "weather" and "fools." But the 

 prospective charm of that dulce alloquium, which finds " sermons in stones and 

 good in everything," proved a counter- weight even to the heaviest horizon; 

 and a fair sprinkling of the members had to congratulate each other and 

 themselves on their courageous meeting at the rendezvous at Barr's Court 

 Station, in time for the train wliich was to take them to the foot of the Malvern 

 Hills. 



Field-clobs are a comparatively modern form of association, and they who 

 have had no experience of them can little imagine the allurement of those 

 meetings, in which pleasure derives itself from the mere sympathy of one 

 science with another, amid the incidents of a walk over a district suited to 

 give birth to them. Pleasure is a coy creature, rather apt to fly illusively from 

 those who pursue her for her own sake ; but when you are busy looking for 

 something else, she has a capricious way of coming up and taking you by the 

 hand as tame as possible, and smiling so simply and innocently, that you 

 almost wonder people don't get better to know her "tricks and her manners," 

 and treat her as an adjective that only attends some substantive occupation or 

 pursuit. The Field- clubs seem to have found her out; for whether you look 



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