15 



History of Herefordshire and the Districts immediately adjacent," is yet far from 

 complete, and cannot be allowed to lapse because its leading member has been 

 taken from us. It may perhaps be admitted that the prominent part which Dr. 

 Bull took in the transacliuns of the Club was not an unmixed advantage. Our 

 members knew that he might always be depended upon. If nobody else wrote a 

 paper, he would certainly be prepared with one. But in such an Association as 

 ours, though there may not be many members with the well-stored mind, the self- 

 reliant nature, and the decision of character of Dr. Bull, yet there must be a great 

 amount of latent and undeveloped talent among us. During the year 1885 

 thirteen papers were read at the ordinary field meetings. (I do not include the 

 Fungus Forays. Several excellent papers were read at them by Dr. Cooke, the 

 Rev. J. E. Vize, Mr. Plowright, Mr. Phillips, and others, but Dr. Bull was then 

 ttio ill to make any detailed record of them, though the serious nature of his illness 

 was not suspected, even by himself). Six were on archaeology, four on 

 ornithology, two on botany, one on geology. Of those thirteen papers seven 

 were contributed by Dr. Bull. He told me he had been promised three papers by 

 other members, but before the meetings they had written to express their regret 

 that they would be unable to attend. If those members could have fulfilled their 

 engagements, Dr. Bull's contributions would have been his four papers on 

 ornithology. In the future we shall not have him to fall back upon. We have 

 been fortunate in the election of a President, who is the leading geologist in the 

 county, and who has already filled the honourable position wisely and well. He 

 will receive the cordial and hearty support of the members, and I am confident 

 satisfactory proof will be gfiven that the Woolhope Club shall be as pros\)erous in 

 the future as it has been in the past. Loyalty to Dr. Bull's memory should be an 

 additional incentive, if one were needed, that it shall be so. As one of England's 

 greatest poets has written, 



" He mourns the dead who live as they desire," 



and what Dr. Bull's " desire " was, the past 20 years' uniform and consistent work 

 affords ample testimony. Some work which he had in hand for the club is, it is 

 to be feared, left incomplete. L refer to the " Birds of Herefordshire." Another 

 work which he was anxious to see published, " The Flora of the County," was 

 undertaken by the Rev. Augustin Ley, and it could not possibly be in better 

 hands. The transactions of the club from 1877 have been kept in abeyance by the 

 mammoth work, "The Herefordshire Pomona." It is hoped these will soon be 

 printed. Dr. Bull told me he hoped to persuade one of our members to undertake 

 the " Fishes of Herefordshire." Such a series of papers by an enthusiastic lover 

 of " the gentle craft " could not fail to be interesting. 



But in truth, there are an abundance of topics for the votaries of natural 

 science to write upon. We have both the organic and inorganic worlds, both the 

 past and the present to study. I have a glimmering recollection that one of our 

 Presidents, in his retiring address, deprecated the predominance that geology 

 had assumed in the attention of the members of the Club. Alas that the same 

 cannot now be said ! The very name of our Club has a geological signification. 



