A LETTER 
From the President to the Members of the Bath Natural History 
and Antiquarian Field Club. 
Batu ; May 25th, 1893. 
GENTLEMEN, 
The great age I have attained, with its infirmities, of necessity, 
yearly increasing, renders it extremely improbable that I shall 
ever again be able to address you personally, as I should like to 
have done. I avail myself, therefore, of the only way open to 
me for saying a few words to you, as Founder and President of 
the Club, before the final separation takes place. I call myself 
Founder of the Club, as usually so considered to be, but in 
truth it would be more correct to speak of the late Mr. Broome 
and myself as joint founders, for neither would have thought of it 
without the other. This was in 1855, nearly forty years ago. 
The Club seems always to have well kept up its numbers ; there 
is nothing amiss here. But it has sometimes seemed to me as if 
there was a tendency to drift away from the professed object of 
the Club so clearly stated in the rules ; viz., ‘‘ To make excursions 
around Bath, with the view of investigating the Natural History, 
Geology and Antiquities—of the neighbourhood.” I do not say 
these objects have been forgotten. Far from it. But I imagine 
some of those who have joined the Club of late years have done 
so more for the sake of the distant excursions by train, fixed at 
the anniversary meeting, than for that of the weekly walks (for 
such they were in the first instance)—appointed for carrying out 
the investigation of the neighbourhood of Bath. But the good 
work that has been done by some of us should be an encourage- 
ment to others. 
4 6Vou, VIIL. Nowt, 
