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made it advisable to make a hurried retreat to Warmley Station, 
whence a train speedily restored the Members to Bath and their 
domestic comforts. 
The distant Excursions were thus successfully accomplished, 
but the weekly Walks in the immediate neighbourhood seem to 
have entirely ceased. In the earlier years of the Field Club’s 
existence scarcely a Tuesday passed without a goodly number of 
Members putting in an appearance at 10.30 a.m. at the Royal 
Institution, and a walk followed, longer or shorter, as the 
several Members felt capable of it, or were desirous to return 
home for a mid-day meal. In fact, by the Rules of the Club, 
this was the primary object of its formation, viz., “To make 
Excursions around Bath with a view of investigating the Natural 
History, Geology and Antiquities of the Neighbourhood.” 
Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis and in these days of 
later rising and disinclination to pedestrian exercise, the healthful 
“ constitutional ” has yielded its life to the sedentary boredom of 
listening to read papers on others’ observations, or scanning 
them in the published Proceedings or Newspaper Report. The 
Secretary is quite prepared to meet Members at the Royal 
Institution, say at 11 a.m. on every Tuesday after the lst of May, 
and recommence this excellent custom and motive of the Club. 
The Afternoon Meetings for receiving papers on local and 
other topics recommenced in the fall of the year, and at the 
first, on December 9th, 1896, the President, the Rev. Canon 
Ellacombe, for the fourth year in succession, read an interesting 
paper on the effects of the weather of the past year on his 
garden. This paper, under the title of “‘The Great Drought of 
1896,” is published at page 293 of these Proceedings, so that 
no abstract is required here. The reading, however, gave rise to 
very considerable discussion, many Members stating their personal 
observations of trees, shrubs, flowers and fruit. Amongst 
others, Surgeon-Major Mantell, Col. H. C. B. Tanner, Mr. Story- 
Maskelyne, Rev. T. D. Whale, and Mr. Leveson Scarth, expressed 
