Address to the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club. Read by the 

 President, Sir W. V. Guise,- Bart., F.L.S., F.G.S., at Gloucester, 

 April 19th, 1869. 



Gentlemen, — 



The records of our Club during the past season, though rich, 

 as usual, in all that makes such associations delightful — pleasant 

 rambles, friendly intercourse, and instructive discussions — are 

 yet deficient in that particular to which I have always attached 

 the greatest importance, viz : in the publication of papers of 

 scientific value. It is this, more than any other condition, 

 which marks the zeal and intelligence of members, and affords 

 a standard by which to measure our progress and practical 

 utility. Doubtless the elaboration of scientific papers is not 

 the only, or perhaps the principal, end and object of our 

 Association. In an educational point of view such societies as 

 ours are most valuable from the impetus they give to inquiry 

 amongst those who, without such stimulants to knowledge, 

 would perhaps care Httle to extend their scrutiny into the 

 realms of natural science, — so rich in pleasure and intellectual 

 advancement to those who, with loving hearts and observing 

 eyes, are led to search into the laws and history of organic life, 

 past or present, upon the surface of our planet. 



The Cotteswold Club has always aimed at a high standard 

 of scientific eminence ; and by the labours of its distinguished 

 associates — amongst whom the names of Weight, Buckman, 

 Ltcett, Jones, and Ethekidge, are conspicuous — it has secured 

 a position amongst scientific bodies second to that of no similar 

 body of Naturalists in the United Kingdom. Let it be our 

 care that this reputation shall be maintained and extended, — in 

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