PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 93 



"Cheltenham Examiner" for his kind permission to 

 reproduce the following most admirable article entitled, 

 " A Fifty Years' Retrospect," which was printed in that 

 paper in giving a description of this meeting. 



A FIFTY YEARS' RETROSPECT 



It was on Tuesday, the 7th July, 1846, that a few 

 gentlemen met at the Black Horse Inn, at Birdlip, and 

 founded the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club. Yester- 

 day week was the Jubilee of the Club, and to celebrate 

 the auspicious event the Club again met at the Black 

 Horse Inn, Birdlip. In one thing, at least, the half a 

 hundred gentlemen who assembled did not follow the 

 example of the founders of the Club. " They met for 

 breakfast at eight o'clock," says the minute book which 

 records the first meeting. Most of those who attended 

 the Jubilee meeting were content to meet at the G.W.R. 

 station, Cheltenham, at 9.45, and be driven to Birdlip, via 

 Leckhampton Hill and Crickley. En route, they visited 

 the camp on Crickley Hill, and descended the precipitous 

 escarpment to the " Devil's Table," and then they went 

 to an exceedingly interesting quarry near the Air Balloon 

 Inn, where some of the geological controversialists fully 

 maintained the reputation of the Club for ding-dong argu- 

 ment upon knotty geological problems. Thence the 

 party drove to Birdlip, where a luncheon fit for the veriest 

 epicure fully satisfied appetites made keen by Cotteswold 

 air. While at Birdlip Mr Wethered gave an excellent 

 address on the chief geological features of the Cotteswold 

 Club area, Mr S. S. Buckman discussed some of the 

 problems yet awaiting solution, and Mr John Bellows 

 dilated on the Roman occupation of Gloucestershire as 

 typified by what could be seen in the far-reaching land- 

 scape spread around. From Birdlip the party drove to 



