343 



Summary of Proceedings of tlie Bath Natural History and 

 Antiquarian Field Club for the year 1871-72. 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen, 



The following pithy words occur in an address on " Education" 

 delivered before a certain Scotch University : " As we advance in 

 life we leam the limits of our abilities. Our expectations for 

 the future shrink to modest dimensions." The force of the 

 truth of this remark we must all feel, and no one feels it more 

 than your Secretary, who, according to annual custom, gives a 

 summary of the year's proceedings. In reviewing what we have 

 done the record is somewhat scanty ; his expectations for the 

 future shrink to modest dimensions. Is it that our advance in 

 Club life has exhausted the field of our observations, in other words, 

 that subjects of Natural History and Archaeology have been used 

 up in our neighbourhood "i Or is it that the freshness of youthful 

 ardour has somewhat abated, and our zeal slackened 1 One of the 

 great advantages attending this study of Nature is that all her true 

 students never grow old or weary in her service. Something fresh 

 and unexpected is ever springing up to give new life and impart 

 fresh energy. Life, in short, is evolved from life. Let us then, in 

 looking back upon what we have done, look onwards to what we 

 shall do for the future. 



With these preliminary remarks, then, let me commence with 

 the Evening Meetings. Picking up the thread where it was dropt 

 last Session, the fourth and concluding Evening Meeting claims our 

 first attention. This took place on March 15th, under the presi- 

 dency of the Eev. Prebendary Scarth, the Eev. Leonard Jenyns 

 being absent through indisposition. The first paper contributed 

 was by the Rev. J. Earle, " Notes on a Saxon Poem of a City in 

 Ruins supposed to be Bath " (vide p. 259). This was a very im- 

 portant contribution to the local archaeology, as the discussion that 

 took place afterwards indicates ; indeed one member did not 

 hesitate to state his opinion that it was one of the greatest " finds " 

 of recent times. 



Mr. Earle commenced by saying that the idea that in a certain 

 Saxon poem of which he was going to speak we really had a 

 description of Bath, was not one which had suddenly occurred to 



