ANNUAL REPORT. 



Your Committee have pleasure in presenting this the Nine- 

 teenth Annual Report, as in so doing they are able to testify to 

 the prosperity of the Society. The number of Members now on 

 the books is 66 1, showing an increase of 44 during the last year. 



We have to record with regret the loss of one of our 

 earliest Honorary Members, Mr. Charles Easton Spooner. 

 He was born at Maentwrog in 181 8. During a long life he did 

 much to develop the industries of Wales. He introduced the 

 Narrow-Guage Railways, with which his name will always be 

 associated. He took a deep interest in our Society, and on 

 many occasions gave us substantial help. 



In last year's Report you will observe that our title no longer 

 stands as the " Chester Society of Natural Science." Valuing much 

 all that has been done in the direction of Natural Science, which 

 owed its first stimulus to our founder, Charles Kingsley, we 

 still acknowledge him as a master in a wider field, and are very 

 sure we should have had his sympathy in our new departure. 

 If we would, we could not have excluded literature, as no branch 

 of science could exist without it. But it was felt by some of 

 our Members that there was another range of thought outside 

 the purely scientific, and that such subjects as Poetry, History, 

 and Biography, ought not to be unrepresented. These subjects, 

 including as they do a store of mental facts and critical acumen, 

 conduce not a little to the improvement of taste and the 

 development of genius. The new Section was happy in securing 

 so admirable a Chairman as Bishop Jayne ; and the Secretary, 

 the Rev. A. H. Fish, produced a programme for the Session 

 which has proved an unqualified success. From the good 

 attendance at the Lectures we feel satisfied that there are many 

 who follow with pleasure the operations of the human mind 

 when given to the contemplation and elucidation of high and 



