THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 159 



crowned the efforts of those who in their various spheres have in any 

 way contributed to the result. 



There is a perennial freshness in the study of Nature which 

 animates all true naturalists, and enables them to overcome obstacles 

 and difficulties which beat other men, and this vis medicatrix 

 natures has been one of the main secrets of the success of those who 

 have omitted no opportunity of pressing forward the teaching of 

 Natural Science in schools and colleges, and at length attaining that 

 measure of success which has already crowned our efforts, and which 

 it is the sacred duty of the Midland Union to promote by every 

 means in its power. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF A TOWN GAEDEN. 



The garden I am about to describe is situated in one of the 

 cathedral cities of the Eastern Counties. This city was once an 

 important Roman station, and the garden is mainly formed of part of 

 the Roman moat which here runs in a northerly direction for about 

 200 yards, and theu turns to the west. It is at the back of a house 

 which faces the street to the south, and is bounded on the east by a 

 high stone wall (covered with ivy) for about eighty yards, and for the 

 whole length by a row of very old and tall small-leaved elms. On the 

 west, parallel with the other wall, is another, the remains of that built 

 by the Romans, and from one end to the other of the moat on this side 

 a gravel path runs. The northern boundary of the garden is where 

 the moat turns to the west and becomes a paddock, a hedge and path 

 divides them, and at the angle on the top stands an octagonal summer- 

 house. At the point where the walls end, that is, at about eighty 

 yards from the house, the moat was formerly spanned by a rustic 

 bridge, but this having decayed it was replaced about thirty-five years 

 ago by a bank the same height as the gravel walk, thus cutting the 

 moat in two. That part nearest the house was partly filled in, and 

 laid with turf, forming a spacious lawn, shaded on each side by trees 

 and shrubs, and at the bank end by two graceful copper beeches. The 

 other half of the moat was left in a semi-wild state, the banks being 

 covered with grass and planted with trees. 



The Roman wall must have been strong and solid, but it has been 

 pillaged of its outer coat of large hewn stones, and now consists only 

 of the inside rubble, though a piece with some of the outer stones left 

 may be seen in an adjoining paddock. A.t the north end of the wall 

 there is a kind of grotto and rockery formed of old stones and large 

 burrs; the grotto, being furnished with a door and a small window, 

 has been the home at different times of an owl, a hawk, guinea pigs, &c. 

 It is reached by a few rough steps in the rockery, and the roof of 

 large slabs of slate afforded a favourite playplace for the children of the 

 family. Near it grows a large old elm tree with very small leaves, the 

 same species as those forming a row on the other side of the moat. I 



