FIELD CLUBS 315 



popular education, politics, wherein they had a friendly- 

 difference, La Touche being a Kadical, Hooker a philosophic 

 Conservative, a strong Unionist, but not a Tory. 



To Rev. J. D. La Touche 



May 10, 1886. 



(There was a question of attending a local scientific meeting 

 at Shrewsbury, to which after all Hooker did not go.) 



It is a great pity that such gatherings have degenerated 

 into a mere ' picnic with flirtations ' — it was not so with 

 one, the meeting I attended at Ludlow with you some ten 

 years ago. But really I do not wonder at it, when I see how 

 rare is the taste for Science. It is only when a contingent 

 of the Scientific men of a great town like Liverpool, or 

 Birmingham, or Newcastle, can be counted on for attendance 

 that there is any chance of keeping the Scientific character 

 of local assemblies. Well I shall hope to visit you some 

 day at your own house, and that is what I should like better. 



To the Same 



Aug. 22, 1888. 



I quite sympathise with your views as to the future of 

 the Caradoc Field Club — but am as you know very sceptical 

 as to the influence of outsiders in such matters. The force 

 must come from within. I well remember telling the Club 

 this at a Ludlow (?) meeting ages ago. Men who have it 

 in them want no talking to as an incentive to work. All 

 over the country these Clubs have been urged to take defi- 

 nite subjects up, but what is every member's business is 

 no member's practice. All were formed with the professed 

 view of investigating the Nat. Hist. &c. of their several 

 areas — how many have elucidated one single branch of it ? 

 Few of such local Faunas and Floras as have been published 

 trace their origin to the Club, but many to the energy of 

 individuals fond of the subject and irrepressible. On the 

 other hand, the Clubs do a vast amount of good in keeping 

 up an esteem for Science in the country, and by their meetings 

 they afford opportunities for discussing scientific matters 

 and giving object lessons in every branch of science ; and 

 what one wants to see at these meetings is more devotion 



