2 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



on behalf of the Club, to offer our sympathy to those 

 of our members who have lost sons or near relatives, of 

 whom I fear the list would be a long one, and I will mention 

 no names, as I might omit some. Colonel J. Mount Batten, 

 C.B., H.M. Lieut, for Dorset, is in our list stated to have 

 joined the Club in 1909, but he was really a much older 

 member, having been elected in 1888, but owing to absence 

 abroad a break occurred in his membership. I recollect 

 him in early days as a frequent and interested attendant at 

 the meetings, and this interest he kept up to the last. One 

 of the earliest meetings at which I was present was held at 

 his house at Upcerne, when he entertained the Club, which 

 hospitality he repeated a few years ago. Mr. W. Bowles 

 Barrett was one of our older members, having joined in 1884, 

 and has always been one of our leading botanists, as well as 

 an authority on local history and records, both of Weymouth 

 and the neighbourhood generally, and also on the biography 

 of some of its more noted residents in former times. Numerous 

 papers from his pen will be found scattered through our 

 volumes, and it is much to be regretted that his professional 

 work, especially of late years, left him so little time for the 

 subjects which he delighted in. He had a large and valuable 

 botanical collection. Mr. S. R. Baskett, of Evershot, joined 

 in 1893, and, like his brother, who has also passed away from 

 us, was much interested in the subjects which our Club 

 embraces. I remember with pleasure our visit to his house 

 in 1895, where he exhibited his collections and entertained 

 the Club when we met at Evershot and Melbury. Mrs. 

 Selina Aldridge, who joined in 1899, used to attend our 

 meetings frequently. I have left to the last the greatest loss 

 the Club has sustained, namely, that of our Vice-President, 

 Dr. H. Colley March. Elected in 1896, he soon came to 

 the front in the Antiquarian side, and besides contributing 

 many learned and valuable papers on a variety of subjects, 

 he acted as Hon. Secretary of the Club for two years and 

 for a much longer period as Chairman of the Earthworks 

 Committee, in which office he carried through with great 



