38 The Nature-Study Exhibition 



work shown represents almost entirely out-of-school pursuits. The 

 exhibit stands for a tradition which has been continuous in the school 

 for nearly seventy years. This tradition lives from boy to boy, but is 

 also kept alive and cherished by the old scholars, both individually 

 and as an association, and further by the hearty moral support of all 

 the masters, whether they are naturalists or not. 



"Collecting has often paved the way to observing, and considerable 

 stress has been laid on the keeping of natural history diaries, which 

 has l)een encouraged by special prizes given among Allied Friends* 

 schools. Original observations, continuously recorded in neatly -kept 

 and illustrated books, have proved easy to encourage. In this way 

 we get a mind alert to see all that is going ojt around it — bird^ and 

 flower, and beast, and changing sky; a mind of omnivorous interest^ 

 reflecting like a mirror all it sees. From older boys something more 

 has been expected, and as a response to a handsome exhibition or 

 minor scholarship of ;^io offered by the Old Scholars' Association, 

 a few boys have been found who are gifted with the instinct for 

 investigation, and who think as well as see. In judging their diaries, 

 evidence is discovered of a persistent attempt to probe the unknown, 

 and to summon to their aid every method and every instrument 

 which gives promise of assistance." 



St. Margaret's School at Bushey may be taken as one for 

 girls situated in the country, where the same idea is manifest, 

 and the following particulars of its work are of interest : — 



"Chief Objects of the Nature-Study 

 OF THE School 



**(i) To train the students (ranging from lo to 19 years of age) t<> 

 observe and love the forms of nature around them^ so that they may 

 obtain the fullest enjoy ment from their natural surroundings. 



"(2) That the pupils may, as they frequently do, choose for themselves 

 a * hobby * in the study of flowers, mosses, mycetozoa, pond-life, and 

 so forth. 



" Thus the gap between work and play is bridged over^ as shown by — 



*' (a) The exhibits from the * Bushey Case ' in the Museum. The 

 pupils eagerly seek, during their walks, flowers, mosses, and mycetozoa, 

 and are constantly on the look-out for dead birds, deserted nests, and 



*'(^) The Nature-study exercises. The students have cared enough 

 for the subject to devote a great part of Saturday afternoons to illustrate 

 from nature the giren subject, e,g. • The Trees of St. Margaret's '. 



