20 



Report of the Brasted Field Meeting, July 6th, 1901. 



By Robert Adkin. Read October 24/A. 



When I accepted the leadership of one of the Society's field 

 meetings for the current year I had no very fixed notion of what 

 locality I should suggest, but having in mind the desirability of 

 again breaking new ground, if such might be available within the 

 limited area that can be conveniently worked in the short time 

 allowed by a half-day outing, I thought it well to run through the 

 list of places that had been visited by the Society during the past 

 few years before coming to any definite conclusion. I therefore 

 tabulated the meetings of the past seven years under the heads of 

 counties and places, and was not a little surprised to find that out of 

 a total of twenty-four meetings held during that period no less than 

 fifteen of them, or just five eighths of the whole, had been held in 

 the county of Surrey, five others were at places that may be con- 

 sidered by some of our members as being outside the sphere of the 

 Society's influence, namely, Chalfont Road and the New Forest, 

 thus leaving four only to the credit of the county of Kent. 



Although I have not a word to say against Surrey as a suitable 

 collecting ground, its wild heaths and pine woods, its open chalk 

 downs and well-watered valleys afford most excellent opportunities 

 for the holding of field meetings, still, has not the adjoining county, 

 Kent, an equal claim to our attention ? 



With these thoughts in mind I decided upon the last-named 

 county, and that no part of it would be more suitable for our present 

 purpose than the fine stretch of hills running eastward from the 

 village of A\'esterham through Sevenoaks, and set about finding the 

 best point from which to attack them. 



After consulting maps and time-tables, in conjunction with what 

 little knowledge I had of the district, I came to the conclusion that 

 Brasted would form a good base for operations, and finding on 

 visiting the place that suitable accommodation was forthcoming 

 finally decided upon that district. Little had I reckoned upon the 

 vagaries of the railway company by whose trains we were to travel, 

 and although we have every reason to be satisfied with the accom- 

 modation they provided for us and the fares at which they carried 

 us, the withdrawal of the particular train by which it was my inten- 

 tion that we should make the return journey reduced the time at 

 our disposal so considerably as to make the meeting little more than 

 a walk over the ground, yet what we were able to see of the country 

 and the captures that were made in the very limited time available 

 for collecting, suggest that the district may be well worthy of further 

 investigation. 



