CONFP]RENCE OF DELEGATES. 433 



geology, anthropology, archaeology — he has been able not only to interest 

 himself but to help others. 



To-day I wish to discuss a subject of growing importance in which 

 the amateur worker can find full scope for his activities and his wide 

 outlook. Pioneer workers have shown the great interest and value of 

 regional sxxrveys and the advantage of arranging a network of surveys 

 over the whole country. Like other scientific work, it is team work, but 

 such as can be and is being done by the societies represented here to-day : 

 usually it is best done in consultation with the professional workers of 

 the University Schools of Geography. 



England has been surveyed many times and from many different 

 points of view. The first travellers to record their results — Antoninus, 

 who detailed the Roman routes, the Domesday surveyors and others, give 

 only the lifeless record, absolutely indispensable to the historian, but of 

 little direct interest to others ; even in this age of reprints, when the 

 most obscure authors of antiquity are resuscitated by some enterprising 

 editor and j)ublisher, these volumes remain peacefully buried. The first 

 accounts that tell us what the place looked like, what people did or how 

 they adjusted themselves to their environment, still maintain their 

 interest. Camden's ' Britannia ' (1586 and later), Leland's ' Itinerary,' 

 even Drayton's ' Polyolbion,' held a high place, as may be judged by their 

 prices in spite of the number of times they have been reprinted ; while 

 Giraldus Cambrensis is probably more widely read now than ever during 

 the 740 years that have elapsed since his wonderful propagandist journey 

 through Wales for the great Crusades. 



A regional survey is a survey of a district as an environment for human 

 beings — an account of its physical features, its natural characteristics, 

 its flora, fauna, &c., culminating in a study of the ways in which they affect 

 human life and activity. It is this human aspect that gives the non- 

 professional worker his opportunity, for his close touch with human affairs 

 enables him to appreciate and to express the human standpoint. The 

 specialist in science may be misunderstood ; indeed, he often is like the 

 musicians in the ' Blue Bird.' ^ 



A 'regional survey must be based on the specialised work of the 

 Geological Survey and, in the few cases where they have been made, 

 the various Natural History surveys made by professional specialists 

 having the time, the resources, and the necessary detachment. The 

 regional surveyor need not attempt the task of combining the results 

 of all these specialised surveys into one prodigious comprehensive 

 whole ; anyone who did so would deserve and would probably meet 

 the usual fate of the encyclopaedist. For special purposes the separate 

 surveys have been assembled as in Arctic and Antarctic regions, and 

 the biological survey of Clare Island off the coast of Mayo, one of 

 the biggest things of its kind ; but the fact that Clare Island has an 

 area of only 4,000 acres, while its survey, though only sectional, fills 

 three great volumes, warns us what a terrible task a completely compre- 

 hensive survey of the country would be. It is unnecessary to labour the 



1 Mytyl : ' What are those people doing who are making such a noise ? ' 



Tyltyl : ' They're the musicians.' 



Mytyl : ' Are they angry ? ' 



Tyltyl: ' No, but it's hard work.' 

 1926 F F 



