-94 



LINCOLNSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION 



AT LINCOLN. 



The Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union held its Annual Meeting at 

 Lincoln on the 3rd October last. Excursions had been arranged 

 for the morning in the neighbourhood of Lincoln, for which 

 Mr. >L R. W. Sibthorp and Mr. N. C. Cockburn had most liberally 

 and kindly opened their woods at Canwick and Hartsholme. Owing, 

 however, to the very wretched state of the weather these excursions 

 had to be abandoned. 



The great feature of the day was the opening of the Museum, 

 for which rooms in the (Gateway of Lincoln Castle had been 

 granted, rent free, by the County Committee. At the founding of 

 the Union in 1893 it was resolved that the formation of a Museum 

 for the county should be one of the first objects of the Union. 

 Since then the Executive has been working for this end, and the 

 successful result of their labours was shown in the proceedings of 

 this day. 



After luncheon at two o'clock at the Saracen's Head, the 

 members, who had assembled in considerable force, made their 

 way to the Castle. There was a large attendance of non-members 

 -also, and many more would have come, had not the bad state of the 

 weather prevented them. 



The Bishop of Lincoln, who has been a member of the Union 

 from the first, and had consented to open the Museum, said that, 

 without pretending to a great knowledge of natural science, he came 

 there, with a real hearty good-will, to show his sympathy with the 

 founding of a Natural History Museum in Lincoln, because he 

 thoroughly appreciated what he ventured to call the scientific spirit, 

 and thought that the cultivation and development of that spirit was 

 at least a part of what a Natural History Museum was intended to 

 accomplish. He inculcated a habit of observation ; learning to see 

 things gradually ; to see where they differed, and where they corre- 

 sponded ; that which enabled the student to group together things 

 in thefnselves essentially united was, he said, the real basis of 

 scientific classification. The scientific spirit led to a spirit of 

 reverence and gentleness, and he did not think a person could 

 devote himself to the study of natural history without increasing 

 in reverence and tenderness for the least and most insignificant 

 >bjects. A man who has some sort of conception of the unity 

 that there is in nature, who could see things not merely as separate 

 units but in their wonderful combinations, does not care whether it 

 is raining or whether it is fine, but works because he has a real 



N.uuriJi^t, 



