242 pebsident's addeess. 



have been who hid away their treasures, rolling them up out of 

 sight ; and, so-called lovers of Art, who spared neither time nor 

 money to obtain old prints, regardless of their artistic merits, 

 just because of what they called their " state." You have seen 

 a selfish and fictitious value given to etchings and engravings, 

 by the wanton destruction of the plates from which they were 

 taken. 



Of the Naturalist collector we have similar experience. An 

 occasion for the exhibition of it arose when I was lately in 

 London. A surgeon, who had devoted his life to the collection 

 of specimens of Lepidoptera, died, and his collection was sold by 

 auction. The Philistine newspapers made merry over what 

 they described as a queer gathering of virtuosi, who for two 

 successive days bid against each other with a zeal in which true 

 love of ]N"ature had no part, and which scorned all pecuniary 

 considerations — one moth {Nyssia papponaria) being bid up to 

 thirteen guineas, solely because it was believed to be the only 

 one caught in these islands. One paper told the story of the 

 French baron, who, being the possessor of the only two known 

 specimens of a shell, gave a large price for a third which had 

 turned up, and crushed it under his heel! A very different 

 spirit from this, I am glad to say, animates the members and 

 collectors in our Club. 



Among the charms of our Field Meetings, very generally ap- 

 preciated, have been the opportunities they gave for the enjoy- 

 ment of scenery. But we have all heard mournings, especially 

 by some of our older members, that "Ichabod" is now written 

 over the once fair Tyneside, from which our Club takes its name, 

 and that its beauty has departed. Now, I do not share that 

 opinion. Changed though it is, since I tried to shoot curlews on 

 Jarrow Slake, I am disposed to believe in Tyneside still as a 

 fruitful field for artistic study. Smoke, that "black flag of 

 Science," floating high from a thousand chimneys, is no flag 

 of surrender of all its claims to artistic interest. True, there 

 is not the olden beauty; but there is one of a more remark- 

 able kind, and one which it is well we should now learn to 

 appreciate. 



