pkesident's ADDltESS. 209 



botany, and it would be difficult indeed to find a better lecture 

 room, or such a collection of specimens, whereon to base a dozen 

 lessons or a series of lectures. 



It is my melancholy duty to refer to the loss we have sus- 

 tained by the death of three leading members of our Society. 

 My venerable and beloved friend Mr. James Clephan, Mr. Henry 

 Watson, of Newcastle, and Mr. Cadogan Hodgson- Cadogan, of 

 Brinkburn Priory, a gentleman well-known and highly respected 

 in the North of England. Mr. Cadogan was a man of culture 

 in the highest sense of the word, and as an archaeologist did 

 much to preserve, by careful and judicious restoration, the 

 beautiful Priory of Brinkburn. He was an ardent student of 

 Nature, and was a frequent attender at the meetings of the 

 Berwickshire Pield Club, of which he was this year President. 

 He was ever ready to open his beautiful and romantic grounds 

 to the visits of both Societies, to whom he showed the greatest 

 kindness and hospitality. In a word, Mr. Cadogan was an 

 English gentleman. 



It requires no words from me to make you acquainted with 

 the qualities that endeared James Clephan to all with whom he 

 came in contact. His gentleness, his courtesy, and his kindness 

 will live in the recollection of hundreds of Novocastrians. I 

 was frequently indebted to him for advice and assistance in 

 literary matters, and, like many others, I found the help of the 

 scholar was cheerfully, nay eagerly, accorded. Animated Nature 

 had in James Clephan the gentlest and kindliest of defenders. 

 Our local "Dicky Bird Society," which is working such incal- 

 culable benefits for coming generations, had his support; and 

 we will long treasure the remembrance of his genial companion- 

 ship during our trips to Marsden, a place he never failed to visit 

 from 1853 to 1873. 



In Mr. Henry Watson Newcastle lost a worthy citizen. In 

 addition to our own Society he took the liveliest interest in the 

 development of the local branch of the Arts Society, acting as 

 Chairman for many years. Mr. Watson was one of those who 

 advocated a knowledge of drawing and colours, as conducing not 

 only to a better appreciation of Nature's beauties but to the 



