peesideistt's address. 415 



were pointed out by Mr. Bigge. The Club dinner at the Old 

 Inn was not what would be considered a frugal meal, but the 

 cost of the old wine and the fat venison led soon after to the 

 established rule of the Club that the frugal meal shall not cost 

 more than half-a-crown or three shillings, and this Rule has 

 been carefully and severely observed now for fifty yeai-s. 



It was thought desirable by the Committee of the Club that 

 the Jubilee Meeting should be held at Ovingham and Whittle 

 Dene, thus giving the present members an opportunity of walk- 

 ing through the beautiful Dene trodden by their predecessors at 

 the first Field Meeting of the Club, and this selection was ap- 

 proved of by all the members present at the Anniversary Meet- 

 ing. Unfortunately our Eevered President was not able to be 

 present, but a goodly company of twenty members assembled at 

 the Prudhoe Station and crossed, not in a Perry boat as of old, 

 but along a substantial wooden bridge now spanning the Tyne, 

 to Ovingham Church Yard, where the burial place of Thomas 

 Bewick and his family (now the resting place of all of them) 

 was visited and contemplated. The majority of the party pro- 

 ceeded onward through the beautiful Dene, luxuriant and shady 

 and bedecked with abundance of the earlier spring flowers, "the 

 rathe primrose," "the wild hyacinths," that purple all the 

 ground with vernal flowers, the "tufted crow-toe," the modest 

 violet, and many other harbingers of early spring. The several 

 species of Perns still in circinate vernation, gradually unfolding 

 their still downy fronds to the growing warmth of the sun 

 attracted the attention of others, and the birds occurring in the 

 secluded parts of the Dene were not without observers, for the 

 ornithologists present discovered the nests of the Water Crow 

 or Dipper and the still better concealed nest of the Wood Wren. 

 Thus the time was passed much in the same pleasant way that 

 it was passed by the first members fifty years ago. But some 

 portions of the route must be much changed, for in former times 

 no fences or plantations concealed the Whittle Dene reservoir. 

 By the time the Spital Well was reached the party became 

 somewhat scattered, but eventually, by straighter roads and 

 easier paths, they all retraced their steps to Prudhoe Station, 



