404 Anniversary Address. 



foundation of this Club, and the circumstances that led to it. 

 From possessing a copy of the " Transactions of the Plinian 

 Society for 1828-9/' I was led to surmise that that society 

 might have greatly influenced the formation of ours. There 

 ■we find Dr. Johnston submitting his newly found rarities to 

 it; and the three Messrs. Baird active either as office-holders 

 or contributors. What so natural, when all those parties 

 became associated in close vicinity, as to have the Plinian 

 Society transferred from Edinburgh to the country? This is 

 my opinion of the origin of the Club, and I find, on applying 

 to Dr. Baird, that my theory is corroborated. " My brother 

 John, late minister of Yetholm," he says, " was the founder 

 of the Plinian Society, though Andrew had more to do with 

 it latterly than he had; and it was to the exertions of Dr. 

 Johnston, my two above-mentioned brothers, myself, Mr. 

 Embleton, and Dr. R. Dundas Thomson, with the Plinian 

 Society as our guide, that the Berwickshsire Club originated." 

 Our Club may thus be regarded as the branch of a society 

 established so far back as 1823.* 



A society so long in existence as ours needs no vindication 

 in the eyes of our fellow-naturalists and antiquaries ; nor is 

 any display of the advantages derivable from it required to 

 allure enlistments into its ranks. The eagerness with which 

 our Proceedings are sought after, evinces how much they are 

 valued ; we never solicit any one to join us, and yet our 

 membership is annually on the increase. Thus surrounded 

 •with all the elements of prosperity, work alone is what is im- 

 peratively demanded of us ; that the gaps once occupied by 

 the founders of the Club, who are fast passing away from 

 amongst us, may be in some measure filled up, and the Club 

 fall not one w^hit behind any one of the years that have gone 

 before. Discoveries still lie about us ; many a mountain 

 nook, untrodden wood, wild ravine, and lone shore, we have 

 not yet pried into ; and there are branches that we have never 

 yet ventured upon ; and others but imperfectly and languidly 

 prosecuted. To make discoveries we must quite divest 



• An Account of the Plinian Society is given in Dr. Baird's Life of the Rev 

 John Baird, p. 63, &c.; and Dr. Balfour's Memoir of Dr. John Coldstream, p. 7' 



