Anniversary Address. 5 



the visit to Alnwick was specially interesting on another 

 account, They had an agreeable recollection of the Meeting 

 held there on the 29th of August, 1861, when this Club had 

 the pleasure of meeting with the Tynesicle Naturalists' Club, 

 and inspected with them the extensive restorations of the 

 noble Castle of the Percies, with the splendid internal de- 

 corations then in process of construction. And they had now 

 an opportunity of admiring, in its finished state, a work 

 which, it is hoped, will be an enduring monument of the 

 taste and munificence of two Dukes of Northumberland. 



After breakfast, the business of the Club was transacted, 

 new members elected, and the places of meeting for the fol- 

 lowing year appointed. The party then visited the beautiful 

 and very extensive gardens and greenhouses of the Castle, 

 which, though the colours were on the wane, excited much 

 admiration. Most of the members afterwards drove through 

 the well stocked Deer Park to Hume Abbey. Pretty 

 glimpses of sylvan scenery opened out, as the track wound 

 up the valley of the Aln. The foliage was slightly tinged 

 with an autumnal hue, but it was easy to imagine what it 

 must have been in its summer pride. The park comprises a 

 considerable variety of height and hollow, dark ravine, 

 smooth lawn, rough pasture, and heathy slope dappled with 

 orange brackens, and tufted with feathery birches and 

 clusters of sombre Scotch firs, with some very fine well- 

 grown native alders in the marshes. Brislaw hill gives an 

 upland character to its higher section, and connects it with 

 purple moors behind. At Hulne Abbey an unusually large 

 service tree was particularly observed — for the service is fre- 

 quently little more than a bush. The height of this specimen 

 was not ascertained, but the trunk measured in girth 6 feet 

 3 inches. On the return drive, the party did not fail to ad- 

 mire the stately silver firs, which are mentioned, and accurate 

 measurements of nine of them given, in the Presidential Ad- 

 dress, delivered at Alnmouth, in 1857, by the late Mr Dick- 

 son, of Whitecross. That address contains also a description 

 of the next attraction, the Church of St. Paul, with its noble 



