418 Anniversary Address. 



elder of the two. I remember Dr. Jolinston went to York, 

 and was present when the great Association was inaugurated 

 with all due dignity, attended as it was by an array of well 

 known scientific celebrities. In a letter which I received 

 from him soon afterwards he described the proceedings, but 

 added that, in his opinion, the meeting at York was not so 

 good — not so much worth attending — as the meeting of the 

 Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, held the previous week at 

 Grant's House. 



One of the many remarkable circumstances connected with 

 this Club has been the power which it has showed to pro- 

 pagate itself by the formation of similar institutions else- 

 where. This did not take place all at once. For fifteen 

 years it stood alone ; but in 1846 two of your members were 

 the means of forming similar clubs — Mr. Carr, of Hedgeley, 

 (now Mr. Carr- Ellison of Dunstan Hill,) and Sir Thos. Tanc- 

 red, who had gone to reside in Gloucestershire. The example 

 spread — the Cotteswold, Woolhope, Malvern, and other cele- 

 brated Field-clubs were formed on the model of the Berwick- 

 shire. But, for an account of these and similar institutions, I 

 must refer to a valuable paper by Sir Walter Elliot in the 

 " Proceedings of the Edinburgh Botanical Society," in which 

 full details are given. Looking to the number of such societies 

 now spread over England, Scotland, and Ireland, and to the 

 many valuable papers which they have published, the forma- 

 tion of this Berwickshire Club' becomes an event of no small 

 importance in the scientific history of our country. Little 

 did the small band of enthusiastic naturalists who met for 

 the first time at Grant's House know the significance of the 

 step they were taking, when in September, 1831, they inau- 

 gurated a new movement destined so greatly to influence the 

 future progress of scientific research in all parts of the 

 kingdom. 



That these Field-clubs met a felt want is obvious from the 

 very fact of their success. The real secret of their attractive- 

 ness lay in the opportunity which they gave for the free 

 intercourse of congenial minds engaged amidst rural scenes 

 in the elevating pursuit of Natural History. It was not in 



