219 



Extra Meeting for 1902, 

 The Farne Islands. — Wednesday, 25tli June. 



Our fellow member, Mr John Dent, of Newcastle, kindly 

 offered to take such members of the Club as would care to 

 go off to the Fame Islands with him, on Wednesday, 25th 

 inst., and for this purpose his steam yacht Stanley was in 

 readiness at North Sunderland on the arrival of the ti-ain 

 which left Chathill at 8-20 a.m., so as to return in time for 

 the evening trains. 



Sir George Douglas, who was one of the voyagers, gives 

 the following account of the impressions he received upon 

 this occasion. 



A Bird-Fancier' s Paradise. 

 By Sir George Douglas, Bart. 



Far northward on the Eastern coast a small grey fisher-town, 

 " Sea-houses," overhangs its pier-protected harbour. The 

 aspect of the spot is self-contained, reserved, as of a place 

 that does not readily unbosom itself to strangers. From 

 Sea-houses, looking seaward on a clear day, the greensward 

 and the whitewashed lighthouse-buildings of the Inner Fame 

 appear invitingly near at hand. In reality the island is 

 less than three miles off, and as the scene of the passionate- 

 hearted Cuthbert's ascetic self-isolation it well merits a 

 pilgrimage. Let the intending pilgrim prepare his mind by 

 reading, from the Venerable Bede, how a king came humbly 

 with his retinue, and by force of tears and entreaties plucked 

 the hermit-saint from his retirement back to the world and 

 to his death. I think he will not read unmoved ; for, rude 

 and materialistic as this age may be, goodness still shines, 

 in Portia's simile, as a candle in a darkened world. It is 

 a little remarkable that the only other human association 



