252 Anniversary Address. 



A little knowledge is said to be a very dangerous thing, 

 and I am unwilling to expose my ignorance by attempting 

 to deal with subjects I have not studied, and sciences I 

 have not mastered ; and am thereby precluded from entering 

 on those fields of Natural Science and Natural History, 

 that make the record of your Proceedings a work of so 

 much value and importance. But perhaps there is no reason, 

 if I am incompetent to deal with these subjects myself, and 

 add to our Transactions any paper of a scientific character, 

 that I should not draw your attention to some of the 

 advantages we derive from this Club, and to the labours 

 and investigations of more learned members ; and point out 

 to you what they have achieved, and how I think the good 

 work they have done may be made more valuable still, and 

 add an important page to the literature of our country. 



In the first place, I am confident that the Meetings held 

 by the Club in the various parts of Northumberland, 

 Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, East Lothian, Selkirkshire, 

 Peeblesshire and Dumfriesshire, are of great use in familiar- 

 ising a considerable number of appreciative minds with the 

 beauties, the features, the objects of local interest, the 

 Botany, Zoology, the Architectural and Antiquarian remains 

 of our Border land. Many of us traverse the continent of 

 Europe, or cross the wide Atlantic in search of the 

 beauties of Nature, and quite overlook the fact that our 

 own countryside has beauties peculiarly its own, and not 

 less worthy of admiration and examination, because they 

 may not be carved with so bold a hand, or set in such 

 rugged and majestic framework. Many of us live for years 

 within easy reach of scenery most varied and attractive, of 

 Flora rich and delicate, of Geological formations most 

 curious and suggestive, of life in all its different forms and 

 degrees most exuberant and boundless, without deriving 

 from them that pleasure and enjoyment they are intended 

 to bestow, simply from a want of knowledge of the 

 treasures within our reach, of the riches Providence has 

 supplied for our gratification. 



