254 Anniversary Address. 



the glory of our Islands, of the grand and time-honoured 

 Churches and Castles, ruined Monasteries and long forsaken 

 Peels, ancient Camps and memorable Battlefields. In many- 

 instances we have details of the different Families who 

 have owned the land, and the Charters under v/hich they 

 passed, and the old church Registers, where accessible, have 

 not escaped scrutiny and comment. 



The records that have been printed of the diffei-ent 

 expeditions cannot fail to make them doubly interesting to 

 those who have participated in the walks or drives, and 

 possibly give a wider and more lasting impression than was 

 actually acquired at the time, and have doubtless induced 

 many members, at other times, to visit the places described, 

 and form acquaintance for themselves with the various 

 objects, Nature, or a long forgotten past may have to 

 disclose. If this is the case, I maintain the Club does in 

 this direction, alone, a great and important work ; because 

 every man ought to possess a thorough knowledge of his 

 own county and neighbourhood, and of all that constitutes 

 its distinguishing features and historical associations But 

 valuable as I think the field-work of the Club in disclosing 

 the beauties of Nature, the treasures that earth and air 

 contain, and familiarizing us with our own countryside, the 

 value seems to me exceeded by the different papers it draws 

 forth, the fund of information it collects, the Statistics with 

 which we are furnished, the Biographical Notices that from 

 time to time appear, the Archaeological, Ornithological, and 

 Antiquarian articles with which our Proceedings teem, and 

 the Plates and Illustrations that familiarize us with so many 

 objects of interest, so many beauties of Nature ; and many of 

 us may learn a valuable lesson how to augment in an untold 

 degree the pleasures and delights of a country life, by 

 simply taking a leaf from the Journal of a very eminent 

 and accomplished member of this Club, and note day by 

 day, and month by month, the Migration of Birds, the 

 Habits of Animal Life, the variations of Climate, the 

 contrasts of Vegetation between year and year, the flowers 



