Aug., 1890. 
REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
191 
Cannock Chase was a hunting ground of our early kings, who some¬ 
times resided here. The hunting lodge is supposed to have been in 
Courtbank Cover which is quite close to the Castle Kings. Within the 
ring are the remains of a building about the history of which little is 
known, but it is supposed to be the site of a priory where were located 
Monks of the Cistercian Order. This monastery was known as Rad- 
more, and was probably a hermitage in its commencement. The 
walls of this building, of which only a small portion has been excava¬ 
ted, are feet in thickness. In addition to these interesting facts, it 
should be mentioned that the traces of other ancient buildings have 
quite recently been discovered, while ploughing operations were being 
carried on in a field near. The whole subject of these ruins is one of 
much interest, and affords a field for archaeologists to examine. 
The view, one of the finest in the Midlands, which canon clear days be 
seen from the Castle Rings, was much spoilt by the weather being un¬ 
favourable. The carriages conveying the members proceeded from 
the Castle Rings to the ballast pit on the side of the Cannock and 
Rugeley Railway. A stop was made here to examine this exceedingly 
fine section of the conglomerates of the Bunter. At several points the 
scoria from ancient smelting of iron ore was noticed. On arriving at 
the Shrewsbury Arms, Rugeley, the party found an excellent meat 
tea awaiting them, and they afterwards left by train for their 
various destinations after a most enjoyable day. 
OXFORD NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY.—May 28th. The 
Rev. J. G. Burch gave a lecture on “ The Architecture of the Atoms,” 
which was illustrated by models symbolising the different combining 
powers of the various elements. Thus, hydrogen, having one affinity, 
was symbolised by a ball; oxygen, with two affinities, by a little stick, 
(its tivo ends) ; carbon, with four affinities, by an equilateral tetra¬ 
hedron. Each symbol represented an “atom” of the particular 
element, and the different ways in which the figures could be fitted 
together, taken to pieces, and put together again, symbolised the 
behaviour of the “ atoms ” and “ molecules ” of the elements in their 
combination, disintegration, and re-combinations. The models were, 
in fact, the presentation to the eye, in a form easy to be seen and 
remembered, of what the usual chemical formulas attempt to do. The 
whole thing was extremely ingenious, and rendered a very abstruse 
subject fairly intelligible.—June 10th. Mr. F. H. Peters read a paper 
on Goethe,” as a naturalist and evolutionist. In this Mr. Peters 
brought out very clearly, and in a very interesting manner, a side of 
the character of the poet which is often overlooked, and showed how 
greatly indebted modern science is to Goethe for some of the philo¬ 
sophic ideas which underlie the theory of evolution.—July 8th. The 
President, Mr. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., gave a lecture on “Colour in 
Connection with Courtship.” The lecturer chiefly dealt with the 
evidence in favour of Darwin’s theory of sexual selection, which 
depends on the existence of an sesthetic sense in the higher animals— 
say down to the arthropoda. The sufficiency of the evidence as to 
the existence of such a sense has been denied by Wallace. That no 
large amount of evidence does exist may be mainly attributed to two 
causes—the difficulty of observing the courtship habits of animals in 
a wild state, and the fact that the observation of naturalists, where 
possible, had been as yet little directed to this point. The observation 
of domesticated animals might be of little use, their habits and percep¬ 
tions having become so altered by man’s dealing with them to produce 
results to his satisfaction, not theirs. A telling instance of this 
