16 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 
Mr. A. W. Mera. 
It may not have been recognised by all our members that as 
this Society was founded in 1885, this year we celebrate our Jubilee. 
The Society was founded by a number of local entomologists, and was 
started under the name of the Haggerston Entomological Society. I 
am told by our friend, Mr. J. A. Clark, who, I think I am right in 
saying, is one of our oldest members, that the first meeting place was 
at the Carpenter’s Arms, Queens Road, Dalston, and after a few years 
the meetings were removed to the Brownlow Arms, Dalston, where the 
Society continued to prosper for many years. There the list of members 
vastly increased, at times numbering over 100, while the number 
attending the meetings was frequently as many as 30 or 40. In those 
palmy days, the Society’s room appears to have been the meeting place 
of almost all the best known entomologists of every description, 
including among many others, such familiar names as Doubleday, 
Stainton, E. Newman, S. Stevens, Ivnaggs, Cooke, Standish, Ashmead, 
and Meek. After a time, there appears to have been a desire, on the 
part of a certain section of the members, to disconnect themselves 
with the association of a public house as a place of meeting. This 
brought about a division, some of the members taking themselves off 
to smaller Societies, while the main body migrated to the City, where 
a room was taken at the Albion, London Wall; afterwards, for a short 
period, the Society met at 38, Finsbury Square, and finally, with the 
assistance of some of the members of the London Institute, we were 
able to obtain our present room. 
As the science of Entomology is of comparatively modern growth, 
we claim to be one of the pioneer societies connected with our favourite 
study. The progress that has taken place in these 50 years, has been 
great indeed, but we all owe a tribute of respect, not only to such 
names as Doubleday and Stainton, who were connected with this 
Society, but to many of the more humble and obscure workers, when 
we consider what an immense amount of knowledge was acquired 
under difficult circumstances, and also how comparatively few facts 
then recorded have since been contradicted. 
The place and methods of our meetings have also vastly improved. 
I remember some 30 years ago, going as a visitor, to one of the 
meetings of the Haggerston Entomological Society, at the Brownlow 
Arms, aforementioned, in a spacious room over the bar, each member 
being provided with a long “ clay,” while the necessary refreshments 
were served from below, under which soothing influences the science 
of Entomology was keenly pursued. Now, things have changed, and 
for many years we have been fortunate in being able to hold our 
meetings in surroundings more appropriate if less convivial. 
Our Society still retains it character as a field-working entomologists’ 
meeting place ; and although to some, it may seem that the same thing 
is repeated again and again, yet we must remember that there is an 
xviii. 
