X1Y. 
ANNXVEESAEY ADDEESS. 
THE HOESE. 
Ey the President, the Eight Honourable the Eael of Claeendon. 
Delivered at the Annual Meeting , 1 6th February, 1891, at Watford. 
Ladies and Gentlemen,— 
I cannot claim to myself the credit of having made any material 
addition to the archives of the Hertfordshire Natural History 
Society by the Address I delivered last year, nor do I suppose that 
my aspirations to-night will meet with greater success; hut I 
consider that any one who occupies the important position which 
I have the honour to hold, namely, that of your President, should 
strive to the utmost to he practical in his utterances, and, not so 
much to deliver an address teeming with well-rounded periods, as 
to impart information to his hearers ; and although I do not think it 
likely that I can add to the storehouse of your knowledge, it may 
he that you and I look on the subject I am about to consider in 
different lights and from a different point of view. 
I think it is only part of human nature to accept the situation, 
not to enquire too closely into the why and wherefore, and not 
fully to recognise the value of our possessions until we are on the 
eve of losing them or have actually lost them; but it is expedient 
sometimes to consider what we should be, what we should do, 
without these possessions,—if we were to be deprived of something 
which forms part of and enters closely into our daily life. 
Let us imagine for one moment the non-existence of the horse. 
I think that you will agree with me that in that event there are 
many callings, many trades and professions, which would be 
irretrievably injured. It is true that what is called the “iron 
horse” has for the last half-century superseded the necessity for 
the living animal for many purposes of traffic; but take for instance 
agriculture, one of the principal occupations of the country. Can 
it be supposed that the farmer would be able successfully to carry 
out the various processes of his calling without the aid of the 
horse ? It will be said that oxen are often used for the purpose of 
ploughing the land, but this is in places where agriculture is 
carried on under somewhat primitive conditions. Again it might 
