Woolhope Naturalists' Field

TUESDAY, APRIL 4TH, 1893.

Club.

THE Annual Meeting was held in the Woolhope Club Room, Hereford, on Tuesday, April 4th, In the unavoidable absence of Mr. W. Henry Barneby (the retiring President), the chair was taken by the President elect, the Rev. Preb. W. H. Lambert. The following Members were present:-Revs. H. A. Barker, J. O. Bevan, E. R. Firmstone, C. S. Hagreen, E. J. Holloway, A. W. Horton, H. B. D. Marshall, H. North, M. G. Watkins, and H. Trevor Williamson; Colonel J. C. Little; Captain de Winton; Messrs. F. Bainbridge, W. G. Banks, H. C. Beddoe, C. G. Blathwayt, Langton Brown, J. Carless, Jun., R. Clarke, G. Davies, James Davies, Dr. J. B. Fitzsimons, T. Hutchinson, O. Shellard, H. Southall, H. G. Sugden, J. P. Sugden, H. Vevers, and Alfred Watkins, with Mr. H. C. Moore, Honorary Secretary, and Mr. James B. Pilley, Assistant Secretary.

The following were elected Members :-The Rev. C. H. Binstead, Eardisley; Mr. E. Conder, New Court, Colwall; The Rev. A. W. Foster, Brockhampton Court, Ross; and Mr. J. F. Hawkins, of Kinnersley. Six names were proposed to be balloted for at the next meeting: The Rev. E. R. Burroughes, Ashperton, Mr. Arthur Corner, the Rev. C. E. Craigie, Kington, Mr. Percy Groom, His Honour Judge Harris Lea, and Mr. F. H. Merrick.

The financial statement, representing a balance of £9 8s. 1d., was presented by the Treasurer, Mr. H. C. Beddoe.

The Assistant Secretary observed that the past year had been most successful, both numerically and financially. A volume of the Transactions, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, had been published at a cost of £126, and after every liability incurred, a balance remained to the credit of the Club. The number of Members during 1892 was 195, including an unusual addition of 30 new Members. In 1884, when the total, 191, most nearly approached this maximum, the receipts were £83 in comparison with £108 in 1892; and the arrears in 1884 were £41 against £4 10s. in 1892. The losses by death and resignation had been smaller than usual. Two deaths had occurred-those of the Rev. E. A. Ely, of Trewyn, and Mr. T. B. Acton, of Wrexham. Five Members had resigned, and two, having failed for three years to pay their subscriptions, had been struck off the list in compliance with Rule 3. The number of Members on the list on January 1st, 1893, was 186, in comparison with 164 on January 1st, 1892. Although the original Members had all passed away, Mr. Thomas Blashill, who joined the Club in 1853, two years after its institution, had this year attained his fortieth year of membership.

A letter was read from Mr. James W. Lloyd, proposing that on the circular detailing the programme of the last field meeting of the year, members should be invited to submit to the Honorary Secretary, before January 1st following, suggestions for places of field meeting for the year, giving full particulars of objects of interest, modes of conveyance, distances, condition of roads, accommodation, &c., such programmes to be considered at a previous meeting of the Central Committee, whose report and recommendations should be brought before Members at the Annual Meeting, one day's excursion being, in all cases, reserved for the suggestion of the President of the year. This proposal was favourably received and recommended for adoption.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Books received during the year, partly by purchase, but chiefly by interchange of publications with kindred societies, were placed on the table. Annals of Geology, by Prof. J. F. Blake; The Official Year Book of Learned Societies of Great Britain and Ireland for 1893; Report of the British Association, Edinburgh, 1892; The Church and Monastery of Moche Malvern, presented by the Author, James Nott. Publications of the following Societies:-Bristol Naturalists' Society, 1891-1892; Cardiff Naturalists' Society, 1891; Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club, 1891-1892; Dudley and Midland Geological and Scientific Society and Field Club; Essex Field Club; Marlborough College Natural History Society;

and Yorkshire Naturalists' Union.

Mr. Moore exhibited 112 pages, already printed, of the forthcoming volume of Transactions for the years 1890, 1891, and 1892, on the completion of which volume during the course of the present year, the many years of arrears will have been made up.

ARCHEOLOGICAL MAP.

The Rev. J. O. Bevan and Mr. James Davies, Honorary Secretaries of the Archæological Map Committee, exhibited, in an advanced state of progress, the Map of the City of Hereford, and the Map of the County of Hereford, the latter on the scale of one inch to the mile, indicating the site, and, by means of symbols, the nature, of ancient remains, sub-divided into Præ-Roman, Roman, AngloSaxon, and Mediæval.

Mr. James Davies read the following Report :-"The Honorary Secretaries of the Herefordshire Archæological Map Committee are called upon to report what progress has been made since the last Annual Meeting of the Woolhope Club towards the completion of this much-desired work. In their report last year it was stated that upwards of seven hundred of the forms of prospectus and tabular return had been forwarded to the clergy, magistrates, county councillors, and principal landowners, with a request that they would kindly note any objects of Archæological interest in their respective neighbourhoods, but your Secretaries regret to say that these circulars and returns were not very numerously answered, and in the result your Secretaries themselves carefully looked over the whole of

the Maps contained in the three volumes specially bound together for the Woolhope Club, and in this way and with the assistance of many friends who have kindly responded to their application and forwarded returns, they have compiled the draft of a topographical index of about five hundred Archæological objects of varied character, under the several heads of the Præ-Roman, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Mediæval, and are now denoting the same upon the large Map of Herefordshire on the scale of an inch to a mile. In this work they have much pleasure in stating that they have received much able assistance from Mr. Robert Clarke. Your Secretaries now desire the aid of the Members of the Woolhope Club in checking, as well as adding to, the draft index, for it is feared that there may be many objects of antiquarian interest which may be known only to residents in the different localities where they are situated. And your Secretaries suggest that their draft index shall be passed round to such Members as will kindly peruse the same, with the view of rendering it as perfect as possible. A hint has already been given in the public periodicals that it would be desirable to form an Historical Society for Herefordshire, and your Secretaries consider that this index and map would form a good basis for work in that direction. As respects the funds, your Secretaries have to report that they are exhausted, and an appeal will have to be made for further assistance. The total amount of donations to the present time are £27 1s., and the payments £27 5s. Sd. In the meantime it is hoped that those members of the Woolhope Club who have not already subscribed to the Archæological Map Fund, will kindly assist with donations to enable the work to proceed until it is completed."

On behalf of the Club, Mr. Moore thanked the Honorary Secretaries for the highly creditable work they had performed, which displayed a considerable devotion of time and labour upon their part, notwithstanding the comparatively small assistance they had received in reply to their seven hundred applications to residents in the County. At the same time, he called upon the Members of the Woolhope Club to give without delay all the aid in their power to bringing this subject to an early completion. With reference to the formation of an Historical Society for Herefordshire, Mr. Moore pointed out how easy of execution this was by calling upon the Members of the Club to form a section, which should devote their interests and pursuits towards local history. The Club, although originally instituted as a Club for the study of "Natural History in all its branches," had given many a page of Historical and of Archæological subjects in its Transactions. The Transactions teemed with the Local Botany and Geology of the County, in addition to the Geology of the fourteen districts described in the volume for 1866, and revised by the late Rev. W. S. Symonds in the first pages of the Flora of Herefordshire, in which the Botany of the whole county had been so excellently given. The volume for 1887 contained a very satisfactory list of the Lepidoptera of the county. In course of time more might be added to the Birds of Herefordshire published in 1888.* The resources of our naturalists had been so drained that, as would be seen by an inspection of the Transactions, they had been compelled to

* The "Ornithology of Herefordshire," from 1889 to 1893, by W. C. Ashdown, F.Z.S., occupying pages 381 to 386 of the Volume 1890-92, had not at this period been published.

draw upon local history to fill up the pages. They were all well aware that the many papers on historical subjects had gained many attentive hearers. Whilst deprecating the formation of any independent Historical Society outside the Club, Mr. Moore showed that the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club was competent to grasp this branch of study. If objections were raised that archæology and local history did not come within the objects for which the Club was established as the "Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club," he would move upon some future occasion, of which a preliminary notice was now given, the addition of a few words to Rule 1, so as to embrace Archæology and Local History within their lawful and constitutional attention. Mr. Moore earnestly called upon Members who had not assisted the funds of the Archæological Map Committee to send donations to Mr. James Davies, 132, Widemarsh Street, where the maps and the manuscripts might be inspected, and he quoted from a letter from the Society of Antiquaries that "If the map be prepared and the prefatory remarks and index communicated, the Society of Antiquaries would bear the expense of preparing the map and setting the index, &c., in type, and the Woolhope Club could have what copies were wanted at the mere expense of print and paper."

DATES AND PLACES OF FIELD MEETINGS FOR
THIS YEAR.

These were fixed as follows:-Tuesday, May 23rd, the Brown Clee Hill; Thursday, June 29th, Ledbury, for South of Malvern Range; Thursday, July 27th (the ladies' day), Water-break-its-neck, near New Radnor; Tuesday, August 22nd, Kyre Park oak trees, &c.

METEOROLOGY.

OUR member, Mr. H. SOUTHALL, writes to the Ross Gazette, of April 27th, under the Heading of

HEAT AND DROUGHT IN MARCH.

March, 1893, will long be remembered in Ross as well as in other parts of Great Britain, as one of the most remarkable months on record. The only rain throughout the whole month, enough to wet the ground, fell during the early morning of the 3rd, with a high and rising barometer, in the form of a misty drizzle, yielding when measured, just one-tenth of an inch in quantity. A few flakes of snow on the 17th, not enough to cover the ground, was all that fell in the month. There were no gales, or strong easterly winds, and very little of that cold, overcast, and bleak weather, of which we have had so much in recent spring

seasons.

The total amount of rainfall for the month was 21, or one-fifth of an inch. This is less than that of any March since 1840, when 05 was registered at Dewchurch, by the late Captain Pendergrass. March, 1852, according to the late Mr. Purchas, had 23, or about the same as the present year. The smallest amount registered by myself since 1859 was 75 in 1879-but as the drought continues at the time of writing this to be still unbroken, I may have again to refer to it by way of comparison.

The amount of bright sunshine and the clear and cloudless skies which have prevailed, with but little break, for so long, are also special features of interest. On 17 days the sky was almost free from cloud at 9 a.m., and on many other days when overcast early, the sky has become clear by noon.

The air at times has been very dry, and on several occasions, as much as 14 degrees difference was observed between the readings of the wet and dry bulb thermometer. This state of things, accompanied by the hot sunshine, has much dried up the surface of the ground; and the range of temperature, that is, the difference between the heat by day and cold by night, has been unusually great, and has probably amounted to at least 80 degrees in the 24 hours. There were 22 ground frosts during the month, that on the night of the 19th showing more than 12 degrees of frost. The number of frosts at four feet above ground was 12, the lowest temperature recorded in the screen being 240 or eight degrees of frost. From the 17th to 31st, inclusive, there was frost every night; so many consecutive frosts are very unusual, even in mid-winter.

The number of days on which the temperature exceeded 60 degrees in the shade was 13. This, as far as I know, is entirely unprecedented for March. The hottest day was the 30th, when 69'0 was recorded, and is equal to the average for June. The mean of the highest by day for the whole month being 58.8, which is about five degrees more than in 1882, the highest previously recorded.

The wind has been variable, about 20 days more or less westerly, and 11 days more or less easterly.