REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOE THE YEAR 1881.
[Read at the Second Annual General Meeting, held at
Buckhurst Hill, January 28th, 1882.]
The Council has great pleasure in announcing the continued and
increasing prosperity of the Essex Field Club since its formation in
January, 1880. Enthusiastic views as the future of the Society were
often met by gloomy forebodings as to the difficulties of steering such an
association through the the second year of its existence, when the
attraction of novelty had perhaps worn off before any real and lasting
work had been accomplished, and before the Society had earned its title
to respect and to steady and hearty support. It may safely be asserted
that the Club has left such dangers well in its wake, or rather that it has
never encountered them ; and the rapid increase in its numbers and the
intelligent interest taken in its proceedings have been constant and very
gratifying experiences during the year 1881.
Since the last Report (which gave a summary of the work of the
Society up to 31st December, 1880), 102 ordinary members and 5 honorary
members have been elected, of whom 3 have compounded for their annual
subscriptions; 14 members have resigned; 1 has been removed for non-
payment of subscription, and the Council records with great regret the
loss of two original members by death—Sir Antonio Brady and Mr.
Walter Weston. Short obituary notices of these gentlemen will be given
by the President in his annual address.
The census of the Club at the end of the years 1880 and 1881 was
therefore as follows :—
1880. 1881.
Honorary members ...................... 4 9
Life members............................ 7 10
Ordinary members........................ 213 295
224 314
Showing a net increase of 90 members during the past year. This result
may be taken as an index of the rapid rise of the Club in public esteem,
and there seems to be no reason for believing that the supply of candi-
dates for admission into the Society is exhausted. Satisfactory as the
roll now is, the annual income is not enough to publish well-illustrated
' Transactions ' to the full extent desired—an increase of (say) 100 sub-
scribers to the funds of the Club would enable the Council to print half