xlviii PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



left a choice and numerous collection of fossils accumulated at 

 that period. In 1824 he became a Fellow of the Linnean Society, 

 and in 1827 of the Medico- Chirurgical : he held also the Commis- 

 sion of a Justice of Peace for the town of Poole. Although it 

 was his express desire that his funeral should be quiet and un- 

 ostentatious, some hundreds of the most respectable inhabitants of 

 the town attended to do honour to his memory, and the closing of 

 shops and private houses in the route through which the funeral 

 was to pass, evinced the deep respect in which he was held. He 

 died at the age of 70. 



The Most Noble Edward Adolphus, Duke of Somerset, K.Q., 

 Vice- Admiral of the Coast of Somersetshire, D.C.L., F.B.S., F.S.A., 

 and a Trustee of the Hunterian Museum, was born at Monkton- 

 Farley in Wiltshire, on the 24th of February 1775. "While in 

 his nineteenth year he succeeded to the title and estates. He was 

 a Member of Christ Church College, Oxford, where the degree of 

 M.A. was conferred upon him in 1794, and that of D.C.L. in 1810. 

 From an early age he evinced an attachment to science : he was 

 elected F.R.S. in 1797 ; in 1816 he became F.S.A., and in 1820 

 F.L.S. For some years he was President of the Eoyal Institu- 

 tion ; and from 1801 to 1838 he was likewise President of the 

 Literary Fund, to which he contributed largely during forty-six 

 years. From 1826 to 1831 he was a Vice-President of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society. At the anniversary of 1834, on the resignation of 

 Lord Stanley, he was elected President of the Linnean Society, 

 and continued to hold that office till the end of 1837, when he 

 resigned and was succeeded in it by the late Lord Bishop of Nor- 

 wich. His uniform courtesy of manners and amiability of temper, 

 combined with the hospitable and friendly reception which he 

 gave to men of literature and science, and the extent of his infor- 

 mation on a wide range of subjects, will cause his memory to be 

 cherished and respected by all who were admitted to the privilege 

 of meeting him in social intercourse. In science he chiefly 

 attached himself to mathematical studies, and published, in 1842, 

 " A Treatise in which the Elementary Properties of the Ellipse 

 are deduced from the Properties of the Circle, and geometrically 

 demonstrated," of which a second edition was printed in the fol- 

 lowing year ; and the investigation was still further pursued in 

 another treatise, entitled " Alternate Circles and their Connexion 

 with the Ellipse," published in 1850. His Grace was twice mar- 

 ried, first to a daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, and secondly to 

 the eldest daughter of Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, Bart., who, 



