406 Rise, Progress, and Present State 



Laying ihejirst Stone. The honour of this operation was 

 committed to Lord Lyttelton, who expressed these sentiments 

 on the performance of it : — 



" Of public buildings the noblest undoubtedly are those 

 which are erected for the immediate worship of the Almighty : 

 the next such as are subservient to the relief of human in- 

 firmities ; but next to these, and scarcely second to them, are 

 edifices intended to be subservient to the diffusion of know- 

 ledge, and which lead the mind of man more immediately to 

 the contemplation of the works of God, and to the intellectual 

 and moral consequences which must necessarily flow from 

 that contemplation. In laying the first stone, then, of this 

 intended Museum of Natural History, I have acquitted my- 

 self of a duty particularly grateful to my feelings, and have 

 laid the foundation of a structure which I trust ere long to 

 see reared to its full height, and stored abundantly with spe- 

 cimens of whatever is most useful and interesting from the 

 lap of this, our charming county. I trust also that the mem- 

 bers who assemble within its walls will be enlightened by men 

 of learning and genius ; that it will become delightful by 

 the congregating of amiable society, and resorted to through 

 many generations by an improving race of intelligent, inqui- 

 sitive, learned, and pious men. Let this structure then speedily 

 stand in your streets, not only one of the best ornaments of 

 your city, but let it prove a full, copious, and overflowing 

 fountain to your fellow-citizens, of light and knowledge, and 

 diffusive instruction. So shall the best hopes of all good men 

 of all parties in the country be realised, and so shall I look 

 back to the duties which I have this day performed with in- 

 expressible and unmingled satisfaction." 



The Dinner. " Upwards of 100 gentlemen sat down to 

 dinner in the large room at the Bell inn." J. Williams, Esq., 

 presided. Of the toasts and speeches proffered, the notice of 

 which occupies in the Worcester Herald of May 30. more 

 than a column and a half, it only consorts with our object to 

 notice those which follow. — "On the withdrawal of the cloth, 

 the president gave in succession, the King, with three times 

 three; the Queen, and the Princess Victoria. He had next 

 to request that they would drink to the memory of that prince 

 of naturalists Linnaeus," whom he eulogised. The toast was 

 drunk standing and in solemn silence. 



A succmct History of the Rise, Progress, and Present State 

 of the Worcestershire Natural History Society. We present 

 two extracts from the speech of Mr. Lees, which seem to us 

 to justify our titular head ; and this embraces, we conceive, 



