6 



The Museum is a subject not only of continued, 

 but of increasing attraction to our townsmen and to 

 strangers ; the visiters have been more numerous than 

 in any former year ; on Monday and Tuesday in Easter 

 week, upwards of six hundred and fifty persons were 

 admitted. That many of these were of the working 

 classes, so far from lessening the advantage conferred 

 on the town by this branch of the Society's operations, 

 is a strong proof of its real usefulness ; it shows that a 

 taste for amusement of an intellectual character exists 

 to a great extent among a class to whom this Society 

 affords means for its indulgence, which would not 

 otherwise be within their reach. 



It is due to the visiters to the Museum to state, 

 that their conduct is generally marked by order and 

 propriety, and that the specimens have not received 

 material damage from so free an admission. It is 

 believed by some, that the disposition to wanton mis- 

 chief, with which our countrymen have so often been 

 reproached, would be lessened, if public buildings and 

 the curiosities which they contain, were rendered more 

 easy of access; the experience of this Society is 

 certainly favourable to liberal arrangements in this 

 respect. 



The feelings of the Society on occasion of the 

 death of their late vahicd Curator, John Hey, Esq. 



