COUNCIL FOR 1838. 



ANTIQUARIAN MONUMENTS. 



Of mixed interest, as contributing partly to the beauty of the 

 Gardens, and partly to the preservation of a noble monument 

 of antiquity, the securing of the Roman Tower from ruin 

 by a complete repair, may be mentioned as a proof that the 

 wishes of every class of members have been attended to by 

 the Council, as far as the finances of the Society would allow ; 

 and it remains to call attention to some plans by which it 

 is hoped other antiquarian relics may be saved from deso- 

 lation, and employed not only to awaken the solemn memory 

 of days gone by, but to minister to the progress of modern 

 arts and the Ratification of cultivated taste. 



The HospiTiuM of St. Mary's Abbey, adjoining the River 

 Ouse, has experienced since the dissolution of the monastery 

 every variety of destination ; once it received the Lord Presi- 

 dent of the North in great Council, now it is but the receptacle 

 of its own ruins, and unless quickly renovated its very ruins 

 will be lost. Antiquarians and men of taste have seen with 

 regret the rapid progress of its decay, and lamented that the 

 Yorkshire Philosophical Society possessed no sufficient funds 

 to prolong by timely repairs the duration of this picturesque 

 memorial of other times. 



At the request of the Council, Mr. John Harper inspected 

 the building with a view to its reparation ; and an Artist, in 

 whose celebrity York claims the highest interest,* has re- 

 cently pronounced that, if restored almost precisely to its 



* Wm. Etty, Esq., R. A., who, in his elegant discourse on the Cultivation of 

 the Fine Arts, delivered in the Theatre of the Yorkshire Museum, on the 5th 

 of November, 1838, strongly urged the restoration of the Hospitium, as a first 

 step towards the Promotion of the Fine Arts in his native City. 

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