20 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



Sir Ernest Clarke exhibited by permission of the owner, 

 15 pages of MS. by Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), of the first 

 section of his book relating to birds in his ' History of the Earth, 

 or Animated Nature,' 1774. 



These pages of manuscript once belonged to Dr. Thomas Percy, 

 afterwards Bishop of Dromore (1729-1811), who was an intimate 

 friend of Goldsmith, and collected materials shortly after the 

 poet's death for a Memoir of him. Owing to disputes with the 

 publishers, this Memoir was not pubhshed until 1801, as part of 

 the 4 vols, of " Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.," 

 and then without the Bishop's imprimatur : but the following 

 passage from it is evidently of Percy's composition, and is no 

 doubt based to some extent upon the MS. now shown : — 



" His elegant and entertaining style in prose flowed from him 

 with such facility that in whole quires of his histories, Animated 

 Nature, &c., he had seldom occasion to correct or alter a single 

 word." (Vol. i. p. 133.) 



Cf. Dr. Johnson at the Dinner of the Literary Club, 30 April, 

 1773 : " Sir, he [Goldsmith] has the art of compiling and of 

 saying everything he has to say in a pleasing manner. He is now 

 writing a Natural History, and he will make it as entertaining as 

 a Persian Tale." 



The Treasurer laid his Annual Statement of Accounts before 

 the Meeting, and explained the various items of receipts and 

 expenditure, and the same was received and adopted upon the 

 motion of the President (see pp. 22-24). 



The General Secretary then laid his Annual E-eport before the 

 Meeting, thus : — 



Since the last Anniversary 18 Pellows had died, or their deaths 

 been ascertained : — 



Benjamin James Austin. 

 Albert William Bateman- 



Brown. 

 John Blaikie. 

 Sir Edmund Buckley. 

 The Eev. Eobert Ashiugton 



Bullen. 

 Frederick Merryweather 



Burton. 

 James Charles Cox, M.D. 

 Herbert Druce. 



The Eev. John Gerard, S.J. 



Henry Groves. 



William Thomas Hindmarsh. 



John Hughes. 



Allan Octavian Hume. 



Frederick Halsey Janson. 



William Forsell Kirby. 



Lieut.-Col. John Scully. 



Prancis Gray Smart. 



Sir Charles Whitehead, Kt. 



Also 2 Foreign Members : — 

 Prof. Dr. Paul Friederich August Ascherson *. 

 Prof. Dr. Theodor Magnus Fries, K.N.O. 



* Included since the reading of this report. 



