OF THE SOCIETY. 131 



1913. 



The FrciJiklin Museu??t at Anca?ilhe, Kangaroo Valley 

 (1842). 



Early in 1842 Lady Franklin purchase-d two blocks of 

 land, one of 400 acres, and one of 10 aores^ together forming 

 the "Ancanthe"' estate, situated in Kangaroo Valley, "a 

 "secluded but picturesque valley at the foot of Mount 

 ''Wellington, three miles from the city and a mile from 

 "New Town." (26) On the smaller block Sir John Franklin, 

 on 12th March, 1842, laid the foundation of a museum, 

 to bei built "on a classic model" and collections and a 

 library were placed in the building. "It was originally 

 "intended by Lady Franklin," writes Sir John Franklin, 

 (27) ''that the Tasmanian Society of Natural History should 

 "be the trustees of this property, but as that body had no 

 "legal or chartered existence, and was, moreover, threat- 

 "ened with extinction when I left Van Diemen's Land, 

 "this part of her wishes could be no further carried into 

 "effect than by making complimentary mention of them 

 "in the aeed, and selecting the trustees from their number. 

 "Some circumstances which occun^ed in Van Diemen's 

 "Land, shortly before my departure, induce m© to be thus 

 "minute. • . . The endowment was not made to the 

 "favourite foundation at New Norfolk, for over this the 

 ''sbadowsof aui)ihilation had already fallen, but to any col- 

 "legiate institution whatever which might be founded in Van 

 "Diemen's Land with the approbation of the bishop of 

 "the diocese for twenty years t-o come, and in default of 

 "any such foundation at the end of that period, to the 

 "improvement of the existing schools of the colony at the 

 "discretion of the trustees." 



Anticipating a, later part of this narrative, it may be 

 added here that the completion of the deed of settlement 

 was> onei of the last acts of Sir John and Lady Franklin, 

 who executed it on 2nd November, 1843, tiie day before 

 they embarked from Hobart for England. The trustees 

 under the dee-d were Bishop Nixon, Mr. J. E. Bicheno 

 (Colonial Secretary), the Rev. T. J. Ewing (Principal of the 

 Queen's Oi*phan Schools, New Town), the Rev. J. P. Gell, 

 and Mr. R. C. Gunn. The trust in regard to the Tas- 

 manian Society directed that until a College or University, 

 having the approbation of the Bishop, should be estab- 

 lished, the trustees were to permit the Museum "to be used 

 "and inspected by the Society for some time established in 



(26) Captain H. Butler Stoney, A Year in Tcsmania (Hobart, 1854^ 

 p. 156. 



(27) Narrative, p. 78. 



