president's address. 99 



Secretary, having previously been enriclied by contributions 

 from the same donor.) Upon the return of Mr. Loftus from 

 Nineveh, he received an appointment on the staff of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey of India ; and his labours in that capacity were only 

 interrupted by the breaking out of the mutiny and war. His 

 health having suffered from a coup de soleil, received in the dis- 

 charge of his duties, and also from repeated attacks of fever, 

 caught on the low lying shores of the Euphrates and the Tigris, 

 and in the marshy grounds of Assyria (which had sapped a 

 constitution previously sound and vigorous), he was ordered to 

 Rangoon to recruit. In the beginning of November he embarked 

 for England; and before he had been a week at sea, he suc- 

 cumbed, alas, to his fatal malady. Mr. Loftus was well-known in 

 Newcastle, where his kindly disposition, amiable temper, and 

 winning manners, made him many friends, by whom his un- 

 timely end is greatly regretted. He was also highly appreciated 

 in scientific circles; and the learned Chevalier Bunsen, by whom 

 he was much esteemed, obtained, while Prussian Minister at the 

 Court of St. James, some of his Nineveh sculptures for the 

 Royal Museum at Berlin. Mr. Loftus was the reputed dis- 

 coverer of the city or cemetery of Warka, the ancient Erech, the 

 birthplace of Abraham. The earthenware coffins sent thence to 

 the British Museum were so uncommon and remarkable, that a 

 new department had to be formed for their reception ; and many 

 other of his contributions to that great national collection of 

 antiquities are also regarded as unique. Mr. Loftus, although 

 not actually a native, always regarded himself as "a son of 

 Newcastle." He was born however at Rye, in Sussex, and was 

 grandson of the late Mr. Loftus, the well-known coach proprie- 

 tor in Newcastle. He was for some years a pupil of the New- 

 castle Grammar School ; and went thence first to Twickenham, 

 and afterwards to Cambridge. * A better man, a more zealous 

 and faithful public servant,' says General Williams (in a letter 

 of condolence to surviving friends), 'never lived.' " 



In conclusion, I beg to express my personal acknowledgments 

 to our corresponding Secretary, Mr. H. T. Mennell, for the zeal 

 and ability evinced by him in promoting the objects and in- 



