317 



It is proposed to offer these collections to the Trustees of the Free Library and 

 Museum, to be exhibited in the latter place, on the condition of their remaining 

 the property of the Woolhope Club, and being marked as such in the cases 

 provided for them. Towards the expense of such cases it is of course only 

 reasonable that the Club should offer some substantial assistance. And at the 

 same time I think we might ask the Trustees, and I feel sure that we should 

 receive a favourable reply, if they would be good enough, in the arrange- 

 ment of their books in this room, to set aside some few shelves distinctly 

 for the reception of such volumes as belong to the Club, which otherwise, 

 and under the existing state of things, may run some risk of being absorbed 

 into the general property of the Free Library. I cannot quite leave this 

 portion of my remarks without urging as strongly as I may upon the members of 

 the Club the desirability of their using much effort, every one as it may come in 

 his way, towards the improvement of the Museum and the increasing its value, 

 by the enlargement of its contents. It is needless for me to say a word as to what 

 interest such a Museum, well supported and carefully tended, is capable of 

 supplying, or, indeed, as to how much of usefulness as an educational agency may 

 be made to attach to it. And those of us who have had the opportunity of seeing 

 how the Shrewsbury Museum has been developed under the management of 

 Mr. W. Phillips, or what the Museum at Ludlow became under the fostering care 

 of our fellow member, the late Mr. Cocking, and how it is maintained under the 

 equally skilled attention of our friend Mr. Charles Fortey, can have little doubt 

 of what a good thing we might make if we chose of that which we possess in 

 Hereford. I sincerely hope members of the Club may be found who will direct 

 their attention to this matter, and to the utilisation, for the purpose of rendering the 

 Museum what it ought to be, a first-rate one of its kind, of the abundant resources 

 which this county and neighbourhood can boast of, not only in the sphere of 

 natural history, but particularly in that of Archaeology, and of so-called pre- 

 historic antiquities. 



And now, gentlemen, that I have detained you at too great length with 

 but meagre and cursory discoursing of many things, I have but one thing 

 more to add. It is the renewed expression, as I vacate this chair, of my warm 

 thanks for the signal honour you have done me in allowing me to occupy it 

 for these two years. The recollection of that honour and of those years will, I do 

 assure you, always remain most valuable to me, to be cherished with an unalloyed 

 satisfaction, to be indulged in with the purest pleasure. I tender my thanks to 

 every member of the Club with whom in that period I have come in contact, for 

 the very great courtesy and kindness they have one and all extended to me during 

 my temporary pre-eminence. I tender my thanks particularly to the officials (.f the 

 Club, to the members of the Central Committee who have ;dlowed nie to work with 

 them (I would hope to some useful f)urpose), and especially to the Secretary and 

 Assistant Secretary for exertions which have made my own task an easy and a 

 light one, and for the loyalty with which they have always been good enough to 

 receive and act on any such suggestions as I have felt called upon from time to 

 time to make to them. I cordially welcome my successor in the Presidency to a 



