ANNUAL REPORT. 



Your Committee, in presenting this their Annual Report, beg 

 to remind the Members of the Society that this is their 

 Twenty-first Anniversary. In one sense the Society attains its 

 majority, and in doing so we can only trust it has attained that 

 maturity which, profiting by experience, may give it courage to 

 enter on its future with renewed activity and zeal. The past 

 twenty-one years have brought us in contact with great changes, 

 but we still have amongst us many of those who shared our 

 tentative efforts in the old Bishop's Palace, where now stands 

 the King's School. This infancy of the Society was stimulated 

 by the presiding genius and enthusiasm of our Founder, 

 Charle.s Kingsley. In 1876 Prof. T. McKenny Hughes 

 was elected President of the Society. By this time we had 

 moved into the Albion Rooms, Lower Bridge Street, where 

 much good work was done and many admirable Lectures 

 delivered, and on the whole we may be said to have passed a 

 vigorous boyhood. In 1886, by steady effort and the generous 

 aid of patrons and friends, we attained the sum of our ambition, 

 a Museum, in which to house and preserve our local collections, 

 and in which we have also secured appliances and conveniences 

 for carrying on our work which we never before possessed. 

 In 1 89 1 our President, Prof. T. McKenny Hughes, retired 

 from the office he had occupied for fifteen years. The 

 Society will ever owe him a deep debt of gratitude for his ready 

 sympathy and the many ways in which he promoted our best 

 interests. As all work tends to development we have of 

 late been adding to our numbers many young and ardent 

 students, and their tendency has necessarily been to take up 

 new subjects and to divide into small Sections ; but as these 

 Sections depend greatly on the enthusiasm of a few, they hold 

 their position only for a time. One Section which has been 



