ANNUAL MEETING. 165 
MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
SECOND ANNUAL MEETING, AT LEICESTER. 
The Council of the Union met at one o’clock in the new Leicester 
Town Hall, on Tuesday, May 20th, 1879. There were twenty-six 
delegates present, representing sixteen societies. After the reading of 
the Secretaries’ report, and the preparation of the business to be laid 
before the general meeting, the Council adjourned to the Royal Hotel, in 
Horsefair Street, where they were entertained at luncheon by the 
President, Mr. George Stevenson, together with the office bearers of the 
Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, the Mayor of Leicester, 
(C. Stretton, Esq.,) C. Packe, Esq., (President-elect of the Leicester 
Literary and Philosophical Society,) &c. 
During the progress of the Council meeting the visitors who were 
not engaged in officially representing the societies to which they belonged, 
were conducted to the principal objects of antiquity in Leicester by the 
members of the Archeological Section of the Literary and Philosophical 
Society, the arrangements having been made by the chairman (Mr. W. 
Kelly) and the hon. sec. (Mr. A. H. Paget.) The company met at the 
Museum, and proceeded to the Newarke, where Mr. W. Kelly, F.R.H.S., 
explained the celebrated gateway, pointing out that it was the principal 
entrance to the newest part of Leicester Castle, and derived its name 
of the New-works gateway in consequence. He further mentioned that 
a collegiate church formerly stood on the site of Mr. HE. §. Ellis’s house, 
and that the St. Mary’s vicarage house and the residence of Mr. Lawrence 
Willmore were at one time canons’ housesin connection with the church, 
Trinity Hospital was shown, and then the party walked on the turret 
gateway, which Mr. Kelly said was the old entrance to the Castle Turret, 
Thirty years ago, at a contested election for the county, part of the 
masonry fell, fortunately without doing any injury to anybody, and 
with a view to make the place a picturesque ruin(!), the old dome, 
which was perfect, was taken down by order of the Duchy of Lancaster, at 
the suggestion of Mr. §. Hardy. The stone work is now, unfortunately, 
crumbling away. Mr. T. Nevinson then explained the characteristics of 
St. Mary’s Church, pointing out the interesting relics of Norman and 
early English work to be found there. He said the earliest part of the 
edifice would be erected about 1107, but other parts were added in 1170 
and 1280. Mr. Kelly next conducted the party through the Castle, showed 
the traces of Norman architecture there, and then the Guildhall was 
visited. Mr. Kelly mentioned how the hall came into the possession of 
the Corporation after the dispersion of the Corpus Christi Guild, spoke 
of the uses to which it was put, and the circumstance that Shakespeare 
probably played in the hall. The Mayor’s Parlour and Town Library 
attracted much notice, especially the chimney-piece in the first named 
apartment. St. Martin’s Church was next entered, Mr. Nevinson 
explaining the principal features in the fine edifice, which, he said, how- 
ever, was not so interesting as St. Mary’s. A portion of the party then 
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