THE FIRST WINTER MEETING. XXIX. 



The implement has been examined at the British Museum and also at the 

 Guildhall Museum, London, but as yet no one has satisfactorily explained its 

 use or object. 



Mr. POPE suggested that it was used in a butcher's business 

 for skinning animals something like the old thumb-scraper. 

 Dr. CRALLAN expressed the conviction that it was a shoe-lift. 



THE MANSEL-PLEYDELL MEMORIAL FUND. 

 MUNIFICENT GIFT OF LORD EUSTACE CECIL. 



The PRESIDENT read the following letter from the ex- 

 President, Lord Eustace Cecil, who, he was sorry, could not be 

 with them that day : 



" Lytchett Heath, Poole, December 13th. My dear Mr. Nelson M. Richardson, 

 I grieve to say that, contrary to my expectations yesterday, I do not feel 

 sufficiently recovered from my recent attack of illness to justify me in attending 

 our Club meeting to-day. I cannot tell you what a great disappointment it is to 

 me, and I can only ask you kindly to express to all the Members present my very 

 sincere regret that I am unable to fulfil the engagement I had been so long 

 looking forward to. When the subject of the Mansel-Pleydell Memorial Fund 

 was first mooted two years ago, I think I am not mistaken in saying that there 

 was a general desire to hand down to posterity the memory of our late President 

 in the manner most agreeable to himself and to his family. A sum of money was 

 collected among the Members of the Club and other friends throughout the 

 country, and, after defraying the expense of executing a copy of his portrait, 

 there remained a balance of 83, and the question then arose what should be 

 done with the surplus of the money? And for a time it was decided to aPow the 

 fund to accumulate. When I succeeded as President after some consideration 

 it seemed to me that the best mode of applying the surplus was to increase the 

 great utility of the Club in some permanent form ; and, failing any better 

 scheme, I made up my mind to suggest the appropriation of the balance, 

 strengthened by such an additional sum as seemed to me necessary for the 

 purpose, to the further encouragement of scientific knowledge in this county. I 

 have always, I hope, fully recognised the advantages of this Club in the past, 

 holding out as it does the attraction of summer meetings with the gathering 

 together of Members, their friends and families, anxious to know a little more of 

 the beautiful old county they live in, and the antiquities with which they are 

 surrounded ; and, also, I must not pass by our winter debates, replete with quaint 

 knowledge and curious discoveries. But I am still more ambitious as to the 

 future. Though I am not one of those who think that our race is degenerating, or 

 our workmen falling off in skill and workmanship, still none of us can be blind to 



