Ix. THE LATE LORD EUSTACE CECIL. 



in a President of such a Society. Not only had he made his 

 mark by the extraordinarily lucid and interesting summaries 

 of the year which he had delivered that day and twelve 

 months ago, but they had also all felt that in him they had 

 had a fit head of a County Club. They were especially 

 indebted to Lord Eustace Cecil for the efforts which he had 

 made in obtaining important accessions to the membership, as 

 was shewn by the fact that the Club was now supported by 

 the most influential residents in the County and was assuming 

 its proper position." Mr. Bosworth Smith added that "he 

 had thrown himself into the work with all that energy which 

 was characteristic of the great Cecil family." During his 

 Presidency he read to the Club two Addresses, chiefly on the 

 advances of Science during the past year, dwelling perhaps 

 especially on Archaeology in connection with primitive man.* 

 Shortly after his retirement from the Presidency, in May, 

 1904, when the present writer was appointed to be his 

 successor, Lord Eustace wrote to him a letter which will be 

 found printed in full.f In it he alludes to the raising of a fund 

 in memory of the late Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, from which, after 

 paying for the execution of a portrait which now hangs in the 

 Dorset County Museum, there remained a substantial balance. 

 This balance he proposed to increase by the very handsome 

 donation of 300 Foreign American and General Trust Co. 

 deferred stock, bringing in altogether about 18 per annum, 

 and to found therewith two medals to be called the Mansel- 

 Pleydell and Cecil Medals respectively, with a prize of 5 

 attached to each, the former to be awarded for the best paper 

 on some subject, preferably Dorset in Natural History or 

 Archaeology, and open to any member of the Dorset Field 

 Club, the latter for Chemistry or Electricity, and open to any 

 person born in Dorset or resident there, with certain other 

 conditions. A resolution was unanimously passed accepting 

 this generous gift and the scheme, which would be a lasting 

 memorial of the two first Presidents of the Club. 



* Proceedings Dorset F. Club, XXIII, lxxix,and XXIV, Ixxii. 

 | Ibid, XXVI, xxix. 



