The Spalding Gentlemen's Soctety. 407 
Secretary, Mr. Ashley K. Maples, and a few other of its members, 
have been very desirous of having a permanent home for the 
society’s collections, and on the occasion of its two hundredth 
anniversary, made a strong effort to attain this end. An appeal 
was made for funds, and an amount considerably exceeding 
a thousand pounds was forthcoming. To those who live in 
larger and more flourishing towns, this success seems nothing 
shoit of miraculous, but there are not many societies in which 
the members work so whole-heartedly as they do at Spalding. 
Anyway, an excellent site in a central part of the town was 
purchased, and upon it has been built a magnificent suite of 
rooms, including a library, museum, lecture-room, committee- 
room, etc., and a house for the caretaker. 
These were formally opened on October 25th, by Sir Henry 
H. Howorth, K.C.I.E., M.P., F.R.S., etc., than whom it would 
have been difficult to have found a more suitable gentleman. 
Sir Henry put his whole heart and soul into the matter, and 
from opening the building at one o’clock, to a late hour at 
night, vastly entertained, in various ways, those who had the 
pleasure and privilege of being in his company. . 
Immediately after the opening ceremony, the members 
dined in their new lecture-room; a real substantial old- 
fashioned Lincolnshire meal, which laid a good ‘foundation ’ 
for the subsequent proceedings. Afterwards several toasts 
were honoured, during which Dr. Perry and Sir Henry 
Howorth gave many interesting facts relating to the early 
years of the society, in the reign of Queen Anne. In this 
connection, Sir Henry commented upon the fact that England 
had reached the highest points of its political, its literary, and 
its scientific reputation in the reign of its three queens. 
Later the members and visitors had an opportunity of 
examining the rare books, charters, documents, maps, en- 
gravings, tokens, ‘ bygones’ (of which there is an excellent 
series), geological specimens, etc., in the society’s possession. 
Mr. T. Sheppard then gave an address on ‘ The Value of Local 
Museums,’ in which he congratulated the society upon the way 
in which it endeavoured to represent the archeology, geology 
and natural history of its own district, and did not attempt 
to make a miniature British Museum of its collection, with 
odds and ends from any and every corner of the earth. This 
is a danger which the society will have to fight against if it 
is to be successful in its work. It is pleasing to find that the 
Honorary Curator, Mr. E. M. M. Smith, has the right idea as to 
the nature of a local museum, and doubtless he will be well 
supported by his colleagues. Subsequently Mr. Sheppard 
gave a public lantern lecture on ‘ The Romans in Lincolnshire,’ 
in which he described several thousand antiquities of Roman 
date, principally from North Lincolnshire, which are now in the 
1g! Dec. 1. 
