A Chat about the Society's Past. 31 



We have no portrait of Sir M. McTurk, but our second President, 

 John Croal, is represented by the oil painting so conspicuous in the 

 Eeading Room. He also was an important personage and connected with 

 the British Guiana Bank. One of the most prominent was Mr. William 

 Russell,, who helped Georgetown to get a continuous supply of Lamaha 

 water. He was elected President at intervals so that he served several 

 terms and gave prizes for essays on agricultural subjects. 



The First Meeting Room. 



The usual place of meeting in the forties was a room in the Demerara 

 Spa, where the Hotel Tower now stands. An ambitious project was made 

 to have a Spa on the lines so well-known in England. The artesian wells, 

 which were once expected to be an unfailing source of a water supply 

 were found to give a chalybeate salt water something like some that were 

 puffed up in England and Germany. People were invited to come and 

 drink the water, and baths were also provided ; then there was a reading 

 room. But it was a failure for it never became a fashionable resort. The 

 well still pours out some water and the visitors to the hotel may try it as 

 a medicine. It is possibly as useful as many other mineral waters, and 

 probably not more nasty. 



The Site — Old Hospital Lot. 

 The Public or rather Seamen's Hospital once stood en or near the 

 site of the Commissary's Office and possibly that building may contain 

 portions of the original framework. However that may be we have a 

 relic in what was once the lock-up for maniacs east of the Museum. The 

 Cumingsburg Hospital was finished about 1840 and the old buildings 

 became vacant. We have already seen that the lot was wanted for a Town 

 Hall, but the Government refused to grant it to the Town Council. I 

 show a plan, from which it may be seen that the lot extended from Water 

 Street to High Street and that there was no road cutting through it. The 

 Assembly Rooms, are at the extreme east ; they got half the lot by con- 

 sent of the Society. 



From the series of plans exhibited it may be seen that the lot was 

 originally just inside the mud dam that became Water Street and which 

 was only 24 feet wide. Charles Edmonstone's timber store was outside the 

 dam, and probably raised above the mud on which timber was stored. 

 There is a bend or projection into the river which allows Water Street to 

 come a little more to the west at this spot, perhaps due to Fort St. 

 Geerge having once been situated here. There was a dispute with the 

 Town Council in regard to the Water Street front, in connection with 

 which these interesting plans were prepared. 



The Society got the grant during Her Majesty's pleasure, and pre- 

 paration was at once made to remodel the old buildings so that they 

 might be fitted for a reading room and place of meeting. There appears 

 to have been two old buildings, much dilapidated, one fronting Water 



