66 



be obtained, both in historical and in numismatic lore, than perhaps 

 in any other city of Europe, it was truly gratifying to me to iind 

 the name of my friend occupying a high place in the estimation of 

 learned Oriental Professors. 



As a member of this Society, Lord Munster took a warm in- 

 terest in our jjrogress. So persuaded was he of the practical value 

 of geology, and so desirous of communicating a knowledge of it to 

 his children, who were his constant companions, that he ingeniously 

 devised a model of the crust of the globe, which served to convey 

 a good elementary notion of the succession of the principal strata, 

 and the derangements to which they have been subjected by the 

 eruption of intrusive rocks. This anecdote will, I trust, not be 

 considered irrelevant in addressing associates who can discern the 

 merits of the man in his domestic relations ; and in these Lord 

 Munster was most exeniplary. I cannot better terminate this brief 

 sketch of one whom I loved, than by referring you to the eloquent 

 panegyrics which have been paid to his memory, both by the Royal 

 Asiatic Society, over which he presided, and by a gallant brother- 

 soldier and respected Fellow of this Society, who, like myself, had 

 been through life the attached friend of the Earl of Munster*. 



The blank which has been left in the world of letters by the 

 'death of Dr. Arnold has been deeply felt, and the loss of a man of 

 such profound erudition and high moral excellence is justly be- 

 moaned by an eminent contemporary as a national calamityf. It is 

 not for the President of this Society to attempt even a sketch of the 

 broad lights in the character of this fervid lover of truth, nor to fol- 

 low him in his hseful career during the thirteen years in which he 

 was the chief master of the great school at Rugby; but, admiring 

 the vigour and independence of his mind, and reverencing his stre- 

 nuous efforts to enlarge the bounds of education, I cannot omit to 

 place on record, that the enrolment in our ranks of Dr. Arnold is 

 a testimony borne by a good man, and an eminent scholar-, to the 

 usefulness and importance of geological inquiry, in the advancement 

 of which, at the University of Oxford, under his friend Dr. Buckland, 

 he cordially rejoiced. Though not a practical geologist, he held the 

 pursuit in high honour, and more especially estimated its value as 

 the true basis of physical geography. 



Mr. Thomas Botfield of Hopton Court, a much-respected and 

 very old member of this Society, came among us when geology was 

 held at a low public estimate, and when its importance was ill under- 

 stood, even by cultivators of other branches of physical science. 

 Endowed with a very sagacious mind, he not only took an interest 

 in our speculations and theories, but was strongly impressed with 

 the practical beneficial results to be obtained from a cultivation of 

 the positive departments of our science ; and of this he gave the 

 strongest proof, by selecting the Titterstone Clee Hill in Shropshire 



* See Trans. Royal Asiatic Society, Anniversary 1842 ; and a short eiilo- 

 gium in the United Service Journal^ 1842, vol. i. p. 565, written by Major 

 Shadwell Gierke. 



f Edinburgh Review, No. 154. 



