Notices of Memoirs — Museums Association. 375 



Sheriff; Mr. Henry Fielding, Town Clerk; and fifty Delegates 

 and Associates from various Museums througliout the country — 

 opened its public proceedings on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. 

 with an address of welcome by His Worship the Mayor of 

 Canterbury, Alderman Geo. J. Collard, J.P. 



Alderman W. H. Brittain — in the absence of the outgoing 

 President of the Association — then proposed the election of 

 Dr. Henry Woodward, F.E.S., of the Natural History Branch of the 

 British Museum, as President for 1900-1901, and paid an earnest 

 tribute to that gentleman's work in connection with Museums. 



The election having been carried unanimously, 



Dr. Woodward rose to return his thanks and proceeded to read 

 his Presidential address. 



It was, he said, a happy omen — he had almost said inspiration — 

 which led the founders of that Association to invite its organizing 

 Committee, twelve years ago, to meet in the ancient Ehoracum, the 

 city of " the Wliite Rose of York," once the capital of Eoman Britain, 

 which, blazoned down the long roll of history for eighteen hundred 

 years, still firmly stood its ground, like some ancient warrior, all 

 scarred and weather-beaten by time, by wars, and by revolutions, 

 a landmark in our history and a light to science. Such was the 

 fair archiepiscopal city of York, the birthplace of the Museums 

 Association, which in 1831 gave origin to the great British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, and still earlier (1822) founded 

 the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. After visiting Liverpool, 

 Cambridge, Manchester, London, Dublin, Newcastle, Glasgow, 

 Oxford, Shefiield, and Brighton, the members of the Museums 

 Association had set out this year upon a pilgrimage to Canterbury, 

 the Mother-City of the English people — the " Cant-wara-byrig," 

 the capital city of the " Cant," the " Angul," or corner of Britain 

 nearest to the Continent, towards which the immigration of those 

 Belgic tribes into Britain in pre-Eoraan times was directed, and 

 the later invasion of Julius Csesar, b.c. 54. The Cathedral, which 

 dated back to a.d. 602, was recovered by St. Augustine, its first 

 Archbishop, there having been, it was said, a church already on the 

 spot built by early Eoman Christians. Like York, Canterbury had 

 been an archiepiscopal See from the earliest times to the present 

 day, and many of its primates lay buried within its precincts. 



But it was not his duty to descant upon the merits of their present 

 happy meeting-place, or to attempt to record its history. Those 

 were matters he could safely leave in far abler hands, lor among 

 their Vice-Presidents he saw the names of the Very Eev. the Dean 

 of Canterbury, the Worshipful the Mayor (Mr. Alderman George 

 Collard, J.P.), Mr. Alderman Mason, J. P., and many other gentlemen, 

 including Mr. F. Benuett-Goldney, the Honorary Curator of the 

 Eoyal Museum, Canterbury. They had also to be thankful for 

 the assistance of Mr. Henry Mead as Local Secretary. Upon the 

 kindness and hospitality of those gentlemen during their visit, 

 he felt sure they might safely rely, and indeed their programme 

 held out many agreeable promises of pleasant visits both here 



