Minutes of Proceedings. 133 



Sir Thomas Larcom became a Member of the Academy so far back 

 as 1833. Holding a seat for many years on the Council, he devoted 

 much time to the furtherance of the aims of the Academy, and let slip 

 no opportunity of advancing its interests. It was mainly through his 

 means that the Academy attached to itself the services of men like 

 O'Donovan, 0' Curry, and Petrie, whose capacities he was one of the 

 first to discover, and whose labours in the field of archseological 

 research none "could better appreciate, and few did more heartily 

 sympathize with. His appointment to the charge of the Ordnance 

 Survey was the signal of a new era in the history of the antiquities 

 of Ireland ; the measures adopted and carried out by him have laid 

 the foundation for a thorough study of the topography of Ireland 

 from the earliest times, based on the yet existing monuments scattered 

 everywhere throughout the country. The results are garnered in 

 the splendid set of the 149 volumes of the Ordnance Survey, includ- 

 ing eleven volumes of drawings, which were presented to the Academy 

 iu 1860, by the Government of the time. The materials here brought 

 together, on a plan originated by Sir Thomas Larcom himself, and 

 successfully carried out under his superintendence, furnish a trust- 

 worthy and valuable store of information on almost every place of inte- 

 rest in Ireland; and it was mainly owing to his influence that the 

 Academy is now in possession of the treasury of topographic lore thus 

 collected. Here is not the place to speak of his administrative labours, 

 but in all that relates to the history and antiquities of Ireland, the 

 honour of initiating some of the most important advances that have 

 been made belongs undoubtedly to Major-General Sir Thomas Larcom. 

 At the close of his career, by his valuable bequest, he manifested at 

 once his continued interest in Irish affairs, and his deep sense of the 

 importance of the labours of this Academy. 



The Report, to which was attached the following Appendix, was 

 adopted : — 



