210 Memoir of the late George Tate, by Mr R. Middlemas. 



express his opinions with that ease and fluency which dis- 

 tinguished him in after life. Many are the stories he has 

 told me of their meetings ; — he ever cherished a friendly 

 feeling for the memory of those with whom he was thus 

 early associated. Being duly qualified, the time came when 

 he had to undergo the custom of going through the well, in 

 order to become a freeman of the town. This custom is 

 traditionally reported to have been originated by King John, 

 who, when hunting on Alnwick Moor, felt so irritated at 

 being laired in a bog, that he capriciously ordained that 

 henceforth every candidate, before his admission to the free- 

 dom of the borough, should go through the same bog, on the 

 anniversary of his own mishap. Mr Tate has left us a 

 humorous account of his own experience in leaping the well. 

 The custom was discontinued when the Enclosure Act was 

 put in operation. 



Mr Tate commenced business in the year 1826. He at 

 once carried into it that energy and spirit which is the first 

 element of success, and which marked all his undertakings. 

 He was very attentive, and his business rapidly increased ; 

 but still it did not wholly occupy his active mind, for in the 

 year 1828 he became one of the Secretaries of the Mechanics' 

 Institution at Alnwick. At that period its fortunes were at 

 the lowest ebb. Only sixteen members agreed to stand by 

 it. Mr Tate, however, on shewing his determination to 

 raise the character of the Institution, and to banish atheistic 

 and polemical discussion, restored confidence, and the Insti- 

 tution rose and prospered. It was not by mere attention 

 and administration that he secured the prosperity of the 

 Institution ; he laboured to promote scientific knowledge 

 amongst its members. He secured the assistance of his 

 literary and scientific friends to lecture upon various subjects, 

 and he also delivered lectures himself. The enumeration of 

 those will shew the activity of his mind, and its scientific 

 training. They were : " On the Formation of Dew," 

 "Physical Geography," "Mineralogy and Crystallography," 

 "Extinct Organisms," "Volcanic Action," "The Succession 

 of Life upon the Globe," "The Boulder Formation of North- 

 umberland, and Glacial Action," " Causes and Effects of 

 High Tides/' " Cephalopods, recent and fossil," " Sturgeons 

 and Palaeozoic Fish," " Structural Botany," " Ancient 

 British Sepulchres," " The Minerals and Rocks of Northum- 



