Anniversary Address. 183 



pick-axe must have erased thousands of these channels on the 

 skirts of all our higher valleys ; let us study those where the 

 heather, bent, and bracken have never been disturbed, vrhile 

 they yet remain to us. 



Gentlemen, our club has added eleven members to its list 

 since the last anniversary address was delivered ; and we 

 cannot wish better to those young members than that they 

 may derive the pure and exhilarating refreshment of mind and 

 body, which we have done, from the study of God's works 

 in an inquiring but humble spirit ; and from contemplating 

 the remotely ancient as well as the mediaeval works of the 

 races of men who have peopled and enjoyed this fair and 

 fertile land before us. The piety of some, and the patriotism 

 of the rudest, may afford us useful lessons even now, if we do 

 but read them. 



One painful duty remains to be fulfilled by the President 

 of the year, and one that I well know has been anticipated 

 by the feelings and expectation of every member present. 

 We have lately lost one of the oldest members of our circle, 

 Mr. John Donaldson Selby, a member whom we all esteemed 

 and valued, and to whom we have been indebted for the 

 active support so important to such a society as ours. In our 

 Secretary's own words, "Mr. Donaldson Selby was elected 

 one of our members so long ago as May 6, 1835 ; he was 

 President in 1848, when he gave the usual address ; he con- 

 tributed papers on meteorology in 1847 and 1848, and another 

 on ancient buildings and on Saxon coins discovered on Holy 

 Island in 1 845. ' ' Thus, indeed, did our deceased and lamented 

 friend stand true, even in his connection with our society, to 

 the general character of his life, — that of a man always use- 

 fully and conscientiously employed and always in earnest. 



