IN MEMORIAM.— DR HARDY 349 



thus left vacant. The joint appointment was found 

 to work admirably, but the heavier part of the work 

 devolved upon Mr Hardy, to whose sole care the editing 

 of the Proceedings was entrusted. Dr Douglas died 

 in 1886 ; and from that time forward, until 1896, Mr 

 Hardy discharged the duties of the Secretaryship without 

 assistance. From the moment of his appointment Mr 

 Hardy gave himself almost entirely to the service of 

 the Club ; and henceforth his life may be said to be 

 found written in its history. His enthusiasm and energy 

 speedily bore fruit. Instead of the meagre reports 

 of earlier years, the Proceedings of the Club now became 

 portly volumes, and their contents grew and widened 

 in interest and variety year by year. The Club was 

 soon recognised as an important instrument of research, 

 and a rapid increase in the numbers of its members 

 and a corresponding extension of the sphere of its 

 investigations were the inevitable consequences. Instead 

 of being confined to a small coterie of field botanists 

 and naturalists, men interested in every department 

 of natural science, as well as archaeology, local history, 

 and . folk lore were added to its ranks. In course of 

 time it was felt by many that the old methods of 

 conducting its work and business were no longer adequate, 

 and suggestions were made that it should be subdivided 

 into sections, each of which would take up a special 

 field of inquiry, and report annually to the Club through 

 the Secretary as to its work. With this feeling Mr 

 Hardy to some extent sympathised, but he manifested 

 a strong disinclination to take any definite step which 

 might virtually lead to the entire alteration of the 

 Club's constitution, and his views were loyally acquiesced 

 in b}^ the members. Had any one of narrower range 

 of information, or less capacity for work, been at the 

 helm, the Club, now grown to somewhat unwieldy 

 dimensions, might have become unmanageable ; but its 



