1879.] 



Presidents Address. 



411 



from tlie increase of scientific communications, and the larger expense 

 now incurred for illustration, it is much to be desired that augmenta- 

 tions to the Fund may be actually made. 



As the period seems now to have arrived for improving the value of 

 the estate at Acton belonging to the Society, by applying the whole or 

 a part of it to building purposes, it may be well to say a few words 

 with regard to this property. 



The capacity to purchase and hold lands, the Statute of Mortmain 

 notwithstanding, was granted to the Society by charter soon after its 

 foundation, and subsequently, under George the First, a special 

 licence to purchase in mortmain to the yearly -value of £1,000, and to 

 receive lands, tenements, rents, or hereditaments by will or any deed 

 of conveyance, was granted by Letters Patent. In 1731. when the 

 Society had some money to invest, an estate of a good title near Fulhani 

 was mentioned as a suitable investment by the President. Sir Hans 

 Sloane ; and in June. 1732, a freehold farm, the estate of Mr. Pannet, 

 of Kensington, having* a dwelling-house and out-houses, with about 

 forty-eight acres of arable land, was recommended for purchase by 

 Mr. West. In the following month the purchase of this estate at 

 Acton was settled y the purchase-money being £1,600, but Mr. Pannet 

 agreeing to lay out £30 on repairs. The total rent at that time was 

 £65 per annum and a quit-rent of £1 4.5. In 1772 and 1774 the house 

 and four acres of land were sold for £620. Another plot was sold in 

 1792. In 1858 the estate, which at first consisted of many separate 

 plots, was consolidated under an award of the Enclosure Commis- 

 sioners, and within the last few years other portions have been sold to 

 the X orth and South- Western Junction Eailway, and for the purpose of 

 erecting a church, parsonage, and schools. The sums received from these 

 various sales have been considerably in excess of the £1,-600 originally 

 paid for the estate, so that the thirty-four and a half acres which, 

 until within the last few months, remained the property of the 

 Society, and produced an annual rent of £170 per annum, had practi- 

 cally cost -the Society nothing. During the present summer the rail- 

 way company, being desirous of constructing a station upon the 

 estate, purchased somewhat more than an acre of our land ; but it 

 has been thought desirable to devote a portion of the purchase- 

 money to buying a strip of land to give access to a part of the 

 estate, the only approach to which was by a level crossing over the 

 railway, which the company wished to close. The lease of the 

 whole property will shortly fail in, and, in re-letting it, provision 

 will have to be made to enable the Society to take any portion 

 of the land which may be required for building purposes. A 

 considerable part of the estate is well intersected by roads, and 

 offers desirable frontages, but in order to make the whole of these 

 available some outlay will be necessary, and it may perhaps be 



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