29 



Ordnance Survey, and to Captain Wilkinson, for this further most va- 

 luable donation ; again expressing their sense of the importance of the 

 services rendered to the History and Antiquities of Ireland by Major- 

 General Sir Thomas A. Larcom, under whose superintendence the plan 

 of collecting materials for the illustration of our ancient Topography was 

 organized, and successfully carried into effect. 



The Librarian having announced a donation by the Master of the 

 Eolls of England of the Series of Calendars of the State Papers and of 

 Historical Publications lately issued under his direction, it was 



Eesolved, — That the thanks of the Academy are due, and are hereby 

 returned, to the Eight Hon. the Master of the Eolls of England, for his 

 very valuable and acceptable grant to our Library of the Series of Calen- 

 dars of the State Paper collection, and the Series of Historical Publica- 

 tions issued under his Honor's superintendence. 



The Academy then adjourned. 



STATED GENERAL MEETING.— Saturday, November 30, 1861. 

 The Yeky Eev. Charles Graves, D. D., President, in the Chair. 



The President having inquired whether there was any business to 

 be transacted, the Secretary reported that there was no matter for the 

 formal consideration of the Academy. 



The Eev. De. Eeeves read the following Memoir of Stephen 

 White :— 



Father John Colgajst had been for several years labouring in the com- 

 pilation of his great work on the ancient worthies of Ireland, and had two- 

 thirds of his task done, when the letter, with the carriage of which, for the 

 hearing of the Academy, I have been honoured, was wiitten to him by his 

 venerable and respected countrj^man, Stephen White. Among the many 

 distinguished Irishmen whose spirits were stirred up within them at the 

 wholesale attempt made by Dempster and his Scotch contemporaries to 

 affix the historical label Scotia, without even a duplicate, to their por- 

 tion of Britain, and transfer to its annals all the celebrity of ancient Ire- 

 land, almost the earliest,"^' and certainly the most accomplished, was the 

 writer of this letter. He it was who opened that rich mine of Irish 

 literature on the Continent, which has ever since yielded such valuable 

 returns, and still continues unexhausted ; and by his disinterested ex- 

 ertions, less enterprising labourers at, or nearer, home, not only were made 



* In Messingham's Florilegium, published in 1624, we find the name of Stephanus 

 Vitus as a reference upon the true application of the name Scotia. Tractat. Pr^ambu- 

 laris (last page but two). Opposite White's account of the Reichenau MS. of St. Colum- 

 ba's Life, in the Ussher MS. is written in Ussher's hand the date 1621, 31 Maii. See 

 the Irish Archseol. and Celtic Society's edition of Adamnan's Columba, Preface, p. 

 xxxviii. From the following letter we learn that he commenced his pursuits in Irish 

 antiquities about the year 1611. 



