JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 
OF ENGLAND. 
THE FOUNDATION OF THE ROYAL 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
By the time this first number of the Third Series of the Journal 
is issued from the press, the Royal Agricultural Society will 
have commenced its second half-century of corporate existence. 
The contemporaneous commencement of a new period hi the 
Society's life, and of a new departure in the appearances and 
character of its Journal, gives a certain appropriateness to the 
starting of the New Series by a summary account of the origin 
and early history of the Society up to the time when it received 
the Royal recognition implied by the patronage of Her Majesty 
the Queen and the grant of a Charter under the Great Seal. 
Unhappily, all those who were familiar with the internal 
working of the English Agricultural Society at the time of its 
inception are now deceased, and though the "Royal" is fortunate 
in having still associated with it two survivors of the original 
Committee, Sir Harry Verney, the " father " of the Society, and 
Sir Thomas Acland, our veteran Trustee, neither of these two 
gentlemen has felt able, with the information at his command, 
to undertake a sketch of the foundation of the Society, though 
they have both given most valuable help and suggestions, and 
Sir Harry Verney has contributed to the present number an 
interesting personal sketch of his old friend and colleague, Earl 
Spencer, the chief founder of the organisation. 
VOL. I. T. S. — 1 B 
