The late William Torr. 
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and enabling them to attend some college, such as the Agricultural 
College at Cirencester. The arrangements are commenced, and 
I hope, if I have the opportunity of addressing you again, and 
of hearing of what has been done in Bedford at the Middle- 
Class School, I shall also have the pleasure and satisfaction of 
finding that agriculture has found its way into the teaching 
of this building, and that some scholar has distinguished him- 
self in the study of practical agriculture, and has gained one of 
the scholarships to which I have referred." This desire was 
realized in the first year of the establishment of these scholar- 
ships, and it fell to Mr. Holland's lot to announce the fact to 
the Council, and to express the hope that this connection 
between the Royal Agricultural Society and the public schools, 
so happily commenced, might widen and extend in each suc- 
cessive year. 
There were some who thought that his delicacy of health and 
his quiet reserved manner would have interfered with his 
efficiency in the Presidential Chair : but those who met him, 
either at the Council or in the General Meetings of Members, 
know how fairly and firmly he held the reins, how ready he was 
to listen to any well-founded suggestion ; and yet how he 
could check irrelevant or discursive talk by a few well-chosen 
words. It gave him very great pleasure to fill the office of 
President, and to a member of his own family he said " it was 
the one honour in the world he had wished for." His year of 
office had led him to think the Society had perhaps outgrown 
its Charter, and that some relaxations in this might increase the 
usefulness of the Society. Almost his last act in the Council 
was to take part in a movement in this direction, hoping thereby 
to extend, still farther, the usefulness of our action. 
Above all he was a thoroughly loveable man, and the gentle 
kindness and courteous manner of his intercourse with men has 
made those who worked with him in public, honour his ability 
and deeply venerate his memory. 
Bihston Hall, Jan. 2&th, 1875. 
VIII. — The late William Torr : a Compilation from many 
Sources. 
The death of William Torr, at the age of sixty-six, has created a 
blank in the agricultural world that is not likely to be filled up 
in this generation. He was born at Riby, in North Lincolnshire, 
where his forefathers had resided for several generations ; he 
was educated in Yorkshire, but left school about the age of 
