156 
THE MUSEUM OF THE SOCIETY. 
A letter dated December 21st from the Honorary Secretary to 
Mr. Embleton contains the followinf^ paragraphs which explain the 
above resolutions, he says : — calculate we shall have a balance of 
£100, when the amounts are balanced at the end of the year. "VVe 
have therefore added £50 to the subscriptions for cases, which 
amounted to £97, making a total of £147. We have spent £63, 
and the alterations will cost £10, leaving a balance of £74, so that 
we may order four more sets which we propose to do shortly. We 
thought your alterations most admirable and satisfactory. Mr. 
Chantrell has offered to be our architect gratis. Why then should 
we not have a plan for a museum ? If we had one, at least the 
ground plan, fixed, we could adapt our cases to it. We have accord- 
ingly appointed a committee to prepare instructions for the architect, 
and I should wish to lay before him the ground-plans and sections of 
the museums at Newcastle, York and Leeds, with working drawings 
of the cases and tables. The two latter I think I can get. Can you 
procure the former ? " 
The work at the museum in the early part of 1840 appears to 
have progressed rapidly, and the numerous specimens which had 
already been presented to the society were labelled, classified, and 
placed in the new cases. The work entailed a considerable amount 
of time and attention, both of which were ungrudgingly given by 
some of the more active members of the society, amongst whom the 
Honorary Secretary, Mr. Thomas Wilson, and the gentlemen named 
in the above resolutions were prominent. On the 28th January, a 
man and his wife were engaged to reside on the premises as caretakers. 
The cases gradually got into order, and the number of specimens 
presented to the Society having been labelled and placed in their 
proper sequence in the cases, it became necessary to make a further 
purchase of new ones. To these the following letter refers : — 
Mr. Embleton to Mr. Wilson. 
MiDDLETON, J^th July, ISJfO. 
Dear Sir, 
I have been unable to see Mr. Batty till to-da}^ ; I have ordered 
of him 20 feet of Cases according to the plans of those at Leeds, 
with the exception of the omission of one of the beads at the door. 
