37 
tlie best of it ; and if we cannot keep onr flowers and sheep 
clean, at any rate the next best thing we can do is to get as 
much coal as we can, of the best and cheapest kind possible. 
There are other mineral interests besides that of coal, con- 
nected with this county, the development of which requires 
considerable study and information ; and I should be very 
glad if either now, or at any future meeting of this Society, 
attention should be drawn to these other elements of wealth. 
I came just the other day from the North-Riding of York- 
shire, where I saw the wonderful development of ironstone 
which has taken place in the neighbourhood of Middles- 
borough. There, by the chance discovery of a gentleman 
who was out shooting some twenty- five years ago, in taking 
up a piece of stone which from its appearance he believed to 
contain iron, which somehow or other could be got out of it ; 
by the development of the same idea which had taken place 
in many minds, and the application of the industry and 
acuteness of an engineering population, there had risen up, 
almost as quickly as Chicago, or any of the other wonderful 
cities of America, the town of Middlesborough, in the North- 
Riding of Yorkshire. But, for the amusement of the Society, 
I cannot say that I regret that we shall not be kept in the 
domains of science, but be enabled to consider archaeology 
and history. We have a paper from Mr. Surtees, that most 
enterprising and ingenious antiquary, in which he undertakes 
to show us the real meaning and history of the name of the 
town in which we are now met. I don’t know how he is 
going to do it. But he is a clever man, in fact the only fault 
about him is that some people think him rather too clever. 
It is not for me to find fault with Mr. Surtees, but there may 
be a little bit of poetry about his antiquarianism ; and he is 
supposed, not only here, but on the other side of the water, 
as they say in America, to combine a certain amount of fancy 
with his historical researches. It is not for me to say 
