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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1894. 
THE DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDON, K.G. (TRUSTEE), 
IN THE CHAIR. 
Present: — 
Trustees. — Gen. Viscount Bridport, 
G. C.B., Earl Cathcart, Mr. John Dent 
Dent, Col. Sir Nigel Kingscote, 
K.C.B., Sir A. K. Macdonald, Bart., 
Earl of Ravensworth, the Duke of 
Richmond and Gordon, K.G., the 
Rt. Hon. Sir M. W. Ridley, Bart., M.P. 
Vice-Presidents. — Mr. Chandos- 
Pole-Gell, Viscount Emlyn, Earl of 
Lathom, G.C.B., Sir J. H. Thorold, 
Bart. 
Other Members of Council. — Mr. 
Alfred Ashworth, Mr. J. Bowen- 
Jones, Mr. Charles Clay, Mr. F. S. W. 
Cornwallis, M.P., Earl of Coventry, 
Mr. Percy E. Crutchley, Lieut.-Col. 
J. F. Curtis-Hayward, Mr. J. Marshall 
Dugdale, Mr. W. Frankish, Mr. Hugh 
Gorringe, Mr. Anthony Hamond, Mr. 
James Hornsby, Mr. Charles Howard, 
Mr. C. S. Mainwaring, Mr. Joseph 
Martin, Mr. T. H. Miller, Hon. Cecil 
T. Parker, Mr. Albert Pell, Mr. J. E. 
Ransome, Mr. G. H. Sanday, Mr. 
Henry Smith, Mr. E. W. Stanyforth, 
Mr. J. P. Terry, the Duke of West- 
minster, K.G., Mr. E. V. V. Wheeler, 
Mr. C. W. Wilson. 
Professor Brown, C.B. 
Officers. — Mr. Ernest Clarke, Secre- 
tary ; Dr. Fream, Editor of the 
Journal ; Dr. J. Augustus Voelcker, 
Consulting Chemist; Mr. Wilson 
Bennison, Surveyor. 
The following members of the 
Cambridge Local Committee were also 
present: — The Mayor (Mr. E. H. 
Parker), Mr. C. F. Cunliife Foster, 
Mr. G. Jonas, Rev. E. H. Morgan, 
Mr. J. Odell Vinter, the Town Clerk 
(Mr. J. E. L. Whitehead), and Mr. 
R. Peters (Secretary of the Local 
Committee). 
Apologies for non-attendance were 
received from H.R.H. Prince Chris- 
tian, K.G., Sir Jacob Wilson, Mr. J. 
H. Arkwright, Mr. Joseph Beach, Mr. 
J. A. Caird, Mr. Alfred Darby, Mr. R. 
A. Warren, and Mr. Charles White* 
head. 
In the unavoidable absence of the 
President, the Duke of Richmond and 
Gordon (Trustee) was, in accord- 
ance with Bye-law 28, called to the 
chair. 
The minutes of the last meeting, 
held on February 7, having been ap- 
proved, 
Death of the “ Father ” of the Society, 
the Chairman said it was his pain- 
ful duty to announce officially to 
the Council the death of the “ Father ” 
of the Royal Agricultural Society, Sir 
Harry Verney, who died on February 
12 last, at the patriarchal age of 
ninety-two. Sir Harry had had a 
very remarkable career. Born in 
1801, he entered the Army in 1819, 
and retired so long ago as 1830, having 
first served in the 7th Fusiliers, and 
afterwards in the Grenadier Guards. 
It was a noteworthy fact that, not- 
withstanding his great age, he at- 
tended the annual regimental dinner 
of the Grenadier Guards up to the 
time of his death. It was not, how- 
ever, his career as a soldier that they 
regarded, but his associations with 
agriculture as a member and as the 
“ Father ” of their Society, and as 
one of the most respected specimens- 
of an English country gentleman that 
this country had produced. Sir Harry 
Verney was the last survivor of those 
who met together at the Freemasons’' 
Tavern on May 9, 1838, to found the 
English Agricultural Society. The 
presence at that meeting of men so 
vai ied in their views as Earl Spencer 
(the first President of the Society), 
his (the Duke’s) father, who suc- 
ceeded Lord Spencer in the Presi- 
dency, Lord Portman, Sir Robert 
Peel, Sir James Graham, Mr. Shaw- 
Lefevre (afterwards Viscount Evers- 
ley), Sir Harry Verney, Mr. Handley, 
M.P., Mr. Philip Pusey, and others. 
