374 MR - T - SOUTHWELL ON OLD-TIME NORFOLK BOTANISTS. 
VIII. 
SOME OLD-TIME NORFOLK BOTANISTS. 
By Thos. Southwell, V.-P. 
Read 28 th January, 190 7. 
The County and City of which we are proud to claim member- 
ship have always been noted as the home of a succession of 
men who excelled beyond the common in all branches of 
science and art ; but more especially was this the case in the 
second half of the 18th and early years of the 19th century ; 
at that time there existed here quite a little colony of such 
men forming a society of their own irrespective of rank or 
social position. From the Bishop’s palace to the weaver’s 
cottage were to be found those whose chief happiness during 
their leisure hours was the study of Natural Science, Literature 
or Art. This displayed itself in 1784 in the establishment of 
our excellent Public Library, followed in 1822 by a Literary 
Institution for the supply of more exclusively scientific 
works than are usual in a Library of mixed literature, and 
from this Institution in 1824 originated the fine Museum so 
well displayed in the ancient Castle of Norwich. 
Our County has given two presidents to the Royal Society, 
Dr. Wm. Hyde Wollaston in 1820, and Sir J. D. Hooker in 
1873, and it is an interesting fact that in the former year 
the presidents of three distinguished Societies, and two of 
the principal officers of two others were natives of this County,* 
viz., Dr. Wollaston, president of the Roy. Soc. ; Sir James 
E. Smith, of the Linnean Society, and Dr. Astley Cooper, of 
the Chirurgical and Medical Society. Mr. Richard Taylor 
was Secretary of the Linnean Society, and Mr. John Taylor, 
Treasurer of the Geological Society. 
# Norf. Chron , 8th July, 1 S 20 . 
