16 
REPORT OP THE 
the Society. This was a matter of no ordinary difficulty, as an 
Act of Parliament had to be obtained before the grant could be 
legally made. Under the same high auspices the Subscription 
List to the Building Fund was commenced, which ultimately 
reached the amount of £8,600, and in 1830 the foundation 
stone of the present building was laid by Archbishop Harcourt. 
In 1836, at the request of a large proportion of the Members 
of the Society, the bust of Mr. Harcourt, executed by the hands 
of Chantrey, was obtained and placed in the Hall of this 
Museum, to perpetuate the memory of the services of its first 
President and benefactor. For nearly 30 years after this date 
Mr. Harcoiuf continued to exercise over the affairs of the 
Society a constant vigilance, and the general success and repu¬ 
tation which this Society may have obtained is largely owing 
to his fostering care. 
The following obituary notice is from the pen of his friend. 
Professor Phillips:— 
The Eev. William Yenables Yernon Harcourt, M. A., Oxon, 
was born in June, 1789, close to the ancient home of his family, 
at Sudbury, in the Eectory House then occupied by his father 
the Hon. and Eev. Edward Yenables Yernon, who became 
Bishop of Carlisle and afterwards Archbishop of York, and 
took the name of Harcourt on succeeding to the property of 
the deceased earl. Mr. Harcourt, the fourth son in a family of 
sixteen children, had the advantage of his father’s instruction, 
and did not proceed to a public school. 
His first destination was for the navy, in which he served for 
five j^ears ; but then his literary tastes and predilection for the 
chm’ch prevailed, and he entered Christ Church, Oxon, with the 
advantage of the personal friendship of C^uil Jackson the Dean. 
At that time Conybeare and Peel were conspicuous members of 
his College, and the University was leading to eminence Buck- 
land, Keble and Whately. Dr. Kidd had been for some years 
an admirable teacher of Chemistry, and to this attractive sub¬ 
ject (to which his attention had first been cDawn by Dr. Isaac 
Milner, who was Dean of Carlisle when his father was Bishop 
of that diocese) Mr. Harcourt clung with affectionate fidelity 
through all his subsequent life. 
