The collections of the Society increased so rapidly, that the 
rooms in Low Ousegate proved wholly inadequate to their 
reception and display, and there was no accommodation for 
lectures. To build was an absolute necessity, and the Report 
of 1825 already announces the steps which the Council had 
taken for obtaining as a site, the Manor Shore, of which they 
justly say, that '' its position, quiet yet not remote, the extent 
of unoccupied ground which it offers, and the venerable monu¬ 
ments of antiquity which surround it, combine to render it the 
most fortunate situation which could be chosen for a Philoso¬ 
phical Institution.” A subscription amounting to £4,650 had 
already been promised. Lord Grantham, who held the land 
under a lease from the Crown, had promised to give up his 
riMits : the Government had returned a favourable answer to 
an application for a grant of a certain portion of it for a 
nominal payment, and the Council were in daily expectation of 
receiving a favourable answer. So confidently did they rely 
on a large accession to the subscription list, when their appeal 
was more generally known, that they determined not to execute 
the plan of building originally contemplated, but to substitute 
for it something more worthy the character of a Northern 
Museum. 
Unforeseen delays retarded the execution of the building. It 
had been supposed that the Crown possessed power to make a 
o-rant of land for the benefit of scientific institutions, but it 
was found that this power was limited to the bills of mortality, 
and it became a question whether it might not be expedient to 
accept a long lease on a nominal rent. It was determined, 
however, to wait and see what increased powers could be 
obtained from Parliament, and ultimately an Act was passed, 
at the suggestion of Lord Goderich (Frederick Robinson), then 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, authorising the Crown to grant 
land in all parts of the kingdom to scientific and charitable 
institutions. As soon as it became certain that the site would be 
granted, Mr. Wilkins was requested to furnish a design. The 
tastes of this eminent architect w^ere decidedly Grecian, but he 
had also executed works at Cambridge in the Gothic style, and 
the question has often been asked by visitors, would it not have 
