43 
too much to call him the Second Founder of the Society; and 
his bust has a claim to the place which it occupies in our 
vestibule, along with that of Mr. Harcourt. 
The Archaeological Institute met in York in 1846, and at the 
close of a very successful meeting, returned thanks to the 
Society for their kindness in allowing the use of their buildings 
and their valuable assistance and co-operation. In addition 
to the other objects of antiquarian interest the east gable and 
other portions of the early English chapel of the Hospital of 
St. Leonard had recently been laid open by the demolition of 
the dwelling house into which they had been built. 
One of the latest of the acquisitions which Dr. Beckwith’s 
munificence enabled us to make, was that of the Homan and 
mediaeval antiquities collected during twenty years, chiefly in 
York, by the late Mr. Hargrove. 
It was no idle boast of the Curator of Antiquities in his 
Heport of 1846, that by the combination of this collection 
with that which it already possessed, the Society could shew 
a museum of local antiquities, surpassing anything that even 
the metropolis contained.” His successors in 1873 earnestly 
re-echo his wish, '' that distant collectors would not tempt 
those who discover hidden relics of past times in this neigh¬ 
bourhood to separate them from their proper locality, where 
they naturally possess the highest interest.” In consequence 
of this great increase the smaller antiquities were removed to 
the upper story of the Hospitium, the larger having been 
already deposited in the lower. In the same year a very 
important addition was made to the ornithological part of the 
Museum by the donation of Mr. Hudston Head s collection of 
British birds, to which the Strickland collection has since been 
added. 
It it not my intention to pursue in detail the history of the 
remainder of the period of fifty years. I consider that by the 
time which our retrospect has reached, the Society had passed 
safely through those crises of weakness and danger to which 
infancy and childhood are liable, and had attained the matured 
strength of a manly constitution, which may be preserved by 
prudent care. Besides, the recent events in its history—the 
