8 
REPORT OF THE 
now laid out, not only relieve and harmonize in pictorial effect with 
the antique walls and buildings immediately around, but offer pleasing 
views of more distant objects, and minister in a high degree to the 
srratification of the Members. 
As guardians of St. Mary’s Abbey we may regret that portions of 
the demesne, and even parts of the church, are still beyond the 
boundaries of the Society, and inaccessible to its thousands of 
Visitors; but as Citizens of York we must rejoice that so much has 
been saved which once appeared destined to destruction, and avail 
ourselves of every occasion for appealing to that public spirit which 
now happily animates our Municipal Authorities, in favour of the 
monuments of ancient York. 
That such appeals in suitable cases wdl not be fruitless, the 
Council have a most gratifying proof in the consent of the Cor¬ 
poration to place in the possesion of the Society what remains of the 
Hospital of St. Leonard, with so much of the area surrounding this 
building and adjoining the Roman wall, as wdll allow of their being 
freed from many incumbrances and examined with convenience and 
advantage. In considering this question, the Lord Mayor and the 
Members of the City Council evinced the most earnest desire to 
forward a measure so acceptable to the lovers of Antiquity. And 
the Society will be enabled by their friendly co-operationYo offer to 
the Members of the Archaeological Institute, when they assemble in 
York, a most characteristic welcome, amidst Roman Towers and 
Mediaeval Abbeys, the preservation of w’hich is the pledge of our own 
duration. 
For this important addition to the possessions of the Society, the 
small rent now paid to the Corporation is to be augmented to £20 : 
the expenses of the requisite alterations to be defrayed by the Society. 
The objects which now deform the remains of St. Leonard’s Hospital 
must be removed, a new fence-waU constructed, the ground excavated 
and planted, the Lodge rebuilt in a more convenient site. The 
expense of these alterations cannot now be estimated minutely : they 
will not however be too great for the important object in view, and 
not too great for the Society to appropriate. In employing for this 
purpose a portion of the Beckwith Legacy, the Council confidently 
believe the Society will be acting in the spirit and in conformity 
with the intention of the donor: they believe the addition of the 
Arches of St. Leonard’s to the attractions of the Museum grounds 
