COUNCIL FOR 1838 . 
7 
ANTIQUARIAN MONUMENTS. 
Of mixed interest, as contributing partly to the beauty of the 
Gardens, and partly to the preservation of a noble monument 
of antiquity, the securing of the Roman Tower from ruin 
by a complete repair, may be mentioned as a proof that the 
wishes of every class of members have been attended to by 
the Council, as far as the finances of the Society would allow; 
and it remains to call attention to some plans by which it 
is hoped other antiquarian relics may be saved from deso¬ 
lation, and employed not only to awaken the solemn memory 
of days gone by, but to minister to the progress of modern 
arts and the gratification of cultivated taste. 
The Hospitiijm of St. Mary’s Abbey, adjoining the River 
Ouse, has experienced since the dissolution of the monastery 
every variety of destination; once it received the Lord Presi¬ 
dent of the North in great Council, now it is but the receptacle 
of its own ruins, and unless quickly renovated its very ruins 
will be lost. Antiquarians and men of taste have seen with 
regret the rapid progress of its decay, and lamented that the 
Yorkshire Philosophical Society possessed no sufficient funds 
to prolong by timely repairs the duration of this picturesque 
memorial of other times. 
At the request of the Council, Mr. John Harper inspected 
the building with a view to its reparation ; and an Artist, in 
whose celebrity York claims the highest interest,^' has re¬ 
cently pronounced that, if restored almost precisely to its 
* Wm. Etty, Esq., R. A., who, in his elegant discourse on the Cultivation of 
the Fine Arts, delivered in the Theatre of the Yorkshire Museum, on the 5th 
of November, 1838, strongly urged the restoration of the Hospitium, as a first 
step towards the Promotion of the Fine Arts in his native City. 
B 4 
