OPENING OF THE NEW MUSEUM. 
271 
indulged of its future progress. It is because we think it a durable 
possession to ourselves and our descendants, an attempt which will 
do some honour to our memories, and confer the best of benefits 
on our posterity, — it is on this ground we, as individuals, would 
ask for every exertion of zeal that might raise the character and 
extend the usefulness of our Society, and we humbly conceive that 
such an effort as that which we have now the honour to recommend 
would be, as it were, placing the key-stone upon our arch, and giving 
a public proof that knowledge is here rightly esteemed and culti- 
vated." Such were the words, sixty-five years since, of Robert 
Lampen, Joseph Collier Cookworthy, Henry Welsford, Robert 
Wills, and Henry Gandy. It is in their spirit, and for their further 
realisation, we are met here to-day. 
With the single exception of the Philosophical Society of Man- 
chester, the Plymouth Institution, now in its seventy-first year, is 
the oldest literary and scientific association in the provinces. With- 
out exception our Museum is the oldest in the West of England. 
Founded in 1812, seven years had barely elapsed ere this Society 
reared and took possession of the building in which we are now 
met (and it is curious to note that one of the reasons for the selec- 
tion of this site was its comparative remoteness from the bustle of 
the town, and another its comparative readiness of access for the 
members who lived at Dock). The original structure consisted 
simply of this hall and the rooms in front, but before many years 
(1828-29) the building was extended in the rear, and the room 
erected which for more than half a century was used as our Museum, 
and for the greater part of that period was the only Museum of 
which Plymouth could boast. It has served its purpose well in 
forming the foundation of our work to-day. 
The need of wider Museum accommodation, felt for many years, 
has pressed with ever-increasing force since, in 1851, the Devon and 
Cornwall Natural History Society became amalgamated with the 
Plymouth Institution, and the large and valuable collections of both 
associations were united. Again and again the effort has been made 
to meet the want, sometimes in connection with this Institution, 
sometimes with the purpose of establishing a Town Museum on a 
wider basis. It is not pleasant to recall a list of failures, and I pass 
them by. The impulse from which the present successful movement 
has sprung was given when, in 1877, the British Association visited 
this town, and some of our members did their best to place a por- 
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