Presidential Address

Extract

The year which has passed since I last had the honour of addressing you at an anniversary meeting has been one of unusual importance in the history of our Society; it has seen the fulfilment of one of your Council's chief desires on its behalf. We have entered on the possession of a home, suitable to our purposes, not unworthy of our position as a Royal Society, and secured to us on terms which render it virtually permanent. Before this most desirable change in our circumstances, we were in the nomadic era of our existence, though we enjoyed none of the advantages properly belonging to such a stage in social development: we had neither ample space, picturesque surroundings, nor freedom from encumbrances. Many of you can recollect the unseemly and uncomfortable quarters that we so long occupied in St. Martin's Lane. It is not a pleasant remembrance, though there was good work done there, and we, alas! miss some valued fellow-workers who then adorned our Society, and have since passed away. We were glad to move into Old Serjeants' Inn in 1901. There at least we were more fitly lodged, and had a place which we could call our own, but, as I said last year at our anniversary meeting, our rooms were too small for us; there was no space for additions to our library; our tenancy had become terminable on three months' notice, and we knew that the building in which we were lodged was doomed to speedy destruction.