‘Of the zoological collection, the pride and boast of Belle Vue, it is only necessary to say that in every department it is kept thoroughly up to date. ‘Mr. John Jennison, the founder of the establishment, could not have dreamed forty years ago of the priceless possession which his modest “Gardens” would eventually become to the city.... We remember saying that the Gardens were the playground of Lancashire. The description needs to be very largely expanded. A pleasure resort which attracts, as Belle Vue does, thousands of visitors from Edinburgh and Glasgow on the north, Yarmouth on the east, and Gloucester, Cardiff, and Swansea on the south and west, has about it something of a metropolitan air. Its votaries, indeed, are not confined to the inhabitants of one hemisphere. We have heard New Yorkers almost regretfully admit that the Empire City had nothing so good to show in the way of a pleasure resort.’ CHAPTER XXXVI THE GARDENS OF THE ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN This Society was founded on May 10, 1830. On that day a public meeting was held in the Rotunda for this purpose. The Duke of Leinster occupied the chair, and a large and representative gathering was present. The first and most important resolution--viz., ‘That it appears expedient that a society be formed, to be entitled the Zoological Society of Dublin’--was proposed by the Earl of Longford and seconded by the Surgeon-General (Mr. Philip Crampton). The second resolution, which was proposed by the Earl of Howth and seconded by Dr. Whitley Stokes, was worded as follows: ‘That the object of the Society shall be to form a collection of living animals on the plan of the Zoological Society of London.’ Towards the close of the meeting Dr. Jacob intimated that the Lord Lieutenant (the Duke of Northumberland) had arranged to give a portion of the Phœnix Park for the purpose of establishing a Zoological Garden. At the second meeting, held on May 15, 1830, Dr. Whitley Stokes, then Regius Professor of Medicine in Trinity College, was elected the first Honorary Secretary of the Society, and on May 21, 1830, Mr. James Pim, junior (41, Dame Street), was elected the first Honorary Treasurer.