Page:Two Sussex archaeologists, William Durrant Cooper and Mark Antony Lower.djvu/29

 and opportunity, no note has been, or can be, here taken. Enough, however, there is to show how continuously and conscientiously he worked. And the bulk of his several communications is in quite an inverse proportion to the painstaking research required for their production. No writer could possibly be more anxious than he was, even in his slightest contribution, to arrive at the absolute facts in any particular case. No second-hand authority satisfied him, if a primary one was to be got at, whatever the trouble it cost him.

Mr. Cooper's long connection with the, and his communications to its , are so felicitously treated by , Esq., the learned and popular President of the Society, that, premising his mention of Mr. Cooper's election as a Fellow in March, 1841, it would be treason not to quote his actual language, as given in his Annual Address in April, 1876, slightly abridging it here and there.

"In adverting to the death of, I speak of a friend of forty years' standing, of one whose many good qualities I warmly appreciated. He was one of the oldest, as he was assuredly one of the worthiest, members of our body. His first contribution to the Archæologia was laid before the Society in March, 1855. It is entitled Further Particulars of Thomas Norton, and of Stale Proceedings in Matters of Religion in the year 1581 and 1582. In May, 1856, he contributed Notices of the Plague in England, derived from the Correspondence of John Allix, in the year 1664-1669. In February, 1858, we find him reading a Memoir entitled Notices of the Tower of London, temp. Eliz. and the Horse Armoury, temp. Charles I. His most important contribution to the Archæologia closes the list. I refer to his Notices on the Great Seals of England, used after the Deposition of Charles the first, and before the Restoration, in 1660. The paucity of Mr. Durrant Cooper's communications to our pages must be attributed, not merely to the scanty leisure of an active professional life, but also to the large demands upon his time and pen, which were made by the Sussex Archaeological Society, to whose volumes his contributions are at once abundant and valuable. Of the services, however, which he rendered to this Society, his contributions to our Transactions would give a very inadequate idea. It is in the records of our committees that we shall find the proof of his zealous attachment to our body. Speaking as an ex Treasurer, I can bear testimony—which I am sure my successor in that office will endorse—to the thoroughness with which he executed his duties as a member of the Finance Committee, going carefully into every account submitted