DITBODUCTOBT ADDRESS. 23 



Ornithologist, or Entomologist The waters too, offer their 

 treasiiree to our search; washing the marsh and mudlands of 

 the harbour, as well as the flat sands, and rocky cliffs of the 

 exposed sea shore. Nor do we finish our researches here; for 

 whilst we have much of wild beauty with its thousand attrac- 

 tions, there is many a woodland haunt, and aged tree, which 

 speaks to the historian and the antiquary, in language not to 

 be misunderstood, of days when Purbeck was indeed a Forest; 

 throwing back the imagination from one age to another, almost 

 forcing the mind to contemplate the scenes which these hills and 

 valleys have witnessed, when they echoed by turns, the joys of 

 the chase and the passion of war: but such scenes are not 

 imaginary, for their actors have left their trace behind; we find 

 the Roman road and villa, the ruined wall, the battle-field, the 

 monumental stone, and the funeral mound. 



And what makes the Isle of Purbeck still more attractive, 

 whether to the Naturalist or the Antiquary, is the circumstance 

 of its being, hitherto, almost wholly Tinexplored. I know of no 

 Naturalist, and of only one Botanist, who has rambled through 

 its wilds and woodlands: a few of the rarer plants, on account 

 of their localities, have been observed ; but beyond these we 

 know very little. The same may be said of its antiquities and 

 ancient history ; in fact, it may be affirmed that the Island has 

 been hitherto neglected. Cut off from a thinly populated main- 

 land by a sheet of water, which for the most part is unnavigable 

 from shore to shore, it has but few roads, and those made over 

 almost inaccessible hills. The stranger seldom visits it, and still 

 more seldom chooses it for a residence : of a native antiquary or 

 naturalist we have never heard, and even the observations which 

 have been made, few and far between, have never been recorded. 

 But this state of things has now, we trust, passed away, and the 

 Purbeck Society has commenced its labours, which, if fairly 

 supported and aided, will result, we hope, in the production of 

 a history of this most interesting region. 



Now, that it may progress satisfactorily towards this desirable 

 result, I consider that it should proceed upon a regular plan, 

 yiz: the dividing its work into the natural Classes of Geology, 

 Natural History, which includes all animated nature, Botany. 

 Climate, and Archaeology, which should include Ancient 

 History^ Antiquities, and Folk Lore. 



