608 THE METHODS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 



the lamps which they carried iu so many ways. Every generation of 

 men, it may be, has its triumphs; yet it is not altogether reassuring to 

 think that in the great meeting in the happy hunting grounds beyond 

 the screen of night it will not be the nineteenth century which will 

 occupy the foreground. Homer will still lead the procession of the 

 poets, Socrates of the moral philosophers, Phidias of the sculptors, 

 Raphael of the painters; and not only so, but we shall have to give 

 place to many unknown and unchronicled masters of their crafts in the 

 days of old. When that day comes I know not what I shall say to the 

 archaeological giants, whose disciple alone I can claim to be, for my pre- 

 sumi)tiou in addressing you in this incoherent fashion, save to remind 

 them that if the men of Shropshire have not all the gifts of their fore- 

 fathers, they still command the virtues of patience and long suffering, 

 of urbanity and kindness; and I may be allowed to conclude with the 

 hope that the sun may continue to shine brightly on your homes — 

 Floreat Salopia ! 



