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your existence, and that though in numbers it has always been one 
of your smallest societies, it has nevertheless been one of the most 
constant and loyal, and that nowhere have the lecturers you have 
been good enough to supply met with more appreciative listeners. 
It is, indeed, just one of the places that, from being small, is most 
advantaged by contact with such a larger Association as yours. In 
many places in these modern days there is such a congestion of 
meetings, whether for amusement, business, or instruction, that 
tired and harassed human nature seems to revolt at any addition to 
its load, and to long to be left at peace, and, like the river, to wander 
in the paths of literature and science at its own sweet will. We 
have not quite reached that condition here. ‘They still have some 
time to digest and ponder upon the lectures you are able to supply. 
They still have some of that leisure which elsewhere has too often 
taken flight to return to us no more; and I believe I am only 
speaking what is sincerely felt by the members of the Longtown 
branch, when I say how indebted they are for the valuable assistance 
which on many occasions you have given them, and which they 
look forward to receiving from you in the future. They could not, 
of course, in a small place like this, expect to obtain such lecturers 
as you are able to obtain for them, and they are therefore propor- 
tionately grateful for the services you render. 
It is perhaps not quite the locality in which, even in times 
comparatively modern, lecturers would have found themselves at 
home. Thepeoplewho lived herehavenot always been distinguished 
for their devout attachment to law and order. I suppose, indeed, 
there are few places in which we may say that even in recent days, 
at any rate, within a century and a half, a more complete 
change has been brought about, as well in the characters of 
the people who live here, as in the natural features of the locality 
in which they dwell. It was thus described by the learned 
Dr. Stukely, when he visited it in the course of his travels in the 
north in the beginning of the last century. ‘From hence,” and 
if I remember right he was coming from a visit to the castle at 
Scaleby, “over a dismal boggy moor—an uncultivated desert— 
we travelled to Netherby. They told us that for sixty miles 
