The Presidents Address. 3 
the reading-room of the British Museum. It is obvious that the 
public of the present day seek greedily for this class of information. 
They like to know what their ancestors have done before them, and 
to understand and compare the past with the present. The natural 
aim of a Society like this is to encourage and foster studies which 
we think are neither useless nor vain, and we may be satisfied that 
in releasing and bringing to the light objects of interest from the 
accumulated dust of ages, we not only improve our own minds, but 
very much establish history. Let no one be discouraged in his 
search for antiquity, for who knows whether in his walks he may 
not stumble upon the site of a Roman dwelling, or the remains of 
_ a Druidical circle, or find in the troubled aspect of the ground 
beneath his feet the uneven burial-ground of a great army. It is 
from small things we rise to great. The mere household books of a 
family, whose “local habitation and name” is almost forgotten, 
will oft’times afford an ample indication of the style of the age in 
which it lived, while furniture, pictures, china, buildings, ornaments, 
and even dress, if preserved, most surely give us the period when 
they were used. Talking of dress reminds me that at a previous 
meeting my learned friend the Recorder of Devizes, Mr. Merewether, 
descanted most eloquently on the “ head-gear of the ancients,” and 
amused the company by a discourse upon bonnets in vogue amongst 
the ladies half-a-century back. His humorous style was so much 
appreciated by his audience, that I trust he may be persuaded to 
give us a specimen of his ability another time. While we pursue 
our labours, and try to increase the store of our Archeological 
Magazine, I hope that we shall never forget the men who have gone 
before us in the work—the pioneers and founders of our county 
history. We cannot but look back with a more than kindly feeling on 
the memory of such men as Sir Richard Hoare, the polished historian 
of Wiltshire ; of Aubrey and his quaint researches and erratic style ; 
of the earnest-minded Britton and his significant brusquerie; of 
Penruddocke Wyndham, who more than eighty years ago wrote his 
“ Wiltshire,” which he desired should prove “a prelude to the 
county history;” of Sir Thomas Phillips, and his most useful 
collections ; of Moffatt, Bowles, and Nichols, Benson, and Hatcher 
BQ 
