The President's Address. 259 
weighed and put together, corrects the former accounts or presents 
them in a different light. But where does the fresh information 
come from? From records and documents that have been disin- 
terred. This brings out another kind of archeologist, viz., the 
Palezographer or decipherer of ancient writing. He, being able to 
read it, supplies the raw material. The historian works it up. 
I come now to another very important contributor to the history 
of the land we live in, in the person of what I may venture to 
eall the “ Pickaxe Archeologist.” There are, in the history of 
our own country, some periods about which it is now hopeless to 
discover any written reeord whatever, beyond what is already known 
to exist. One period more particularly, is the time during which 
Britain was part of the old Roman Empire. We all know that 
(speaking in round numbers) Britain was for four hundred years 
a Roman province, kept under controul by Roman officers and 
legions, much in the same way as we now govern India. Four hun- 
dred years is a very long time indeed ; and it admits of a great deal 
being done, and a great deal being written. But if we enquire, 
how much remains to us of contemporary history, that is to say, 
actually written about Britain at any time during those four hundred 
years, it consists, I believe, of a few pages of Casar’s Commentaries, 
a short biography of Agricola, by Tacitus, a few detached extracts 
from other Latin or Greek authors, and an Itinerary, or road-book, 
of Antoninus. The whole might be printed so as to fill a Times 
newspaper and supplement, with perhaps an “ outer-sheet,” any one 
morning. That is, literally, all that is left to us,in dooks, of the history 
of our country, during four hundred years. Now we know a good 
deal more about Roman Britain than what one “ Zimes and supplement 
and outer sheet ” would contain, but for the rest we are indebted to 
the “ Pickaxe Archeologist.” I permit, by the way, the plough 
and the shovel to partake of the honour. We have considerable 
_ remains of Roman towns, as at Silchester and Wroxeter, both of 
which are well-known to us by being excavated. We turn up in 
our fields, a few feet under the surface (as at Pitmead, near this place, 
and at Whatley, near Frome, and a hundred other places), the sites 
of Roman villas, and come upon tesselated pavements, coins, and 
