Excursion on Thursday, August 23rd. 277 
by Sir John Lubbock, and endorsed by the acclamations of the 
visitors; and after Canon Jackson, acting as Miss Grove’s mouth- 
piece, had responded in that lady’s name and assured the archzologists 
of her pleasure in entertaining them; they drove on to Stourton, 
where first the Church, then the beautiful pleasure-grounds of 
Stourhead, and lastly the mansion house of Sir Henry Hoare, Bart., 
were in turn visited. Of the pleasure-grounds it may be said that 
few spots in Wiltshire, if any, are more charming”: the lake so ad- 
mirably formed; the trees and shrubs so luxuriant and withal so 
flourishing in this congenial soil that popular tradition affirms that 
a walking-stick, if left for a short time sticking in the ground, will 
sprout! Without, however, insisting on the literal truth of the ~ 
tradition, it may be affirmed. that the soil is exceptionally suited to 
the growth of the araucarias, deodaras, and other kindred trees, 
which thrive here, as they do in few other places; while the laurel 
hedges of Stourhead are notorious. But the house and its collections 
were the chief attractions to archeologists ; first the library, where 
the famous band of topographers used to assemble, under the 
presidency of the father of Wiltshire antiquarians, the highly revered 
Sir Richard Colt Hoare; where the magnificent volumes of Ancient 
and Modern Wiltshire were prepared for the press by the inde- 
_ fatigable baronet and his no less enthusiastic coadjutors, chief among 
whom stands the honoured name of William Cunnington; and 
where literary treasures, rare curiosities, gems of art, and valuable 
paintings, still record the taste of our great Wiltshire Archzologist. 
Above all, the museum of antiquities claimed of right, and obtained, 
the eager attention of the visitors ; for what archzologist could look 
without interest on the noble collection of urns, and the innumerable 
objects of stone, bone, horn, gold and other metals, which once lay 
beneath the barrows which are scattered over the length and breadth 
. of North and South Wilts? No Wiltshire archeologists at all 
_ events could pass them by unnoticed, and it was long before the 
excursionists could be persuaded to tear themselves from this fasci- 
nating spot, and resume their journey, through Maiden Bradley, 
where they halted to inspect the Church, and by Crockerton to 
Warminster, 
