2 The Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting. 



probably it was a subject that had been more discussed this year 

 than at any time that they could remember. He was glad that it 

 was now so favourable, and that there was every reason to hope they 

 would have a fine week. He would not detain them any longer, 

 but call upon those whose duty it was to bring the business of the 

 Meeting before them. He must, however, congratulate them on 

 their visit to Marlborough, and assure them that it gave him great 

 pleasure to meet them again after an absence of twenty years. The 

 Noble Lord then called upon the Eev. A. C. Smith (one of the 

 General Secretaries) to read the 



REPORT. 



"The Committee of the Wiltshire Archseological and Natural 

 History Society desires to offer a very brief report of the proceedings 

 of the Society during the past twelvemonths : for it may be conceded 

 that the drawing up of the annual report of a Society whose course 

 has been marked by uniform prosperity, from its formation in 1853 

 to the present time, however pleasurable it may be in a certain sense, 

 is not an easy task. Year after year the Committee has had the 

 satisfaction of congratulating themselves and the Members on the 

 success of their proceedings, and on that entire cordiality and agree- 

 ment which have been throughout maintained. Hence the monotonous 

 character of these reports seems unavoidable. 



" As regards the Number of Members, the names now on our books 

 amount to 380, being a slight increase since this time last year; as 

 though several old and valued friends have passed away, or have left 

 the county, or retired from the Society during the period, there has 

 been more than an equal number of admissions to fill up the vacan- 

 cies. Among those whose loss we deplore, special mention should 

 be made of the Rev. George Stallard, Vicar of East Grafton, and 

 the Rev. Henry Hall, Rector of Semley, both of whom were very 

 early Members of our Society. 



" In regard to Finance, the balance sheet of the Society for the 

 past year has been so lately printed in the Magazine that there is 

 no occasion to enter into particulars : enough that our financial 

 position is practically about the same as it was when the last report 



