B'xcursion on Thursday, August \^<th. 21 



some agent of a building society before either himself or any of the 

 principal persons in the parish were aware of the sale taking place ; 

 he immediately wrote to Sir John Lubbock, who authorised him to 

 purchase it if it was possible to do so. Mr. Kemm and Mr. Brown 

 prevailed upon the society to purchase its laud elsewhere ; and he 

 was able to repurchase the stones and dykes for Sir John Lubbock 

 at an addition of £100 over what they were sold for three or four 

 weeks before. That was very far from being the sole instance ; two 

 or three years after that, the estate of which Silbury Hill forms a 

 part was to be sold by auction. Sir John prevailed upon the owners 

 to apportion Silbury and a small plot of land immediately around 

 it as a separate lot, and empowered him (Mr. King) to purchase 

 Silbury Hill in order to preserve it intact. About two years ago, 

 two others of the meadows with part of the dyke and several stones 

 were to be sold, and Sir John immediately authorised him to pur- 

 chase it, and he succeeded in doing so. They all knew Sir John^s 

 public efforts in the House of Commons to protect these world-famed 

 monuments, but these were personal and private efforts of himself. 



The Rev. A. C. Smith said the duty devolved on him, as Secretary 

 to the Society, to propose a hearty vote of thanks to Sir John 

 Lubbock for the admirable way in which he had conducted the 

 affairs of the Society during the time he had been their President. 

 He regretted to say that Sir John's tenure of office expired at the 

 end of this year, indeed this was the last occasion on which they 

 would be presided over by him, at least for the present, for he saw 

 no reason why they should not at some future time try to prevail 

 upon him to accept the office a second time. Sir John Lubbock 

 was not only an invaluable President, inasmuch as he was a master 

 both in the science of archteology and of the several branches of 

 natural history, but he threw himself into the work with the greatest 

 ardour, and he had charmed them with the admirable lectures he 

 had given them, and the courtesy which characterised all his pro- 

 ceedings. In the name of the Society he tendered him their most 

 cordial thanks. 



Sir John Lubbock, in reply, expressed his pleasure at presiding 

 over the Society ; and in reference to Mr. King's statement of his 



