148 The Sixteenth General Meeting. 



the President took the chair, and called on Mr. Cunnington to 

 read a paper " On the Ancient Pit-Dwellings at Salisbury," which 

 had been written by Mr. Stevens. This was of exceeding interest, 

 and an admirable model of a group of these pit-dwellings amply 

 explained the arrangement of those curious but somewhat contracted 

 subterranean abodes. 



The next address was by the Rev. E. C. Awdry, on " Monumental 

 Brasses in some of the Churches near Chippenham," which was 

 delivered by that gentleman in a pleasant vein of humour, and 

 withal with no little proof of a thorough appreciation of his subject. 



This was followed by an interval of a quarter of an hour, to 

 enable the company to partake of tea and ices and other good 

 things provided by the munificence of the Mayor and Corporation. 



On the President resuming the chair, the Rev. W. H.Jones was 

 called upon for a paper on " Some Names of English Occupiers in 

 the Time of Edward the Confessor, still preserved in those of 

 Wiltshire Persons or Places," which that gentleman proceeded to 

 illustrate in the masterly way with which he invariably deals with 

 such subjects, which may almost be called his peculiar domain. 



Sir John Awdry then called on Mr. Spencer for his paper on 

 " Hedges and Hedge Ptows ; " when the Rev. A. C. Smith ex- 

 plained to the meeting that though he held in his hand the paper 

 in question, which was of very great interest, and written by one 

 thoroughly master of the subject, yet as he had only just received 

 it from the author, who was unavoidably detained at home by 

 illness, he would neither mar the paper nor tax the patience of the 

 audience by stumbling through that which he had not previously 

 read ; but promised to print it in extenso as early as possible in the 

 Magazine. 



The President then called on Mr. Merewether for a paper on 

 "The Head-gear of the Antients," when that gentleman first des- 

 canted humorously on a helmet which he had brought for examin- 

 ation, and then amused the company by a happy discourse on the 

 bonnets in vogue amongst the ladies of half a century back, to 

 which the samples he produced of the fashionable bonnets of 1820, 

 1825, 1830, 1835, and 1840 contributed not a little.— We need 



