134 Annual Meeting and Report, ]878. 



Edward Stevens we have lost an accomplished archaeologist, and a 

 most able Secretary, whose talent o£ organizing the annual excursions 

 of the Society, and carrying out details for the comfort and con- 

 venience of the Members who took part in them, will long dwell 

 in the remembrance of all who were present at our gatherings at 

 Salisbury and Wilton. But Mr. Stevens was also a thorough 

 archaeologist, to which the many papers he contributed from time 

 to time to various archaeological publications, and notably his well- 

 known volume entitled " Flint Chips," bear ample testimony. Your 

 Committee will not readily forget the diligence and adroitness he 

 showed in drawing up the new rules of our Society, which were 

 mainly his work, and into which he threw himself with all the 

 ardour he displayed about any matter he took in hand. This was 

 nearly the last work he did for the Society, since which the long 

 and painful illness, which terminated in his death, incapacitated him 

 from further exertions. But his is a loss which cannot be replaced. 



''The number of names now on the books amounts to 375, being 

 somewhalt under the figure of last year, which may be accounted 

 for by the unusual number of deaths which have occurred amongst 

 us. 



" In regard to finance, the annual balance-sheet, which we now 

 publish early in the year, contains such exact information as to 

 render any details on this point at this season of the year wholly 

 unnecessary : it will be enough to state roughly that our balance in 

 hand is in some slight degree better than it was this time last year, 

 and also a little better than when the balance-sheet for 1877 was 

 published last March. 



" With respect to the work of the Society, two Magazines have 

 been issued within the last twelve months, and the Editor desires to 

 add that a third might have been published, did the funds of the 

 Society allow, as there is no lack of valuable material in hand, and 

 much more is forthcoming. 



" But the great work of the Society in 1878 is undoubtedly the 

 enrichment of the Museum by the deposit therein of the noble 

 Stourhead Collection of Antiquities. For this the Committee desires 

 in the first place to express its best thanks to Sir Henry Hoare, for 



