Alfred Charles Smith—In Memoriam. 199 
; ‘more than forty years he gave himself indefatigably to the task of 
maintaining the work of the Society—and more especially the 
~ Magazinc—at, the high level at which it was started. The work it 
is true was for him a labour of love, but the office that he filled 
entailed a good deal more solid work than is sometimes perhaps 
_ supposed. 
Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, Mr. Smith took 
_ his B.A. degree in 1846, and M.A. in 1848.1. He married in 1851 
- Frances, daughter of the Rey. T. T. Upwood, of Lovells House, 
Terrington. In 1846 he was ordained deacon, and in 1847 priest, 
_ by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, beginning clerical work as curate 
of Chewton Mendip, Somerset, in 1846. Here he remained till 
1849, after which he held successively the curacies of Welford, 
Berks, 1849—1850, and Milton, in the same county, 1851—1852. 
In the latter year he became Rector of Yatesbury, of which he was 
himself the patron, and from that time no one has been more closely 
connected with the County of Wilts than he. His father, the 
Rev. Alfred Smith, was for a time curate of Bishops Cannings, 
and afterwards perpetual curate of Southbroom, and in 1825 he 
purchased from Mr. John Eldridge the estate of Old Park, 
Devizes, the house itself as it now stands having been built by 
‘William Eldridge, the father of John, about the commencement of . 
the present century. Here, during the latter part of his life, Mr. 
Smith the elder lived, and on his death, at the age of 79, on October 
29th, 1877, was buried in Southbroom Churchyard, in the vault 
yhich was opened to receive his son twenty-one years later. Here 
his widow lived for many years after his death, and from the year 
1885 the Rev. A. G. Smith retired to this comfortable, roomy, old- 
fashioned house during the winter, to escape the more inclement 
climate of Yatesbury, until he finally resigned that living in 1889 © 
2 pao came to live nie at Old Park. From this time until his 
1 So says “ Crockford,” Foster’s Alwmni says 1850. 
