The Report. 97 



















information relating to the Archeology and Natural History of 
Wiltshire with a view to the completion of the History of the 
County ; and to establish a Museum and Library for the reception 
_ of all books and articles relating to county history. How far these 
_ objects have been achieved during the fifty years of its existence 
its Members may judge for themselves. A vast amount of valuable 
and interesting information relating to the county has been stored 
up in thirty-two volumes of the Society’s Magazine; the British 
-and Roman Antiquities of the North Wiltshire Downs, by the 
Rey. A. C. Smith; the Topographical Collections of John Aubrey; 
_ edited by Canon Jackson; a Bibliography of the Great Stone 
Monuments of Wiltshire, by W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S. ; the 
Flowering Plants of Wiltshire, by Mr. Preston; the Wiltshire 
Inquisitiones post mortem of the reign of Charles I.; several 
Catalogues of the contents of the Museum, and other works have 
been brought out by the Society. British and Roman antiquities 
have been carefully opened out to view, and discoveries accurately 
recorded by means of plans and descriptions in the Magazine. 
Searcely a Church or old house has been left unvisited, and a very 
valuable series of papers has drawn attention to the historic and 
architectural interest of very many of the more important buildings 
in the county. Demolition, and careless and ignorant excavation 
an d destruction of the works of our predecessors of all ages have been 
checked and controlled from time to time by quiet remonstrance, 
which has been courteously acknowledged and acted on. Annual 
meetings have been held in every available town in the county ; 
much else has been done to carry out the objects laid down 
the Society in 1853. From the first beginning, objects of 
Natural History and Antiquity, Drawings, Books, MSS., Models, 
and all sorts of interestingrelics were entrusted to the Society for 
reservation and exhibition. It was years, however, before the 
