Tuesday, July 9th. 177 



ago. It was not until it had been in his possession for some time 

 that Mr. Davies discovered that this large heavy 4to volume of 

 nine hundred and seventy-eight leaves of vellum was none other 

 than the "Tropenell Cartulary" known • to Aubrey in the I7th 

 century, but lost sight of since that time, and sought in vain by 

 Hoare, and Jackson, and other writers on the history of Wilts. 

 Its recovery is an event of quite first rate importance for Wiltshire 

 family history and topography, and the appearance of the bulky 

 volume itself, most kindly exhibited by its owner, at Trowbridge, 

 emphasised the extreme desirability of making its contents available 

 for the use of present and future writers on the county with as 

 little delay as possible. With the view of securing this result 

 Mr. W. Heward Bell entered into negociations with Mr. Davies, 

 and within a few days of the conclusion of the Meeting became 

 the owner of the book, which it was agreed should be left in its 

 late owner's hands to be edited by him for publication by our 

 Society. The whole of the very onerous work of transcription and 

 " extension " of some eight hundred pages of closely-written MS., 

 together with the making of English abstracts of the Latin deeds, 

 and of the annotation and editing of the whole has been undertaken 

 by Mr. Davies without j)ayment, and he has already made good 

 progress in his great work. When it is ready for the press the 

 Society will have to make a special appeal for funds to meet the 

 expenses of publication. If this can be successfully accomplished 

 the results of the Trowbridge Meeting of 1901 will be at least as 

 important as those of any Meeting held since the first foundation 

 of the Society. 



TUESDAY, JULY 9th. 



Some thirty Members and their friends joined in the excursion 

 to WELLS, and a very enjoyable time was spent, the CATHEDEAL 

 being well seen under the very kind and efficient guidance of Canon 

 Scott Holmes, who gave up the whole day to showing the visitors 

 all that was worth seeing in Wells. The CHAPTER-HOUSE — the 

 VICAR'S CLOSE, with its delightful little hall and chapel— and the 

 BISHOP'S PALACE, with its manifold points of interest — were all 



