———. 
The Opening Meeting. 10} 
The Rev. Tupver Carzyseconding this, it was carried unanimously. 
The Rev. A. C. Smiru proposed, and Mr. H. E. Mep.icorr 
seconded, the appointment of Mr. C. F. Hart and Mr. G. 8. A. 
Waylen, both of Devizes, as Auditors of the Society, and this was 
carried unanimously. 
The PrestpEnT, before he called on the Secretary to read a report 
on the present condition of Stonehenge, the result of the visit of a 
deputation appointed by the Society to inspect it, desired to remind 
his hearers that Stonehenge was not merely a Wiltshire monument, 
but one of national interest and world-wide celebrity; yet its protection 
was almost ni/. In Parliament, some few years ago, Sir John 
Lubbock brought in a Bill for placing public monuments under the 
protection of a public officer. The measure became an Act of 
Parliament, and General Pitt Rivers, whose absence that day he 
regretted, was appointed as national protector of ancient monuments. 
He was not aware, however, that General Pitt Rivers had as yet 
any considerable number of monuments under his protection, because 
of course he could not protect anything which was not committed 
to his protection by the owner. One monument—Barbury Castle— 
about which he should say something presently, was included in the 
Schedule of Sir J. Lubbock’s Act, but is still in the hands of tivo 
owners. He hoped, however, some arrangement would be made by 
which its venerable mounds and precincts might be placed under the 
national protection. Stonehenge, however, above all, required: to be 
placed under such protection. There ought to be some power, in 
the Act of Parliament, to prevent owners of what was really national 
property, in a higher sense than a great many more generally- 
received forms of national property, from permitting the destruction 
of monuments which were entirely irreplaceable, and sacred from a 
venerable antiquity. They all knew how Avebury had~ been 
destroyed by farmers in former times, and now the people who 
were most destructive at Stonehenge were among those for whose 
advantage the monument should be preserved. 
The Rey. A. C, Smira then proceeded to read the following 
report, of which he said it required no words of introduction; as it 
at once explained itself :— 
