Thursday, August 12th, 121 
used. It is much to be desired that these two interesting objects 
should find a resting-place in the British Museum now that there is 
no longer a legitimate use for them at Wootton Bassett. At the 
house of Mr. Cooksey the visitors were shown, amongst other 
interesting local antiquities, a set of twelve roundels of unusual 
design. These tablets are very thin pieces of sycamore wood of 
circular form, usually decorated with floriated ornaments in colour, 
and inscribed with texts and quaint stanzas conveying moral ad- 
monitions, &e. They were in vogue in the time of Queen Elizabeth, 
and probably used for some purpose at the table-board. The present 
examples are perhaps of rather later date, they are similar to a set 
of roundels exhibited at the York Meeting of the Institute, in 1846, 
having engraved representations of the sybils, coloured, and sur- 
rounded by prophecies, in verse, inscribed on their margins. 
On leaving Wootton Bassett, the excursionists next drove to 
Ringsbury Camp, to which Mr, Jamus SapDLER conducted them: 
and much astonished many of our Wiltshire archeologists were to 
find so extensive an area surrounded by so perfect a ditch and bank, 
in this secluded spot, far away from the downs where such entrench - 
ments mostly congregate. Considerable doubt, however, was ex- 
pressed by many whether this was a eamp or fortified place at all: 
for, like Avebury and similar enclosures of a peaceful character, the 
ditch was on the inside and the bank on the outside, which arrange- 
ment is generally held to indicate that they were not intended for 
defence. But, whatever its origin and intention, Ringsbury is a 
very interesting spot, and deserves to be more carefully examined 
than was possible in an excursion, 
Purton was soon reached after leaving Ringsbury, and here, in 
the magnificent hall of the Institute, a substantial luncheon was 
prepared, which was doubly welcome after the prolonged morning’s 
excursion. At its conclusion the Ruy. A. C. Sura called on the 
Society to join him in a vote of thanks to their President, who was 
now, he regretted to say, come to the end of his term of office: to 
Mr. Maskelyne we were indebted for much of the success of our 
Meetings, for he had presided over us with ability, and had infused 
a heartiness and genial warmth into our proceedings. In his reply 
