8 General Account of Inaugural Meeting. 
pleasure of knowing his Lordship, I think for about fifty-six years, 
when he was a little boy, and I was grown up tolerably well to 
what is called manhood. I remember, at that early period, his 
activity at Bowood, his devotedness to study, and particularly to 
the improvement of Bowood, which at that time was a very different 
place to what it is now. Itis now not only an honour to the county, 
but to all England—(cheers)—and its noble and magnanimous 
possessor is not only entitled to gratitude for his past services in 
connection with this county, but additionally for what he has 
done to benefit this glorious country. (Cheers.) God bless his 
Lordship! may he live to my own age, and be as happy as I am 
at the age of eighty-two, and for many years may he come before 
you, or your successors, to celebrate the establishment of this 
Society, which will, and must redound to the honour of Wiltshire, 
and to the advancement of topographical and archzeological pursuits 
in general. (Cheers.) 
The resolution having been carried by acclamation, the noble 
Marautis said—I hope you will allow me to return my most sincere 
thanks for the unexpected honour you have conferred upon me just 
now, in addition to that paid me before, when you requested me to 
become your Patron. I can only say the Society has my most 
sincere good wishes, as I trust it will have the good wishes of every 
gentleman in the county, for its success. And if I have the good 
fortune to live as long as my friend Mr. Britton has stated that 
he has lived, doing good all the time, and exerting himself for the 
benefit of his native county, I hope I shall be in as good condition 
at the wholesome age of eighty-two as he appears to be in now. 
(Cheers. ) 
(His Lordship then resumed his seat, but did not leave the 
meeting until the conclusion of Mr. Scrope’s address.) 
Mr. Scrore then rose and delivered the following 
ADDRESS. 
My Lord, ladies and gentlemen,—In obeying your command 
that I should take the chair as President of the Society, which we 
meet to day to inaugurate, I feel that I am undertaking duties 
which I shall be unable to fulfil with the efficiency necessary to 
justify your confidence. I can only plead in apology the interest 
I take in the studies which it is the object of the Society to encourage, 
and my desire to do anything within my power to promote their more 
eneral cultivation. 
The title of our Association sufficiently indicates the purposes it 
has in view. And the means by which it is proposed to carry them 
out have been already explained to you in detail. 
It may, however, be not inappropriate for me, on the occasion of 
this our first meeting, to make a few general remarks upon the 
