Mr. Poulett Scrope’s Address. 15 
and its history a blank. The same must be said of many of the 
seats of the ancient nobility and gentry of the county—Tottenham, 
with its guasi-Royal Forest, so long the residence of the Seymours 
and the Bruces; Littlecot, one of the most interesting and best 
preserved manorial houses of the kingdom; Charlton, the northern 
rival of Longleat; Corsham, sometime the residence of the Hun- 
gerfords; Bowood, the favourite retreat of more than one generation 
of great statesmen, the hospitable resort of wit, poetry, and philo- 
sophy, literature and high art; Draycot, for centuries the chosen 
seat of the elder stock of the Longs; Rood Ashton, that of another 
branch of the same ancient and well-regarded family; Bromham the 
seat of the Bayntuns, Dauntsey of the Danverses, Alderton of the 
Gores, Swindon of the Goddards, Burderop of the Calleys, Lydiard of 
the St. Johns, with many others of which the entire catalogue would 
exhaust your patience—all remain, not unknown, of course, but as 
yet undescribed in a manner worthy of the interest which justly 
attaches to them. No doubt some useful topographical notices of 
North Wilts have been published by our worthy and venerable 
friend, John Britton—to whom, for this and other of his life-long 
labours in the cause of topography, the county stands, in the estima- 
tion, I am sure, of us all, deeply indebted. But he himself would 
I know, be the first to admit that his volumes contain only very 
cursory, and inadequate, sketches of their subjects. And the proof 
of this is that, no one has been more active and zealous in his 
endeavours to obtain the coédperation of the friends of topograph- 
ical research throughout the county, in the task of collecting 
materials for, and ultimately publishmg, some satisfactory history 
of this northern portion, in which he was born, and which appears 
to be the object of his affectionate regard. (Cheers.) 
__One evil consequence of the neglect with which so large a portion 
of the county has been hitherto treated is, that every year’s delay 
adds to the difficulty of gathering the information necessary for 
compiling its history. Decay is everywhere at work on our ancient 
records of every class. Manuscripts are lost or destroyed: buildings 
and monuments, such as churches, priories, chapels, manor-houses, 
crosses, tombs, are pulled down or suffered to fall: libraries and 
collections of drawings are dispersed: sculptures, paintings, stained 
lass,monumental stones or brasses, and other relics, are removed or 
troyed. Much, no doubt, that might have been preserved, or at 
least imperishably recorded by full descriptions, measurements, and 
drawings, only half a century back, is now irrecoverably gone. 
Much that we may now save by fitting exertion in the present day 
will, otherwise, in another half century—nay, in another ten or 
twenty years perhaps—such is the rapidity of modern improvements, 
by which old lumber of this kind (as some consider it) is swept 
away—be irretrievable. Who is not grateful to the antiquaries of 
former times, the Hearnes, the Lelands, the Camdens, the Dugdales, 
