16 General Account of Inaugural Meeting. 
and the Groses, for the information they have preserved to us, how- 
ever imperfect, on matters of local interest, which, without their 
labours, would have been now beyond our reach? Who does not 
regret that more was not done in those days when so much remained 
within reach, which time, accident, or the march of improvement, have 
since annihilated? Towards the close of the seventeenth century, 
some of the gentlemen of the north of this county, who felt an 
interest in its history, seem to have entertained an intention of 
combining to undertake the task; John Aubrey, Thomas Gore, and 
Bishop Tanner, men fully competent to the work, were the origin- 
ators of the design, and made some progress in the collection of the 
necessary materials. The chief of Aubrey’s MSS. happily remain 
in some of our public libraries. Those of Gore and Tanner have 
disappeared. But who does not regret that this project fell to the 
ground unaccomplished? How much would have been then pre- 
served which is hopelessly lost at present? 
But, at least, ct is in our own power to prevent further losses of 
this deplorable character. We may rescue from oblivion, and per- 
petuate, for the gratification and instruction of our successors, much 
for which they cannot be but grateful to us. Buildings and monu- 
ments of great interest still remain to be described, correct admea- 
surements and drawings taken of them, and their history explored 
and committed to writing. Some it may be possible to preserve from 
further decay or destruction by the joint exertions of such societies 
as this. Collections of MSS. no doubt exist in the private archives 
of many a noble or ancient family, or among the title-deeds of the 
landed proprietors of the county, from which a large amount of 
local history of great interest might be extracted, were access allowed 
to them for trustworthy and experienced persons. If we can only 
excite a general spirit of inquiry into our local history and antiquities, 
much cannot fail to be discovered, which has been hitherto concealed 
or supposed to be lost. Individual searchers, each working within 
his own limited sphere, will be able to do what no one or two indi- 
viduals can do for the county at large. Surely we may hope that a 
society supported (as this promises to be from the meeting of to-day) 
by such influential patronage, and composed of so numerous and 
respectable a body of members, by encouraging such researches, and 
giving publicity to their results, may be expected both to throw a 
new light on the history of those parts of the county which have 
been already described, and to retrieve the annals of its neglected 
portions from the obscurity that at present envelopes them. We 
may then hope, many of us at least, to live to see a complete County 
History of Wiltshire, worthy of the title—worthy of this most 
important part of England—in which so many interesting historical 
events have occurred—with which so many remarkable historical 
characters have been connected. (Cheers.) 
In the meantime, the printing and circulation of papers on the 
