General Account of Inaugural Meeting. 21 
of the meeting, to return your most cordial thanks to Mr. Scrope, 
for the address he has now delivered. (Loud cheers.) 
Here the Noble Marquis left the meeting amidst hearty cheering 
from the company, and the Chair was taken by the President 
elect. 
Rey. A. Fane, Vicar of Warminster, next rose to propose a 
list of Vice-Presidents. He said there was one point which he 
was glad of an opportunity of laying before the President and the 
Committee. The striking peculiarity of this county was that it 
was divided into parts, by its physical conformation, more effectively 
and completely than were the different Ridings of Yorkshire. And 
it was a strange thing to say that in that room, with the exception 
of himself and a kind friend and neighbour who had accompanied 
him, there was not a single gentleman present from the Southern 
part of the county. The list of names that had been given him to 
ropose, contained those of two gentlemen only from the South of 
ilts, and he frankly warned them, that it would require great 
caution on their part to avoid a separation between the two 
divisions of the county, as far as the present Society was concerned. 
Although the Southern part had been better cared for by Sir R. C. 
Hoare, they must not think there was nothing to be done there. 
There were many antiquities, many seats, and many churches, 
with the lordly mistress of all the churches, the Cathedral at Salis- 
bury—in the Southern Division. It gave him great pleasure in 
saying that the first name on the list was that of one who took 
si interest in the restoration of the churches in the neighbour- 
ood—the Lord Bishop of the diocese—(cheers.) The second 
mame was that of one who belonged to the North, but, with a 
strange admixture, happened to hold the office of Chairman to the 
Sessions in the parish of which he (Mr. Fane) happened to be the 
Vicar; he spoke of Sir John Awdry. The third belonged to the 
public—John Britton. The next was a gentleman from the 
North—Mr. H. M. Clarke. The next was also from the North— 
Capt, Gladstone. The next was Mr. Heneage, the member for the 
Northern town in which they were then met. Then they really 
had one from the South, for the committee could not well leave out 
the name of the builder of Wilton Church. Next came the names 
of seven gentlemen, all residing in the Northern division, and some 
of them in its most extreme parts—Mr. Fane then referred in 
complimentary terms to the admirable address by the President, 
and said that many parts of it really and truly struck home to 
him. While listening to it, he had put his hand into his pocket, 
and taken out a valuable ring, which any lady might covet, and 
which had recently been found under the hearthstone of a cottage 
in the neighbourhood of Warminster. It had belonged to a man 
who was beheaded in the reign of Henry the Second. Just outside 
the door of the room in which they were then assembled was a fine 
: 
