Rev. J. E. Jackson's Address. 31 
might lay his hand upon it when he wanted it; and if, besides folio 
volumes, costing their tens and twenties of guineas, for the grati- 
fication of the wealthy, there were Wiltshire History of a cheaper 
sort; many more would be gratified by this kind of literature than 
can possibly be now; and so another rational object of the Society 
would be answered. This leads me, with your permission, to enter 
a little more upon the Topography of the County. 
By Topography is meant a description of any district, its towns 
and villages. This includes a great many things—the history of 
memorable places, persons, and events; the descent of manors and 
lands through successive families; the history of buildings, eccle- 
siastical, military, and civil; the charitable foundations, ancient 
usages, language, coinage, &c. In the mirror of such description 
the reader sees the reflection of past times; an epitome of the changes 
which have raised his country from what it was centuries ago, to 
what it is now. 
It is the business of a Topographer to drag, as it were, the pool 
of Lethe; to recover facts and events that have fallen into that 
melancholy receptacle of things forgotten. He has not merely, like 
the gazetteer, to give the names of parishes, the number of acres, 
and the distance from a post town, but to search, far and near, for 
names and circumstances, form these into some orderly outline, then 
fill it up with such connecting narrative, that the reader’s mind shall 
see, as n a picture, the history of the place from beginning to end. 
Every parish in England has some history belonging to it; and 
almost every one contains some peculiar relic or fragment; some 
curious church or cross; some battle field, old mound, or the like. 
In new countries, like America, English people have no ancient 
local recollegtions of that kind. They have noble scenery, greater 
novelty in animals, plants, and minerals; a fine field for Natural 
History, but a very barren one for Archeology. In England, in 
the old country, every village has some story to tell. It is certainly 
so in Wiltshire. 
Well, then, what has been done for the Topography of this 
county? We have, first of all, the history of the lower part of it, 
snp in the splendid volumes of the late Sir R. C. Hoare, of 
urhead. Of the merits of that work it scarcely becomes me to 
speak. Of course in so large and laborious an undertaking, imper- 
fections must be expected. But speaking of it as a whole, it is an 
important and valuable history. It is however got up in a style 
unnecessarily expensive; the effect being that few can afford to buy 
it, and those who do, soon discover that by ordinary compression 
and a different arrangement, it might have been easily presented 
to the public in a more manageable size and for much less money. 
Still this, as well as another work, called “ Ancient Wiltshire,’ 
to the preparation of which, the late Mr. Cunnington contributed 
s0 much, reflect the highest credit upon the patriotic gentleman 
