46 Myr. J. Britton’s Address. 
ennui is unknown in my personal vocabulary. I venture to say 
thus much of self, retrospectively, as a prelude to what I have to 
remark on the origin, prospects, and probable results of the Society 
we are now met to inaugurate. 
Wiltshire is a fine, a remarkable, a truly interesting county. Its 
geographical, geological, and other branches of Natural History 
abound with matter and materials calculated to exercise and reward 
the lovers of those branches of science. Its Topography and 
Antiquities are replete with objects of moment, and therefore can- 
not fail to furnish endless food for the mental appetite. In Celtic 
Antiquities there is not a district of our iskand—or even in the world 
—which contains such an amount of the tangible records of the 
history and customs of the aboriginal and primeval inhabitants. 
Its castrametations and other earthworks are numerous, various, and 
remarkable; whilst the evidences of Roman population, with the 
customs of those invaders, are apparent in the military roads, castra, 
and stations of the county. 
Of Architectural Antiquities, Wiltshire presents many important 
and interesting specimens; in the unique and beautiful Cathedral 
Church of Salisbury, in the fine fragment of Malmesbury Abbey 
Church, and in several parish churches. Though it cannot boast 
much of castellated architecture, we find some remains at Ludger- 
shall and Wardour, and also in the lofty keep mounds at Marl- 
borough and at Devizes. 
In ancient Domestic Architecture, we recognize interesting and 
curious specimens in Lacock Abbey, Bradenstoke Priory, Longford 
Castle, Longleat, Wilton House, Charlton Park, Littlecote, South 
Wraxhall, Great Chaldfield, and Kingston House at Bradford. 
It is true that John Aubrey, Bishop Tanner, Thomas Gore of 
Alderton, Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, Thomas Davies, and a 
few others, had made collections, and produced certain volumes on 
the county, generally; whilst the Rev. Mr. Cooke, Dr. Stukeley, 
Dr. Wm. Smith, Twining, Kennedy, Price, Richardson, Wood, &c., 
had written and published treatises on particular objects and places. 
Mr. Wyndham of Salisbury translated the Domesday survey, in 
the preface to which he strongly urged the nobility and gentry of 
the county to assist in, and promote a Topographical History. 
His appeal and advocacy were unheeded, and when I first visited 
Salisbury, in 1796, he received me with much courtesy and kindness. 
Tt should be borne in mind that he had previously manifested both 
partiality and qualifications for Archeology and Local History, by 
two volumes, on South Wales, and on the Isle of Wight. The 
advice and patronage of such a gentleman were of importance, and 
I profited by them for the first year of my topographical novitiate ; 
but on a subsequent visit to Salisbury, having met with some 
officers stationed there with the Wiltshire Militia, who invited me 
to join them occasionally, at the mess-dinners, I was induced, at 
their instigation to perform in a farce with Mr. Stratford’s theatrical 
