246 The Sixth General Meeting. 



and that they might hand down the Society to another generation 

 when they who formed it were called upon to leave it. Al- 

 though this was the seventh year of the Society's existence, it 

 was only the sixth Annual Meeting which had been held. It was 

 not thought advisable to hold any meeting last j T ear, inasmuch as 

 the two central Societies, which claim to be exclusively national 

 associations, met during that year either in this county or upon its 

 borders : — one at Salisbury, the other in Bath : and notwithstand- 

 ing the increasing popularity of Archaeology, still many might 

 be of opinion that it is possible to have too much even of a thing 

 so useful and rational as that. Even within the last week one of 

 the Societies he had alluded to had held its Annual Meeting at 

 Newbury. Although the close pressure of these Societies might 

 have its inconveniences, it must be regarded as a satisfactory in- 

 dication of the varietjr and attractiveness of the antiquities which 

 abound in this part of England. With regard to this particular 

 district, as yet, no body of archaeologists had ever paid a special 

 visit to this place : he did not, however, go too far when he said 

 that there was no part of the county — scarcely any part of England 

 — which exceeded it in the abundance of ancient monuments and 

 objects of antiquarian interest. They were here, in fact, in the 

 centre of that great chalk platform of Berkshire and Wiltshire 

 which might be called the cradle of the prae-historic races which 

 colonized and inhabited Ancient Britain, and had left their traces 

 over all the hills around them. Stonehenge itself must yield the 

 palm in antiquity and mystery to the circles and avenues of Ave- 

 bury, whilst the wonderful earthwork of Silbury Hill was not equal- 

 led in magnitude in any part of the island. Again, there was the 

 Castle-hill of Marlborough, which almost rivalled Silbury in mys- 

 tery. This place, as they knew, had in later times been occupied by 

 many of the early Norman kings, and during the last year of the reign 

 of Edward the Third, had been the scene of one remarkable event, 

 the enactment of the Statutes of Marlborough by the Parliament, 

 then held here, which he believed was the first occasion in which 

 the Commons of England made their appearance in Parliament. 

 Placed as this district was about midway between London and 



