418 
pen of Miss Benett: ‘‘ the town of Warminster stands on the 
Greensand and the remains of Alcyonia (the old name for 
Sponges) with which it abounds seem almost inexhaustible. At 
Chute farm, near Longleat, in a field called Brimsgrove, it would 
seem, said the late Mr. Cunnington, as if a cabinet had been 
emptied of its contents, so numerous and so various were the 
organic remains found there.” It is noteworthy that our Mr. 
Lonsdale was collecting or had collected his Warminster sponges 
at the identical period of Miss Benett’s researches. Lonsdale’s 
manuscript volumes are dated 1828 and 1829. Miss Benett 
must have been engaged in fossil collecting for some years previous 
to 1831. Probably some of you have never read and others have 
forgotten a curious incident in connection with Miss Benett 
related by Canon Jackson. She had sent a set of Wilts fossils to 
the Museum at St. Petersburg. The Emperor of Russia, wishing 
to acknowledge the gift by an Imperial compliment and supposing 
from the Anglo-Saxon name of Ethelred that the donor must be 
a gentleman, caused to be sent to her a very grand diploma 
conferring on Miss Ethelred the Honorary degree of Doctor of 
Civil Law in the University of St. Petersburg. 
The Benetts were and are a Wiltshire County family whose 
descent is traced by Sir R. C. Hoare from John Benett, Sheriff of 
Wilts in 1267. The name of Ethelred or Etheldred has been 
borne by many members of the family since the marriage of 
Thomas Benett, of Norton Bavant, to Etheldred, daughter of 
Wm. Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1715. (Mod. Wilts, 
III. 78). 
In continuation of the letter which Miss Benett addressed to 
Sir R. Hoare, she stated that “organic remains had become 
scarce.” This scarcity has gone on increasing ever since. Iam 
sorry to say that nothing of any consequence is now obtainable at 
Chute farm which formerly yielded choice specimens of Sponges, 
Echinoderms and Bivalves, so abundantly as to have enriched the 
best museums in England. In the last two visits paid to the farm 
