238 The Fifth General Meeting. 



able pleasure in, turning into ridicule. We can well afford to laugh 

 at his lines, and will go on to " rummage," and I trust in this 

 neighbourhood to some effect, in spite of his aristocratic sneer. 

 Archaeology, he had observed, was not much thought of in Lord 

 Byron's days. In confirmation of this, he (Mr. Bradney) remem- 

 bered, about 45 years ago, being introduced to a clergyman whose 

 name was Douglas, a gentleman much addicted to rummaging. So 

 strong, indeed, was his propensity to open barrows, that he was 

 looked upon in those days as a perfect nuisance. Proprietors 

 warned him off their lands as unceremoniously as they would an 

 unprivileged sportsman on the Ist of September. Now his was 

 "the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties." He was in advance 

 of his age. Had he lived in these days, not only would the bar- 

 rows of proprietors have been open to his investigation, but their 

 cellars also to gladden his antiquarian heart. The times were 

 altered now. Archaeology was the fashion of the day. Witness 

 the numerous societies that were springing up on all sides, insti- 

 tuted for its advancement. Witness those periodical gatherings at 

 which men of different neighbourhoods met together to compare 

 experiences, and to contribute the results of their local investiga- 

 tions, and the benefits of their local knowledge, towards increasing 

 the general stock of antiquarian information, which at no distant 

 period was destined to pervade the whole length and breadth of 

 the land. This, he apprehended, was the great object of the 

 present meeting. If they confined it to the mere club part of it — 

 the pleasant walk on a fine day through a lovely country — a fes- 

 tivity and agreeable conversazione (though these were by no means 

 to be despised) — if they confined it to these, then they fell short of 

 the higher objects of which it is capable, and which it might be 

 made to realize. What he woidd suggest, was, that at such meet- 

 ings as the present materials might be obtained, and a foundation 

 laid for compiling a good county history. Such a history was now 

 a desideratum, and whether they took into account its ecclesiastical 

 antiquities, which were now to be brought before them by Mr. 

 Jones, or the earlier Druidical remains which Mr. Edmonds woiJd 

 elucidate, or its geological formation, which would be explained 



