244 The Fifth General Meeting. 



the neighbouroood, was presided over by Mr. Sotheron Estcourt, 

 M.P. 



In replying to one of the toasts, Sir John Wither Awdry ob- 

 served that " he thought there was a mine of history in this county, 

 connected with its civil and ecclesiastical divisions, which had as 

 yet been but little opened up. How was it that in this county, 

 particularly, we found the hundreds scattered up and down ? What 

 was there in the history of the people which led to this, and at 

 what period did that history date ? From what we knew of their 

 ancient history, these hundreds were originally tribes of people who 

 became localised, possibly on the settlement of the country, under 

 Bang Alfred, after the Danish wars, and which might probably 

 have given rise to the fable that the invention of hundreds was 

 due to that monarch. How then were they localised ? And why 

 was it that some hundreds were called "ragged hundreds," sown 

 broadcast, as it were, over the whole face of the country ? Was it 

 that the people formerly belonging to them had separate residences 

 allotted to them ? Then again there could be no doubt that the 

 physical character of the county bore very much upon its history ; 

 for if we looked at the long line of Oxford clay down almost a 

 string of extraparochial places, there was a coimtry which was 

 probably heavily timbered, and untractable to road agriculture, 

 and not fully cultivated until the later Saxon period. Look again 

 at the light land, where we saw small parishes, or again here, where 

 we saw a large parish divided into a multitude of chapelries. The 

 small parishes, no doubt, indicated an early settlement of the 

 country : the large parishes, divided into a midtitude of chapelries, 

 probably the next stage of the proceeding. But there was still on 

 the levels here, a good deal of light-barley land which could have 

 been occupied tolerably early in our history ; and therefore, instead 

 of this being comprised of great parishes, undivided, like the clay 



What attraction so ancient, so genuine too. 

 As Woman, fair Woman, appears 1 



Whene'er, then, with Science uniting Good-chccr, 



To THE Ladies our homage we boast. 

 Let Antiquity's votary, and Natuke's combined, 



Respond, heart and voice, to the Toast ! 

 Bath, Aug. \2th, 1857. F. K. 



