254 Fourth General Meeting. 
the members who may be present what the real objects of these 
meetings are, and what the chief object of the Society is, in visiting 
different parts of the county—first one corner, then another. First 
of all, then, the principal purpose of the Wiltshire Archzological 
Society, is to preserve objects of local curiosity—whether ecclesias- 
tical, domestic, or of remote antiquity—by a sort of fostering hand, 
a superintending care, an eye in fact which shall overlook every 
kind of curiosity in this county : to preserve the interesting remains 
of ecclesiastical and of domestic architecture—in fact, to promote 
a taste for ecclesiastical and domestic archeology. But we felt, 
when the Society was established, that we required more than this, 
and we added—and in my opinion added wisely—the study of 
Natural History. Therefore you are not to look upon us as mere 
seekers after dry bones, as men whose only purpose is to dig among 
bricks and mortar, and endeavour to ferret out of old hills objects 
of curiosity ; but you are to regard us as persons whose endeavour 
is to promote, to the utmost of our power, a taste, not only for Ar- 
cheeology, but a taste for Natural History. There is another object 
which, I confess, influences me very largely in undertaking as I have, 
a considerable share in the troubles and labours attendant upon the 
present meeting—and it is this. There is always a difficulty in this 
country, in drawing together all classes of people for one common 
object, without what are called in geology the “faults” and “breaks,” 
which so frequently occur in the peculiar social condition of society 
in England. It is therefore, in my opinion, a great thing to intro- 
duce any object like the present in which a common interest may 
be excited—any object in which all classes may combine, as we see 
them combined on this occasion, from the noble Marquis who has 
so kindly undertaken to act as our President, down to those who 
labour in the sweat of their brow—and who I may truly say have 
laboured in the sweat of their brow, in adorning the room in which 
I hope we shall all of us presently eat a good dinner. It is, I repeat, 
this object especially—viz.: the uniting of all classes in mutual 
harmony and goodwill—so that Devizes may have a day’s honey- 
moon with Warminster, and Warminster may have a day’s honey- 
moon with Salisbury—and Devizes and Salisbury and Warminster 
