XX*. 



ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. 



THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Club was held in the 

 Reading Room of the County Museum on Friday, May zoth. 



The President, Lord Eustace Cecil, took the chair at 1.30. 



THE MEMBERSHIP. Five candidates were elected and five 

 proposed for election at the next meeting. 



THE HON. SECRETARY'S REPORT. The HON. SECRETARY 

 said : 



The membership of the Club is now, including the five new nominations, 361, 

 against 333 last year, showing an increase, in spite of loss by death and resignation, 

 of 28. The result of the summer meetings of the past two years is a gain of exactly 

 13s. From Mr. Richardson, when I entered upon this office, I received a balance 

 of 2 13s. 7d., and I deliver to my successor 3 6s. 7d. But, comparing the two 

 years together, there has been a loss on the last against the previous summer of 

 more than 5. This was chiefly due to an unfortunate experience at Shaf tesbury, 

 and would have involved a still larger deficit but for the personal aid of Lord 

 Eustace Cecil and Mr. Hudleston. On the other hand, a sum of 16 has been 

 saved to the general funds of the Club by the payment of printers' bills in 

 connection with the summer excursions, whilst the sum of 20 has been handed 

 to the Assistant Secretary during the two years. 



The investigation of Lyiichets was prosecuted last summer in furtherance of 

 what had already been done and recorded. Digging was greatly hindered 

 by bad weather; but, with the devoted assistance of our associate, Mr. 

 Richard Hine, four important sections were cut at Higher Meerhay, and 

 the results have been plotted and tabulated on the sheets now shown. 

 Of these lynchets it may be said that the excavation gave clear evidence of 

 the two periods of culture separated by an interval of no great duration ; 

 and of the fact that, prior to the first period, the terraces had been flattened, 

 at a time very remote, by the removal of chalk from a higher to a lower 

 level. Their recent history is given by Mrs. Cox, of the Manor House, who says 

 that her late husband, Lieut. -Colonel Cox, told her that he had heard from bis 

 grandfather that the terraces were for the cultivation and drying of flax. It 

 further appears that Whatley Mill, about half-a-mile south of the lynchets, was 

 formerly a flax mill, and only of late years has been a flour mill. When the 

 growth of flax was discontinued the terraces for a while reverted to pasture ; but 

 now, for about 50 years past, they have been regularly ploughed for ordinary 

 crops. It is certain that some of the cultivation terraces of Dorset, like those at 

 Osmington reported last year, are very ancient ; and in this connection perhaps 

 the most valuable discovery in Mr. Charles Prideaux's barrow -breaking at 

 Martiustown was a vase of the early Bronze Age, which held the incinerated 

 remains of a child wrapped in a charred fabric of hemp or flax. The vessel, of 

 which a photograph is now shown, was found in the tumulus marked III. on his 



