XXXV111. ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING. 



press. 8. Gwain to pits. 9. The Butcher. But to-day I am able to 

 report an acquisition (also on loan) of still greater interest and value, 

 for, as it seems to me, it is none other than the original copy, probably 

 the very first commitment to paper, of Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset 

 Dialect. They are contained in seven different MSS. books, copy book 

 size, and comprise nearly 200 poems, about half of which I have traced 

 in the printed volume published by Kegan Paul. They are full of 

 corrections of all sorts, expressions altered, lines scored out, and even 

 verses rearranged differently from the original order. Some of the 

 poems are marked " printed," others Macmillari's Magazine, others 

 again Dorset County Chronicle, with the date of publication. 



To those of us who still feel an affection for the glimpses of rural 

 life revealed in the Poems it is indeed a privilege to get them direct 

 from the author's own hand. We may feel, as he says himself in a letter 

 to his daughter, " I wrote them as if I could not help it. The writing 

 of them was not work, but like the playing of music, the refreshment 

 of the mind from care or irksomeness." 



Restored Churches' Committee. The Rev. A. C. ALMACK, 

 the Hon. Secretary of this Committee, reported as follows : 



The Committee met at Wimborne Vicarage in August, 1916, and 

 reviewed the work done. Some 30 papers of replies to inquiries had 

 been sent in and about 10 more have since been received. Among 

 them are some very interesting and careful details supplied by Mr. R. 

 Hine and Mr. H. Syndercombe Bower ; and in some cases very interest- 

 ing information has come from builders employed in the restorations. 

 The Secretary hopes that during the summer months, by the help of 

 certain other members of the Committee, he may be able to prepare a 

 digest of the various facts which have so far been ascertained, and 

 that ho may be able to present it at the meeting of the club in December, 

 1917. 



Election of Officers and Committees. Captain ELWES 

 proposed the re-election of Mr. Nelson M. Richardson as 

 President. This was seconded by Canon FLETCHER, who said 

 that it seemed as if Mr. Richardson's whole life had been 

 a period -of preparation for the presidency of the club which 

 he filled so ably and so acceptably. The resolution was 

 unanimously adopted. 



The Rev. Herbert Pentin was, on the proposition of Canon 

 FLETCHER, re-elected Honorary Secretary, and he nominated 

 Mr. H. Pouncy again as his Assistant Secretary. 



