Iviii. CORFE CASTLE AND STUDLAND. 



The HON. SECRETARY read a letter which he had received 

 from Mr. Thomas Hardy : 



The Athenaeum, Pall Mall, S.W., 16th May, 1908. Dear Mr. Pentin, 

 Your information that I have been elected an Honorary Member of the Dorset 

 Field Club is highly gratifying, and I hope I shall be able to show my sense of 

 the distinction the Club has conferred on me by attending some of its delightful 

 Meetings. Sincerely yours, THOMAS HARDY. 



The PRESIDENT added that he had also received a very 

 appreciative letter from Mr. Henry Storks Eaton, Past President 

 of the Royal Meteorological Society, who at the Annual Meeting 

 of the Club was elected a Vice- President. 



The HON. SECRETARY read the following letter from Captain 

 Benett-Stanford, the Honorary Treasurer of the Shaftesbury 

 Abbey Excavation Fund : 



Hatch House, Tisbury, Wilts. Dear Sir, I am wondering whether your 

 Club would give anything towards the final excavations at Shaftesbury Abbey. 

 I enclose you the circular that I have sent round to most names in Dorset and 

 Wiltshire. Mr. Doran Webb personally guaranteed the overdraft at the bank, 

 and it therefore behoves all people who have any interest in Dorset archaeology 

 to clear him of this generous but onerous responsibility. 



" The work of excavating the site of Shaftesbury Abbey, which was com- 

 menced in 1902, is now approaching completion. This year we propose to lay 

 down in turf the ground outside the foundations of the wall and to build a couple 

 of rooms (with the rough stone found on the site) to hold the numerous objects 

 of interest which have been brought to light during the progress of the excava- 

 tions. To accomplish this and to repay the overdraft at the bank a sum of 200 

 is necessary, and I venture to appeal to you, and feel sure it will not be in vain, 

 to help me to raise this amount. I cannot do better to conclude this, my last 

 appeal, than by quoting the words of the Rev. Douglas Macleanein the Guardian 

 of October llth, 1905 : ' Not only the county of Dorset and Diocese of Salisbury, 

 but all Englishmen, should feel concerned in the recovery from its uuhonoured 

 grave of the stately Benedictine foundation of the Saxon-Hero-King." Yours 

 very faithfully, JOHN BENETT-STANFORD. 



On the motion of the HON. TREASURER the sum of two 

 guineas was voted to the fund. 



A pleasant drive through Ulwell Gap brought the Members to 

 Swanage in time to catch their trains. 



