LECTUEE VI. 



ADDRESS TO THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND 

 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



WHEN your excellent Secretary, Mr. Smith, first com- 

 municated to me the wish of your Committee that I 

 should become your President for this year, I must 

 confess to some natural hesitation in accepting your 

 very flattering invitation. I have so recently become 

 directly connected with the county, there are so many 

 gentlemen well qualified, not only to fill, but to adorn 

 the office, that I could not but be doubtful how far the 

 suggestion would be approved by, and advantageous to, 

 the Society. Nevertheless I have long felt so deep an 

 interest in this, the central, -and, archaeologically, the 

 richest district of England, I am always so happy in the 

 sunshine of your glorious downs, or under the shadow of 

 your beautiful cathedral, that I could not refuse myself 

 the pleasure, and for it is never very difficult to convince 

 one's self of what one wishes to believe it seemed to me 

 that the responsibility of the selection would after all in 

 no sense rest upon me. 



It is indeed always a pleasure to come into Wiltshire, 

 and much more too than a mere idle one. I sometimes 

 think that every one at any rate, every Schoolmaster 

 and every Member of Parliament, ought to make the 

 tour of the county and visit its principal antiquities. 



