AN ADDRESS 

 BY J. 0. MANSEL-PLEYDELL, ESQ., PRESIDENT, 



Delivered at the Annual Meeting at Sherborne, May 30, 1876. 



The large and increasing list of members, together with the 

 interest evinced last year at the Field Meetings, justify the 

 assumption that if the Society does not gain a permanent footing 

 in the County it will be the fault of the Directing Body. 



The ample means placed at our disposal for the reception of 

 our treasures at the Sherborne Grammar School we gratefully 

 acknowledge, and under the eegis of so accomplished a curator 

 as Mr. Harper, we may hope to make the embryo Museum more 

 attractive and useful than is usually the fate of local depositaries 

 of art and natural objects. 



In arranging the Field Meetings, the Committee keep in 

 view the importance of embracing as many and various objects 

 of interest as can be brought within a day's work, and as the 

 limits of the district afford. 



The Celtic Eggardon and Maiden Castles, with their subse- 

 quent adaptations for the higher and more advanced art of 

 warfare made use of by the Romans, the Danish Poundbury, 

 the Roman Amphitheatre of ancient Dorchester and the medie- 

 val Corfe Castle, the raised beach of Portland containing a 

 marine recent fauna ; its neighbour the Chesil-Bank, caused by 

 a subsequent alteration of the coast-line, and the interesting 

 Oolitic beds of Powerstock, were the principal objects of 

 examination and study at the four Field Meetings of 1875. 



The first was held at Weymouth on the 1st of June, when 

 an expedition was organized to visit the Isle of Portland. On 

 landing, the members started for the Bill, a bluff headland at 

 the southern point of the Island, to examine the raised beach, 



