IN MEMORIAM. XIX. 



Mr. William Augustus Miles, a friend of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 

 of Stourhead. I knew this gentleman intimately well and confess 

 that it was impossible to be long in his company without being 

 fascinated by his discourse, and in some measure infected by his 

 enthusiasm, if not fully convinced by his specious theories. About 

 this time a group of mutual friends, stimulated in a similar manner, 

 consisting of Messrs. Charles Hall, of Ansty, Charles Warne, of 

 Milborne St. Andrew, John Sydenham, of Poole, William Shipp, 

 Edward Oke Spooner, and Henry Durden, of Blandford, and 

 myself, met together occasionally to converse on antiquarian 

 subjects, to compare notes, read essays, and exhibit our last 

 acquisitions of curious relics which any of us had met with. These 

 friendly meetings were often productive of animated discussion, 

 and no doubt induced a habit of thought and reflection. I am the 

 last survivor of that small fraternity, and now look back through 

 the long vista of past years to those pleasant meetings with the 

 mixed feelings of pleasure and great regret for the loss of so many 

 dear friends. But I have still the extreme satisfaction of living to 

 see the day when archaeology flourishes in our borders under high 

 and intelligent patronage, having out-lived the age when it received 

 scant notice in society ; and when the study of antiquities itself is 

 pursued on sounder principles, so as to be entitled to take rank as a 

 science ; and thus has archaeology become the true handmaid of 

 history. 



It is no part of my wish to enter upon a history of its progress 

 in this county from that period until the present, but this I will 

 say the example and teaching of such men as the late Charles 

 Roach Smith, F.S.A., and of Albert Way, F.S.A., did much to 

 instruct us in the true principles of archaeological science ; and the 

 two great societies founded in 1844, by their annual congresses and 

 periodical literature did much to extend the knowledge of 

 antiquarian lore. Nor is it without a feeling of pride that I am 

 able to point to such volumes, as Warne' s Ancient Dorset, and his 

 Celtic Tumuli of Dorset, and to Shipp and Hodson's third edition 

 of Hutchins, as the outcome of those private meetings at Blandford 



