IxXX. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



progress of science in the future, so that a real love of scientific 

 research and study may be encouraged and promoted in this 

 county for all time ; and, in so doing, I feel confident that I 

 shall be carrying out the nearest and dearest wishes of our late 

 President and the founders of this society, whose labour of love 

 will thus be more permanently acknowledged than by any other 

 form of memorial that could be devised. Generally speaking, 

 the discoveries made and the progress attained in every depart- 

 ment of science during 1902 have been neither few nor 

 unimportant. Under the head of archaeology we may include 

 the Coronation of the King, which gave rise to all sorts of 

 historical enquiries and researches replete with archaeological 

 importance. The celebration of the "Millenary" of King 

 Alfred took place at Winchester with great success, and impor- 

 tant papers were read referring to the history and numismatics 

 of those days. Many events of local interest, not previously 

 well known, were also brought to light at the commemoration 

 of the Coronation of King Edward the Elder at Kingston-on- 

 Thames, thanks to the energy of the Mayor (Dr. Finney), 

 himself a learned archaeologist. The fall of the Campanile at 

 Venice, which had stood for nearly a thousand years, was an 

 event received by the whole civilised world with the greatest 

 regret. But, perhaps, the most interesting of all the recent 

 discoveries abroad are those at Knossos and Phoestus, in Crete, 

 and of the ancient city of Gezir, in Palestine. A great debt of 

 gratitude is due to Dr. Evans, who has successfully explored the 

 Palaces of Knossos Phoestus, with all their priceless treasures 

 inside and out, together with the foundations of earlier buildings 

 on the same spot going back to 2800 B.C., by all those who 

 value the undoubted proofs of a high state of civilisation in 

 those early times. The discovery of the remains of Gezir in 

 ancient Philistia is also most interesting to all Biblical students, 

 corroborating as it does the unsuspected high standard of art in 

 painting and pottery at the time of the conquest of Canaan by 

 Joshua. A recent discovery near Thebes, in Egypt, of the tombs 

 of one the Pharaohs of the i8th dynasty (Thotmes IV.) by 



