36 History of the Society. 



Lord Loreburn, Sir James Crichton-Browne, Mr W, J. 

 Maxwell of Munches, the Rev. Sir Emilius Laurie, Professor 

 G. F. Scott Elliot, and the Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell 

 would lend lustre even to the most famous Societies in Great 

 Britain. But I am sure that our past Presidents will agree 

 with me that their services have at all times been rendered 

 lighter by the earnest work done by our Secretaries and 

 Treasurers. To these officials falls the routine work ; often 

 the most arduous and generally the least appreciated : all 

 honour then to those gentlemen who at one time and another 

 have so generously and effectively filled these purely honorary 

 appointments. 



I trust that I have shown that our Society in the past can 

 hardly be said to have been idle ; we who are now its Members 

 have only to refer to our published Transactions to realise the 

 amount of work accomplished during our fifty years' existence. 

 From a Public point of view I may remind you of the part 

 played by our Society in such important undertakings as the 

 preservation of Lincluden Abbey, and of the Old Bridge across 

 the Nith at Dumfries. The excavations at Birrens (the first 

 Roman Camp in Scotland to be systematically explored), 

 Birrenswark, and also at Lochrutton and Raeburnfoot, were 

 mainly due to the initiative of some of our Members. 



According- to the custom of our Society, at this the annual 

 meeting, it is usual for our Secretary and Treasurer to furnish 

 their accounts of the past Session. Owing to the circum- 

 stances that our annual meeting is coincident with that of our 

 Jubilee, I have made a digest of these reports, which I will 

 now read to you, and so conclude my address. 



Our Membership to-day amounts to sixteen Life Mem- 

 bers, ten Honorary Members, fifteen Corresponding Members, 

 and three hundred and ninety-four Ordinary Members. 



In my chronological history of our Society I have already 

 referred to the volume of Transactions for the period 

 1911-1912. By it you will see that there were thirteen evening 

 meetings, and that during the past summer three highly suc- 

 cessful field meetings were held. 



At present our library consists of some three hundred and 

 eighty volumes, eighty-seven series of Transactions of 



