236 The Eighth General Meeting. 



C. Lukis, and others, to whom our best thanks are due : but your 

 Committee would once more repeat the strong opinion which 

 it still entertains, that the possession of a permanent and 

 suitable building, appropriated to those several departments, will 

 alone attract valuable collections, whether by way of loan, deposit^ 

 or gift ; indeed this has been plainly intimated by several would- 

 be donors and depositors. 



" Your Committee has one more remark to make in concluding 

 the Report, and that is with reference to augmenting the numbers of 

 subscribing members. While fully satisfied with the progress the 

 Society has made during the eight years of its existence, your 

 Committee feels assured that its ranks would be considerably in- 

 creased, were its objects and its work more generally understood by 

 all classes; and as the assistance of Wiltshiremen in all parts of the 

 county, is essential to a successful prosecution of our investigations 

 into the past and natural history of the county, your Committee 

 again entreats the co-operation of all the members in setting forth 

 the work it has done as well as what it proposes to do, of which a 

 general prospectus has been prepared, and may be had on applica- 

 tion to the Secretaries." 



The Chairman then moved that the Report just read be received 

 and adopted, and that the ofiicers of the Society be re-elected. This 

 resolution was unanimously adopted. 



The Rev. E. Hill then read a paper on " The Early History of 

 Shaftesbury," prepared by the Rev. J. J. Reynolds, who was not 

 able to attend the Meeting in consequence of a domestic afiliction 

 which he had recentl}' sustained.* 



The company then left the Market-house and with Mr. Batten at 

 their head, proceeded to view some excavations on the site of the 

 old Abbey, the Churches, an ancient Cross in the grounds of Mr. 

 Bennett on Castle Hill, and other objects of interest in the 

 locality. 



1 "We do not introduce into the Account of the Proceedings an epitome either 

 of this or of the other Papers read at the Shafteshury Meeting, as it is hoped 

 the}' will all appear in the Society's Magazine. 



