tEESIDENl's ADDRESS. - 201 



District. The Club was formed for the out-of-door study of an- 

 tiquities, as well as of meteorology and the manifold branches of 

 N^atural History, and most admirable work has it performed in 

 all its departments. Its Catalogues of the Mammalia, MoUusca, 

 Insects, Birds, Plants, and Eossils of the district are exceedingly 

 valuable. So also are its past Meteorological Reports. It should 

 add to these most important documents another, which, as years 

 went on, would become absolutely priceless. I do not mean that 

 it should produce an elaborate account, or history, of all the ob- 

 jects of archaeological interest in the two counties, — that it could 

 not do, nor would it be desirable for it to attempt, even if it were 

 capable of accomplishing it. "What I mean is a Catalogue simi- 

 lar in plan to its Catalogues of the Birds, Plants, etc., of the 

 District. It should be arranged under heads, such as Prehistoric, 

 British, Roman, Romano -British, Saxon, !N"orman, Mediaeval, 

 Elizabethan, Caroline, Jacobaean, Georgian, etc. ; and it should 

 enumerate, under each head, all the antiquities of that particular 

 class known at this present time to be in existence, stating accu- 

 rately the places where they are to be found, and describing them 

 just sufficiently to create interest and to secure identification. 

 ^Nothing would conduce more to spread an intelligent knowledge 

 of, and interest in, the antiquities of our district; to excite en- 

 quiries after the precious relics existing amongst us ; to ensure a 

 watchful eye being kept upon them ; to give effectual means for 

 tracing them when they disappear ; to deter heedless, or sense- 

 less, or mischievous persons from making away with them ; and 

 generally to promote effectually the study of archaeology amongst 

 us. If it be said that some one of the Antiquarian or ArchaDo- 

 logical Societies should take such a work in hand, I should demur. 

 Their work lies more in indoor study and research. It is theirs 

 to hunt into every detail of histoiy and circumstance connected 

 with a building, an entrenchment, an object of ancient art, or 

 coin of an ancient dynasty ; to compare them with others, and to 

 draw forth the light they are capable of throwing upon the annals 

 of the past, or the new information they are able to impart to us 

 respecting the races or the generations which have preceded us. 

 In thisthev resemble those other Societies, Zoological, (icological, 



