LECTURE VI. 



ADDRESS TO THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND 

 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



When your excellent Secretary, Mr. Smith, first com- 

 municated to me the wish of your Committee that I 

 should become your President for this year, I must 

 confess to some natural hesitation in accepting your 

 very flattering invitation. I have so recently become 

 directly connected with the county, there are so many 

 gentlemen well qualified, not only to fill, but to adorn 

 the office, that I could not but be doubtful how far the 

 suggestion would be approved by, and advantageous to, 

 the Society. Nevertheless I have long felt so deep an 

 interest in this, the central, and, archseologically, the 

 richest district of England, I am always so happy in the 

 sunshine of your glorious downs, or under the shadow of 

 your beautiful cathedral, that I could not refuse myself 

 the pleasure, and — for it is never very difficult to convince 

 one's self of what one wishes to believe — it seemed to me 

 that the responsibility of the selection would after all in 

 no sense rest upon me. 



It is indeed always a pleasure to come into Wiltshire, 

 and much more too than a mere idle one. I sometimes 

 think that every one — at any rate, every Schoolmaster 

 and every Member of Parliament, ought to make the 

 tour of the county and visit its principal antiquities. 



