206 Presidential Address by Dr. J. Beddoe, LL.D., F.R.S. 



In olden days, and in some cases almost into our own times, 

 superstitious notions reinforced the spirit of conservatism with 

 respect to many prehistoric remains. But superstition may, and 

 usually does, decay before enlightened respect for antiquity is 

 developed; and the hiatus is occupied by sordid greed and brutal 

 mischief, or, with almost equally baneful results, by well-meaning 

 ignorance or balf-knowledge. Perhaps nearly as much destruction 

 of valuable historical and antiquarian material is going on in our 

 own day, as was perpetrated at any earlier date. The practical 

 man is rampant in his selfish and wicked way ; the clerical 

 restorer is unable to see things from any point of view but 

 his own ; the engineer positively revels in ugliness. 



Half-culture cost a worthy man needless expense and trouble 

 when he replaced the original animal at Westbury by the present 

 well-formed horse ; but fortunately we have a representation of 

 the old one. Even as it is, Topinard, the first of French anthro- 

 pologists, told me it was worth coming from Paris to see it. 



Sheer Philistinism led the Bristolians to give away their beautiful 

 cross to the Hoare family, who rightly appreciated it, and whose| 

 grounds at Stourton it still adorns. Greed, destined to well-^ 

 deserved disappointment, led the Corporation of Bristol to cleaij 

 away that beautiful tower of St. Werburgh's from Clare Street.! 

 Coupled with ignorance, it would have broken up for road metal 

 or otherwise destroyed the Draper Monuments at Clifton, had non 

 a rescuer chanced to pass by at the very critical moment. 



Canon Bawnsley is not ubiquitous, nor is Lord Avebury omnipol 

 tent, nor are those admirable Societies which have been organizes 

 for the protection and preservation of ancient monuments nearlj 

 so wealthy or powerful as one could wish them to be. Beaut}] 

 antiquity, an illustrious history, could not save Crosby Hall ; anil 

 there is no treasure of the kind which can be considered absolutely 

 safe, until it has been put under the protection of the nation, o J 

 of some public body of a national character. 



