The Report. 



97 



information relating to the Archaeology and Natural History of 

 Wiltshire with a view to the completion of the History of the 

 County ; and to establish a Museum and Library for the reception 

 of all books and articles relating to county history. How far these 

 objects have been achieved during the fifty years of its existence 

 its Members may judge for themselves. A vast amount of valuable 

 and interesting information relating to the county has been stored 

 up in thirty-two volumes of the Society's Magazine ; the British 

 and Eoman Antiquities of the North Wiltshire Downs, by the 

 Eev. A. C. Smith ; the Topographical Collections of John Aubrey* 

 edited by Canon Jackson; a Bibliography of the Great Stone 

 Monuments of Wiltshire, by W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S. ; the 

 Flowering Plants of Wiltshire, by Mr. Preston; the Wiltshire 

 Inquisitiones post mortem of the reign of Charles I. ; several 

 Catalogues of the contents of the Museum, and other works have 

 been brought out by the Society. British and Eoman antiquities 

 have been carefully opened out to view, and discoveries accurately 

 recorded by means of plans and descriptions in the Magazine. 

 Scarcely a Church or old house has been left unvisited, and a very 

 valuable series of papers has drawn attention to the historic and 

 architectural interest of very many of the more important buildings 

 in the county. Demolition, and careless and ignorant excavation 

 and destruction of the works of our predecessors of all ages have been 

 checked and controlled from time to time by quiet remonstrance, 

 which has been courteously acknowledged and acted on. Annual 

 meetings have been held in every available town in the county ; 

 and much else has been done to carry out the objects laid down 

 for the Society in 1853. From the first beginning, objects of 

 Natural History and Antiquity, Drawings, Books, MSS., Models, 

 and all sorts of interesting relics were entrusted to the Society for 

 preservation and exhibition. It was years, however, before the 

 Society could acquire a home of its own. In 1874 a special fund 

 was raised, and premises in Long Street, Devizes, were purchased, 

 in which were deposited the books and antiquities which had then 

 been handed over to the Society. And now, after thirty years, we 

 find that the existing premises are wholly inadequate for the storage 



