Presiden tied A ddress. 



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present, both on account of his great fame as an archaeologist 

 and of his close connection with our county. Eight and forty 

 years have elapsed since your society honoured my father by 

 conferring upon him the office which by your indulgent favour and 

 nattering invitation I hold to-day. Those two periods are not 

 lengthy in the view of the students of antiquity, but you will all 

 acknowledge that they are long enough in the span of man's life 

 to leave gaps in your ranks and to give pause for reflection. No 

 one here is more sensible than myself that I have no claim as an 

 archaeologist or an antiquary to fill this responsible and honourable 

 office to which you have so courteously bidden me. I am afraid I 

 do not even look the part, and I cannot even venture to hope that 

 a venerable appearance may suggest for me the character of the 

 sage for which in other respects I fear I am equally disqualified. 

 I have been anxious, however, to find some justification for your 

 choice in electing me as the president of your body, and I can only 

 do so by recalling to your minds a sentence from Bacon's Advance- 

 ment of Learning. The passage to which I refer is this : ' To 

 spea.k truly, antiquitas saeculi juventis mwndi. These times are the 

 ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we 

 account ancient ovdine retrogrado, by a computation backward from 

 ourselves.' On that principle alone am I entitled to preside over 

 the learned deliberations of a society of antiquarians. I venture, 

 moreover, to think that the same feeling which prompted my 

 father's election to this chair nearly half a century ago, and which 

 accorded to him the kindly greetings of this Society twenty-one 

 years later, has dictated your selection of your president on this 

 occasion. It is a feeling that happily traces its roots to centuries 

 back, so as to satisfy even an exacting archaeologist — it is the 

 feeling of reciprocal good will and regard which has been the glad 

 tradition of the associations of my family and of the people of 

 Warminster in the long ages during which they have lived side by 

 side. Many eminent and esteemed members of your society have 

 passed away since 1877, but I would venture to place my humble 

 tribute of respectful remembrance on the shrine of the memories 

 of two who were then present. To the Rev. A. C. Smith — then 



