The Inaugural Address. 



9 



up of a nave and two aisles. The sole light is by an aperture con- 

 cealed from the spectator without, and high up at the west end. It 

 is not of any great size, but it is so constructed as, on the day I 

 visited it at least, to light up the whole interior without the aid of 

 any artificial means. This temple is supposed to have been in ex- 

 istence many years before the Christian era, and though we do not 

 in these peaceful times in quiet England need a crypt for our temple, 

 nor one inaccessible and outwardly invisible light for such crypt, 

 yet these are examples, if and when they are needed, and the ex- 

 istence of crypts in our own churches shows that such needs there 

 have been. I have ventured to dwell on these far distant structures 

 because, after all, the consideration of them does, I think, appertain 

 properly to my subject, and because, if you will allow me to say so, 

 I find it easier to myself to dwell on matters which have formed 

 the subjects of personal travel and inspection, rather than on such 

 as are subjects of mere speculation to me. But I turn to things 

 that are probably more familiar to us all, and I will dwell for a 

 moment upon that very familiar thing, our roadways. They are 

 serious matters to some of us, and especially to those of us who dwell 

 in this immediate neighbourhood. We are blessed with a traffic in 

 freestone which is profitable to a few outsiders, which gives an ex- 

 cellent finish say to law courts some hundred miles away from us, 

 but which, so far from being of any benefit to us, is the cause at 

 once of a very heavy taxation, of very bad roads, and of much 

 rough and expensive journeying. In the parish of Monkton 

 Farleigh, in the very direction in which this traffic is principally 

 carried on, there are still to be seen the traces of a Roman 

 road. This was laid down some sixteen hundred years ago, and 

 this, in spite of ^ind and weather, plough and neglect, is still in 

 some parts almost perfect. The materials are slabs of stone and 

 concrete. Is there no lesson to be learnt from the use of such 

 materials which have, under adverse circumstances, endured so long, 

 when the modern system of Macadam has proved such a complete 

 failure ? I pass on to a more speculative topic, and I will speak 

 briefly of the archaeology, call it the history, of any one of our rural 

 parishes ; and I think I can show how, from its earliest traceable 



