THE 



WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. 



"multobum manibus geande levatue onus." — Ovid. 



THE TWENTY- SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING 



OF THE 



BEtltsjjtre Srcljarologtcal & Natural Hfetorg Soctetg, 



HELD AT BRADFORD-ON-AYON, 

 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, August Wi, \§th, and WtJi, 



1881. 



PBESIDENT of the meeting, 



Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 



fg^UHE Annual Meeting 1 of the Society was this year held at 

 $S|jf Bradford-on-Avon, an interval of twenty-four years having 

 elapsed since its last visit to that town. The meeting was eminently 

 successful, and the welcome and hospitality shown by the inhabitants 

 of Bradford and its neighbourhood left nothing in that respect to 

 be desired. 



The proceedings were opened at the Town Hall, at twelve o'clock, 

 by the Secretary, Rev. A. C. Smith, who regretted to say that 

 the President of the Society was not able to be with them as he 

 had intended, owing to circumstances which had not been foreseen 

 when the time for holding the meeting was fixed. The Irish Land 

 Bill — they were aware — was to be considered by the House of 

 Commons on its return from the Upper House, that very afternoon ; 

 and, owing to the very active part which he had taken in the 

 discussion of that measure, it was impossible for Lord Edmond 

 Fitzmaurice to be absent from his place : he was therefore re- 

 luctantly compelled to forego the pleasure of presiding over the 

 Society at Bradford. Mr. Smith read a letter from Lord Edmond 



1 In preparing the following account of the Bradford Meeting the Editor 

 desires to acknowledge the assistance he has derived from the columns of the 

 Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, The Trowbridge Chronicle, and the Wiltshire 

 Times and Trowbridge Advertiser. 



VOL. XX. — NO. LVJII. B 



