140 



By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. * 



Y way 'of introduction to this paper, I borrow from a very 

 high authority, a few sentences that seem to describe with 

 great accuracy, the particular kind of research that falls within the 

 province of the Archaeologist. 



Lord Chancellor Bacon, in his " Treatise on the Advancement of 

 Learning/'' is speaking of Civil History. He says, " It is of three 

 kinds, not unfitly to be compared with the three kinds of pictures 

 or images ; for of pictures or images, we see, some are unfinished, 

 some are perfect, and some are defaced. So of Histories we may 

 find three kinds ; Memorials, Perfect Histories, and Antiquities ; 

 for Memorials are history unfinished, or the first rough drafts of 

 history ; and Antiquities are history defaced or some remnants of 

 history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time. Memo- 

 rials, unfinished, are preparatory notes, to serve the compiler of the 

 perfect history. Antiquities, or the remnants of history, are, as 

 was said, fragments from a wreck ; when industrious persons, by an 

 exact, and scrupulous diligence and observation, out of monuments, 

 names, words, proverbs, traditions, private records and evidences, 

 fragments of stories, passages of books that concern not story, and 

 the like, do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time/ 3 

 I do not remember to have ever met with a happier and more 

 cheering description of our pursuits ; for they now and then need 

 refreshment. I mean by refreshment, the encouraging approval of 

 thoughtful and intellectual men. We are twitted, sometimes, with 

 spending our time in raking into old rubbish, wearing out our eyes 

 with decyphering faded handwriting, and the like : so it is well to 

 be able to exhibit as an answer the deliberate judgment of so great 



* Read before the "Wiltshire Archaeological Society, at De-vizes, Tuesday, September, 8th, 1874, when 

 the original documents from Longleat, out of which it was chiefly compiled, were exhibited by the 

 kind permission of the Marquis of Bath. 



