22 



The Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting. 



purchases at Avebury and Silbury, observed that the difference 

 between the agricultural value of the land and that he gave was (it 

 would be noted) small. He found that these great national monu- 

 ments were never destroyed for any national work, but in order that 

 the stones might be turned into cottages or the tumuli into manure, 

 or some other extremely humble purpose. 



Canon Jackson said they were loath to leave that picturesque 

 dining-room, and he proposed the health of the General Secretaries, 

 whilst the Rev. A. C. Smith, on behalf of the Archaeological Society, 

 thanked Mr. Kemm, who had been an archaeologist ever since the 

 Archaeological Society had been established if not before, and had 

 done the best he could to preserve the great stones at Avebury, and 

 had now lent them the noble barn in which they were assembled. 



Mr. Kemm, in reply, was only too pleased to see all in his barn, 

 though it was perhaps a misfortune, as it ought at this time to be 

 full of produce. He was happy to see so many archaeologists and 

 hoped they would be pleased with what they saw at Avebury. 



The party then left the barn, and proceeded to view the fine old 

 Manor House and the Church. At the Manor House, the present 

 occupier, Mr. Kemm, received the visitors" with great cordiality and 

 kindness, and the privilege of walking through the charming old 

 house and the extremely picturesque grounds was highly valued. 



At the Church the Vicar (Rev. Bryan King) pointed out the 

 chief objects of interest, the rudely-carved but most remarkable 

 Norman font, the Norman doorway with its beautiful dogs-tooth 

 mouldings, and even evidences of a Saxon Church occupying the 

 site previous to the present structure, which had recently come to 

 light during the course of restoration. 



Then the archaeologists visited the British antiquities for which 

 Avebury is so famous, first walking round the great embankment, 

 and then examining in turn the most remarkable of the existing 

 stones. Rev. A. C. Smith described the original plan of the outer 

 circle of stones, and the two inner circles or temples, one containing 

 a single stone or " obelisk 33 in its centre, the other three large stones, 

 forming the sacred C( cove ; 33 and called special attention to the fact 

 that each of these inner circles was twice as large as the temple at 



