6 



The Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting. 



This concluded the meeting, and the visitors then proceeded 

 to inspect the different objects of interest in the town, being much 

 aided therein by fly-leaves compiled with much care suggesting the 

 most notable objects. The Church of St. Mary, with its ancient 

 Norman doorway date about 1150; the Church of St. Peter, with 

 its tower 116 feet high, erected early in the fifteenth century, and 

 containing monuments of Lord Chief Justice Hyde, &c. ; Preshute 

 Church, dedicated to St. George, with its famous font, and a brass 

 dated 1518; and also the College, the " Old House " (formerly the 

 Castle Hotel) which was previously for about one hundred years the 

 seat of the Seymour family, built circ. 1640, by Prancis Lord 

 Seymour, upon the site of Marlborough Castle. 



Last, but by no means least, the Temporary Museum which had 

 been arranged by the indefatigable zeal of the Rev. T. A. Preston 

 and his able colleagues : but indeed there must have been many 

 busy workers and many nimble fingers engaged in collecting and 

 arranging such stores of archaeological and natural history specimens 

 as filled the " Upper School," which had been kindly granted by 

 the College authorities for that purpose. 



THE DINNER 



took place at the Town Hall ; about one hundred ladies and 

 gentlemen attended, the President of the Meeting (the Marquis of 

 Ailesbury) in the chair. 



After the usual loyal toasts, the health of the Bishop and Clergy 

 was given by Lord Chaeles Bruce, and acknowledged by the Rev. 

 C. A. Houghton, Rector of St. Peter's. The Army, Navy, and 

 Auxiliary Forces was proposed by Mr. W. L. Rogers, and responded 

 to by Lord Henry Bruce and Major Merriman. In proposing 

 the health of the Lord Lieutenant and Magistrates of the County, 

 Canon Jackson remarked that the Lord Lieutenant and Magistrates 

 had always been great patrons of their Society. Their verv first 

 patron was old Lord Lansdowne (the grandfather of their present 

 patron) who took the chair twenty-six years ago at Devizes, when 

 the Society was inaugurated, and he always supported it very 

 heartily. His Lordship was not only Lord Lieutenant, but he was 



