Firs/ Day's Proceedings. 



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Lord Nelson said, lie felt pleased to accept the office of President over 

 their meeting", though he had no pretensions whatever to great archae- 

 ological lore, and really represented the more humble — but perhaps 

 as useful, and certainly more numerous — class of people who might 

 do a great deal for archaeology — the busy bees, who might gather 

 honey for the greater men to work and feed upon. Speaking of 

 what archaeology had already done, he said there was no end to the 

 immense advantages they saw in these days from their work in 

 elucidating' history, for during the last half-century the history of 

 this country had been really re-written by the means of archaeological 

 research. These recurring meetings, though they might be held 

 amidst scenes often visited and reported on before, had a greater 

 work to perform than was at first apparent. It was much more 

 than the additional pieces of information that might be gathered 

 upon each fresh visit, and from the valuable papers which would be 

 read. Its greater work was a missionary one, and the zest that such 

 meetings gave to all to become antiquaries, to gather together little 

 bits of their family history, and of the history of their respective 

 parishes, to support the local Association, promote the circulation of 

 their Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, and contribute 

 to its pages : in that way a mass of information was gathered to- 

 gether from time to time which helped to elucidate different obscure 

 parts of history, and had already, through the Wiltshire Magazine, 

 added much to the materials for a county history which with much 

 less labour than Sir Richard Colt Hoare and his noble compeers be- 

 stowed, would greatly enlarge and illustrate the work associated 

 with his name. This reminded him that a well-known archaeological 

 friend, Canon Jones, of Bradford, was on the point of bringing out 

 a most interesting book on the original uses of the different parts 

 of Salisbury Cathedral, with a second volume on the whole religious 

 history of the diocese from the earliest times, a publication which in 

 such hands would be most useful to the history of the county. In 

 reference to the ecclesiastical branch of their subject, he illustrated 

 by two instances how a true knowledge of archaeology would have 

 had an eminently useful purpose. When restoring Salisbury Cathe- 

 dral there was a natural desire expressed by the laity that they 



