at the Salisbury Meeting. 



35 



of any past discoveries or recent investigations bearing on the subject 

 in its general aspect, so the President of the Architectural Section 

 will fulfil his task most adequately if he offers a rapid survey of the 

 architecture of the district — ecclesiastical, domestic, and military, 

 and also makes mention of the chief architectural events of the past 

 year bearing on the science in its archaeological fiSMpfa --Jk&j^b these 

 objects I will endeavour, however imperfectly, to^Mifi'^ S 



Pre-historic architecture, illustrated so magnificently in the county 

 of Wilts in the mysterious circles of Avebury and Stonehenge, and 

 the standing stones, cromlechs, and cistvaens which stud its downs,, 

 as well as in the camps and villages which so abundantly crown the 

 hill crests, belongs to the Section of Antiquities and does not enter 

 into our present purpose. Architecture, properly so called, begins 

 for us with the so-called Anglo-Saxon era ; a convenient and in- 

 telligible, if not strictly correct term. Of this era the county of 

 Wilts has several examples to show, one of which is certainly un- 

 surpassed in value by any building of its age in England. I mean, 

 of course, the old Church at Bradford-on-Avon, rescued from its 

 desecration and restored to its sacred purpose by one whose premature 

 death has inflicted an irreparable loss upon the archaeology of Wilt- 

 shire generally, and of Salisbury in particular, never more acutely 

 felt than at our present gathering, the late Canon Rich Jones. In 

 this little building, which, in the words of one who, though happily 

 he is still alive and likely to live for many years, and is not so very 

 far from us, is, unhappily not with us — Professor Freeman — is 

 " probably the most ancient unaltered Church in England," we may 

 safely recognize the Church erected by St. Aldhelm at the beginning 

 of the eighth century and mentioned by William of Malmesbury as 

 standing in his day, as it still stands in our day, at the Broad Ford 

 over the Avon ; " est ad hunc diem in eo loco ecclesiola quam ad 

 nomen beatissimi Laurentii (Aldhelmus) fecisse predicatur." All 

 qualified judges who see it will agree that there is only one period 

 at which a building so remarkable both in its outline and in its 

 detail could have been erected in England, and that the period named 

 by Malmesbury. There are other examples of the same rude pre- 

 Norman style iu the remarkable Church of Britford and at North 



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