The Inaugural Meeting. 



5 



I regret to say that I must still say ' the future historian/ 1 How 

 it is so I do not venture to say, in the regretted absence of the firsfe 

 Secretaries, the Rev. A. C. Smith and Mr. Lukis, and of Canon 

 Jackson and others who have laboured so assiduously at illustrating 

 our antiquities. Perhaps they may have done better in gathering 

 materials piecemeal rather than in attempting prematurely a book 

 which ought to be a final collection as far as anything human can 

 be final. We have since your visit learnt, I think, something more 

 of the true meaning and scope of antiquarian pursuits. We are less, 

 perhaps, of speculators, and less also of medievalists. We go 

 further backward into the roots of things. We examine with as 

 much care (in the person of General Pitt- Rivers, as shown by the 

 admirable volume now lying on the table) the isolated civilisation 

 of a little Romano-British village as we should a great and magnifi- 

 cent monument. We are as careful (under the guidance of Mr. 

 Nightingale) to register and to treasure the pieces of plate presented 

 to our Churches in the Georgian era as we do those rare pieces of 

 pre-Reformation times. We have, therefore, perhaps, gained some- 

 thing in method. I trust that before your next visit we shall be 

 able not only to present you with twenty volumes or so of our 

 Magazine, but with a smaller number of a history worthy of this 

 great county." 



Earl Percy, in replying, said : — " On behalf of the Institute of 

 which I have the honour to be President, I have to express our most 



1 To prevent misunderstanding it may be desirable to explain that the Society 

 from the beginning did not propose to itself to complete the history of the 

 county, but only "to collect and publish information on the antiquities and 

 natural history of Wiltshire." And though it is true that the first President, 

 in his address at the Opening Meeting of the Society, expressed a hope that many 

 of those present might live to see " a complete history of Wiltshire," and urged 

 on the Society to " prepare some of the requisite materials," the Society cannot 

 congratulate itself that the man of leisure is } 7 et forthcoming who is competent 

 for that great work ; for it will require one who shall combine taste and ability 

 for carrying out so arduous a labour, together with the ample means at his 

 command which such a work would entail. On the other hand, it is confidently 

 hoped that the Society has not been unsuccessful in providing a considerable 

 mass of information which may hereafter prove serviceable to the future historian 

 of our county . — [Ed.] 



