The Thirty-Fifth General Meeting, 



137 



was followed by Mr. Ponting, F.S.A., Diocesan Surveyor and 

 Architect, who entered into some architectural details. This fine 

 old Church was much admired by the visitors, who, on leaving" it, 

 reassembled at the Town Hall, where Thf, Right Reverend The 

 President, who had by this time arrived, took the chair. 



The Bishop stated that he much regretted that he was unable 

 to be present with them at the beginning" of their Session. It 

 was now, he believed, his happy duty to declare that their 

 Meeting had commenced, and, as Bishop of the Diocese and 

 President of the Archaeological and Natural History Society, 

 to welcome them all to Calne, and to indulge a hope that they might 

 all be able to enjoy the excellent programme put before them by the 

 Committee. They would forgive him, he hoped, if he did not make 

 any regular address to them that day. It had been quite impossible — 

 owing to the great strain of the last month of theLambeth Conference, 

 and the arrears of business which had been kept waiting till that was 

 over — to prepare anything like an address fit for such a Society as 

 theirs. It was, however, a great pleasure to him to think that they 

 were meeting this year at Calne. He believed that this was the 

 first time during the thirty-five years of its existence that the 

 Society had met at Calne. It had met twice, at least, at Chippen- 

 ham, once very near the beginning of its existence, and once about 

 the year 1870 ; and also once or twice at Devizes and Marlborough. 

 Although this was the first time they had met at Calne he was sure 

 they would all find plenty to interest them in the excursions which 

 had been planned. There was much in that neighbourhood which 

 would interest them from many points of view. They met, he be- 

 lieved, just in the district where different geological strata joined 

 one another, and where, no doubt, there was a good deal, both of 

 botany and natural history, owing to that natural formation, about 

 which those who could speak on that subject could discourse to them 

 as they drove here and there. There were, of course, the many 

 pre-historic monuments, of which Avebury was the great example, 

 standing above all others in that district. And then there were all 

 the historical associations, both pre-historic and what we now under- 

 stood to take the place of pre-historic — he meant the history of the 



