Calne. 



167 



earned away, and would also have been lost but for its accidental 

 recovery by your Vicar. 



As to private sources of information, it does not appear to nave 

 been the habit of your predecessors to make and transmit notes of 

 local history. Traditions -and oldest inhabitants there have been, of 

 course : but oldest inhabitants are perishable articles, like the rest 

 of us : and when they disappear their traditional lore disappears 

 with them. 



In sitting down to the task, an old remark, embalmed both in 

 Greek and Latin poetry, occurred to me; applicable, indeed, to 

 many places, but particularly so to Calne. It is, that Time and 

 the countless course of years bring to light whatever is buried under- 

 ground, and hide underground all that has flourished and sparkled 

 on the surface. 1 By the aid of the modern science of geology Time 

 has laid open the structure and order of the various strata which 

 form the crust of our globe, has disclosed a most wonderful history, 

 and has laid upon our tables undeniable proofs of it. Time, on the 

 other hand, has buried in oblivion, certainly not all, but by far the 

 greatest part of what has taken place upon the surface of the earth. 



Though the geology of this neighbourhood is very interesting, to 

 go into it at any length would not only take up too much of our 

 evening, but in order to be appreciated, would require more previous 

 acquaintance with the subject than can fairly be expected, so I will 

 only refer to one feature of it that is, perhaps, the most striking. 



Many of you have, no doubt, read in our books of voyages the 

 account of those wonderful coral banks that are found in the hotter 

 parts of the world, long reefs and often whole islands constructed, 

 under water, by the little coral insect, who builds till he oomes to 

 the surface and then gives over, leaving a perilous hidden danger 

 for ships to strike upon. It may surprise some present to hear that 

 in this part of Wiltshire, for the stone with which roads are mended 

 and walls built, we are indebted to that little workman, the coral 

 insect. In short, the whole country having been formed by deposits 

 of sand or chalk, in enormous masses, one after another, at the 



1 " Quicquid sub terra est, in apricum proferet setas ; Defodiet cbndetque 

 nitentia." (Horace, Bpist. I., 6, 1. 24.) See also Sophocles, Ajax, 1. 646. 



