Thursday, August l'2tk, 121 



used. It is much to be desired that these two interesting objects 

 should find a resting-place in the British Museum now that there is 

 no longer a legitimate use for them at Wootton Bassett. At the 

 house of Mr. Cooksey the visitors were shown, amongst other 

 interesting local antiquities, a set of twelve roundels of unusual 

 design. These tablets are very thin pieces of sycamore wood of 

 circular form, usually decorated with floriated ornaments in colour, 

 and inscribed with texts and quaint stanzas conveying moral ad- 

 monitions, &c. They were in vogue in the time of Queen Elizabeth, 

 and probably used for some purpose at the table-board. The present 

 examples are perhaps of rather later date, they are similar to a set 

 of roundels exhibited at the York Meeting of the Institute, in ] 846, 

 having engraved representations of the sybils, coloured, and sur- 

 rounded by prophecies, in verse, inscribed on their margins. 



On leaving Wootton Bassett, the excursionists next drove to 

 Kingsbury Camp, to which Mr. James Sadler conducted them: 

 and much astonished many of our Wiltshire archaeologists were to 

 find so extensive an area surrounded by so perfect a ditch and bank, 

 in this secluded spot, far away from the downs where such entrench- 

 ments mostly congregate. Considerable doubt, however, was ex- 

 pressed by many whether this was a camp or fortified place at all : 

 for, like Avebury and similar enclosures of a peaceful character, the 

 ditch was on the inside and the bank on the outside, which arrange- 

 ment is generally held to indicate that they were not intended for 

 defence. But, whatever its origin and intention, Kingsbury is a 

 very interesting spot, and deserves to be more carefully examined 

 than was possible in an excursion. 



Purton was soon reached after leaving Kingsbury, and here, in 

 the magnificent hall of the Institute, a substantial luncheon was 

 prepared, which was doubly welcome after the prolonged morning's 

 excursion. At its conclusion the Kev. A. C. Smith called on the 

 Society to join him in a vote of thanks to their President, who was 

 now, he regretted to say, come to the end of his term of office : to 

 Mr. Maskelyne we were indebted for much of the success of our 

 Meetings, for he had presided over us with ability, and had infused 

 a heartiness and genial warmth into our proceedings. In his reply 



