88 The Forty-Third General Meeting. 



all probability it would do speedily if a new Church were built in 

 the village ; whilst others maintained that, whether the Church was 

 likely to go to ruin or not, if left alone, an Archaeological Society 

 such as our own should under no circumstances give its sanction to 

 such a proposal as the removal of an old building and its re-building 

 stone by stone on another site. In the face of this difference of 

 opinion it was resolved that our Society should not commit itself 

 to one side or the other, and that an answer in this sense should be 

 returned to the letter of the Society for the Protection of Ancient 

 Buildings. 



The next business was the proposed sale of a number of FOSSILS 

 belonging to the Society which have no connection with the county, 

 and which there has never been room to exhibit at the Museum. 

 This proposal, brought forward by The Eev. E. H. Goddard and 

 seconded by Mr. A. B. Fisher, was carried unanimously — and 

 the officers of the Society having been formally re-elected, the 

 Members adjourned, some twenty-five of them joining the excursion 

 to Longford, whilst the remainder stayed in Salisbury itself. A 

 three miles dusty drive brought the party to LONGFORD CASTLE, 

 kindly thrown open to them by Lord Radnor, though, as the 

 number present was too large to be taken round the castle at once, 

 there was but too little time for the enjoyment of the many notable 

 pictures by Holbein, Vandyke, Claude, Quintin Matsys, Mabuse, 

 Gainsborough, and Reynolds, and the fine specimens of furniture 

 with which the house is filled. The grand Holbein portrait of 

 Erasmus, and the marvellous steel chair, of German work, probably 

 unrivalled in its way, among a multitude of good things, stand 

 out perhaps pre-eminently. 



Returning to Salisbury, the Members made their way to THE 

 PALACE, where The Bishop kindly received them at tea in Bishop 

 Poore's thirteenth century undercroft, and afterwards showed them 

 over the other parts of the interesting old house. Though perhaps 

 not unknown to many of the Members, the quite unrivalled view 

 of the Cathedral and the spire from the palace gardens is a sight 

 not to be forgotten — the most beautiful thing, indeed, to be seen 

 in the City of Salisbury. It is worth noting here, too, that the 



