Report of Society for Year July, 1896— July, 1897. 223 



in the Stonehenge district seems very desirable. The railway 

 line proposed to be constructed by the Great Western Company 

 from Pewsey to Salisbury will pass very near to many of the 

 barrows, earthworks, and more important relics, of which solitude 

 and remoteness from any lines of communication have for centuries 

 past been the best protectors. In the near future, with a station 

 close by Stonehenge, and forty thousand acres or more of land 

 about to be acquired for military manoeuvres, solitude and remote- 

 ness are at an end, and " 'Arry at Stonehenge," as depicted by 

 Punch (in August, 1886), is only too likely to become a very 

 melancholy reality, even before our next meeting. The matter 

 has attracted the attention of some of the leading journals, but no 

 suggestion that can be made will prevent the realisation of the 

 materialistic schemes alluded to. Education and improved tastes 

 must be relied upon for the due preservation of the relics of 

 Salisbury Plain, so valuable and so full of interest to archaeologists. 



" The cutting and levelling in connection with no less than four 

 new short lines of railway in the county at almost one time ought 

 to give the geologist many opportunities for further research. 



" The Eev. E. H. Groddard attended the Congress of Archaeological 

 Societies at Burlington House in July, 1896, as the representative 

 of the Society. 



"The excavation of a disused Eoman well by Mr. B. H. 

 Cunnington and Mr. J. W. Brooke, near Silbury Hill, has 



recently been recorded in the Magazine. The various relics found 

 are described in the article, and they have been placed in the 

 Museum. 



"The Committee hopes that the Local Secretaries and all 

 Members of the Society will do all in their power to keep up the 

 numbers and maintain the reputation of the Society which for 

 upwards of forty years has done much to throw light upon the 

 antiquities of our county." 



R 2 



