15t 



The Twentieth General Meeting. 



An adjournment was then made to the 



Corinium Museum, 

 where, under Professor Church, a pleasant hour was spent. The 

 learned Professor described all the many articles of interest contained 

 in the Museum till nearly five o'clock, when the whole party returned 

 to Swindon, having spent a very pleasant and instructive day at 

 Cirencester. 



It had been intended to visit the Royal Agricultural College, but 

 time would not permit of that being accomplished. 



Thus ended the meeting of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society, 

 for 1873; which, though not so numerously attended as on some 

 former occasions, has been thoroughly successful, and at which as 

 much valuable information has been imparted and gathered, and as 

 much enjoyment derived, as at any previous meeting of the Society 



THE TEMPORARY MUSEUM 

 was formed in the Town Hall. The collection, taken as a whole, 

 though small, was a very good one ; there was an excellent con- 

 tribution by Mr. William Povey, of numerous fossils of a local 

 character, found mainly in excavating for the sewage works in the 

 High Street. Mr. Powne lent ten dessert plates of curious and 

 elegant pattern, the property of the late Lord Byron. Mr. J. B. Ery 

 lent a model and photograph of the Taj Agra, built in 1665, at a 

 cost of £1,7 60,000, and also a number of marine curiosities. A docu- 

 ment referring to the tessellated pavements of Corinium was also 

 exhibited. The tooth of an extinct sea-dragon, Pliosaurus Grandls, 

 discovered in August, 1873, by Mr. J. R. Shopland, C.E., in the 

 Kimmeridge clay at the Brick and Tile Works, at New Swindon, 

 was kindly lent by that gentleman. A number of ancient documents, 

 lent by Mr. R. Mullings, of Cirencester, among which were grants 

 or assessments under the Act of 6 and 7 of William (1695), for 

 raising a poll tax upon marriages, baptisms, and burials, also on 

 widowers and bachelors, for carrying on the war against France with 

 vigour. The parishes mentioned were Swindon (which is headed by 

 the name of Thomas Goddard followed by the name of Vilett and 



