14 



The Twenty -Eighth General Meeting. 



29 years ago, when their president was the grandfather of the noble 

 Lord who was now in the chair. Lord Lansdowne came from 

 Bowood to give them an address, and it was not only a very good 

 address in itself, but it contained a great many kind words of en- 

 couragement, and he wished God speed and success to the Associa- 

 tion. He called to mind that the present patron of the Society was 

 the Marquis of Lansdowne, and they had now in the chair his 

 brother, Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice. This showed them that the 

 House of Bowood had not forgotten the character which it had so 

 long borne in this county of attention to, and accomplishment in, not 

 only political matters, but also literary matters, matters which con- 

 cerned inferior things as compared with political business. Lord 

 Edmond Fitzmaurice had shown that he was not only well qualified 

 to represent a Parliamentary constituency, and indeed any body of 

 men, but by his address that day he had shown very great qualifica- 

 tions as President of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society. 



The Rev. H. A. Olivier seconded the vote of thanks, which was 

 carried by acclamation. 



The noble President said it was a great pleasure to him to 

 continue in the steps of his grandfather in these matters, who he 

 believed was the first chairman of the Society. His grandfather 

 always felt the great importance of all literary subjects, and he 

 himself had always had the keenest interest in them. He hoped it 

 was not the egotism of a person who had dabbled a little in literature, 

 as he had, when he said that he somewhat dissented from Canon 

 Jackson's assertion, and ventured to doubt whether the position of 

 literature was not more important than that of politics. The position 

 of literature in England, as compared with that which it occupied 

 in some foreign countries, such as Germany and France, was one of 

 inferiority, which was to be regretted and deprecated in every way. 

 He held, with the late eminent novelist, Mr. Thackeray, that literary 

 men were the salt of the earth. Thackeray was prepared to argue 

 the point, and though he would not undertake that task, he was for 

 literary men holding their own, and not proclaiming their inferiority 

 to politicians, because if they examined into the amount of good 

 done to the world by literary men and the good done by politicians, 



