£4 The Twenty -Eighth General Meeting. 



have been the top of a churchyard or wayside cross. From Little 

 Somerford the party drove to Broad Somerford, where also the Rector, 

 (the Rev. W. Andrews), courteously received them at the entrance 

 to the churchyard, and led the way to his interesting Church, which 

 he had restored with good taste, and where the original rood stair- 

 case on the south side, and the hagioscope on the north, were objects 

 of special attraction. A large circular mound of earth, abutting 

 close on the churchyard, and washed at its base by the river, was 

 also visited, and its probable intention much discussed, the pre- 

 ponderating opinion being that it was originally the site of a 

 stronghold of Saxon or Danish times. Thence a short drive brought 

 the party to Dauntsey, where again the Rector, (the Rev. Arthur 

 Law) , pioneered them over his very interesting Church, the chancel 

 of which he had thoroughly restored in the true conservative spirit 

 so dear to archaeologists. Several ancient monuments here demanded 

 careful examination, and an old painting, grotesque in its details, of 

 the "Last Doom," was the subject of close examination. From 

 Dauntsey a long pull up the steep hill conducted to the remains of 

 Bradenstoke Abbey, where the party was reinforced by many 

 additions ; and where Mr. Frederick Goldney was ready to receive 

 the visitors with the hospitality which invariably meets the archae- 

 ologists when they visit this famous relic of monastic times. Nor 

 were the refreshments so generously provided by any means declined 

 by our archaeologists ; and then they rambled over the premises* 

 some to the attics to see the great beams of the old roof, some to the 

 top of the building and some to the cellars ; and then over the gardens 

 and into the barn, itself a noble specimen of its kind. Descending 

 again by the same hill, and passing Dauntsey Station, where some 

 of the members were deposited on their homeward journey, the ex- 

 cursionists next drove to Christian Malford, where the Vicar, the 

 Rev. Canon Miller, very courtously conducted them over his beauti- 

 ful Church, and here they lingered some time, in examining the 

 many points of interest, not the least of which was the old register 

 containing two remarkable entries, the one of a man touched for the 

 king's evil at the end of the seventeenth century, the other of certain 

 persons who had been pronounced excommunicate at about the same 



