The Opening Meeting.. 



273 



history of Wiltshire, but its Natural History also, in all its branches^, 

 is being effectually, though gradually, opened out." 



Mr. Cunnington said he had been requested (possibly because he 

 was the oldest Member of the Society) to move the adoption of the 

 report, and in doing so he wished to congratulate the Members 

 upon the improvement in the position of the Society which the 

 report indicated. Unquestionably the important additions made to 

 the Library, by the purchases on behalf of the Society at the recent 

 Stourhead sale by Canon Jackson, had greatly increased its value ; 

 and while regretting the loss to the county of a large number of 

 books which the Society would gladly have obtained had the finances 

 at its disposal have allowed, he sincerely hoped they had gone into 

 the hands of gentlemen who would be inclined to remember the 

 claims of the public library of Wiltshire at a future time, and that 

 some of the valuable works referred to (which were so much more 

 valuable in Wiltshire than they could be elsewhere) might ultimately 

 be found in the position they ought to occupy, in connexion with 

 the Wiltshire Collection of antiquities in the Museum at Devizes. 

 The recent addition to that Museum of the Stourhead Collection 

 was an event of much importance, and the Society was to be con- 

 gratulated on the position it now occupied as the owner of a very 

 valuable local museum. He hoped it would not be long ere a 

 general catalogue was published, giving the history of the antiquities 

 there exhibited, as attached to the particular barrows in which they 

 were found, which would do more than anything else to promote a 

 knowledge of the ethnological phase of the subject, this being one 

 of the most important uses to which the Museum could be applied » 

 Many of the specimens were valuable and unique, and the Society 

 was deeply indebted to Sir Henry Hoare for the liberal terms upon 

 which he had allowed the purchase to be made. 



The Rev. Canon Goddard seconded the motion, and after alluding* 

 to the satisfactory nature of the report, he referred to the progress 

 which the Society had made since its inauguration. 



The report was adopted. 



Upon the motion of the President, the Officers of the Society 

 were re-elected for the ensuing year. 



