6 



The Tenth General Meeting. 



Wiltshire. Five years before the appearance of this volume, a two 

 vol. folio edition of the complete Domesday had appeared, but from 

 its being in contracted Latin, and printed with peculiar abbrevia- 

 tions, that book was — I may almost add still is, — a sealed book 

 to the, many. It was a great step therefore taken when the portion 

 of Domesday relating to Wiltshire was published in a form intel- 

 ligible to ordinary readers, and accompanied with a translation. 

 In his preface to his work, Mr. Wyndham expressly speaks of it, 

 as a 'prelude to the histor}' of the county/ and promises a generous 

 subscription towards carrying out the object which he had in view. 



"As a first result of Mr. Wyndham's publication, I may name 

 Sir R. 0. Hoare's 'Ancient History of Wilts,' and the 4 Modern 

 History,' more or less, of the fifteen southern hundreds of the county. 

 In this last named work he was assisted by several learned and 

 zealous fellow-labourers, and amongst others by my own excellent 

 friend and relative, Mr. Matcham, whose presence to-day I cannot 

 pass over, without acknowledging the honor that he has paid me, on 

 this the first occasion of my taking upon myself the office of Presi- 

 dent of the Society, since he is now the only representative left of that 

 band of zealous men, who in times past worked so hard to preserve 

 and revive an interest in the Archaeology of this county {applause). 

 As a next result of Mr. Wyndham's work, I will mention sundry 

 important contributions by Sir Thomas Phillips, especially the 

 ' Wiltshire Institutions,' a book privately printed, containing a list 

 of the Incumbents and Patrons of the various Benefices in Wilt- 

 shire from the end of the loth century. Then followed Moffat's 

 ' History of Malmesbury,' — then those of ' Bremhill' and 'Lacock* 

 by Bowles and Nichols — and Benson's and Hatcher's ' Salisbury,' 

 which, though published in Sir It. C, Hoare's work, is deserving of 

 especial notice. 



" But in addition to these publications, much has been done by 

 way of facilitating the researches of literary men since the com- 

 mencement of the present century. There has been, for instance, 

 the new edition of Dugdalo's ' Monasticon Anglicanum,' a work of 

 especial interest to a county, in which at least one fifth of all the 

 land belonged at one time or other to some Religious House. Then 



