The President's Address. 



3 



the reading-room of the British Museum. It is obvious that the 

 public of the present day seek greedily for this class of information. 

 They like to know what their ancestors have done before them, and 

 to understand and compare the past with the present. The natural 

 aim of a Society like this is to encourage and foster studies which 

 we think are neither useless nor vain, and we may be satisfied that 

 in releasing and bringing to the light objects of interest from the 

 accumulated dust of ages, we not only improve our own minds, but 

 very much establish history. Let no one be discouraged in his 

 search for antiquity, for who knows whether in his walks he may 

 not stumble upon the site of a Roman dwelling, or the remains of 

 a Druidical circle, or find in the troubled aspect of the ground 

 beneath his feet the uneven burial-ground of a great army. It is 

 from small things we rise to great. The mere household books of a 

 family, whose " local habitation and name 33 is almost forgotten, 

 will oft-times afford an ample indication of the style of the age in 

 which it lived, while furniture, pictures, china, buildings, ornaments, 

 and even dress, if preserved, most surely give us the period when 

 they were used. Talking of dress reminds me that at a previous 

 meeting my learned friend the Recorder of Devizes, Mr. Merewether, 

 descanted most eloquently on the " head-gear of the ancients/'' and 

 amused the company by a discourse upon bonnets in vogue among'st 

 the ladies half-a-century back. His humorous style was so much 

 appreciated by his audience, that I trust he may be persuaded to 

 give us a specimen of his ability another time. While we pursue 

 our labours, and try to increase the store of our Archaeological 

 Magazine, I hope that we shall never forget the men who have g'one 

 before us in the work — the pioneers and founders of our county 

 history. We cannot but look back with a more than kindly feeling* on 

 the memory of such men as Sir Richard Hoare, the polished historian 

 of Wiltshire ; of Aubrey and his quaint researches and erratic style ; 

 of the earnest-minded Britton and his significant brusquerie; of 

 Penruddocke Wyndham, who more than eighty years ago wrote his 

 "Wiltshire," which he desired should prove te a prelude to the 

 county history ; " of Sir Thomas Phillips, and his most useful 

 collections; of Moffatt, Bowles, and Nichols, Benson, and Hatcher 



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