THE 



WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. 



" MTJLTOETDI MANIBTJS GRANDE LEVATTTR ONUS," — Ovid. 



THE SEVENTEENTH GENERAL MEETING 



OF THE 



roiteftta arc^ologtcal antr Natural PHstorg Soctetg, 



HELD AT WILTON, 



Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, l^th, Ibt/i, and 16t/i September, 



1870. 



president op the meeting, 

 Charles Penruddocke, Esq. 



^HE proceedings of the Seventeenth Anniversary Meeting 1 of 

 the Society opened at the Town Hall, Wilton, when the 

 attendance of the members and friends of the Society was unusually 

 large. At two o'clock the newly elected President of the Society, 

 Charles Penruddocke, Esq., of Compton Park, took the chair, and 

 addressed the company as follows : — 



Ladies and gentlemen, — As President of the Wiltshire Archae- 

 ological and Natural History Society, I find that it is expected that 

 I should open this meeting with an address. I do so with the 

 understanding that you will treat my efforts as leniently as you can 

 — spare your criticisms, and kindly make an effort to listen to me. 

 You are aware that we are assembled for the purpose of holding the 

 seventeenth annual meeting of the Society. In the report, which 

 will be presented to you, you will find that this Society, which was 

 started on a very satisfactory basis, has gone on for seventeen years, 

 " not dragging its slow length along/'' but progressing rapidly and 

 purpose like to the end which it is its object to attain. You all 

 know that end and object. It is to collect and retain in an im- 

 perishable form the complete history of our county. But, unlike 

 most histories, we are not content with giving the references to 



VOL. XIII. — NO. XXXVII. B 



