804 The Dinner. 



information needed, and communicate with him on the subject. 



W. W. Ravenhill, Esq., then read a very interesting paper on | 

 " Sir Walter Long-, which will be printed in ex ten so in a future 

 number of the Magazine, and for which the President tendered the 

 learned author the best thanks of the meeting. 



The Rev. Prebendary Jones, F.S.A., gave a very able address 

 on the " Early Annals of Trowbridge ; " and with this also in full 

 it is hoped that the pages of the Magazine will be enriched. 



This terminated the proceedings of the morning meeting, and the 

 company then proceeded to examine the various objects of interest 

 with which the temporary museum was filled, while others visited 

 the churches and other objects of interest in the town. 



THE DINNER 

 Took place at the George Hotel, at half-past five o'clock, the 

 President of the Society in the chair. After other complimentary 

 toasts, Archdeacon Stanton, in replying to that of the Bishop and 

 Clergy of the Diocese, said that as a member of the clerical body, 

 he felt that they owed great gratitude to the Archaeological Societies 

 of England. Their Society was only one of many, for now, he was 

 happy to say, they had them in almost every county in the land. 

 In the preservation of everything that was valuable in antiquities 

 they found powerful handmaids in those Societies. They found that 

 wherever their annual meetings were held, they stirred up a great 

 deal of interest in regard to old buildings among people who were 

 previously indifferent to such matters, and were also the means of 

 preventing that neglect which prevailed in many places, and in 

 consequence of which many valuable buildings had been permitted 

 to fall into decay. But he could not help admiring the great change 

 which was coming over England in the rapidly extending, intelligent 

 desire for the preservation of objects of antiquity. They were be- 

 ginning to find that there was a latent spirit — a kind of instinct 

 — of archaeology in all persons. They had all tastes of some kind 

 in that way ; some liked old books, some old houses, some old 

 manuscripts, some old pictures, some old castles, and some old 

 cathedrals. Now, all those varied tastes existing among them, 



