18 Second General Meeting. 



generation. Most of the gentlemen whom he addressed had been 

 archaeologists almost from their birth, for they had nearly all been 

 educated in public schools where they had become conversant with 

 the memorials of genius which had been transmitted to us by the 

 ancients; and there was no advice that Eton men should more 

 closely abide by than that of Juvenal — to avoid all pedantry, such 

 as a mere knowledge of the materials and history of antiquity, 

 unaccompanied by a desire to turn that knowledge to high practical 

 purposes. He hoped to enlist on his side the sympathies of all his 

 brethren by inducing them to throw themselves heartily into that 

 system of progress — that well known word by which the application 

 of science and of the arts, to all the useful employments of life 

 was known — a system which was calculated to benefit our fellow- 

 men, and at the same time to correct any evil tendency that might 

 arise from the knowledge obtained in their education. His lordship 

 then went on to observe, that he felt indebted to the Mayor for the 

 reception accorded him at his enthronization, and remarked that, 

 as long as he lived, he should never forget the kindness of his 

 language on that occasion. He therefore felt sure that they would 

 forgive him, if he ventured to propose, without having obtained 

 permission, the health of the most excellent Mayor of the city of 

 Salisbury. 



The Mayor regretted that it had not been his good fortune to 

 contribute more extensively on this occasion to the advancement of 

 the Wiltshire Archaeological Society. He had hoped to have been 

 enabled to have directed their attention to a subject which had, to 

 a great extent, escaped the observation of the archaeologists of 

 England — he meant the subject of the music of the middle ages. He 

 was particularly anxious to have laid before the meeting the result 

 of some of the researches in which he had been engaged for a 

 number of years, but a pressure of engagements had prevented 

 him doing so. Were time and health granted to him, however, 

 he hoped, at the next meeting of the Society, to lay before its 

 members a clear and distinct account of the music of the middle 

 ages in this country, and at the same time to show them — what 

 had not been shown for the last 300 years — the principles which 



