The Annual Dinner. 



17 



often lightened up by the discovery of relics of a by-gone age. 



The Chairman said he had next to propose "the health of the 

 Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese," and he did not think that he 

 could present to them a more appropriate toast for a meeting like 

 that. If they were to look throughout England it would be im- 

 possible to find a Bishop more anxious for the sustentation of the 

 religious edifices that they saw around them, and when he made 

 that remark about the Bishop he was bound to add that throughout 

 the whole of his diocese he was supported in that great work by 

 the feeling of the Clergy. There was no country probably in the 

 whole world where there were so many objects of interest as they 

 had in England associated with their village Parish Churches, and 

 they all, as Englishmen, felt the greatest interest in the main- 

 tenance and preservation of those buildings. Archaeologists, in 

 particular, entertained that feeling, and sympathised with the 

 object most deeply; and hence it would be impossible to find a 

 more appropriate toast on an occasion like the present than that of 

 the Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese, who were so zealous in the 

 maintenance of the edifices which were entrusted to their care. 

 After the remarks of the Bishop in the morning, there could be 

 no doubt of his zealous support of the cause of Archaeology, and 

 that so long as he was spared in the See of Salisbury the Society 

 might count upon his most cordial aid. 



The Lord Bishop of Salisbury returned thanks. The Mayor 

 had done him no more than justice in assuring the meeting that 

 nothing was more deep in his heart than the maintaining, and 

 keeping, and repairing any ravages of time that might have been 

 effected on those beautiful structures, not only in this city, but 

 throughout the diocese. Not only would he pledge himself, but 

 he would do so for every one of the ministry, to pursue the objects, 

 under God, not only of maintaining those fabrics and repairing 

 them when needed, in doing so they hoped to enlist the sympathies 

 of all good archaeologists ; but whenever there might be a necessity for 

 erecting new edifices, they would endeavour to rival their forefathers 

 in the beauty of their structures, and thereby hand down to 

 posterity some memorials of the taste and piety of the present 



D 



