14 Second General Meeting. 



The Rev. A. Fane, (Warminster) : — Mr. Chairman, Ladies and 

 Gentlemen. — I am sure I owe you a great many more apologies 

 than the Lord Bishop of the Diocese, inasmuch as the resolution 

 which his Lordship has been pleased to move, has also been de- 

 posited in my hands without the slightest previous intimation ; and 

 at an archaeological meeting I consider it to be an utter breach of 

 theory to place a perfectly new thing into the hands of a new mover 

 and a new seconder, without any prior warning whatever. But as 

 we are in an infantine state, I apprehend that I must make full 

 allowance for such an irregularity. In attempting to second the 

 resolution which has been prefaced by the admirable remarks of 

 the Lord Bishop, it is unnecessary for me to say that I take a deep 

 and cordial interest in this association, and that I believe the 

 principles enunciated by his Lordship to be really vital and essential 

 to the well being of society ; for I think that there ought to exist 

 centres from which a knowledge of architecture, and every other subj ect 

 connected with archaeology, may, as it were, be continually flowing. 

 In seconding this resolution I feel that if I have one single claim 

 for the office, it is, that if anybody is conversant with the intolerable 

 difficulties which beset the secretary of any undertaking, it is my- 

 self, for as the clergyman of a large parish one is requested to act 

 in the capacity of secretary to such a number of objects that it is 

 absolutely difficult to remember their names. With regard to the 

 secretaries of this association I will venture to assert that if they 

 were to make a clean confession before this meeting of the number 

 of letters they had written, and the intolerable and strange nuisances 

 they have had to encounter — how they have been thought intrusive 

 upon one man and neglectful of another for not answering a letter 

 by return of post acknowledging the receipt of an old bone, or 

 something of that kind — and how it was thought they were about 

 to steal the article because they did not forward an immediate reply ; 

 — I say if they were to make a confession on all these matters you 

 would at once be firmly convinced that there are no persons in this 

 room so much deserving of your thanks. They have not only to 

 set the matter a-going, and to endure the difficulties of which I 

 have spoken, but they have also to collect intellects for contributions 



