Some Notices of the Library at Stourhead. 119 



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By J. B. Nichols, F.S.A. 



It is with great diffidence, but with feelings of high gratification, 

 that I venture to address a few observations to the notice of this 

 respectable company, composed chiefly of the "Wiltshire Archae- 

 ological and Natural History Society. 



I came here at the invitation of my old friend Mr. Britton ; and 

 I am sure it must be gratifying to the members of this Society, as 

 well as to himself, that his topographical collections for Wiltshire 

 should remain entire, and be deposited in one of the principal 

 towns of his native county. 



Had it pleased Providence to have spared the life of my late 

 patron and friend, Sir Eichard Colt Hoare, I can hardly conceive 

 the delight he would have felt in the establishment of this Associa- 

 tion. But he lived not in vain. For more than 30 years he devoted 

 the best energies of his active and generous mind to the elucidation 

 of the Ancient and Modern History of Wiltshire. 



Not content with his own personal exertions, he gathered around 

 him a body of able and judicious assistants. And herein he acted 

 wisely and with forethought, for how many of our best topographers 

 have left their histories incomplete, from the life of one man being 

 found insufficient for such laborious undertakings. Witness, the 

 History of Staffordshire, by the Rev. Stebbing Shaw ; the History 

 of Durham, by Mr. Surtees ; and the History of Northamptonshire, 

 by Mr. George Baker. And it may be noticed that Sir Richard 

 Hoare himself died, leaving his History of Modern Wiltshire to be 

 completed by his coadjutors. Wisely, however, had he prepared for 

 such an interruption to his labours by the munificent directions he 

 had left in his will, which were ably seconded by his brother and 

 executor, Mr. Merrick Hoare. 



