The Ninth General Meeting. 3 



have now to regret, were the Rev. John Ward, late Rector of Wath, 

 Yorkshire, who contributed the " History of Great Bedwyn ; " Mr. 

 Charles Edward Long, the author of several spirited papers in our 

 Magazine, on " Wild Darell of Littlecote ; " and the Rev. George 

 Marsh, late Rector of Sutton Benger, who read an interesting 

 Ornithological paper at Warminster. 



" Your Committee cannot pass over in silence the departure of 

 one of their General Secretaries, the Rev. W. C. Lukis, to a distant 

 county; and though they still hope to reap the benefit of his 

 Archaeological and Architectural knowledge, and continue to claim 

 him as one of their working body, yet distance must very much 

 diminish opportunities for such communication, and necessarily 

 deprive them of much of his valuable assistance. 



" To pass on to the result of last year's labours. Your Committee 

 has no hesitation in affirming that during the past twelve months 

 the Society has more than ever advanced the great object it has 

 had steadily before its eyes from the first, viz., the collecting of 

 information relating to the Archaeology and Natural History of 

 Wilts, with a view to the completion of the history of the county. 

 The greatest stride we have made in this direction has been the 

 publication a few months since of the " Wiltshire Collections, by 

 Aubrey, corrected and enlarged by Canon Jackson." The book is 

 now in the hands of the public, and your Committee cannot but 

 congratulate the Society on being the instrument of publishing 

 such a volume, so replete with the particular kind of information 

 which it desires to impart. The Magazine has necessarily been 

 somewhat hindered by the large work referred to, but the 20th 

 Number was issued six months since, and the 21st Number, com- 

 pleting the Seventh Volume, is passing through the press, and will 

 shortly be in the hands of the members. 



" Another work, and necessarily a work of time, the collecting 

 " Parochial Histories " from the incumbents of parishes, has made 

 considerable progress during the past year, and from the patronage 

 and active support of the Bishop of Salisbury, well seconded by 

 the kindness and zeal of a great body of his clergy, and under the 

 direction of one of the Secretaries of the Society (the Rev. A. C. 



b 2 



