The Report. 



237 



REPORT, 



which was as follows : — 



" Your Committee reports that they have held five meetings since 

 the last Annual General Meeting, at which many matters of interest 

 and importance to the Society have come under consideration. 



* The total number of members on the books at the last General 

 Annual Meeting (including, as usual, the Societies with which publi- 

 cations are exchanged), was stated to be three hundred and seventy- 

 three. Since that date we have lost by death six members, and five 

 by resignation. On the other hand seven new members have been 

 elected, showing as the total number of members on the 1st July 

 last three hundred and sixty-nine, a decrease of four. 



" None of the Members whose loss we have to deplore were original 

 Members. Amongst them the name of the Right Hon. Edward P. 

 Bouverie will be remembered by us as a distinguished Member of 

 our Society. His Parliamentary duties in former days, and more 

 recently his numerous business engagements, allowed him but little 

 time for the enjoyment of country life, but he was known as a keen 

 observer of all that passed around him, and from time to time he 

 has notified the appearance of a rare bird on the Downs, or some 

 other object of interest to the Society, while in 1874 he took an 

 active part at our Annual Meeting. The Rev. Prebendary Scarth, 

 Rector of Wrington, died last winter at Tangiers. He had been 

 for years one of the most active members of the Somersetshire 

 Archaeological Society, and was at one time a member of our Society 

 also. He took an active part in the opening of the Blackmore 

 Museum. Sir Daniel Gooch, Bart., had been a Member since 1873. 

 The movement which has led to that great county undertaking, the 

 rescue from ruin of the grand Church at Edington, was initiated 

 during the incumbency of the Rev. H. Cave-Brown-Cave, who took 

 the greatest interest in the work up to his death. 



" Amongst the names of those who have resigned we would note 

 that of Mr. Robert Elwell, our Local Honorary Secretary for the 

 Highworth district — creating a vacancy which we hope may be 

 filled during this Meeting — and also that of the Rev. T. A. Preston, 

 who has left the county, but whose name will ever be held in grateful 



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