THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
23 
Nor can we omit reference to later and nearer workers. No local 
society has done so much towards the elucidation of the Archaeology 
of Devonshire as the Plymouth Institution. The Rev. S. Rowe's 
Perambulation of Dartmoor is an original work of the highest 
value, viewed even in the light of the latest research. With the 
investigations which led to the production of that book are associ- 
ated the names of Henry Woollcombe, Hamilton Smith, John 
Prideaux, Edward Moore. How worthily the character thus won 
for our Society has been sustained by men who are yet with us 
you do not need to be reminded. Nor will it, I hope, be thought 
presumptuous in me if, following in their track, I endeavour this 
evening to bring together certain general conclusions that seem fairly 
deducible from the application to the facts of Devonian Archaeology 
of the now accepted principles of archaeological science. 
We shall, then, deal to-night with Pre-historic Devon, and must 
needs begin with a definition. It must never be forgotten that the 
customary periods of Archaeology are not divided by hard and fast 
lines. The Ages of Stone, of Bronze, of Iron, are convenient terms, 
as indices of succession and progress; but the periods always 
overlap, and are ever subject to local modification. Just so the 
phrase pre-historic is not absolute, but relative. The pre-historic 
periods of China, Egypt, Greece, Rome, have no common chrono- 
logical basis. In like manner, in our own country, the pre-historic 
of Scotland is not identical with the pre-historic of England ; the 
pre-historic of Kent differs from the pre-historic of Devon. Here, 
indeed, the pre-historic comes so far down that if we take the 
existence of direct contemporary record as our criterion, we can 
hardly throw it further back than the reign of Alfred. Before 
his time there are but a few casual references, which require to be 
supplemented largely by Archaeology before they can be made to 
tell a consecutive story. By pre-historic, then, in relation to 
Devon, I mean all that is antecedent to the Saxon Conquest of this 
county — a somewhat wide definition, but the only one yielding 
satisfactory results on any wide generalization. 
We commence our survey at a period so remote that it is capable 
simply of approximation. Devonshire stands alone in the kingdom 
in peculiar relationship to the question of the antiquity of the 
human race. Traces of Palaeolithic Man are indeed scattered 
throughout the land ; but Devonshire only gives consecutive evi- 
b 2 
