NOTICE TO MEMBERS. Members who have not paid their Subscriptions to the Society for the current year, are requested to remit the same forthwith to the Financial Secretary, Mr. WILLIAM NOTT, 15, High Street, Devizes, to whom also all communications as to the supply of Magazines should be addressed, and of whom most of the back Numbers may be had. The Numbers of this Magazine, will not be delivered, as issued, to Members who are in arrear of their Annual Subscriptions: and who on being applied to for payment of such arrears, have taken no notice of the application. All other communications to be addressed to the Honorary Secretaries: the Rev. A. C. SMITH, Yatesbury Rectory, Calne; and Mr. WM. CUNNINGTON, Argyll House, 361, Cold-Harbour Lane, Brixton, London, S.W. The Rev. A. C. SMITH will be much obliged to observers of birds in all parts of the county, to forward to him notices of rare occurrences, early arrivals of migrants, or any remarkable facts connected with birds, which may come under their notice. ACCOUNT OF THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING, AND INAUGU- ARTICLES EXHIBITED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING-LOAN MUSEUM- 117 136 140 208 ...... NOTES AND CORRECTIONS TO "RECORDS OF THE RISING IN THE 235 ..... 237 ILLUSTRATIONS. Table, showing the Alliance of Lady Arabella Stuart, Lady ...... Barn, in which the Wedding Festivities were held on the Plan, near Wulfhall, showing the Conduit, &c. from the close of the eleventh century to the present time Plan of the Town of Trowbridge at the close of the last century, showing the probable line of the walls of the ancient Castle..... DEVIZES: H. F. & E. BULL, 4, SAINT JOHN STREET. 143 144 151 214 218 THE WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. "MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE levatur onus."—Ovid, THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE Wiltshire Archæological & Natural History Society, HELD AT DEVIZES, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, September 8th, 9th, and 10th, 1874. PRESIDENT OF THE MEETING, GABRIEL GOLDNEY, Esq., M.P. S the Society this year celebrated the attainment of its majority, and with the Annual Meeting combined the Inauguration of its new Museum and Library, the attendance of members and visitors was unusually large.1 The Town Hall of Devizes having been kindly placed at the service of the Society, by the Mayor and Corporation, the proceedings of the twenty-first Anniversary Meeting commenced at two o'clock on Tuesday, September 8th,in the Assembly Room, (which was completely filled,) under the presidency of G. Goldney, Esq.,M.P. Mr. GOLDNEY said the first business of the day was to ask Mr. Smith, one of the Secretaries, to read the Report, which he had no doubt would show the Society to be in a favourable condition, and be satisfactory to the members generally. The Rev. A. C. SMITH thereupon said he desired first to discharge a duty laid upon him by their Patron, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and to make excuse for his non-attendance that day. His Lordship 1In preparing the following account of the Devizes Meeting, the Editor desires to acknowledge his obligations to the columns of the Devizes Gazette, Advertizer, and Independent, and also of the North Wilts Herald. VOL. XV.-NO. XLIV. commissioned him to say that he would have joined them with great pleasure, but for his absence in a distant part of Ireland. Lord Lansdowne's grandfather had inaugurated this Society in that Hall, as their Patron, twenty-one years ago, and the Committee had hoped that his grandson, would have been present on this occasion to open the Museum, as he most certainly would have done, but for his absence from England. Mr. Smith then proceeded to read the REPORT FOR 1874. "The Committee of the Wiltshire Archæological and Natural History Society cannot meet the Members of the Society on this important occasion of its history (of this day attaining its majority, and at the same time inaugurating its new Museum and Library), without very heartily congratulating themselves and the Society at large on the highly satisfactory state in which it now finds itself. "As twenty-one years have elapsed since the Society was inaugurated in this room, and as this seems a marked epoch in its history, perhaps it may be permitted to review very briefly the course it has pursued, and what it has effected, before we touch upon its present position. "The Committee thinks it worthy of especial congratulation that the interest of the people of Wiltshire, in the ancient remains and history of their county, as well as in its natural history has been so much developed and increased during the period of the existence of the Society. Without entering into minute particulars the Society may now justly boast of the performance of what was at the outset merely anticipation and promise. Civil, ecclesiastical, and natural history, has been promoted; ancient buildings have been carefully examined and described; the grand Celtic remains, and the many British earthworks, in which our county so pre-eminently abounds, have been cared for; and in more than one instance their preservation from destruction has been secured by the efforts of members of this Society; the genealogy of several county families which was heretofore obscure, has been elucidated; manners, customs, and personal biography have been investigated and put upon record; documents once neglected have |