Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/109

Rh his last public appearance anywhere. It was an occasion the more remarkable, and the more affectionately remembered by the more intimate friends of his family, that it was also the last occasion on which his mother, the venerable Countess, received at Dunraven. The house was filled with their friends, and while Lord Dunraven took the labouring oar and arranged and accompanied the excursions, his mother was able to appear and to welcome those who came, with that happy blending of dignity and kindness which upon her sat so naturally and became her so well.

The duty of an Archæological President in the field is not altogether an easy one. He should himself be an archæologist, and well acquainted with the history and details of the monuments of his district. Also he should make himself more or less acquainted with the various members of the congress, and especially with those who are strangers, so as to be able to say a courteous word upon occasion, to take part in the local discussions, and by the exercise of a gentle and scarcely perceived pressure, keep all within the bounds of time, space, and temper.

These duties Lord Dunraven discharged admirably. Nature had given him a courteous manner, a kindly and unselfish disposition, and an excellent temper, to which he had added, by study, a sound knowledge not only of the antiquities of the district, but of those of Ireland and many parts of the Continent, so that he was not only a popular President, but to the accuracy of a local antiquary he added the breadth of view of a sound comparative archæologist.

The address he delivered at Bridgend was excellent of its kind and exactly what was wanted. By it he introduced the strangers to the district, gave them a good general notice of what they were to see, and thus showed them how to employ their time, often necessarily brief, to the best advantage.

Lord Dunraven accepted, in 1871, the office of President of a Section, and fully intended taking an active part in the proceedings of the Royal Archæological Institute at the Cardiff meeting. This, however, his increasing weakness forbade; but he read, with much pleasure, the accounts of the meetings, and wrote to some of those who took part in it on what had passed.

Lord Dunraven discharged honestly and fairly such public duties as his rank and position placed before him, but his