Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/423

 THE AltClIAEOLOOk'AI. IXSTITLlTi:. .'Vi.'. of conveying tliis acknowledgment to liini l)y name ; but it would bt; sufficiently evident to all who had hoard the curious details and tjuaint anecdotes relating to the ancient history of the city, that the writer niUHt be a distinguished member of the Corporation, who alone could have access to the precious documents referred to, and at the same time must be an antiquary of no ordinary attainments in archaeological research. ThcCiiKVALiER Kestneu, Vicc-Prcsideiit of the Archaeological Institute of Rome, seconded the motion. lie assured the meeting of the gratification he felt in participating in the proceedings of a Society, formed for kindred purposes to those which he had long felt the deepest interest in jiromotiiiir. lie congratulated them on being assembled in a city so rich in ancient recollections, and expressed the hope that the members of the Institute might be encouraged to extend their researches to Italy, assuring them of a cordial recc])tion at the museum he had formed in Rome. A vote of tlianks to the President, proposed by Mr. Markland, and seconded by Sir Joii.v Boileau, Bart., was carried with acclamation, and the meeting adjourned to visit the display, appropriately prepared in the Council Chamber. The members were there received with the utmost courtesy by the Town Clerk, Daniel Bcrges, Esq., and the Chamberlain, Thomas Gauraud, Esq., F.S.A., whose attention and remarks upon the numerous objects displayed, materially enhanced the gratification of the visitors. The regalia were disposed with much taste at one end of the fine saloon, of which the walls are covered with full-length Royal and distinguished portraits. The charters and appendant seals, some of great rarity, were admirably shown in glazed cases. A number of inte- resting records and autOL;raphs were exhibited, and the company withdrew highly gratified with tliis unique display, and demonstration of the cordial feeling of the city of Bristol towards the Society on the present occasion. The visitors, on quitting the Council House, dispersed to visit various objects of interest, the Cathedral, the Churches, and other points of attrac- tion, with the aid of concise notices compiled for their use by Mr. W. Tyson, F.S.A., whose researches, for many years devoted to the investiga- tion of the antiquities and recollections of his native city, had been in the kindest manner rendered available to promote the objects of the Institute. The majority repaired to the " temporary Museum," which by the obliging permission of the Lord Bi.shop of the Diocese, and the council of the Institution, had been arranged at the Bishop's College, Park-street. The limits of the present notice ^vill not permit of any enumeration of the antiquities, and objects illustrating ancient arts or manufactures, there brought together. Amongst the attractive features of this collection may briefly be mentioned a series, scarcely equalled in variety and extent, of the relics of the " Stone Period :" the curious specimens from the Somerset- shire Turbaries, contributed by Mr. Stradling, were compared with analogous objects from Dorsetshire and other parts of England, a largo assemblage also of examples from Ireland, brought by Lord Talbot.- Mr. Brackstone sent an interesting group of Danish relics of the same age presented to Dr. Thurnam by Ilerr Worsaae of Copenhagen. The extensive collection of drawings, sent for exhibition by the Royal Irish Academy, and ■ An unique specimen, a primitive Irel.iiul, was one of the most curious relics knife of silex, rudely adjusted with a exhibited hy Lord Talbot. WTapper of peat-moss, as discovered in