Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 1.djvu/35

 say that the body to which I belong refused to receive it; but nothing daunted by the dangers which menaced them, the petitioners proceeded to Westminster to present it, and some of them were even massacred in their endeavours to do so. And I was sorry to read that on the restoration of the Stuarts their loyalty was but ill repaid, for the town of Guildford was compelled to surrender its Charter, and was not exempt from the fate which met other boroughs. We are happy in living at a period when such measures are impossible, and under a Sovereign we all respect, and whose health Englishmen are always happy to drink. (Applause.)

Upon "The Health of the Earl of Lovelace, Lord-Lieutenant of the County," being proposed, his Lordship, after congratulating the Society on the progress it had made, and the welcome with which it had been received in Guildford, observed that—"Formerly a certain amount of ridicule was cast upon the lovers of antiquity, because their admiration of the memorials and relics of former times was indiscriminate and unreasoning; but it is not so now. There is an advantage in people being set thinking, in their asking the reason why such forms are adopted, such contrivances resorted to as appear in the works of our forefathers. (Hear, hear.) The more those are studied, the more it will appear that the designers acted with purpose and feeling, and therefore gave expression to that which proceeded from their hands. We have no right, then, to despise the old, for the moderns in matters of taste do not equal them. If this is not so; if the artistic conceptions of the present day in any of the textile or hardware manufactures now produced be satisfactory, why should there be this morbid appetite for new patterns and fashions in almost every branch of our manufactures, unless it be tacitly but universally acknowledged that they fail to be agreeable to the eye, or to satisfy the mind? We did not experience this deficiency in the memorials by which we were surrounded in the morning; and however uncouth some of the dresses and armour may have appeared, from our want of familiarity with them, assuredly both the favours and the ornaments by which they were distinguished were more refined than the habiliments of the present generation."

Mr. proposed "The Health of Mr. John Britton," who had favoured the Society with his presence, and who might justly be regarded as the Father of British Archæology.

Mr., in a speech of much vivacity and energy, acknowledged the compliment, concluding by expressing the hope that the younger Members around him might attain the ripe old age to which he had attained, and might, at the age of 84, be as happy as he then was.

Before leaving the town, many of the visitors proceeded to view Abbot's Hospital,—over which they were conducted by Mr. George Russel, the Master,—and the Town Hall; also the remarkable Crypt under the Angel Inn.

In the evening a was held in the Public Hall. The attendance was very numerous, and a better opportunity was afforded