Page:Two Sussex archaeologists, William Durrant Cooper and Mark Antony Lower.djvu/40

, and one of the chief co-operators in its valuable both by his pen and pencil, that the name of Mark Antony Lower will ever deserve to be remembered with the highest honour. And as he was one of the pioneers of the movement, so was he the last survivor of the six coadjutors, Messrs. Blaauw, Blencowe, Dudeney, Figg, Harvey, and himself, who, by their deliberations, gave currency to an idea first started, it is believed, and gradually worked out, in the frequent neighbourly meetings at each other's house alternately, of the last-named four. This view is borne out by the Report prefixed to the first volume of the Society's Collections, where it appears that "the first meeting which defined the objects and established the rules of the Society, took place on June 18th, 1846, at the suggestion of a few gentlemen in the town and neighbourhood of Lewes, who, observing the interest excited by some recent antiquarian discoveries, were anxious to promote a readier acquaintance among persons attached to the same pursuits, and to combine their exertions in illustration of the History and Antiquities of Sussex." So, with the Duke of Richmond, Lord Lieutenant of the County, as patron, and the Duke of Norfolk as President, the speedily became an "accomplished fact."

The first public meeting of the Society was held on July 9th, 1846, in an appropriate arena, the ruins of ; and the first paper read there, was on the History of those venerable remains, by, which paper, under the title of Chronicles of Pevensey, was published by its Author as a separate work, and has since passed through several editions as a popular handbook for visitors.

Noting the fact, that the first volume of the Society's Collections opens with a paper on the germane subject of, from the scholarly pen of the late Mr. Blaauw, who then officiated as honorary secretary, the several contributions of Mr. Lower to those collections now claim especial notice.

In Vol. i. we have three papers, the subjects of which