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this Society be held at Canterbury ; and
I am sure that the Dean and my "brethren of the Chapter will
give you a hearty welcome to our ancient Cathedral. My friend Mr.
Larking will confirm my statement, when I say there are several
new antiquities (if I may venture so to designate them) lately
brought to light in the Cathedral, and which have never been
noticed in any history. Connected as I am, by the office I hold,
with the parish churches of a large part of this county, a
department of its antiquities to which scarcely any reference has
yet been made, I cannot but express the great gratification I
feel, that a Society has been formed which will help to preserve
the literary, antiquarian, and artistic memory of those sacred and
interesting edifices.
It is my duty to see to the maintenance and
preservation of the material fabric, and I cannot but regard our
churches as the best and most important legacy we can leave to
those who come after us, even as they have been handed down to us
by our forefathers.
The Resolution which I have the honour to move is—
"That the First Annual General Meeting of this
Society be held at Canterbury, on or about the 29th day of July
next."0
[Carried unanimously.]
Professor STANLEY (who had arrived but a few minutes
previously, and on being introduced to the Meeting by the Noble
Chairman was received with loud cheers) moved the eighth
Resolution, and said—
Though I am just upon the point of leaving Kent, and
therefore cannot be expected to feel such an interest in this
Society as I otherwise might have done, yet I sincerely wish that
its efforts may be attended with every success, and that it will
be a benefit to the county at large.
Let me speak of it—first, in connection with
Archaeology, and secondly, in connection with Kent.
Nothing impresses the mind with the reality of past
events so much as visiting the localities with which any
historical incidents are connected, and on visiting the spot in
Canterbury Cathedral where Becket was murdered, that terrible
tragedy is presented in all its vividness to the imagination of
the beholder. Many things in history which now are perplexed and
doubtful
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