|
would have been rendered clear, had the places
in which the circumstances occurred been preserved; such as the
complicated and difficult story of the Growrie conspiracy. I have
always felt, that had Growrie House been preserved, we might have
unravelled doubts which now can never be made out to the end of
time. The importance of societies like this is especially manifest
at the present time, when such extensive changes are taking place
in all parts. As Sir Francis Palgrave observed to me only a few
days since, this spirit of change is rapidly obliterating all the
relics of olden time, like a deluge sweeping away all the
landmarks of the past; and the preservation of some record of
these antiquities is becoming more and more important.
Secondly. In position, Kent has always struck me as
being more distinct, its boundaries more strictly denned, than any
other county of England. The whole pyramid of our island. rests,
as it were, upon two corner-stones, Kent (which denotes
"corner-") being upon the east, and Cornwall upon the
west. England became first known to history by the visits of the
Phoenician merchants to the Cornish coasts for tin, as mentioned
by Herodotus; and Kent, which occupied a still more important
position, as being in closer proximity to the Continent, received
the Roman legions,—its name being the only name of a county yet
in existence which was pronounced by the mouths of Julius Caesar
and his Romans. Subsequently it was the landing-place of Hengist
and Horsa and their Saxon warriors; and then of St. Augustine, on
a more peaceful mission: and thus Canterbury, almost by a mere
local accident, became the seat of the English Primacy (and, in
the Middle Ages, might be considered that of the Prime Minister
also), a distinction which it has retained down to the present
time, its history being thus invested with an interest not
possessed by any other place in England.
I am addressing you under very great disadvantage,
having only this instant arrived., and though in complete
ignorance of what may have been said by previous speakers, I just
throw out these few remarks to indicate the direction in which
important researches may be made; for, after all, as Bacon
said, if we know how to ask questions rightly, we have got the
best half of human knowledge.
The Resolution which I have to propose is this:—
|