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[Kent Archaeological Society]

The Kent Archaeological Society have been holding the twenty-first annual meeting, the principal places of interest visited being Leeds (Kent), Lenham, and Battle Hull. The report of the secretary, the Rev. Canon Scott Robinson, showed that during the past year the society has voted several sums of money towards the exploration of the remains of the Roman Villa at Wingham, recently discovered by Mr. Dowker, and Langdon Abbey, near Dover, an ancient monastery colonised by French monks, and suppressed in the sixteenth century. In view of the additions which it is proposed to make to the Constable's Gate at Dover Castle, the society have been in communication with the War Department with the object of preserving its ancient features, and have received a reply from the Minister of War expressing a desire to co-operate with the society.

Under the presidency of Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, the members of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society last week held a three-days' meeting in the neighbourhood of Malmesbury. The proceedings ended with excursions. Amongst those who took part in the discussions were Earl Nelson, Canon Jackson, the Rev. Canon Jones, and the Rev. T. A. Preston. The society made some successful explorations. At Avebury have been discovered some large "sarsen" stones, buried beneath the turf of a meadow, sixteen belonging to the outer circle, and two to the northern temple. At Winterborne five stones above ground have been reinforced by the discovery of nine others buried beneath the surface. At Overton Kill a fine skeleton and a rude urn, now in the society's museum, were exhumed in February.

Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, presiding at the Archeological Society's meeting at Malmesbury last week, gave the opening address on the origin and history of Wilts as a county from the time when it was an old Saxon under-kingdom.

Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2258—Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, August 12, 1882, p.175