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The changes which have taken place of late years in the procedure at our Anniversary Meetings have materially altered the position in which the President finds himself on these occasions. Formerly the whole programme of reports, elections, and address was carried through in the afternoon, doubtless with the intention of leaving the evening free for a dinner, if the Fellows decided to have one. To that end elections, report, and address were taken simultaneously, with the result that the two latter were periodically held up by the declaration of the opening of ballots or of their results. From the President's point of view the procedure had its disadvantages and also its advantages. It was doubtless irksome to have to break off in the course of a carefully-prepared speech, but it must be remembered that a good part of that speech consisted of records of elections and deaths of Fellows, with obituary notices, all prepared by the Society's officers and entailing on the President no more mental effort than that required by the reading of them. Now it is far otherwise: the annual dinner is becoming only legendary, and the President's address occupies its place in the programme; nor is it now his office to refer to the state of the Society's boilers, or to note the setting up of a flagstaff on the Society's premises. He is left to his own resources, and, as I myself can vouch, is torn between the apprehension of producing a discourse bearing too close a likeness to the general run of former addresses, and that of straying into side issues of small practical value.

The last Interim Report on the excavations at Glastonbury was read before this Society on 29th November 1928, and a precis of this report was printed in vol. lxxiv of the Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological Society.

The Cistercian Abbey of Rievaulx owes its foundation to a mission from Clairvaux, sent to England under the direction of St. Bernard in 1131. Waverley Abbey in Surrey, and Tintern in Monmouthshire, daughter houses of L'Aumone, were already in existence, having been founded in 1128 and 1131, the first Cistercian houses in England. A beginning having thus been made in the South, it was no doubt a matter of policy that the order should be planted in the North also, and Rievaulx came into existence, the first of that splendid company of Yorkshire Cistercian houses which numbers Byland, Fountains, Jervaulx, Kirkstall, and Roche among its members. A benefactor was found in Walter le Spech or l'Espec, who gave in his charter of foundation nine carucates of land in Griff and Tilstone, and with this endowment the monastery was started, receiving no considerable increase of revenue till 1145, when the founder added Bilsdale to their lands. In spite of this Rievaulx must have grown quickly, for colonies went from it to inaugurate new monasteries at Melrose in 1136, Warden in the same year, Dundrennan in 1142, and Revesby in 1143. But a grant of a site at Rushen, given by Olaf, King of Man, could not be accepted for lack of any one to send to take possession.

The two matters which I have to lay before you to-night are the results of chance discoveries made at Ripon during the installation of a heating system and at York in digging a grave. Cathedral churches in full and constant use do not lend themselves to exhaustive archaeological investigation, but it is my first duty to express to the Deans of York and Ripon my most sincere acknowledgement of their kindness in allowing these researches to be pushed to the farthest possible limits. That certain points must remain doubtful is obvious, but since nothing short of the complete ruin of the two Minsters would ensure a full examination we may content ourselves with the reflection that it is possible to pay too high a price for knowledge.

The growth of interest in archaeological research, of which our own times afford so many proofs, has the double advantage of assuring recognition of such additions to knowledge as may from time to time be made, and of emphasizing the need to fill the gaps which the increase of knowledge only serves more clearly to define. While it would be unreasonable to look for the solution of most of the outstanding problems of archaeology in the near future, it is evident that a clear conception of the most profitable lines of inquiry is essential to any progress.