of its meetings, the want of interest in its communications and the reluctance of its council to listen to any suggestions for its improvement". In 1843–4 Planché was involved in the foundation of the British Archaeological Association, of which he was later Vice-President, and for more than twenty years the Secretary. Planché resigned his membership of the Society of Antiquaries in 1852, in which year he also moved to Kent to live with his younger daughter. Besides his History of British Costume, Planché contributed to a number of other works on costume. He wrote an article on "The History of Stage Costume" in The Book of Table Talk, edited by Charles MacFarlane, in 1836. He also provided the chapters on costume and furniture for The Pictorial History of England by MacFarlane and George Craik, as well as an introduction on costume for most of the plays in The Pictorial Edition of the Works of Shakespeare by Charles Knight. In 1842–43 Planché edited Regal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England and A Complete View of the Dresses and Habits of the People of England by Joseph Strutt. In 1848 he contributed "Remarks on some of his sketches for Masques and dramas" to Peter Cunningham's Inigo Jones: A Life of the Architect. In 1879 Planché completed his most ambitious work on costume history, A Cyclopedia of Costume, or, Dictionary of Dress, two volumes totalling almost 1000 pages. Planché's expertise in historical dress was not only of interest to his fellow antiquarians. During her reign Queen Victoria held a number of bals costumés at which the attendees had to wear costume of a specified era. Planché's advice was much in demand in the periods leading up to these balls as invited guests had costumes made. His antiquarian interests also included armour. In 1834 he published A Catalogue of the Collection of Ancient Arms and Armour, the property of Bernard Brocas, with a prefatory notice. In 1857 Planché was invited to arrange the collection of armour formerly belonging to his friend Sir Samuel Meyrick for the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester, a task which he repeated in South Kensington in 1868. Concerned by the state of the armour in the Tower of London, Planché wrote several reports on the subject between 1855 and 1869. In that year, the War Office invited him to rearrange the collection in chronological order, which was one of the things