A Reflective mind can hardly look upon the present world without feeling considerable apprehension. The tumult and turmoil of the last decade still have their reactions, and progress towards stability and sanity is painfully slow. Nor is this all. The aims and ideals that seem to possess or obsess the minds of nearly all classes in these disturbing days are pitifully low and entirely wanting in dignity. All the countries of the world would seem to be infected with the same want of idealism, and the peoples to possess no ambition outside of sheer materialism. Our own country is in this respect not markedly different from others, though our racial temperament has considerable effect on its external manifestations. At no time in our past history have material conditions been so favourable as they now are, and this in spite of the deep reaching disturbances of recent years. And yet the cry, as much in England as elsewhere, is on all sides for yet further advantages on the material side, and hardly a voice is raised to point out that contentment of soul lies in another direction, and that in wealth alone no real satisfaction can be found. There is nothing of novelty in this statement, but I speak of it because never in my time has there been a demand so entirely unashamed and ignoring so completely the needs of man's spiritual and intellectual sides. The newspapers, the majority of them pitifully partisan, preach this same gospel of materialism, pointing this way or that in deference to their political colour, but sedulously ignoring all human demands except for food, clothing, and amusement. much from politicians, and truly one gets little.

The cylindrical box (pyxis) illustrated in the plates, now in private possession, belongs to a small class carved with pagan subjects; the majority of pyxides are Christian. When Graeven issued his series of photographs of antique carvings in ivory and bone about twenty years ago, the number of pagan examples only amounted to a dozen, with a few fragments, and two among them, those with Orpheus and the beasts, at Bobbio and Florence respectively (see below), are claimed by some authorities as Christian. Since that time the remains of another pagan box with Bacchic scenes have come to light, discovered in the chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran in 1903, and now preserved in the Vatican. There may have been further discoveries not brought to general notice; otherwise the present example is the first addition to the list since the third year of the present century.

As reported in the April 1922 number of the Antiquaries Journal, the ground to the north and north-west of the Roman Villa Museum contains the remains of a large Roman house, some pavements of which were discovered in 1881.

The bronze figure of Christ here illustrated is the property of Mrs. Hubert Cordes and has been in the possession of her family for upwards of a century. The family have long been resident in Monmouthshire, and the figure may, conceivably, be native to that part of the country.

At the meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh, 1921, I had the pleasure of handing to the Committee on the Distribution of Bronze Age Implements a description and full-size outline drawings of the bronze implements met with in the Isle of Man. At that time I had not been able to have them analysed. This has now been done by our Public Analyst, Mr. W. A. Fyffe, F.I.C., and may be put on record for comparison with other articles of the Bronze Age in the British Isles that have been so treated.

The Company of Parish Clerks was incorporated as ‘The Master, Wardens, Assistants and Brethren of the Parish Clerks of the Parish Churches of the City and Suburbs of London and the Liberties thereof, the City of Westminster, the Borough of Southwark and the Fifteen Out-Parishes adjacent’ by King Charles the First by letters patent dated 27th February 1639. The Company had received several charters previously.

The extent of the Roman settlements in Cornwall forms an interesting subject for inquiry. Particularly noteworthy is the absence of military roads; and in the subjoined notes an hypothesis is advanced which may account for this.

About three years ago it was suggested to me by Dr. Tapp that I should investigate further the stones of Stonehenge in the hope that additional light might be shed on the vexed question of their origin.