In May 1927 Mr. J. R. Gabriel, of Caerleon, drew my attention to a Roman burial which had just been discovered during building operations in the village of Ultra Pontem, the bridge-head suburb of Caerleon on the southern bank of the Usk. The eastern edge of this village has long been known to impinge upon an extensive Roman cemetery, and fragments of Roman tombstones are still found here from time to time. The new discovery was made some 60 yards east of Yew Tree House and 550 yards east-south-east of the south-east end of the bridge (Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, Mon. XXIX, S.W.), during the digging of a cess-pit for bungalows then under construction on the hill-side south of the Bulmore Road. At a depth of about 2½ feet the southern side of the pit was found to consist largely of a vertical slab of stone, which, as the digging proceeded, fell downwards and disclosed a stone cist containing a lead canister (figs. 1 and 3). The cist and its contents were then left in position until Mr. Gabriel and I had seen and recorded them, and with the consent of the owner of the property (Mrs. Lewis), who rendered every assistance, both cist and canister were removed to the Caerleon Museum.

During the early part of this year (1928) Mr. Maurice Sainty, son of Mr. J. E. Sainty of Norwich, found lying upon the upper portion of the beach at Sidestrand, Norfolk, the Acheulean hand-axe here described (fig. 1). The specimen, of which one edge is twisted, while the other exhibits a zig-zag outline, is coloured a rich tawny brown, and shows upon its surfaces cherty patches which have resisted patination and staining. The implement cannot have been long upon the beach before being found, as it does not exhibit any marked signs of rolling such as are prevalent upon stones subjected to wave-action.

It is now seven years since my paper on this subject appeared in Archaeologia. I now have to add an account of certain discoveries which excavation and the stripping of modern plaster from the walls of the transepts have disclosed, together with some notes on the tower and the bells. I have already shown in Archaeologia that Roger de Berkeley, the second of that name and of the more ancient stock, had founded this priory for Austin canons in or about the year 1125, and how and why in 1146 his son and successor Roger had granted it to the Benedictine monks of Gloucester, so that from that date it ranked merely as a Benedictine cell.

The very interesting limestone plaque from Ur, illustrated in pl. v of vol. viii of The Antiquaries Journal, deserves a little more attention than Mr. Woolley has had space to give to it. In design this chariot exactly resembles a number of pottery models that were found in the season 1923–4 at Kish and provisionally dated 3000 B.C. or a little earlier. I note that Mr. Woolley is of opinion that his plaque can be dated 3200 B.C.

The exact course of the Roman road called Akeman Street in the neighbourhood of the river Cherwell, some 9 miles north of Oxford, for a distance of a little over a mile, has long remained uncertain. The road is traceable from the west as far as the south-east corner of Tackley Park, and from the east as far as the north-west corner of Kirtlington Park. Between these two fixed points the road is, conjecturally, marked on the Ordnance Survey map merely by two parallel dotted straight lines, drawn with the aid of a ruler.