For over three-quarters of a century the New Forest potteries have had their place in the archaeology of Roman Britain. The first discoveries at Crock Hill were made by the Rev. J. P. Bartlett in 1852, and our Secretary Akerman's paper on these, together with J. R. Wise's work at Islands Thorns and elsewhere, soon made ‘New Forest ware’ as familiar a household word as ‘Castor’ or ‘Upchurch’ in the mouths of Victorian antiquaries. These researches made it clear that the potteries flourished mainly in the latter part of the Roman period: not only do we hear of no associations with ‘Samian’ (Terra Sigillata), but the majority of the coin-finds, rare as they were, were later than the middle of the third century. But to the early explorers ‘the Romans’ remained always alien conquerors, and it was left for Haverfield, who reviewed the material in 1900, to point out that the New Forest wares ‘have no Roman or Italian analogies, and are obviously native’. ‘It is a melancholy pleasure’, he remarked, ‘to find in this secluded corner of Britain a survival, however poor, of native ways.’ And in his Romanization of Roman Britain he duly quoted ‘the New Forest urns with their curious leaf-ornament’ among the ‘little local manufactures’ attesting the ‘sporadic survival’ of native Celtic art under Roman rule. But both there and in Professor Collingwood's Roman Britain it is in the livelier decoration of Castor ware that this was more explicitly recognized; and in the latest expression of his judgement, Professor Collingwood sums the matter up in a more guarded fashion.

The excavation of Verulamium in the years 1930–4 originated in a coincidence of archaeological need and local opportunity. The former, at this late date, needs no elaboration; the latter, it may be recalled, lay in the acquisition, by the Borough of St. Albans, of the southern half of the walled site, now known to have taken shape in the second century A.D. A central area within the new Corporation property accordingly remained for three years the main focus of the excavations, supplemented by an intensive examination of the town-defences, including two wall-towers and three gateways, of which two lay on property retained by Lord Verulam.

Archaeologically, the problem confronting the excavators was twofold: to establish (for the first time) the outlines of the economic history of a major Romano-British town deep-set in the 'lowland zone'; and to determine the relationship, topographically and culturally, of the successive Belgic and Roman settlements. It was a familiar fact that Verulamium had held an important royal mint at the beginning of the first century A.D., and, whether the term municipium applied by Tacitus to the town in A.D. 61 be taken at face-value or no, the chance of observing the growth of a first-class Roman city out of a first-class pre-Roman one was unsurpassed on any other site. It was, therefore, essential that the exploration of a part of the Roman city should be accompanied by a systematic search for its predecessor.

Among the many treasures of art preserved by Sir William Burrell at Hutton Castle, Berwick-on-Tweed, is a stained-glass window which is likely to arouse the interest of English historians and historians of art. It represents Beatrix of Falkenburg, wife of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans and brother of King Henry III; and it is a very valuable example of English art of the thirteenth century.

Among the many brooches which have been found at Corstopitum, six specimens are recorded of the S-shaped or dragonesque type, which in its fully developed form has been well described as one of the finest examples of Romano-Celtic art. The type occurs predominantly in the military districts of Roman Britain (cf. distribution map, fig. i). Over 75 per cent. of the known examples have been found north of a line joining the Severn and the Humber, but even in this area only one site, Traprain Law, has yielded so many examples as Corstopitum, and of the six found at Traprain only two were complete, and one was a mere fragment. The Corstopitum brooches, while having in common the S-shaped or dragonesque outline, differ so much in other details as to invite the consideration of their mutual relationship and their respective places in the development of the type.

Bleasdale Circle was discovered in 1898 by Messrs. Thomas Kelsall and Shadrach Jackson and excavated by them in the period 1898–1900, their work being reported upon by Professor Sir William Boyd Dawkins in the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society of 1900. Upon the conclusion of these excavations the site was planted with conifers and rhododendrons, and the posts of the inner ring (pl. XLVI) were raised to the surface of the ground adjacent to their original holes (pl. XLIII, 1). In 1925, when the site was scheduled as an Ancient Monument, these oak posts had almost completely rotted and the site had become covered with dense undergrowth. Since it was suspected that the published plans were not strictly accurate, and as it was known that the whole of the site had not been excavated, it was decided to combine re-excavation with an attempt at preservation of what was left of the circle. A ‘Bleasdale Preservation Committee’ was formed, and with funds raised by public subscription the work of re-excavation was carried out under the direction of the author in the Easters of 1933–5, by kind permission of the owner, Mr. W. J. Sharp, the tenant, Mr. Edward Kelsall (son of the original discoverer), and H.M. Office of Works.