Between 1840 and 1846 the Scottish physician David Boswell Reid produced a scheme for a central ventilation system serving the Palace of Westminster. This scheme included a proposal for a sophisticated ventilation and climatic control system in the House of Commons. Although the plans for a central system were abandoned after six years, Reid was able to implement his idea within the confines of the House of Commons. Existing literature on Reid’s involvement in the design of the Palace of Westminster has focused largely on his difficult relationship with the architect Charles Barry, but his actual contribution to the design of the ventilation system has remained largely unexplored. Neither his unfinished early proposal nor his final design for the House of Commons has been studied in any depth before. This paper retraces the evolution of Reid’s original plans, and provides a systematic reconstruction of the ventilation system implemented inside the House of Commons between 1847 and 1854. The historic system is now completely lost, but new archival research, involving the study of several hundred letters, sketches and plans, has yielded detailed insights into its design and how it performed historically. In addition to revealing the ventilation system’s physical arrangements, research has uncovered how scientists and engineers had evaluated its design empirically from a human and technological perspective. As such, this paper provides a new perspective on antiquarian studies and illuminates how architectural technology in the mid-nineteenth century was shaped, evaluated and refined based on environmental performance. Although environmental factors, such as climate or air purity, were more transient dimensions of architecture, in the case of the House of Commons this paper shows that they were key drivers of architectural form.

A combination of circumstances having recently brought the Canterbury gravels into prominence, a preliminary survey of some implement-bearing deposits in the Stour valley is now offered to the Society for comparison or contrast with the report on the Swanscombe and Dartford areas in the Thames valley published in Archaeologia, lxiv and lxv. The map of Kent issued by the Geological Survey in 1865 showed only the solid geology, not the Drift deposits, which date from the human period and provide abundant (if often puzzling) evidence as to the sequence of primitive dwellers in this region. The geological map is now being revised, four sheets having already been published; and as the series of memoirs accompanying the sheets includes a survey of the palaeolithic relics and conditions, a special effort is required to disentangle the recent geology of the Stour valley, which, in comparison with the lower Thames, has been unaccountably neglected.

The site known as Durrington Walls, in the parish of Durrington, Wiltshire (Nat. Grid Ref. 41/150437), has been known as an antiquity since the early nineteenth century, when its bank and ditch was recorded by Colt Hoare (Anc. Wilts. (1812), i, 169) and included by him in his map of the Stonehenge region. The nature of this vast enclosure, some 1,720 by 1,470 ft. in dimensions, with an average diameter of 1,600 ft., and an originally huge internal ditch and outer rampart enclosing the head of a combe above the river Avon, was not, however, appreciated until 1929, when the first serious study of the site was made by O. G. S. Crawford (Antiq. iii (1929), 49-59). In this account, which includes the first accurate plan of the monument and corrects serious errors in previous descriptions, Durrington Walls was recognized as one of a class of ceremonial monuments of the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age which included Avebury, Arbor Low, and many others, and consisting of a roughly circular area enclosed by a bank with internal ditch having two (or exceptionally at Avebury four) entrances, and in some instances at least standing stones within the area.

In 1929 the Duchy of Cornwall exercised its powers under the Ancient Monuments Acts, and placed Tintagel under the guardianship of the Commissioners of H.M. Works. During the clearance of the medieval castle it seemed desirable to investigate the earlier history of the site, in order to test the basis of the Arthurian traditions. In 1933 a fortunate discovery revealed dry-built walls on a terrace on the north-eastern cliffs. Subsequently an examination of the area surrounding the chapel disclosed indications of similar buildings, and trial excavations during 1933 and 1934 showed that these buildings belonged to a Celtic monastery.

The particular object of the following remarks are the Runes of the Anglo-Saxons, whether as to their use in inscriptions, or the manner in which they are introduced into manuscripts. I shall therefore have but little to say of the Scandinavian or old Norse characters of the same description, unless by way of illustrating the indigenous alphabet: and indeed these require less attention from us, inasmuch as they have been profoundly and successfully studied by those who had the most right to take an interest in them, the antiquaries of Scandinavia and Iceland.

Poundbury Camp is situated on a bluff of the Upper Chalk overlooking the river Frome and its water-meadows (pl. LXVII). The approach from the south and west slopes gently riverwards, but to the east the site is separated from the outskirts of Dorchester by a shallow combe. Though its situation is hardly that of a hill-fort, usually isolated on a detached hill or promontory, nevertheless the camp holds a commanding position in relation to its immediate surroundings, and its multiple defences, now sadly defaced, must once have presented a considerable obstacle to enemy attack. Though not comparable in size to the oppidum of Maiden Castle, for it encloses an area of only 15 acres, the existence of such a stronghold less than two miles distant from the major hill-fort seemed to require investigation. By whom had it been constructed, for what purpose, and to what extent had it been occupied, were questions demanding explanation. It was with the intention of bringing some light to bear on these problems that excavations were carried out at Poundbury in the spring of 1939.

The early Anglo-Saxon dedication inscription at Jarrow is described, transcribed, and translated. Its purpose is considered and its contents are analysed and compared to Anglo-Saxon and Continental inscriptions, liturgical calendars, and papal documents. The stages in the execution are discussed. The lettering is shown to be in a relatively pure Roman capital without Insular forms. The other inscriptions of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow are considered in relation to the dedication inscription. Three probably consecutive palaeographical groups are suggested and similarities to lettering in manuscripts from the same centres are noted. The contents of extant and recorded inscriptions, including those attributable to Bede, are examined for evidence of their historical contexts. Most of the inscriptions emerge as characteristically ‘Roman’ products of the two houses.

The results of this survey of almost 1,500 rural churches do not support the oft-repeated idea that churches are aligned with their patronal saint's sunrise. In fact, they provide evidence that the churches specifically do not face different sunrises and that churches dedicated to saints with summer feast-days are aligned in the same direction as those dedicated to saints with winter feast-days. However, the results of the survey raise significant questions about other aspects of church alignment. A significant variation in alignment has been uncovered east to west across the country, with a difference of 10° in the mean alignment of churches between the west and east of England. Possible reasons for this are explored. In addition, churches built on sloping sites are found to have downhill-facing chancels. If the choice of site were random, churches would face uphill as well as down. The possible implications of this for church and village location are also explored.

According to the latest collation of the Nabonidus Chronicle, a reference is made to Cyrus the Great wearing an ‘Elamite’ garment during the investiture ceremony of Cambyses. This study examines the likely characteristics of this garment in the light of a recent study of seventh- and sixth-century bc Elamite elite garments. Within this context it is suggested that the Chronicle may have done no more than state the obvious. In 538 bc, Cyrus went to Babylon clad in (traditional) Elamite (style) attire. This ceremonial garment is to be identified with a fine (perhaps cotton-made) fringed robe decorated with bands, including golden bracteates.

The object of Early Iron Age metal-work hitherto known as the Torrs Chamfrein was found at some date before 1829 in a ‘morass’ (presumably a peat-bog and probably a drained loch) on the farm of Torrs in the parish of Kelton, about one mile east of Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire. The identity of the finder and the date of discovery are unknown. The earliest record of the object is a full-size pencil drawing (pl. lxxi), lettered by parts, preserved among the Walter Scott papers in the National Library of Scotland. The drawing is the work of Joseph Train, a Galloway exciseman who had received preferment in his employment through the influence of Sir Walter Scott, and acted for him as an agent for the collection of antiquities and antiquarian information. How the chamfrein came into Train's possession is not recorded. The drawing was evidently made soon afterwards, and is of importance as a record of the fact that the chamfrein was already then in its present form, at least externally. The drawing was sent by Train to Sir Walter Scott, and was followed later by the gift of the chamfrein itself, after the latter had been mounted on a wooden stand with an inscribed brass plate, the better to display it.

A group of antler cheekpieces are described and illustrated which provide a small but significant contribution to the evidence of horsemanship in the later Bronze Age in the British Isles. Although independent dating evidence is meagre, they form a coherent stylistic and functional type which has parallels in the late Urnfield period in Central Europe. An attempt is made to reconstruct other elements of the bridle, and they are compared with a number of bronze cheekpieces which show some affinity.

All documents which bear upon the history of Westminster Abbey must have a considerable interest for Englishmen. A church in which so many of the English kings since the Conquest have been crowned and anointed will always be venerable in the eyes of the more thoughtful portion of our countrymen, just as Aken and Rhemes must be honoured by Germans and Frenchmen. But, unlike Rhemes, Westminster is not an episcopal church. It became cathedral only for a moment, after its suppression as a monastery, in the reign of Henry VIII. as Aken became cathedral for a few years at the beginning of this century, also a time of much confusion. When we cross the Alps we find again a like case in a church which is not episcopal but collegiate, the church of St. Ambrose at Milan, where the kings of Italy took the iron crown; and a still greater instance in the Vatican Basilica, only a collegiate church, where the golden crown of the world was bestowed upon the Roman emperor. There is a further likeness in the history of St. Peter's at Westminster and of St. Peter's across the Tiber. In both cases the bishop who bestowed the crown has left his seat close to his own metropolitan church and come to live hard by the church where he should crown and anoint his sovereign. The successor of St. Anselm, papa alterius orbis, has left Christchurch, Canterbury, for his manor of Lambeth; just as the pope has left his patriarchal church of St. John Lateran for his palace on the Vatican.

Since the publication of the first report, which included all the work carried out on the site of the Saxon village at Sutton Courtenay down to the end of 1922, further excavation has resulted in the discovery of eight more houses in the same area as those previously described, and two others a little distance away. In addition, three Bronze Age circular ditches have been observed and partly explored, as well as one or two more pits of the same period. Above one of the circular ditches were found traces of Saxon houses, in one case consisting of a pavement of large limestone blocks.

More than a hundred and twenty years ago the Society of Antiquaries of London conferred a great and lasting obligation on students of the history of Scotland during the Roman period. At its own charges, and without reasonable hope of pecuniary return, it published in a splendid folio the manuscripts and drawings that had been handed over to it by the executors of Major-General Roy. The pomp and circumstance surrounding the issue immediately secured for The Military Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain the place which it has ever since held in public esteem—a place to which, upon the whole, its intrinsic merits fairly entitle it. Roy was at once a zealous antiquary and a shrewd and capable observer, with a thorough knowledge of military engineering. It is true that the data on which his main thesis rests were too slight to support the elaborate superstructure of which they were made the basis. It is true also that his treatment of a large part of his subject was vitiated by his seemingly implicit belief in the genuineness of Bertram's egregious hoax, the De Situ Britanniae} Still, when every allowance has been made for the defects that inevitably resulted, his book remains one of our archaeological classics. As a storehouse of trustworthy topographical information regarding Roman sites, it can never be entirely superseded.

The Carmarthen brooch, datable not later than c.a.d. 50 and perhaps as early as c. 25, is a direct two-piece successor to the pre-Roman, one-piece, Aylesford type, now known to be considerably later in date than used to be thought. The two-piece construction, which characterizes the entire British trumpet-brooch series, was adopted as a convenience when the bow was given a massive form in order to accommodate Late Celtic decoration in relief, of a western character and antecedents. The central moulding and foot carry petalled ornament of a ‘transitional’ or ‘supporting’ type: this ornament is reminiscent of that sometimes found between the circlet and terminals of early La Tène torcs abroad, but is probably better understood here as the carefully-designed continuation en suite of the open flower or rosette upon the headloop, and thus as half-open flower. Only the Carmarthen brooch retains such a headloop rosette.

The Carmarthen brooch was soon copied in bronze, and on these copies the relief appears in a coarsened and simplified form. The copies are entirely from western findspots. In the southern part of the region in which they occur, the medial petalling is retained (as at Lydney); but in the northern part, additional simplification has led to the suppression of the medial petalling (as at Segontium). Thus the Carmarthen brooch may be seen as the parent of the more fully-developed Rii class of Collingwood's typological sequence, and also of at least one strand in the Ri class, which has been considered up to now as the original form. In the west Midlands, perhaps seizing the opportunity offered by the simplified relief, craftsmen began to apply red enamel to the hollow areas, and to emphasize the central moulding, with its petalling, so that this became the principal plastic ornamental element (as at The Lunt, by a.d. 75). In the north of England, these novel features, enamel and exaggerated moulding, were further developed. The fine northern brooches (Backworth—not enamelled, but engraved—or Risingham) do not have headloop rosettes, and it was in the presence of their exaggerated central mouldings that Collingwood devised his celebrated ‘acanthus’ theory. By the Antonine period, brooches were being produced with polychrome enamel, and with their mouldings confined, very often, to the front of the bow; many of these have been found along the Rhine. Some late derivatives of the Carmarthen type are known from Wroxeter, and form a final group in the Appendix above.

The following report of the most recent operations carried out by the Executive Committee of the Silchester Excavation Fund actually includes the reports for the two years 1903 and 1904, which were the fourteenth and fifteenth in succession of the systematic exploration of the Roman town.

Early in January, 1905, the street called London Wall was opened by the Post Office authorities for the purpose of laying telephone mains. Operations were begun at Moorgate Street and were carried in an easterly direction, a deep trench being dug in the middle of the roadway. The excavations had extended past Salisbury House as far as Circus Place, when it was noticed that among the débris thrown at the side of the road were quantities of ragstone and Roman tile, showing clearly that the city wall was being cut into.

We have the honour of laying before the Society of Antiquaries, on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Silchester Excavation Fund, an account of the excavations carried out by the Committee in 1897, for the eighth successive season.

The timber roofs above the main vaults of the abbey, coeval with the parts of the building they cover, are illustrated in J. P. Neale and E. W. Brayley, History and Antiquities of the Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster (1823), ii. These important medieval roofs are described only very briefly in an addendum to the Inventory of Westminster Abbey by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments published in 1924 (entry no. 22a, slip p. 58), and no detailed description of them has so far been published. They underwent heavy restoration at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but survived in great part until the present repairs under the direction of Mr. S. E. Dykes Bower were put in hand. By 1964 the whole of the nave roof had been reconstructed and the roof over the south transept had been taken down and reconstruction was in progress. No major repairs to the roofs of the presbytery or the north transept had been started. At this stage, by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter, the Royal Commission was given facilities to make detailed records of the surviving medieval structures. In the following account the documentary evidence relating to their building and repair is outlined, their construction is described in some detail, and, finally, their historical context and their setting in the general development of roof construction are discussed. The photographs were taken by Mr. J. Parkinson, and the work has been co-ordinated by Mr. A. R. Dufty, Secretary to the Commission.

The excavations of the Roman town of Silchester, Hampshire, undertaken under the auspices of the Society of Antiquaries between 1890 and 1909, are reconsidered in the light of renewed excavation on the site of insula IX, first explored in 1893. The excavation methodology of trial-trenching followed by area excavation of masonry buildings thus located is reviewed alongside the evidence of policy for the recovery and retention of finds. It is estimated that about 95 per cent of the archaeological resource survives for future research.