These Instructions were transcribed by Mr. Malone from a MS. preserved in the library at Petworth, and by the late Earl of Egremont I was authorised to lay them before the Society of Antiquaries. They form the second of three treatises, all of which were written by Henry Earl of Northumberland, and addressed to his son. The first, written in 1595, consists of thirty-three pages, and is without a title; but we may gather from the introductory paragraph of the following paper, that its object was similar to the present one.

The discoveries recorded in the following pages cover, in more than one sense, a considerable period of time. Some of them were made as early as the spring of 1915, immediately after the present author had read a paper on a similar subject, which was later published in Archaeologia, lxvi. The bulk, however, are the fruits of the resumption of building operations in 1919 and 1920, after the great blank interval of the War. It is not proposed, in the description of the finds, to distinguish exactly between these periods, for the sites investigated fall by a happy chance into two groups–one in King William Street, the other about London Wall and Finsbury Circus–each of which can be treated as a whole. It will be sufficient for the present purpose to note that one site from each group–the Comptoir National from the first, and 12 to 26 Finsbury Circus from the second–was excavated in 1915, and the rest between the autumn of 1919 and the summer of 1921.

It has been thought, with a good deal of reason for such an opinion, that the age of a quarry or a rock-cut tomb may be determined by the apparent character of the tooling of surfaces. This is most easily defined in the following way.

Bronze Age tooling of rock surfaces of a soft kind, subsequently hardened with age, may perhaps be detected by the marks of a celt driven with a mallet, or possibly a heavy stone. The cut of the implement is short and deep, and of course leaves a rougher surface than the single-handed pick of iron. With the introduction of iron tools the work of finishing surfaces as well as of cutting into the stone seems to have been executed with single-handed picks having points or cutting edges of variable width. At a later period came the use of the chiselshaped pick with serrated edge. It is doubtful whether this was used in the Levant previous to the Byzantine or Constantinian era. The use of the chiselshaped pick causes a long sweeping cut on the stone, an effect also produced by mere chopping sideways with the stone-mason's chopper. The chopper and the chisel-pick play a great part in the finishing off of the elaborate rock-cuttings of the Levant.

From the foregoing it will be noticed that little more than a distinction into the two classes of work done with iron implements, and work done without iron implements, can be attempted for chronological purposes as far as the evidence on rock surfaces survives. The quarries and tombs of Cyprus referred to in the following notes must be considered to belong to the iron implement class; in other words, to the Graeco-Roman and Byzantine history of the island.

The last testament and inventory of John de Veer, the thirteenth earl of Oxford, are documents of their class of more than usual interest and importance: firstly, by reason of the nature of their contents; and secondly, because the testator was a man of great wealth and high social standing. He was consequently the possessor of many beautiful and valuable things; and though, alas, not one of them is now known to exist, their appearances and characteristics are vividly brought before us in the descriptions set down in the inventory of the earl's effects.

The excavations of 1909 were commenced on the 21st of June, 1909, and work was continued until the 6th of December. The work was carried out under the direction of Messrs. Ashby, Hudd, King, Jones, and White.

In a paper which I had the honour of reading to this Society on the 6th February 1868 I gave a general description of the ancient earthworks of the downs between Beachy Head and Chichester, and I concluded by expressing an opinion, derived chiefly from a consideration of the principles of castrametation, outline, and other indications observable on the surface, that these intrenchments belonged to the Ancient British period, and were not, as some writers have supposed, the work of the Roman invaders of this country.

This note summarizes and expands one of the short papers communicated to the Society on 23rd February 1995 under the title of ‘New Thoughts on Some Castles in Wales’.

The paper's purpose was twofold. First, it sought to present, through a series of ‘before and after’ photographs (figs. 1-8), an up-to-date picture of the transformation effected at Conwy in the course of the last forty years, not only by the careful and conservative repair of the fabric of both components of the monument, i.e. town walls as well as castle, but also by the systematic clearance wherever possible of every kind of built disfigurement from the forefront of the medieval enceinte, so as to reveal and display anew the whole circuit of towers and curtains in an ambience worthy of Britain's most outstanding example of medieval town fortification. Closely related to the process of gradually re-establishing awareness of the monument's unity, with the walls receiving the same respect, in financial as in other terms, as the castle and the work of repair proceeding simultaneously on both, was the defeat, likewise a long and complex process, of the Welsh Office's proposal effectively to destroy the natural setting and amenity of the whole southward aspect of castle and walls alike by driving a dual-carriageway ‘express-way’ through the Gyffin valley (brazenly promoted as the Minister's ‘preferred route’) and erecting a monster new suspension bridge whose ‘goalposts’ would have overtopped even the turrets of the castle towers. The abandonment of this disastrous plan, in favour of the submerged tube tunnel under the river opened by H.M. the Queen in October 1991, was of incalculable benefit in preserving Conwy's unique character into the future. As such, it has its proper place in the present record (figs. 9-12).

In the angle between the rivers Ogwr and Ewenny on the northern margin of the Vale of Glamorgan, east of the town of Bridgend, Brackla Hill (287 ft.) is the outstanding feature. Its pastoral slopes are linked to higher ground on the north by a saddle, on the east side of which there is a gentle fall to a tributary of the Ewenny, and on the west to a rivulet which flows into the Ogwr. Coity village lies at the point where the saddle merges into the upland.

Excavations designed to throw light on the evolution of this castle, and to obtain a series of stratified potsherds were carried out in August, 1930, by one of us, and the results obtained were checked and extended by both of us in further excavations carried out in March, 1931. The work was necessarily limited in respect of the area examined, and in time (ten days in all), but it is hoped that the results are sufficiently suggestive for permanent record, and as indications of the lines on which further research at the castle might be undertaken. Before presenting the report of the excavations we should like to offer our thanks for the assistance we have received. To the President, owing to whose initiative the work was undertaken, we owe thanks both for facilities granted during the excavations, and for advice in the preparation of the report. The plans and photographs of Kidwelly are the work of the architectural and photographic staff of the Office of Works, to whom we are also indebted for other assistance. Prof. J. E. Lloyd has kindly supplied us with certain details about the history of the site. Mr. G. C. Dunning has contributed the valuable inventory of the English polychrome jugs, and has allowed us to use other information which is incorporated in our report. Mr. O'Neil was present during the later excavations, and assisted in the recording of the material during their progress.

By way of introduction to the subject I have the honour of bringing before you I will trace as briefly as possible the controversy as to the origin of those remarkable strongholds, found throughout the three kingdoms, of which the essential feature is a moated flat-topped mound. This was the “motte” of medieval French, the “mota” of mediaeval Latin.

We have the honour of submitting on behalf of the Executive Committee a report of the operations carried out by the Silchester Excavation Fund in 1900.

The work was begun on the 4th May under the direction of Mr. Frederick Davis, whose death in July last has deprived the Committee of valuable services freely given and intelligently performed. The further conduct of the work was undertaken by Mr. Mill Stephenson and Mr. Hope, and the closing operations, which were prolonged until 4th December, were also directed by Mr. Stephenson.

The church of St Mary at Deerhurst in Gloucestershire is well known for its Anglo-Saxon fabric and sculpture. In 1993 a painting of an Anglo-Saxon figure was discovered, and in 2002 it became possible for the authors to study the painting in detail.

The painting is on one of a pair of triangular-headed stone panels set high in the internal east wall of the church. The discovery provides a significant addition to the tiny corpus of known Anglo-Saxon wall paintings. The identity of the standing, nimbed figure remains elusive, but the figure can be tentatively dated on art historical grounds to the middle to late tenth century.

The authors also explore the structural context of the painting. It is suggested that in the first half of the ninth century the church had an upper floor over the central space (the present east end), and that this floor possibly extended over the whole church. At the east end, there were internal openings from this upper floor into a high-level space in the polygonal apse. At a later date two of these openings were blocked and covered by stone panels, one of which is the subject of this paper. It is possible that the panels flanked a high-level altar or an opening through which a shrine, set on a high-level floor in the apse, could be viewed.

The contract for the building of the north aisle at St James’s Church, Biddenham, Bedfordshire, in 1522 is an exceptional document that escaped the surveys of L F Salzman, John Harvey and most later scholars. Unlike other surviving medieval building contracts, it is the rough draft of an indenture, showing the alterations and changes that were made before it was copied into a neat final version and sealed. By surveying these changes it is possible to delineate, for the first time, the process of negotiation engaged in by its patron, Sir William Butler, and the mason, John Laverok. Unusual too are the details it provides of Butler’s collaboration with the parish in building the well-constructed aisle that would bear his arms. This went further than simply defraying the cost of the work, and is of significance for our wider understanding of the organisation and financing of parish church construction in the sixteenth century. Most importantly, it demonstrates the breadth and complexity of forms that co-operation could take between gentry and parish, and shows that projects with the arms of a single family could nevertheless be funded collaboratively.

Causewayed enclosures have recently been at the forefront of debate within British and European Neolithic studies. In the British Isles as a whole, the vast majority of these monuments are located in southern England, but a few sites are now beginning to be discovered beyond this core region. The search in Wales had seen limited success, but in the 1990s a number of cropmark discoveries suggested the presence of such enclosures west of the River Severn. Nonetheless, until now only two enclosures have been confirmed as Neolithic in Wales – Banc Du (in Pembrokeshire) and Womaston (in Powys) – although neither produced more than a handful of sherds of pottery, flint or other material culture. Recent work by the authors at the Iron Age hillfort of Caerau, Cardiff, have confirmed the presence of another, large, Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure in the country. Excavations of the enclosure ditches have produced a substantial assemblage of bowl pottery, comparable with better-known enclosures in England, as well as ten radiocarbon dates. This paper provides a complete review of the evidence for Neolithic enclosures in Wales, and discusses the chronology and context of the enclosures based on the new radiocarbon dates and material assemblages recovered from Caerau.

The castle of Chilham stands immediately to the west of the Jacobean mansion built by Sir Dudley Digges in 1616. Traditions of remote antiquity have long been associated with the site, but the record of discoveries of Roman remains during the building of the mansion is not circumstantial, and a tunnel driven through the mound under the ancient keep by a recent owner failed to reveal any trace of Roman age. Chilham was held under Edward the Confessor by Sired and was granted by the Conqueror to Odo bishop of Bayeux. It was held, under him, by Fulbert de Dover, and on Odo's disgrace in 1084 it was granted to Fulbert in chief and became the head of his barony. The subsequent descent of the property need not detain us, as it has no bearing on the architectural history of the castle.

The limestone head from the Bon Marché site, Gloucester, has long been considered one of the finest examples of Romano-Celtic sculpture. A detailed description is accompanied by a discussion of its original architectural context, and the possibility of a Romanesque date is argued. The essential similarities between many simple facial representations of different dates is, however, emphasized.

Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Vegetius was regarded as the most authoritative writer on Roman military institutions in particular and upon war in general. His appeal was both historical and practical; his anti-mercenary fervour impressed Italian humanists in the fifteenth century,- his aphoristic wisdom was incorporated by Machiavelli into his own work and was, in turn, further disseminated by the many military writers who fell wider Machiavelli's spell. Nevertheless, Vegetius's reputation was increasingly under threat. The accumulation and publication of materials relating to modern warfare and to technologies unknown to the ancients was developing apace, and even writers who believed that classical military institutions remained relevant to modern warfare now had at their disposal a range of ancient authors largely unknown in the Middle Ages. Scholars were becoming simultaneously more aware of Vegetius's shortcomings and more sophisticated in their handling of historical sources. Yet, despite this, Vegetius enjoyed hisgreatest (though short-lived) triumph early in the seventeenth century when he was translated, paraphrased and illustrated by Johann von Wallhausen as an indispensable source forall practical military men.1

Two recent discoveries have added greatly to our knowledge of Iron Age shields in Britain. First, the Chertsey Shield, unique in the Celtic world in being made entirely of bronze. Second, a collection of miniature shields of a shape hitherto unknown. Bindings from full-size shields of this shape had been found previously, but were not correctly identified until the miniatures provided the clue. Now it seems that these distinctive hide-shaped shields were one of the most common forms used by British warriors. At least thirty-eight examples—including twenty-three miniatures—have now been added to the corpus of Iron Age shields from Britain.