The Kunstgewerbe Museum at Cologne contains a peculiarly interesting example of medieval English alabaster carving, enclosed in what seems to be its original painted wooden case. A few years ago Dr. Carl Schaefer, who was then in charge of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, found it cast aside in a store-room of that institution, and, having recognized its nature and origin, exhibited it for a little time in one of the galleries; afterwards, he had it removed to the Kunstgewerbe Museum, of which he was director, where it more properly belonged. I saw it in June 1922, soon after it had first been exhibited, and, at my request, Dr. Schaefer courteously had made for me the two photographs (pi. XLV, figs. 1 and 2) herewith reproduced.

In a Memoir which I formerly laid before the Society, touching the royal picture of the interview between King Henry VIII. and the French King Francis the First, I took notice of the advantages which might result to the historian and antiquary from a careful inspection of such remaining historic paintings and sculptures, as, being executed with accuracy and fidelity, are coaeval with the transactions they are intended to record.

L'étude sur les armes d'hast, dont le Bulletin de la Societé des Amis du Musée de l'Armée a commencé à Paris la publication en 1936, était le travail le plus vaste de tous ceux que mon père Charles Buttin avait entrepris. Parmi tous les thèmes qui s'étaient offerts à son attention, le champ de recherches que présentait cette branche négligépe de l'histoire de l'armement, l'avait de tous temps séduit.

I have the honour to report to the Society of Antiquaries the result of renewed researches during the present autumn in the Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Brighthampton. The reliques on the table are evidence that on the former occasion this ancient burialplace was but partially explored. I have now the gratification of exhibiting a series of ancient remains inferior in interest to none that research or accident has brought to light in this country.

The first discovery in the cemetery at Frilford, subsequent to those already recorded in the Archæologia, XLII. p. 417–485, was made on March 22, 1869, when a leaden coffin was found, containing the bones of a young woman, with a toilet comb at the right of the back of her head. This brings the number of leaden coffins found at Frilford up to five; one of them has already been figured in Archæologia, XLII. pl. xxiv. figures 7 and 8.

The value of Wills and Inventories as exponents of the domestic lives of our ancestors cannot be too highly estimated. To them we must look as to the most fertile sources from whence a knowledge is to be obtained of that curious unwritten history, the history of the people. The glimpses they afford of domestic manners are all the more precious, because of their rarity elsewhere.

In the course of last year I exhibited to the Society two swords, and some other fragments said to have been parts of an image found in a bog at Cullen, in the county of Tipperary, in Ireland, on the lands of Lord Milton. These are now in the posession of that noble lord; and his politeness gave me an opportunity of communicating them.

The treasure described in the following notes was discovered a few years ago in a mound near the monastery of Acheripoetos (Aχειροποιητός), which is situated about six miles west of Kerynia, on the north coast of the island. It originally consisted of three larger objects and about thirty-six spoons, and the whole, with the exception of eleven or twelve spoons, has been acquired by the British Museum. The larger objects are a flat dish, possibly a paten; a basin; and a hexagonal vessel for suspension which was perhaps used as a lamp or censer.

The report which I have the honour of submitting to the Society, on behalf of my colleagues, of the work carried out by the Executive Committee of the Silchester Excavation Fund in 1906, is the seventeenth successive account of our investigations.

The figurative and schematic designs on two pieces of decorated bone from Creswell, Derbyshire are related to motifs used in later Magdalenian portable art in south-western and northern France, and are assigned to a period between 11,000–12,000 years ago on grounds of design and environmental evidence. One piece, that from Robin Hood's Cave, which is carefully engraved with complex motifs on both sides, shows handling traces indicating carriage over a period of time by one or more individuals. As the late Glacial Hunters at Creswell are thought to be nomadic, and the cave to have been inhabited only in the Summer months, the piece may have been made elsewhere and carried to Derbyshire, possibly from the continent.

Christian IV, King of Denmark and Norway, was appointed to the Most Noble Order of the Garter in 1603, after his brother-in-law, James VI of Scotland, had succeeded to the English throne. A copy of a warrant dated 28 September 1603 lists the work of the tailor, John Danson, and the embroiderers John Parr and William Broderick (fig. 1), preparing a set of Garter robes for him. John Danson made a purple velvet mantle (fig. 2), a crimson velvet kirtle, or surcoat (fig. 3), and a crimson velvet tippet and hood, all lined with white taffeta.

Some years since, I submitted to the inspection of the Society of Antiquaries, Drawings of fourteen stone Pillars or Obelisks in Aberdeenshire, all bearing curious figures in rude sculpture; at the same time the Society did me the honour to read a few remarks and conjectures which I ventured to annex, with a view to throw some light on the meaning and era of such relics. Since then, I have, through the Baron de Penhouet, who has distinguished himself by deep research in Druidical mythology, forwarded copies of those which represent the most remarkable sculpture, and particularly of one bearing an inscription in a character hitherto, it is believed, unknown, to the Society of Antiquaries at Paris; from whom, it is to be hoped, these mysterious and symbolical vestigia will receive some elucidation.

The value of MS. 129 in the library of the Society of Antiquaries of London, bought by the Society in 17902 has already been brought to the attention of scholars and students by H. A. Dillon, who published in an earlier volume of Archaeologia the inventories of the ordnance, arms and armour at the Tower of London, Westminster and Greenwich (Dillon, 1888). The manuscript is an inventory of the effects of Henry VIII compiled in the reign of his successor, Edward VI. A large section (ff. 250–374r) is concerned with details of the ordnance and other munitions in castles and towns, and the artillery fortifications built by Henry VIII in response to the threat of an invasion by Emperor Charles V and Francis I of France in 1538–39. The English possessions in France are also included. It was originally planned to omit the inventory of the Tower of London from this article, but for the sake of completeness and as there are a few errors in Dillon's transcription it seemed fit to include it.

In the spring of 1841 the Beglerbeg, or Chief of Asterabad, a province on the south-eastern shores of the Caspian sea, sent to the Shah of Persia some ancient gold vessels and other curious objects which had been found in an artificial mound near the town of Asterabad. Having been favoured with the sight of them, and taken a sketch of each specimen separately, I had the curiosity to visit during the summer of the same year the spot from whence they had been excavated, and, as this discovery may interest the Society of Antiquaries, and aid them in their researches on the country of the ancient Scythians and Parthians, I take the liberty of offering for their inspection the accompanying drawings, together with a short description of them, and a topographical delineation of the place. (Plate XVI.)

In the month of February 1818, some labourers rooting up an old ash-tree in a field called Sarendells, in the parish of Great Witcombe, in the county of Gloucester, discovered a large hewn stone about six feet in length; on the removal of which, it appeared to have rested upon two other large upright stones. Sir William Hicks, Bart. of Witcombe Park, the proprietor of the ground, immediately gave directions that the earth should be removed, in order to pursue the discovery, when it was ascertained that each of the two upright stones was six feet two inches in height; and that they formed a door-way leading into a room 19 feet 7½ inches by 13 feet 7 inches, (No. 1 in the annexed plan, Pl. XIV.) the walls of which remained in a very perfect state, to the height of from five feet four inches to six feet. When first opened they were covered with a coat of stucco two inches thick, painted in pannels of different colours. The greater part of this soon fell off in consequence of the continual rains which immediately followed the discovery.

The city of Viroconium, with an area of about 170 acres, was the fourth largest city in Britain, and the largest one which owed its importance purely to the fact that it was a cantonal centre. It lies to-day almost entirely beneath farmlands, only a small part being covered by the modern village of Wroxeter. In spite of these facts, so encouraging and favourable to excavation, many of the problems of its history have not yet been solved. Only one series of excavations on the site have so far been scientifically executed and published, those carried out by Mr. J. P. Bushe-Fox, F.S.A. for the Society of Antiquaries in 1912–14, but these unfortunately did not reach any of the principal buildings of the city. The earlier excavations, in the middle of the nineteenth century, which located the well-known Bath Buildings, like all excavations of that date, did not produce any reliable evidence of the history of the site. The excavations carried out by Professor Donald Atkinson in 1924–6, which identified the Forum, have not yet been published.

The Willmott and Braikenridge manuscripts (1591) are the survivors from five partbooks containing twenty-seven pieces of Latin church music. Nine composers, most of them English, are represented. The source transmits entire pieces rather than only particular sections. It follows no conventional copying scheme reflecting derivation from other sources, from liturgical or seasonal use, or from groupings by composer, text or number of voiceparts. There are numerous inscriptions and drawings. Their nature, together with the choice and order of the Latin texts, suggests that the source was a statement of allegiance to Roman Catholicism by the scribe, John Sadler, schoolmaster and Anglican priest, of Northamptonshire.

Park Brow is a ridge of the South Downs, running roughly north and south. The southern end of the hill, upon which three early inhabited sites have been found, abuts on the valley from which rises the higher hill crowned by Cissbury camp. On Park Brow there is clear evidence of the presence of man in ancient days. Very many lynchets or steep banks are found, a sunken trackway runs along the southern crest of the hill, adjoining which, where it passes the Early Iron Age site, is seen an embanked pit; while over the greater part of this area, as well as in the adjoining valleys, fragments of ancient pottery, rough flint scrapers, and other implements, together with many flint flakes, can be picked up.

This paper examines the complicated circumstances surrounding the very slow production of The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain, the great masterpiece of Charles Alfred Stothard, FSA, and the various reasons why it took twenty-one years to complete. The methods and techniques Stothard adopted to produce his celebrated etchings and the evolution of his artistic style are first analysed, as is the role played by Thomas Kerrich, FSA, in the project. Next, this paper investigates the severe problems facing Stothard's young widow, Anna Eliza, and his brother-in-law, Alfred Kempe, FSA, as they tried to bring the project to a conclusion, and the reasons why it was necessary to employ four different etchers to produce the remaining plates from Stothard's original drawings. Anna Eliza's recording of Charles Stothard's achievements, her scrupulous preservation of his drawings and her poignant publication of his life story are shown to have consolidated and enhanced his posthumous reputation as perhaps the finest antiquarian artist ever to depict medieval monumental sculpture.

During 1970–2 three sites on the western defences of the lower Roman and medieval town were examined. The earliest defences, which consisted of a rampart fronted by a stone wall 5 feet (1·5 m.) wide, and a ditch-system, were built in the late second or early third century. At some later date, interval-towers were added to the back of the wall: that at The Park was replaced by a new gateway which was rebuilt in the later fourth century. There was slight evidence that the other gate presumed to lie on the west side of the lower town at West Parade was rebuilt at the same time. North of this, on Mother by Hill, the third-century interval-tower was partially demolished in the fourth century and replaced by an internal platform. There was contemporary thickening or rebuilding of the wall at various other points, including either side of the gate at The Park. At some time in the late Roman period a new wider ditch was dug.

The Roman defences continued substantially in use throughout the medieval period, although the gateway at The Park was no longer functioning. In the thirteenth century the line of the western defences was extended southwards to the Brayford Pool, terminating in the circular Lucy Tower. North of the tower, the new defences comprised a stone wall 7 feet (2·1 m.) wide and a ditch whose size could not be determined.

The excavations also revealed interesting but fragmentary information about occupation within the defences. There were Roman buildings as far south as The Park from the Flavian period.