Recent remedial work at Frogmore House, Windsor, presented the opportunity for an investigation into the origins and development of the building. In this paper the original house of 1680 is described and attributed to Hugh May. The subsequent history of Frogmore is outlined up to the late eighteenth century, when the house was altered and enlarged by James Wyatt. A previously unknown scheme of wall-painting was discovered during repairs in the staircase hall, and this is here analysed and assigned to Louis Laguerre. An inventory of the contents of the house in 1700 is appended.

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts three curious chequered garments. These garments are usually identified as gambesons, or some form of scaled armour. Several scholars have observed similar garments in the early twelfth-century Bible of Cîteaux. The Cîteaux garments are depicted in a pattern later used to represent fur (called ‘vair’) in heraldic art. This identification is confirmed by the pattern’s usage in cloak linings, but its simultaneous appearance as tunic material is unfamiliar in later art. The Cîteaux tunics suggest the possibility that the Bayeux garments may also have been intended to represent fur tunics. Reasons for that identification, as well as problems with the identification, are considered.

In 1816 the Society of Antiquaries of London sent Charles Stothard to Bayeux to produce a fullsize colour reproduction of the Bayeux Tapestry. During this time, plaster casts of the tapestry were made and a small fragment of the famous textile was removed. Stothard's wife, Eliza, was accused of looting the fragment, but was later absolved. So who was the thief? This paper examines the mystery of Charles Stothard and the Bayeux Tapestry fragment.

Some time ago I promised that I would draw up a short description of the antiquities of the part of Lancashire called Furness, which are commonly ascribed to the Druidical period. I do not consider that I have, by any means, fully investigated these remains; and I should have preferred the perfecting of my acquaintance with each, by careful investigation, did I not fear that the information already collected may, very possibly, together with my intention, be lost.

I have had much gratification in looking over the “Extracts in prose and verse from an old English Medical Manuscript” preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm; and I trouble you with the accompanying observations, which may, perhaps, tend to elucidate some of the doctrines contained in it.

Previously unpublished correspondence and a re-analysis of events call into question William Buckland's description of his excavation of Paviland Cave in 1823, and illustrate why his interpretation of it changed prior to publication in Reliquiae Diluvianae. Buckland appears to have manipulated the archaeological evidence from Paviland in order to support his ‘Diluvial’ theory. A synthesis of the documentary evidence also illustrates the unrecognized contribution made by John Traherne, FSA and others to the development of Buckland's Paviland story. This paper suggests that modern descriptions and interpretations of Paviland continue to be incorrectly influenced by a reliance on Reliquiae Diluvianae and that the reinterpretation of early archaeological excavations might benefit as much from the application of critical historiographical analyses as from the application of new scientific or theoretical methodologies.

The resurfacing of a late medieval hearth-blower, first brought to public notice by Robert Plot in 1686 but subsequently seen only infrequently, provides the opportunity for a review of the type. Examples of these anthropomorphic aeolipiles from England, all late medieval in date, are placed in context, both in time – stretching back to the Classical period – and in space. They prove to have been widely distributed in Continental Europe, while related types are known from as far east as the Himalayas. Although latterly limited in application to fanning the flames of a fire, earlier references show an awareness of a range of potential uses in domestic and industrial contexts.

The amulet here described was found in April 1963 by Mr. A. G. Rook on a Romano-British site at Dicket Mead, Lockleys, Welwyn. He has kindly provided an interim description of the site and its associated finds and a discussion of the material from which the amulet was made. The object has now been placed on loan in the Verulamium Museum.

The building of new facilities at the east end of Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk, in 2014–15 involved re-opening a Romanesque arch. This had previously connected the nave’s north aisle with the north transept, and appears to have been blocked at the Dissolution when the transepts and eastern arm of the abbey church were demolished. As works progressed in 2014–15, a remarkable Gothic window tracery design was gradually revealed, incised on the early twelfth-century ashlar of the southern respond. The discovery is one of the most substantial and complete incised designs identified to date and, beyond being an important addition to the emerging corpus of incised designs on walls, it is significant for revealing use of black pigment to make the drawing more visible, for providing an insight into the lost monastic parts of the abbey and, most tantalisingly, for raising the possibility that Wymondham – like its nearby sister priory at Binham – was at the forefront of the development of bar tracery in England in the thirteenth century.

The success I met with in discovering the Druidical monuments in Derbyshire (which I had the honour to lay before the Society), induced me to make an excursion into Yorkshire, to examine some curious groups of rocks, seven miles from Ripley, on the road to Pateley Bridge, called Brimham rocks. They are indeed a most wonderful assemblage, scattered about the moor in groupes, which all together occupy a space of above forty acres. The extraordinary position of these rocks in a variety of directions must have been occasioned by some violent convulsion of nature; but at the same time it is evident, that art has not been wanting to make their situations still more wonderful.

All writers on the subject of the Roman Stations in this island, agree in opinion that Caerhun, a small village on the river Conway, about five miles distant from the present town of that name, is the site of the ancient Conovium; a station which occurs in the eleventh iter of Antonine's Itinerary, and in the first of that of Richard of Cirencester. Camden supposes the name of Caerhun to be a corruption of Caer hên, the old city, but says that the common tradition of the neighbourhood was, that it received its name from Rhun ap Maelgwn Gwynedh, who died about the year 586. It is certain that in very ancient writings it is called Caerhun, whatever may be the etymology of its name.

It has been claimed that in its general form the type of burial cave which is the principal subject of this paper is in some way linked with the longbarrows of Britain; that is to say they must have had a common origin, and both must have been built by people dominated by some very powerful tradition—the cult of the dead. So far as western Europe is concerned, it is here assumed that the original home of this cult, or at any rate of many of its attributes, is to be sought for in or around the eastern Mediterranean, and that a great deal, if not all, of its influence reached Britain by way of Spain, or by the more direct route on which lie the Aries group of caves and those of the Marne. Therefore, in view of the central position of the Balearic Islands in the western basin of the Mediterranean, there is at least a possibility that the monuments of megalithic type to be found in them may bear a definite, even if remote, relation to those of Britain.

In the third volume of the Archaeologia I find a partial illustration of a passage in the History of Ingulphus. Speaking of the Customs introduced into this country after the Norman conquest, the historian says, “Conferebantur etiam primo multa prædia nudo verbo, absque scripto vel charta, tantum cum domini gladio, vel galea, vel corñu, vel cratera: et plurima tenementa cum calcari, cum strigili, cum arcu; et nonnulla cum sagitta. Sed hæc initio regni sui; posterioribus annis immutatus est iste modus.” “At first, many estates were conveyed by bare word, without any writing or charter, but merely by the sword, helmet, horn, or cup of the possessor. Many tenements were transferred by a spur, a horse-comb, a bow, or even an arrow. This was at the beginning of the Norman reign. In later years the custom has been changed.”

The contradictory opinions, which our ablest philological antiquaries have advanced with respect to the leading characteristics by which the poetry of our Anglo Saxon ancestors was distinguished from their prose, will I trust plead my excuse for trespassing upon the time of the Society of Antiquaries, by offering to its attention a few cursory observations on that subject. They are suggested principally by the perusal of two very interesting documents contained in the Exeter Manuscript, some extracts from which I have already had the honour of transmitting through your kind intervention.

Among the ornaments of the splendid votive altar exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries last year by M. le colonel Theubet were three antique engraved gems, one of which, I believe, represented a head of Socrates, another a scarabæus, and the third a figure offering sacrifice at an altar. We have many proofs of the care with which ancient gems and cameos were sought and preserved in the middle ages, and it is probable that some of the most beautiful specimens known in modern times have been derived from the monastic treasuries. The superstition of a barbarous age regarded these relics as things endowed with magic qualities, which possessed healing and protective virtues that rendered them precious to the possessor. It appears that they were sometimes even regarded as natural productions, not formed by the hand of man. As early as the twelfth century (at least) we meet with regular inventories of such gems, with an enumeration of their virtues according to the figures they bore; and I now beg to lay before the society an inventory of this kind in Latin, which is the one of most common occurrence in manuscripts. It appears to me that it possesses considerable interest, and that it may be appropriately introduced by a few anecdotes from old writers illustrative of the excavations and researches amid the ruins of antiquity made by monks and others in the middle ages.

By the favor of Daniel Braithwaite, Esq. a gentleman who lives in the city, I lay before you and your Society several pieces of Terra-cotta brought from the Musquito shore about the year 1775 [a].

They were sent by a very intelligent gentleman who had long resided in that country, and gave the following account of them.

Ancient Horology is a fascinating but most difficult study, hampered by imperfect observation, the repetition of gross errors, and the free acceptance of mere tradition; so wide and deep is the confusion that careful students have now become cautious and sceptical even in accepting fairly admissible evidence. A contributory factor has been the undue separation of mechanical and artistic considerations, for mechanicians have attempted to form judgements based solely upon technical peculiarities, while artistic antiquaries have perhaps shunned the dark and oily wheels and levers hidden away in the dusty clock-chamber or tower. Certain types of clockwork cannot be dated unless there is ornament, but due attention to records, to mechanism, and to ornament, makes it at least possible to correct many erroneous traditions and false theories.

Mr. John Ward, F.S.A., lately Keeper of the Department of Archaeology in the National Museum of Wales, has been prevented by illness from publishing this hoard, which was until recently under his care. The following summary embodies information kindly supplied by him regarding the circumstances of the find.

The following notes relate to one of a number of ancient occupation and other sites examined by the writers between 1925 and 1939, in the district between St. Keverne and Coverack in the Lizard peninsula, and of which a record will appear in due course in the Journal of the Royal Institute of Cornwall. Meanwhile as the pottery found on the site in question may be of importance in helping to date Dark Ages ceramics discovered elsewhere, it has been thought advisable to publish the present account in the Antiquaries Journal.

The Society's library has grown considerably in size and stature during the 270 or so years of its existence. Reflecting as it does the tastes of the Fellows, many of whom have been bibliophiles both as collectors and writers, it has inevitably acquired by various means a large number of early printed books. Exactly how many was revealed when a shelf list of those published before 1700 was prepared in 1967. Of those fifty-one are incunabula, and they were thought to be of sufficient interest to be published in this extended list for the benefit of Fellows in general and bibliophiles in particular.