In 1872 there came into the possession of the British Museum a small bronze fitting. In length 71 mm. and cast in a single piece, one end is in the shape of a bovine head, the other being a ring set at right-angles to the head, the shank having the appearance when viewed from the side of being bent back on itself to complete the circle; the maximum outer diameter of this ring is 27 mm. The animal's brow is defined by a double ridge which forms the lip of a question-mark-shaped socket whose body is represented by the top of the fitting. The shank has a diamond cross-section swelling gently from the moulded lips of the ring up into the head. The ridge on the rear surface sweeps out towards the top giving the end a triangular section. The casting is technically not wholly successful; the base of the ring has a stress fracture, there is a weak point at the top of the ring, and the sockets in the head (recently filled in with candle-wax) and on the return foot of the ring seem to be due in part to faulty pouring into the mould; certainly in the latter case there seems never to have been any intention to form an inlay setting although there is another possible use (see p. 28 below). Otherwise it must be said that the surface of the bronze has a fine finish with little or no sign of subsequent tooling.

During the clearance of the moats and wards of these castles in Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, which has been undertaken by H.M. Office of Works in conjunction with the work of consolidating the masonry, a number of finds has been made. Some of these are of more than passing interest, and it has seemed advisable to place on record a complete list of all which in any way illustrate the history of the castles concerned.

In March 1918, after the end of my third year of service with the Intelligence of G.H.Q. Staff in Mesopotamia, I was ordered through the War Office to explore archaeologically the region south and south-east of Nasiriyah on the Euphrates on behalf of the British Museum. This district, which lies south of the broad Euphrates marshes, includes several ancient mounds, of which three are of great interest, Abu Shahrain (the ancient Eridu), Muqaiyar (Ur of the Chaldees), and Tell el-Lahm. Previous excavations had been made in this district by J. E. Taylor in the middle of the last century, and described by him, but now that these ancient lands had come within our jurisdiction, the British Museum wished to set further exploration afoot with the possible view of larger undertakings.

The origins of the Anglo-Saxon shield are to be found in the Roman Iron Age on the Continent. The Early Saxon shield has the same basic form as the shields in Danish and North German bog deposits: a flat circular board of small to medium size, made up of several planks set side by side, and fitted with an iron boss and grip [46, 47]. None of these features had to be borrowed from Roman shields, which in the first three centuries AD were mostly rectangular or oval and included convex and laminated boards, whilst the Late Roman circular shield may actually be of Germanic origin. The types of Early Saxon iron boss and grip were also rooted in Roman Iron Age types, and the main constructions of wooden handles (particularly ones using a lap-joint) were already used on third-/fourth-century shields in Jutland.

The high veneration I feel for the character and principles of our renowned Alfred, led me, whilst we were quartered in Winchester last year, to make the discovery of his tomb an object of research.

History informs us, that Alfred and his queen Alfwitha were buried in the church of Newanminster, which he founded and began, and which after his death was finished by Edward the elder, who was also interred near his father.

When Constantine the Great transferred the seat of his empire from Rome to Byzantium he not only preserved that empire from destruction, but he established it at a centre from whence it derived new life and energy. Menaced by the barbarians from the north and the Persians from the east, the empire was in constant danger of overthrow. Now it is often of the greatest importance rather to anticipate an attack than to await its onslaught, rather to be ready for your enemy near his gates than to await his arrival at yours. Constantine therefore removed his base of operations nearer to the source of danger and established himself at the very gate of his enemies. At New Rome new conditions of life had to be faced; new methods of building, suitable to the climate, the skilled labour, and to the materials available, had to be devised. But in the very solution of these difficulties lay the germs of salvation. By his bold and sagacious action a new life and vigour was infused into his people, a new force which not only preserved the empire for over eleven hundred years, but maintained a progressive civilization during what was probably one of the darkest periods in the history of the world. But it was in the selection of the particular site that the emperor showed the greatest prescience. At Byzantium he commanded the great line of communication between east and west through Asia Minor and Thrace, and also controlled the maritime passage between the Euxine and the Propontis, the Straits of Bosporus. He secured at once the most potentially wealthy and the most strongly situated position in Eastern Europe.

The curious panel-picture representing four gentlemen in the costume of the time of queen Elizabeth, and evidently persons of distinction, playing at cards, which I have the pleasure of exhibiting this evening by permission of Messrs. P. and D. Colnaghi, is not altogether new to the Society.

It was described little short of one hundred and three years ago by the Hon. Daines Barrington, in the Archaeologia, vol. viii. under the date May 4th, 1785.

I had the honour of exhibiting, at a Meeting in May last, a collection of remarkable antiquities which had been shortly before found in Suffolk.

A farmer at Westhall (a small village about three miles north-east of Halesworth) was engaged in draining a field, called the “Millpost Field,” carrying the trenches to a depth of between two and three feet from the surface, in a stiff clayey soil, and in the direction of a small watercourse which ran along the east side of the field. A space of about two acres in extent, in the lowest part of the field adjoining the watercourse, presented, when ploughed up, a much darker soil than the other parts of it; and in making his drains through this part of the field much burnt earth and fragments of pottery were thrown out of the trenches. Near the centre of the space, and about two feet from the surface, he met with a quantity of bronze rings and other fragments, which he gave to a Mr. Hylton, a Norfolk farmer, who communicated the discovery to me, and enabled me to exhibit them to the Society: and in order that every possible information might be obtained, I joined them, on the 2nd of May, and carefully went over the ground with the spade. All the bronze fragments had been gathered together, and my search added nothing to the collection.

The county of Hertford from its proximity to London, from its containing the important Ancient British Capital Verulamium, from its being traversed by several British and Roman roads, and from the presence within it of more than one Roman station, might naturally be expected to prove rich in ancient remains, indications of the existence of which would profusely stud an archaeological map. As a fact, however, it seems doubtful whether such a map will exhibit so many interesting features as that of several other counties more remote from the metropolis; and certainly, for variety and number of archaeological discoveries, it cannot compete with that of Kent.

By the kindness of the present, possessor, Andrew Fountaine, Esq. of Narford, I am enabled to lay before the Society of Antiquaries a domestick Record, which will probably be considered as having a legitimate claim to their attention. It is an Inventory of the Effects of Sir John Fastolfe, who stands enrolled among the heroes of Agincourt, and obtained still further renown as a brave and successful commander in the French wars of Henry the Sixth. His name, however, is now perhaps better remembered by its near resemblance to the fictitious one which Shakspeare bestowed on the wittiest and most delightful character of the comic Stage. This resemblance indeed, which, whether accidental or otherwise, has given rise to much fruitless controversy, begins and ends with the name, for the gravity of Sir John Fastolfe appears to have been as remarkable as his courage, prudence, piety, and hospitality.

The accompanying documents, which have been transcribed from the register of John Longland, who was Bishop of Lincoln from 5 May 1521 until 7 May 1547, will not, I think, be without interest for some of our Fellows, throwing as they do a clear though but feeble light on the manner of life in certain monastic houses immediately before the Dissolution. In case you agree with me in this, I shall be obliged to you if you will read them at any meeting of the Society when it may be convenient for you to do so. I am indebted for the transcript from which my copy is taken to the Reverend A. R. Maddison, M.A., F.S.A.

The task of transcribing and completing Mr. Wickenden's and Mr. Bradshaw's Inventory of the contents of the Chapter Muniment Room at Lincoln has recently brought under my notice certain original inventories of plate and jewels which formerly belonged to that church.

Three of these with two or three subsidiary documents have already appeared in the Monasticon, but not satisfactorily edited.

It is proposed in this paper to give some account of a burial ground of the early Anglo-Saxon period at Mitcham, at present partially excavated.

The finds of Anglo-Saxon remains in Surrey have so far been few, and the accounts of them meagre. Of those recorded the cemetery opened at Oroydon during some road excavations in 1895 is the most important. It may be noted that Croydon is at the head of a branch of the Wandle, which river flows close to the Mitcham ground. There are some points of resemblance between the finds on these two sites, although the burnt remains discovered at Croydon have no counterpart at Mitcham.

The year 1325 is memorable in the history both of England and Prance as a time when very difficult negotiations were going on, and when the Queen-Consort of England undertook the office of mediator between her husband, the King of England, and the King of France, her brother.

In 1868 Colonel A. Lane Fox, F.S.A. contributed a paper to this Society, on the Sussex Hill Forts, and on the principles of castrametation which a most careful examination of the whole series led him to conclude had been adopted by the tribes who had constructed them.

In the course of his inquiry, and in the description of the seventeen earthworks that line our Sussex downs, he mentioned the occurrence, in several places, of various pits in and about the camps. The instances are at Wolstanbury, Highdown Hill, Mount Caburn, and Cissbury—most notably the latter.

This paper was shortly followed by another, giving a detailed account of the extensive excavations carried on by him at Highdown and at Cissbury. In this communication he dwells at length on the pits situate within the latter camp, their character and contents; the flint implements especially are elaborately classified and fully described by him. The examination of about thirty pits resulted in the following information,—to which I may be permitted briefly to refer in order to be intelligible. That they were from 20 to 70 feet wide, and of a depth of from 5 to 7 feet below the surface. That they contained a great quantity of flint implements, a few bones, dead land-shells, charcoal and fragments of coarse pottery distributed in layers of red clay and chalk rubble, the pottery being only found immediately beneath the turf.

In considering the object and use of these pits, Colonel Lane Eox states that he believes them to have been for the purpose of obtaining flint for manufacturing implements, and subsequently to have been used for habitations.

I hope to add confirmatory evidence of both of these theories.

‘Was there’, asks Mrs. Cunnington in the January number of this Journal, ‘a Second Belgic Invasion (represented by bead-rim pottery)?’ The answer on her last page is that it ‘remains extremely doubtful’. Her article is in fact a vigorous challenge to belief in this invasion, as maintained by us in a paper published last year, entitled ‘The Belgae of Gaul and Britain’. To this paper she does not indeed allude by name, for her notice is confined to one or its six sections only. In bringing the issue here once more under discussion, we feel bound to restore this section to its context, if only to give it no more importance than its due, for there are sundry points that have thus lain outside the scope of Mrs. Cunnington's article which may nevertheless perhaps prove important in estimating the matter as a whole. We will follow her arguments in order.