Dans le courant du mois de Mars, 1856, j'ai commencé une seconde fouille archéologique dans le cimetière abandonné de l'ancienne église de Bouteilles près Dieppe. Le but de ma tentative nouvelle était encore la recherche de cercueils de pierre et de croix en plomb avec formule d'absolution. Cette fois j'ai trouvé deux croix et six tombeaux.

The MS. Psalter, which is exhibited by our Fellow the Rev. Canon Cooke, by the kind permission of the Governors of the Grammar School of Bury St. Edmund's, is a fine example of an English monastic service-book, and is of interest because it can be shown by internal evidence to have belonged to the great abbey of St. Edmund.

The crossbow which forms the subject of this paper may be, I venture to think, of interest to the Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries, as it is a weapon of somewhat uncommon construction, of good artistic decoration, and more especially because the date which is inscribed on it and the escutcheons of arms which it bears, enable me to assign its ownership very definitely to a historical personage.

The object of the following paper is to call attention to the highly decorative character of certain metal bowls belonging to the Iron Age, which have been found in Great Britain and in Norway, chiefly with the view of showing that they supply a connecting link between the flamboyant ornament of the Pagan Celtic metal work and the spiral ornament of the Christian Celtic MSS. and sculptured stones.

The following Papers, relating to the Crown Jewels and Plate in the times of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., are a selection from a number of Jewelhouse Accounts and Papers, which are now in the possession of Captain Hervey George St. John-Mildmay, R.N., of Hazelgrove House, Somerset. The full catalogue will be found in the Seventh Report of the Hist. MSS. Commission.

Archæology, at the present day, is no longer the ill-appreciated amusement of the few. Its study is widely spread, while its importance is generally admitted, even by those whose inclination does not lead them to pursue it as a study.

No branch of archaeology appears to excite more general interest than sepulchral research in our own land, or in those foreign lands whose early inhabitants were, so to speak, kinsmen of our forefathers. This widely-diffused interest of our day happily differs altogether from the indiscriminate curiosity of a preceding age. And if science ventures to pass the sacred threshold of the tomb, it is solely because the early domestic history of our race is only to be found recorded in the tablets of the dead.

Of all the discoveries of caves of Mithras none has equalled in interest the one recently made in the city of Spoleto; and it is fortunate for science that Professor Fabio Gori (so well known in Roman research in connexion with our Fellow, J. H. Parker, C.B.) was immediately on the spot personally to note the status quo, and to perpetuate its details by photography and drawing.

An apology is needed for my presumption in reading a paper this evening on the Churchwardens' Accounts of Stratton. They certainly ought to have fallen to the lot of some Cornish man. My attention, however, was directed to them by their present owner, William Maskell, Esq. E.S.A. and I found them so interesting that I could not resist the temptation of bringing certain gleanings I have made therefrom under the notice of this Society.

Preserved amongst the English State Papers is a mass of material illustrative of the history of tobacco-growing in this country from the time of its introduction to the time when Government finally succeeded in suppressing its growth—a task which was not accomplished till nearly sixty years had been spent in vigorous legislation on the subject, so strong was the feeling of the British farmer in favour of retaining it as an object of cultivation. The outlines of the history of English tobacco-growing have been already sketched on many occasions, especially since the question has lately been before the public—the antipathy of James I. to the use of the “noxious weed,” his contribution to literature against it, and the successive Proclamations and Acts of Parliament forbidding its culture; all these are matters that have been recently noticed, and need not, therefore, be enlarged upon in the present Paper, the object of which is to bring to the front existing evidence as to the extent of tobacco-cultivation in this country, its success, and the feelings with which its suppression was regarded.

The history of an English Cathedral is an integral part of the history of England. Kings have been its nursing fathers and Queens its nursing mothers. Its charters are an important part of the national records. Its foundation, its decay, its restoration, mark epochs in the religious progress of the country. He who would tell the whole story of a cathedral can scarcely pass over without mention any great event of the national history; alike in war and in peace, in time of religious calm and in periods of wild fanatical discord, the grey time-honoured walls of the cathedral have borne their part. It has been the home of religion, the centre of light, the sanctuary where were gathered together the relics of poets, statesmen, warriors, theologians, kings; the last resting-place of the best and greatest men that have adorned the nation's annals.

The various groups of tumuli in the eastern parts of Kent are well known to our English antiquaries; and it is a fact pretty generally established, that they are referable to a period extending from the time of the abandonment of this Island by the Romans (and perhaps earlier) down to the establishment of Christianity, when it became the practice to inter the dead in some consecrated place, within the precincts of the church. To this period belong the numerous barrows on Barham Downs, near Canterbury; and the excavations recently made by Lord Albert Conyngham in the group on Breach Downs, adjacent to the village of Barham, prove that they also are of the same age.

About three years ago my attention was first drawn to the fact, that the Stones both inside and outside numerous ancient buildings in England bore in many cases a peculiar mark or symbol, which was evidently the work of the original builders. It immediately occurred to me, that these Marks, if extensively examined and compared, might serve to aid in connecting, and perhaps discriminating, the various bands of operatives, who, under the protection of the Church, mystically united, spread themselves over Europe during the middle ages, and are known as the Free Masons.

In the summer of the present year, a paragraph appeared in the newspapers stating that some ancient weapons had been discovered at Harnham Hill, in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, in a field in the occupation of William Fawcett, Esq. one of the borough magistrates. The description of these relics was sufficiently accurate to assure me that they were of the Anglo-Saxon period. I immediately wrote to Mr. Fawcett, who most promptly and kindly replied to my inquiries, and promised me the requisite facilities for a proper exploration of the site as soon as the crop which the field then bore should be carried. He further stated, that about eight years ago a carpenter, in digging a hole to receive a gate-post on the south side of the field, had turned up a spear-head and part of a human skull. This circumstance attracted no attention at the time, but in June last a further discovery was made by Robert Wallan, “the drowner,” or person in charge of the water meadows in the occupation of Mr. Fawcett, who, when employed in the field, perceived, about two yards from the gate-post, a spear-head protruding from the ground. This induced him to make further search, and in a short time he discovered the iron umbo of a shield and portions of a skeleton. Subsequently, an iron knife and a buckle were turned up with the remaining portions of the skeleton.

In the paper on the Mausoleum which I read before the Society on 14th June, 1893, and which has since been published in Archaeologia, I stated my intention to investigate two distinct questions relating to that celebrated building:

I. What appeared from the best literary and monumental evidence to have been its architectural form?

II. What was the most probable arrangement of its principal sculptures?

The first of these questions I have sufficiently dealt with in the paper referred to, subject to one correction, which I ask leave now to submit. Since the appearance of my scheme in Archaeologia, I have been led to adopt a slight modification of the architectural arrangement there suggested for the interior of the Pteron.

I have great pleasure in being able to submit to the notice of the Society a large collection of relics, interesting, not only from the use to which they have been applied, but also from the excellence of their workmanship. They will be recognized as belonging to the class of antiquities known as Pilgrims’ Signs.

The tablets which form the subject of the following communication are two of the most remarkable of those of the Ptolemaic period, which is not rich in inscribed monuments of this kind. There is, indeed, a series of tablets of this period in the British Museum, and others are in the Louvre at Paris. None of them, however, surpass in interest those now to be described, which relate to the family of Pasherenptah. It will be seen from their contents that they shed great light on the mythology of the Ptolemaic period, add to our knowledge of the annals of the Lagidæ, and afford additional facts with regard to the functions and organisation of the Egyptian hierarchy.