The following Observations, tending to shew that the Signets of the nations which anciently inhabited the banks of the Euphrates were, at least in some instances, of a cylindrical form, may perhaps not be unworthy of your attention, and that of the Society of Antiquaries.

The observations were suggested chiefly by the contemplation of a considerable number of engraved Gems of this kind which are in my possession, and which have been recently dug up at Babylon, and brought to England by that persevering Oriental traveller and scholar, Capt. Abraham Lockett.

Previous to describing the interesting remains discovered by Mr. Fellows, in Lycia, in the years one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine and one thousand eight hundred and forty, and subsequently removed by the British Government, and deposited in the National Collection, it will be necessary to understand the variety of art exhibited on these marbles, and to take a succinct view of the vicissitudes experienced by the races which occupied the valley of the Xanthus. The manner in which the marbles were removed has been already announced elsewhere to the public; and the present Dissertation is only intended to consider them in respect to art, mythology, and the local history of the Xanthians.

The remarkable Monument of antiquity which gives its name to the Vale of White Horse in Berkshire, has not, I believe, attracted the particular attention of any antiquary since 1738, when the Rev. Francis Wise published his “Letter to Dr. Mead, concerning some Antiquities in Berkshire,” &c.; or, perhaps I should rather say, since 1742, the date of his second work upon the subject, entitled “Further Observations upon the White Horse and other Antiquities in Berkshire,” &c.

I have the honour of laying before the Society some remarks on the original Seal belonging to the abbey of Wilton; and when its great antiquity, the stile of its workmanship, and the quality and character of the person whom it represents, are considered, it cannot fail of being regarded as an article of much interest and curiosity.

The drawing, (Pl. VII.) is a correct plan of the Roman Encampment near East Hempstead in Berkshire as it now stands. Its situation, at one extremity of a large plateau, rendered it very fit for a permanent military station, as it must have been of difficult access on every side except that by which it is connected with the principal hill.

Ten years ago, through the kindness of a member of the Wollaston family, I came into possession of a large circular plate apparently of bronze. It was much oxidized and begrimed, and had been preserved with the scientific instruments and other relics belonging to their illustrious ancestor Dr. William Hyde Wollaston, President of the Royal Society in 1816, who died in 1828.

As you are so distinguished a player at Chess, what I have lately gleaned with regard to the introduction of this most capital game into Europe cannot but be interesting to you.

A copper-alloy scabbard chape of Viking-period type and date was found by a metal-detector user at Chatburn, Lancashire, in 1993. It has been acquired, through the good offices of the finder, Mr Steve Owen, and the landowners, the Trustees of The Hon R C Assheton's Settlement, by Blackburn Museum, where its registration number is 1995.14. Assistance is acknowledged from the following bodies with the costs of acquisition and conservation: the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the National Art Collections Fund and the North West Museums Service. Conservation has been carried out by the York Archaeological Trust.

Surprisingly little attention has been paid by scholars of Henry VIII to the heraldic ceiling of the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace (fig. 1). Study of its decoration has fallen somewhere in between surveys of Tudor architecture and painting. In this article specific problems relating to the ceiling will be addressed: when it was made, the iconography, the reasons for the iconography, the visual source of the ceiling and how it was transmitted, and who made it. The ceiling warrants attention because its programme of Henrician heraldry is a key to the understanding of the political iconography of the Royal Supremacy. In addition, the ceiling's dependence on a contemporary Italian architectural treatise for its design is unusual for its time.

I am permitted by Robert F. Dalrymple, Esq., to exhibit to the Society of Antiquaries a remarkable and interesting document connected with the English occupation of Paris, at the time when King Henry the Fifth was recognised as the heir of his father-in-law Charles the Sixth.

In the spring of 1889 a large series of documents formerly in the possession of Edmund Gibson, the learned prelate who for a quarter of a century presided over the see of London, were offered to me for purchase. I at once recognised their interest and importance, and, as it seemed to me that such documents should not remain in private hands, I secured them, not for my own collection but for the library of St. Paul's cathedral church. The papers comprised about ninety volumes in folio or quarto, together with a considerable mass of loose sheets of manuscript matter.

In the autumn of 1892, Mr. Edwin Henty, in planting trees on his property on High Down Hill, in the parish of Ferring, in Sussex, came upon a number of graves, which, from the character of the relics found in them, were readily determined to be of Saxon origin. Mr. Henty has carefully preserved all that he could secure, but from the unfortunate accident that the men employed in the work were strangers, and not his own workmen, there is reason to believe that a number of the articles found were disposed of to visitors and others.

The Society has already published, in the third volume of the Vetusta Monumenta, engravings of the three Crosses which alone remain of the twelve that were erected by the King in memory of his Queen. An historical discourse is also there given on the circumstances under which these beautiful structures were erected, the work of Mr. Gough, assisted by Sir Henry Englefield. This discourse contains nearly every thing which was then known on the subject, and has been the source from whence later accounts have been derived. What I now propose to do is to make some material additions to what was then known on the subject, and to correct some important misconceptions; and, in doing this, to make some small addition to the knowledge we possess concerning the arts and artists of the period, and particularly to assert for England, against Walpole and others, the claim of having produced by the hands of native artists most of the beautiful works of sculpture and architecture which are connected with the name and memory of this Queen.

Dr. Percy, in that part of the Essay on the Ancient English Minstrels, prefixed to his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, which concerns the state and condition of these people in the Saxon times, previous to the Norman conquest, has given us, in my opinion, a false, or at best, an ill-grounded idea of their rank and condition within that period. This imaginary notion, for such I take it to be, I propose to discuss in the shortest manner I can.

Some information respecting Easter Sepulchres may be met with in most works on mediæval archaeology ; but if the student wishes to know more about the subject, and compares their statements, he will find that the whole are derived from extremely limited sources. With respect to the structures known by the name, a paper in the Vetusta Monumenta, bearing the initials “R. G.” is the mine from which the other writers have dug their materials: and as for the ceremony for which the structures were used, one or two works furnish nearly all the little store of information yet opened to us.

Roman London held a special position in the Roman province of Britain. Planted on an excellent harbour and waterway, at the meeting point of the most important roads, it quickly grew into a flourishing town. Within fifteen years of the Claudian invasion it was renowned for its trade and thronged with merchants and merchandise. Before long it became the centre of the fiscal administration, and though it was not the capital of the province, and seems never to have even attained the rank of a municipality, it received in later times the title Augusta, and a mint was set up in it. Its surviving remains fully confirm its reputation. London is the one place in our island which has yielded Roman objects of artistic merit in real abundance. In general, the province of Britain, however thoroughly Romanised, appears to have contained little of wealth and luxury, and the finest products of Roman or Romano-provincial art, whether sculpture or glass or jewelry, were seldom seen in it. So far as they do occur, they are commonest in London.