I am far from thinking the following new particulars regarding Sir Walter Raleigh of much value or importance, excepting as they tend to explain and illustrate the character and actions of a man, who not only fills a prominent place in our history, but who is one of the chief ornaments of our literature. If we contemplate him as a politician, a soldier, or a navigator, we must admit at once his merits, his services, and his discoveries; but we are also to look upon him as one of the earliest, as well as one of the purest and most graceful of our poets, and, as a prose writer, remarkable for the originality of his thoughts, for the extent and variety of his knowledge, and for the vigour, clearness, and beauty of his style.

In my recent letter to Mr. Ouvry of notes, memoranda, and documents, containing new materials for a Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, I brought the incidents with which he was connected down to the year 1584, when, as I established, he had received the honour of knighthood. I now continue the subject, and request you to be the medium of communicating what follows to our Society. The particulars, as in the former instance, are many of them minute; but, I apprehend, they are all of them more or less important, in reference to the character and conduct of a man who was highly distinguished in so many capacities, as a politician, a courtier, a soldier, a navigator, a poet, a patron, a philosopher, and a historian.

My intention in this, and in my two preceding papers on the same subject, has not been, and is not, to give any thing like a new biographical account of Sir Walter Raleigh, but merely to touch upon some points, which, I think, have not been sufficiently illustrated; to correct and settle a few dates; and to add various matters that have either been unknown to, or have been passed over by those who have professed to write the life of this most deserving, but not less unfortunate, favourite of Elizabeth. I make this statement now, because, as I am informed, my purpose has been a little misunderstood; since it has been thought by some, that I was aiming at more than I pretend to accomplish. I merely furnish additional materials to those who may hereafter be disposed to treat the inquiry in detail and upon system. I recommence where I left off in my last; and beg of those who may think matters of the kind not so apposite to our ordinary inquiries, to remember that Sir Walter Raleigh was one of the founders of our Society, and on that account only, if he had no other claims, would merit the utmost interest we can take regarding him.

In submitting the following remarks to the Society of Antiquaries, I must, at the outset, declare that my object is rather to review the evidence we possess, than to offer any conjecture or theory of my own. It will be by all allowed, that the careful bringing together of facts already known, but scattered and disconnected, must, at all times, tend to assist archaeological research, and save the trouble and tedium of referring to detached notices bearing on the subject of our inquiry.

When I some time ago addressed a paper to the Society of Antiquaries upon the subject of the death of William first Earl of Gowrie, and the bearing of that sacrifice to injustice upon what I believe to have been the conspiracy entered into by his sons John and Alexander in the year 1600, I was not aware that there exists, in the person of Colonel Stepney Cowell, a present representative of the last male descendant of that most unhappy family. Since the publication of my former paper, I have, by your kind introduction, been brought into acquaintance with that gentleman, whom I have found extremely zealous for the honour of his unfortunate ancestors. He takes an entirely different view of the Gowrie conspiracy from myself; but, with a liberality which proves the sincerity of his own convictions, as well as his desire for the discovery of the truth, whatever it may turn out to be, he has not only allowed me to inspect his family papers relating to the Gowries, but has given me permission to make some of them the subject of an additional communication to the Society of Antiquaries.

Having examined and transcribed the verses on the nine Roundels forwarded to your Lordship by Colonel Sykes for exhibition to the Society of Antiquaries (Plate XVIII.), I beg to submit the result. These examples of long since obsolete objects are, in more respects than one, of some interest to the English antiquary, but they are especially so from their bearing very well executed and characteristic figures of persons in various grades of life in the costume of the early part of the seventeenth century. They doubtless originally comprised a set of twelve pieces. One side is covered with a black ground, the other being left entirely bare, as usual. On the former are verses in two concentric circles, inscribed in the script character of the time in gilt letters. The figures inclosed within these circles are also gilt, but besides the slight gilt circle which surrounds them, there is another, a broad band of white. The numerals, which on some are Roman and on others Arabic, are also in white, as is also the ground upon which the figures stand. It is not improbable that these letters, numerals, &c. were inserted at some subsequent period, for they are deficient in neatness, and do not accord with the rest of the design. The verses, though in one or two instances faulty in metre,—a fact which we may, I think, fairly attribute to successive mechanical copies, like the paintings on our modern tea-boards,—are by no means deficient in point and smartness. Each figure represented, disclaims the faults and vices commonly laid to the charge of persons of their several conditions, and this in language far superior to that which is generally found on existing examples of these objects.

The route taken by Julius Cæsar in his Invasion of Britain has been discussed so often by learned men, that I can hardly venture to offer to the Society of Antiquaries a new investigation, leading to a conclusion, I believe, differing from all preceding ones, without a preliminary explanation of the reason which leads me to think that a new investigation is admissible. The reason then is simply this: that, in every one of the discussions which I have seen, the investigator has been contented with fixing upon some one indication contained in Cæsar's Account, and shewing that that one indication conforms to his theory, without any regard to the others. A more striking instance of this fault cannot be found than in D'Anville's essay. D'Anville takes a supposed expression of Cæsar's that his length of passage was 30 miles; he finds that the distance from Wissant to the Dover cliffs, increased by Cæsar's 8 miles' run along the coast, agrees with this pretty well; and for this reason and no other he adopts Wissant as the place of departure. But, in a record so uncertain as that of mere numerals, he never inquires whether other manuscripts give a different number of miles; he never critically examines whether the distance (whatever it may be) applies to Cæsar's passage at all; he never attempts to ascertain whether Wissant could possibly be suited to Cæsar's armament; he never even discusses Cæsar's movements before departing and after returning, or offers the slightest proof that Cæsar had ever been near Wissant. Yet on all these points the indications given by Cæsar are numerous, and are as explicit as they very well can be in reference to a country in which scarcely a single name was preserved by any following historian. Rennell, adopting D'Anville's starting-place, Wissant, without question, has attempted to fix Cæsar's place of landing in the neighbourhood of Deal by a solitary reason exactly similar to D'Anville's. Halley, professing himself totally uncertain as to Cæsar's starting-point, has reasoned with great acuteness on the phenomena of the tides as described by Caesar, and has compared them with his own apparently erroneous information; he concludes from these that Deal may probably have been the landing-place, but has not adverted to any other evidence. Yet there are numerous indications given by Caesar in reference to his internal progress in the country which ought to have been considered, at least so far as to shew that they are not inconsistent with the theory adopted. I might apply nearly similar remarks to the reasonings of other writers.

I trust that the Essay which I now offer to the Antiquarian Society will at least be free from the fault which I have pointed out. I have brought together every passage which I can find in Caesar bearing upon the place of his departure, his navigation, the place of his arrival, and his march after arrival. I attach no importance to the accounts of writers posterior to Caesar, for it does not appear that they ever visited the coasts of Gaul, still less the coasts of Britain; and their statements, if in opposition to a clear inference from Cæsar's, must be rejected. So far, however, as I am acquainted with them, they do not in any instance contradict the inference from Cæsar's narration.

I send you an account of the opening of some Tumuli, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, under my directions, in the autumn of the present Year, and will thank you to lay the same before the Society of Antiquaries at some early meeting. I am happy in this opportunity of adding to the information which the Society has already acquired on the subject of the primaeval remains of our native land;

I have placed on the table of our Society, for exhibition this evening, my curious Astronomical and Astrological Table Clock, which has been so well figured and described in the paper of our excellent Director, which was read at the early part of this season, and printed in the last part of the Archseologia just published; and I will therefore take the liberty of adding a few Observations supplementary to those which he has made, as they will point out more clearly, now that the instrument is before us, its interest and peculiarities.

The object I propose to describe is a Disc of silver of very thin substance, being scarcely one-sixteenth of an inch thick, and beaten up from behind in the kind of metallic work called sphurelaton by the Greeks. It has apparently formed the top of a mirror-case, or box. (See Plate XXI.) The account of its discovery, which Mr. Vint, its possessor, has placed in my hands, is as follows :—“This bas-relief I purchased in Naples upwards of twenty years ago of a travelling jeweller, who collected and dealt in relics of antiquity. The following, to the best of my recollection, is the account he gave me of the place where it was found, and the manner in which it came into his possession. On one of his customary visits to Tarentum, in Calabria, he was invited by a silversmith, with whom he transacted business, to take some refreshment, and on entering a room behind the shop he observed this bas-relief placed against the wall, and two small lamps burning before it. Being at the very first sight sensible of its antiquity, he carefully asked the silversmith's wife, who was present, where it was found. Her answer was to this effect. Some excavators brought to their shop for sale a quantity of silver which they had found in digging among the ruins of the old city. On breaking up the mass her husband discovered these figures within it, and was about to put them into the crucible to melt them, when she snatched the rare relic from her husband, exclaiming with religious horror, ‘Would you melt the Madonna?’ Her husband confirmed his wife's account, and moreover stated it was soldered within a conical-shaped silver vase that was found covered up in the tight cavity of a large stone among the ruins of Tarentum.”

According to your kind suggestion, I venture to address to you some notes made during a tour in the west of France last summer. You will probably remember that some years ago the late Mr. Rickman commenced a series of papers on the “Architecture of a part of France compared with that of England,” which were printed in the Archseologia. He concluded them by expressing a hope that others who may have time and opportunity would follow up what he had so well begun. His observations are confined to the northern part of France—Normandy and Picardy. The object which I had in view in undertaking my tour, was to pursue these observations in the other provinces of France which belonged to England in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. As I believe that their architectural character is very little known, you may perhaps think these notices worthy of being submitted to the Society of Antiquaries, more especially as I was accompanied by an artist who has made me some very careful drawings to illustrate my observations.

The Cottonian MS. Titus B. VIII. contains, among numerous other articles, a Narrative of the principal naval Expeditions of English Fleets, beginning with that against the Spanish Armada in 1588, down to 1603. The beginning of this curious Memoir is wanting, and the writer is unknown; but the facts through its several divisions are detailed with so much spirit, and the statements of the expeditions are so strongly mixed with contemporary feeling and contemporary anecdote, that I submit a transcript of them to our Society's notice. They contain many particulars of striking interest, which I have not found elsewhere. It is evident from several passages that the writer was in the armament with the Earl of Essex and the Lord Admiral at the attack on Cadiz in 1596; with the Earl of Essex in his voyage to the Islands in the following year; and with Sir Richard Lewson and Sir William Monson in 1602. Whoever he was, he was closely connected with Sir William Monson, if he was not Sir William himself.

At the time I was engaged in collecting materials for my “Life, Progresses, and Rebellion of James Duke of Monmouth,” in 2 vols. 8vo. published in 1844, scarcely any detailed information could be procured respecting any of the exiled followers of the duke. The fate of only four individuals was actually ascertained; and the intimate personal history of no one, much less the general treatment, transportation, and return of any, could be learned from whatever quarter. A lady wrote to me, and obligingly supplied what is to so many an object of great interest, in the shape of a MS. narrative of the transportation, sale, and labour of John Coad; which I advised should be forwarded to Mr. Macaulay for his then expected work. An imperfect copy was accordingly sent, which has since been printed, the deficient part being supplied before the issue to the public from, I believe, the copy lent to me. Another of the kind contributors to my labours was one of the family of the late John Frederick Pinney, Esq. of Somerton Erleigh, who searched amongst old family papers, and has had the gratification of having produced for my use matter important to general history and biography.

I have the honour to transmit the translation of a long Egyptian hieroglyphical inscription, consisting of thirty-eight lines of text, published by M. Prisse, but not explained by him, in his Egyptian Monuments, which is of considerable importance for a due knowledge of the political history of Egypt. M. Prisse describes it as a tablet of Rameses II., taken from the ruin which is situate facing Dakke, in Nubia. This spot, which he states has not been as yet well examined, ought to be Contra Pscelcis, or rather Tachompso, according to Ptolemy. The tablet is of granite, and of very mediocre workmanship, and its lower part had been broken into several pieces, one portion of which, the only remaining, he had presented in the midst of the plate, not knowing its right position. “Notwithstanding its mutilation, this monument,” says M. Prisse, “is very interesting for the history of Rameses II., who, as this inscription states, as soon as the third year of his reign, had rendered himself illustrious by his victories. Since the drawing was made the tablet is supposed to have been transported to France by the Count St. Ferriol, and to be at present in the chateau of Uriage, near Grenoble.” So far M. Prisse. I propose to take up the subject where he has left it, and to give a translation of its contents, which presents no great difficulties except in three or four places, which I have marked. In the notes which accompany this Paper, I have indicated the new philological explanations which I have proposed, as well as such restorations as the text, often indifferently copied, demands. But the historical commentary, and such as requires more than mere verbal criticism, I have added to the translation. It is also much to be regretted that, while in France, in Prussia and in Austria, there is a national hieroglyphic type by which Egyptian studies are materially advanced, no such aid exists in England. Hence many points can only be proved by fewer examples cited than would have been the case had a type existed; although, in these instances, those which occurred to the writer as most conclusive have been selected.

In the 27th volume of the Archæologia (pp. 262—273) an account is given of an Egyptian Mummy, unrolled by me at Jersey in 1837, in which, for the first time, the special parts of the human body considered by the Egyptians to be under the protection or influence of the deities of the Amenti or Amunti, are distinctly pointed out and confirmed. On the 23rd of May last, at the solicitation of the Council of the United Service Museum, I unfolded another Egyptian Mummy, and, meeting with some objects confirmatory of the opinions expressed in my previous paper in the Archæologia, I beg now to submit a short notice of them to the Society of Antiquaries.

The Antiquities represented in the annexed anastatic Sketch have been found in the immediate vicinity of Boxmoor Station, on the London and North Western Railway, and have nearly all been brought to light and preserved by the intelligent clerk at that station, Mr. Byles. The neighbourhood was first known to contain any Roman remains through the discovery in 1837 of some Roman sepulchral interments in the burial-ground attached to Box Lane Chapel, which is about 300 yards distant from the station. An Account of the Objects then discovered will be found in the Archaeologia, vol. XXVII. p. 434. They consisted of a circular glass urn about 12 inches in diameter; the fragments of another of the same character; another of a square form with a handle; an earthen præfericulum or pitcher-shaped vessel used for funereal libations; a bronze lamp-stand and an earthen lamp; together with a number of large iron nails, with which the wooden cistae in which the interments were made were fastened together. It will be at once observed that these remains and those represented in the sketch are of a totally different character; the one being adapted for sepulchral and the other for domestic purposes. The majority of the latter were found in and around one of those circular pits or culinae which are not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Roman buildings.

Near Cambo, a small watering-place at the distance of about twelve miles from Bayonne, in the department of the Basses Pyrenees, France, are the remains of a camp which native antiquaries have variously conjectured as being of Roman, Celtic, Saracen, or ancient Cantabrian construction. Tt bears not the slightest resemblance to the three former, and from its being situated in the very centre of the Basque districts may be considered as the work of that people, perhaps at the time when attacked by the Romans and driven into their mountain fastnesses, where they manfully stood their ground in defiance of the imperial eagles, and which is the subject of the “Lelo,” a national chant, a translation of which I may be pardoned for inserting:

I. “The strangers of Rome marched against Biscay; and thro' Biscay sounded the song of war. Octavian was lord of the world, while Cecobidi was the leader of the men of Biscay.

Having been so particularly called upon, at the last Meeting of the Society, to look into the state of our information respecting Lynwode, one of our most celebrated countrymen, and to report the result, I should have been wanting in proper respect to the President and the Society if I had not taken some little pains to put myself in the condition to do what was required of me.

Previous to the time of Leland, little if anything had been done to collect the facts in the lives of eminent Englishmen of whatever class, and to form what may be called a Body of English Biography. This was, however, a task which that diligent antiquary undertook, and his work has formed the basis of all subsequent accounts of English authors who lived before the Reformation. Of Lynwode he gives what are the main facts in any history that might be written of him.

The Committee appointed by the Council on the 20th January, 1852, to investigate the circumstances attending the recent discovery of a body in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, with power to have drawings made and with directions to report to the Society, beg to report, that, having obtained the necessary permission from Charles Barry, Esq., and secured the services of Mr. Scharf as draughtsman, they proceeded, on Friday the 23rd January, to the crypt under the Chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster, where the body in question had been discovered.