Since the publication of my letter to your Lordship, on the history and construction of our Astrological Clock, I have been requested to make an addition or two to that paper, in order to its being more fully illustrative of the subject. In the first place, perhaps the mere representation of the figure of the balance which is given in the thirty-third volume of the Archæologia, page 28, does not convey a precise notion of its end and aim, and therefore another diagram, representing it as applied to the escapement, would be more explanatory: secondly, it has been suggested that to many readers not familiar with the forms of the mediæval horloge, a general drawing of our table-clock would be an acceptable illustration: and thirdly, Count Krasinski, of a distinguished Polish family, who investigated the story and times of Sigismund the Great, has further strengthened me with circumstantial evidence respecting Queen Bona, the presumed original possessor of the clock. On these grounds, therefore, I again trespass on your Lordship's time.

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 the year 1847 Dr. Diamond communicated to the Society of Antiquaries an account of some excavations which he had superintended at Ewell near Epsom, when he exhibited various remains found in certain shafts sunk in the solid rock. The particulars of these discoveries, and Dr. Diamond's opinion thereon, have been printed in the Archæologia.

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.

The subject of Mason-Marks has obtained some additional interest lately in consequence of the suggestions that they might be made useful towards ascertaining the dates of buildings. Living in a district rather remarkable for the goodness of its masonry, both in material and in workmanship, my attention had frequently been directed to the singular character of these marks, but it had never occurred to me that they might be made available for the purpose above mentioned until I read Mr. Godwin's letters on the subject in Vol. XXX. of Archseologia. Though I doubt whether these marks can be classified chronologically, so as to form an index for fixing the date of buildings, yet it is certainly desirable that those who have it in their power should contribute their mite towards such a collection as Mr. Godwin suggests, in order to a thorough investigation of the subject. It is with this object that I have collected the mason-marks on several buildings in the neighbourhood in which I live, the dates of which are pretty nearly fixed by written records or other extraneous evidence.

In turning over the records of the town of Saffron Walden a few weeks ago, I found a volume of rather miscellaneous matter relating to the government of the town, which appears to be chiefly in the writing of the time of Henry the Eighth, and in which are two programmes of Regulations for the management of the Free Grammar School established there in 1525, drawn up by two different masters. They are documents of a kind which are rare, and I think of some interest, connected with one of the most important of all subjects—the history of the development of the human intelligence.

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.

I beg to have the honour of laying before the President and Members of the Society of Antiquaries what I cannot but deem a very interesting relic, an Impression from the Seal of Geoffrey Chaucer, perhaps the only impression which has descended to our times. I am sorry, however, that it is only a drawing from the original which is now produced; but the original itself will be shewn to any member of the Society who feels an interest about it.

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.

By the kindness of Mr. Nightingale I am enabled to lay before the Society a drawing of various Ancient Beads in his collection.

I know of no objects of antiquity which, while they present so distinct a character, are at the same time so difficult to assign to a precise period, as these beads. Some may be ascribed with tolerable certainty to particular countries; but others are so widely distributed as to render the place of their fabrication a difficult point to settle.

I do not know if the Society of Antiquaries will think that extracts from churchwardens' accounts of the reigns of the Tudor queens are so plentiful that no addition to the present collection is required, or can afford any new information; but I venture to send you, for the Society, some extracts from the Accounts of the Churchwardens of Eltham, in Kent, which I think will be found to possess more than ordinary interest from the circumstance of Eltham being the site of one of the ancient royal palaces, and of frequent reference being made to royal visits, and other events of a public nature, as well as to some men of note, between the commencement of the reign of Queen Mary and the accession of King James the First.

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.

In consequence of the desire you expressed for views and measurements of Ystumcegid, when we visited it together last August, I again repaired to the spot, and I now have the pleasure to forward you the result of my operations and inquiries. This cromlech, or in Welsh coetan, is situated about half a mile from the left bank of the river Dwyfawr, which winds considerably in this part of its course, and may probably have given rise to the name Ystumcegid or Ystumcuddiedig, meaning the windings of the hidden or concealed. The house which originally stood on this property is reported to have been the residence of Prince Owen Gwynneth in the eleventh century; but, having been burnt down during the wars of Owen Glendower, the present farm-house was erected shortly afterwards.

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.

As several members of the Society have expressed a wish to see the collection of Roman glass vessels which I had the honour to exhibit a fortnight ago, I have again produced it on the table, together with other interesting objects from the same locality. Since my last communication, I have received from Monsieur Perrot, an intelligent and experienced antiquary at Nismes, a descriptive account of the interments, which I now have the pleasure of laying before you. This gentleman has been for many years conductor of the excavations made around the principal edifices of the town of Nismes, by which means he has become possessed of a great variety of antiquities; and, although the town (as I before stated) has a public Museum, the funds are extremely limited, the administration of the town having only voted towards its maintenance, since the year 1845, the sum of one hundred francs.

The small paper Casts which are lying on the table are impressions of the epigraphs that are attached to the line of captive figures sculptured on the great triumphal Tablet of Behistun; and the two large sheets which are suspended against the side wall of the room are from the same locality. This rock of Behistun is a very remarkable natural object on the high road between Ecbatana and Babylon. It was probably in the very earliest times invested with a holy character; for the Greek physician, Ctesias, who must have visited this spot in the fourth century before Christ, ascribes the most remarkable of the antiquities that were to be found there to the Assyrian queen Semiramis; and Isidore of Charax confirms this tradition of the country in his notice of the column and figure of Semiramis, at the city of Baptana, in the district of Cambadene. Now I believe Semiramis to have been altogether a mythic personage. In the historical inscriptions of Nineveh there is no trace either of Ninus or Semiramis; but both the names are probably to be recognised in the Pantheon. A very remarkable bas-relief at Behistun, which contains the full face of a colossal female figure, and which is evidently far more ancient than the tablet of Darius Hystaspes, represents, I think, the object mentioned by Isidore; and in front of the bas-relief are the remains, now barely distinguishable from the masses of rock by which they are surrounded, of the enormous pillar which stood contiguous to the shrine of the goddess, and which was doubtless an object of worship.

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.”