The site of El-Fustât, or Old Cairo, lies about a mile and a half from the modern city, on the plain between the Nile and the Mokattam hills.

With the exception of the Coptic churches and monasteries little of it now remains, and its site is covered by great heaps of rubbish full of fragments of pottery of various dates.

The Coptic churches are grouped together in “dayrs,” or inclosures surrounded by high walls, into which there is only one small entrance; these walls were to protect the Copts from the attacks of the Moslem population.

In the following pages it is not my intention to describe Egyptian obelisks, respecting which I can say nothing new and striking. My desire is to give some interesting particulars relating to a few rude monoliths of Western Europe, which may not be so well known, and, by comparing them with the monoliths of Egypt, to show that they are worthy the attention of antiquaries, and that a fair conclusion as to their uses may be arrived at.

The Lordship of Wentllwch, sometimes called the Lordship of Newport, is of considerable extent. It lies on the shore of the Bristol Channel, by which it is bounded on the south. On the west it is bounded by the river Rumney, which separates it from Glamorganshire, and on the east by the river Usk.

The Ceremony of the Consecration of a Church as it was practised shortly before the Norman Conquest is well described in a paper communicated in 1833 by Mr. John Gage, then Director, and printed in Archaeologia, vol. xxv. p. 235. He also gives in full the Consecration Service from an English MS. Pontifical of the eleventh century in the Rouen library.