There are but few probably of the members of this Society so slightly versed in the history of their country as not to recollect the great Lincolnshire rebellion in 1536, when a body of men, amounting, according to historians, to 20,000 men, headed by Dr. Makerel, the Abbot of Barlings, under the assumed name of Captain Cobler, had the hardihood to assemble and remonstrate to Henry the Eighth, against the suppression of the religious houses, the exaction of subsidies, the grant of first-fruits, and other arbitrary proceedings of the King, his Council, and Parliament. The first cause of this serious disturbance is alleged to have been the publication of a book, entitled “Articles devised by the King's highness,” &c. in which only three sacraments were allowed; and the dissatisfaction given to the clergy by this step, was not long after augmented by the injunctions issued by Cromwell, in Sept. 1536, that the Pater-noster, Ave, Creed, and Commandments, should be read in English, which, as Holinshed writes, “bred a great misliking in the harts of the common people, which had beene euer brought vp and trained in contrarie doctrine.” The issue of this affair is well known:—the reply or Henry to the rebels, in which they are called in no courtly terms, “the rude commons of one shire, and that one of the moste brute and beastly of the whole realme;” and their final submission to the Duke of Suffolk.

In the Register belonging to the monastery of St. Edmundsbury, compiled in the time of William Curteys XXV Abbot, are two letters from King Henry VI. addressed, one to the Abbot, and the other to the Alderman and Bailiffs of the town, for the suppression of Lollards, and other seditious persons. As these letters, or any on the occasion which gave rise to them, do not occur in our historians, I send you copies of them: they appear to have been written in 1431.

I Venture to offer to the notice of the Society, through your hands, an account of the visit made by Don Manriquez de Lara, Duke of Najera, to England, in the year 1543-4. All contemporary narratives of this nature are interesting, more especially when written, as in the present instance, for private information only; and in this respect the relation in question possesses perhaps a superior claim to those of Paulo Jovio, Micheli, Perlin, and Hentzner, already before the public. It is extracted from a folio MS. volume, recently acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum, which is stated to have been procured from the library of Thomas Iriarte, the well known Spanish poet, and Archiviste of the Council of State. This volume consists of copies of a variety of valuable documents in the form of correspondence, narratives, and diplomatic instruments, from the year 1520 to the commencement of the sixteenth century, chiefly illustrative of the history of Spain during that period, but embracing also the transactions in Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Africa.

Having done me the honour of exhibiting to the Society of Antiquaries in March 1824, a rough draft of a Map of Roman Norfolk, with other Plans which related to Norwich, I now beg leave to transmit to the Society through you a more finished Map, accompanied by a descriptive Outline of the Roman Remains in that county: and in so doing I cannot but suggest, that if others, conversant with antiquarian pursuits, would construct similar Maps of other counties of Great Britain, the whole might form the basis of a Map of Roman Britain, which is much wanted. The advantages resulting, would, I am convinced, fully compensate the labour; much light would be thrown upon the works of Gale, Horsley, Reynolds, and other learned Antiquaries, who have written on the Itinerary of Antoninus; and the early history of this country be placed in a much clearer point of view than it has hitherto been. The accurate Surveys which have been taken of every County have removed the obstacles which before impeded such an attempt; and these, combined with the geological researches which have of late years been made, particularly in our maritime counties, afford sure data for such an undertaking.

I beg leave to submit to the attention of the Society impressions in wax of the singular and beautiful Seal of Southwick Priory, in Hampshire, to which I am happy to be enabled to add, by permission of the owner, John Bonham Carter, Esq. M. P. the original Matrix from which the impressions were taken. It is presumed with some confidence, that this Matrix is the only specimen in existence of a very peculiar and artificial mode of forming ancient conventual Seals, nor have my researches enabled me to discover any similar instance of a seal so made, except that of the Priory of Christchurch, Canterbury. It is much to be regretted, that the few writers who have endeavoured to illustrate the use of ancient English Seals, should have chiefly directed their attention to the antiquity of the practice, or to the explanation of the figures, badges, or bearings of the Seals themselves, but afford us but little, if any, information concerning the mode of preparing the wax, taking the impressions, affixing the seals to the deeds, or even of the forms and material of the matrices. In short, whatever is known of the theoretical, we are as yet almost ignorant of the practical use of sigillation adopted by our ancestors.