I purpose, with the indulgence of the Society, to discuss an early chapter in the history of Britain; to examine the evidence we possess of the progress of civilisation among our primitive ancestors during the first half century of the Christian era, and thus to investigate the probable condition of this island previous to its becoming a Roman province.

Some time since, among what are known as “the Shrewsbury Papers,” preserved in the Library of Lambeth Palace, then in the care of that learned and acute antiquary, the Rev. S. R. Maitland, I met with a very singular letter, no where noticed, respecting an interview between Henry VIII. and the Countess Dowager of Northumberland. She was Mary the daughter of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who came to the title in 1473, and did not die until 1541: her husband had been Henry Algernon Percy, grandson of the Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who was killed by the populace in 1489, and son of Henry Algernon Percy, at whose instance, and under whose patronage, Skelton wrote the poem which comes second in the recent edition by the Rev. Alexander Dyce.

There is no member of our Society to whom this brief letter could be more appropriately addressed than to yourself, not merely from the profession to which you are so honourably attached, but from the interest you must take in the subject, and the information you are so well qualified to supply. The latter, in my case, is peculiarly necessary, and if, on some future occasion, you shall be able to add any additional illustration, you will confer a favour not only upon me, who stand so much in need of it, but upon all Antiquaries, who cannot possibly be indifferent to the history of our Navy. My object is to bring the subject of the inclosed letter and report, by no less a man than Sir John Hawkins, into notice, in order that they may receive any explanation of which they are susceptible, and which I do not pretend to be in a condition to furnish.

On being elected to the honourable post of Director of the Society of Antiquaries, it became my duty to inspect the state and arrangement of its property; of which Mr. Albert Way, my worthy predecessor in that office, was then drawing up a detailed Catalogue. In the course of this occupation I could not but be greatly struck with the old Bohemian clock in our possession; and which appearing, on inquiry, to be the earliest one in pristine condition now remaining in England, I felt somewhat called upon to lodge a description of it in our archives. On mentioning this to your Lordship, it was gratifying to find that you were of the same opinion; I have therefore given this curious and unique machine a most careful scrutiny, and hope the account which I now have the honour to deliver may prove elucidatory, both of its construction and its history. Before, however, describing the clock itself, some preliminary matter, respecting various points of horological import, may conduce to a right understanding of the subject.

In compliance with your request, I now forward to you the accompanying journal of my proceedings at Ithaca; and I have the greater pleasure in so doing, as it affords me an opportunity of showing my respect for and obedience to the wishes of one holding the office of Director of the Society of Antiquaries of London. At the same time, I cannot expect that this journal will be deserving of much of your attention, which is generally bestowed on higher subjects; though under your guidance I trust that it may not prove unacceptable to this Society.

Adverting to the Letter addressed to me by John Payne Collier, Esq. V.P. recently read to the Society, which accompanies a valuable statement from Sir John Hawkins, I perceive he mentions that excellent old seaman's having been called by his biographers “Treasurer of the Navy,” and also “Treasurer of Ships.” To these I take occasion to add a third official designation, namely, that of “Treasurer of the Queen's Majesty's Marine Causes,” as may be seen in the Cottonian MSS. Otho, E. IX. and elsewhere. In 1573 he seems to have succeeded the brave William Holstock as Comptroller of the Navy, a high and arduous office, the duties of which he discharged so ably that Sir William Monson, a man by no means given to flatter him, assures us, that he introduced more useful inventions and better regulations into the service than any of his predecessors had done.

Ormerod, in his History of Cheshire, mentions Grosvenor, Davenport, and Brereton as “three grantees who can be proved by ancient deeds to have existed at or near the Conquest, though unnoticed in Domesday.” Of these the family least favoured by fortune in later times (the peerage and the baronetage in the Brereton family having both become extinct, and the heirship in lands and manors in all the principal English lines having descended to females), was, during the earliest centuries after the Conquest, among the most distinguished in the palatinate, and, by its fortunate and splendid marriages, became entitled to prefer for its issue the highest claims, even to ducal and regal descent. This state of the case, and a natural desire to uphold ancient valour and renown against the mere caprices of fortune, renders what can be collected of personal anecdote, local tradition, or the biography of the members of such a family (and not the mere bead-roll of its pedigree which is printed in local histories), a suitable subject of archæological inquiry, often suggestive of useful topics, and sometimes replete with interesting matter.

The capture of the “Madre de Dios,” or, as it was generally termed in England, “The Great Carrack,” in 1592, was not merely an incident of unusual temporary interest, but even of permanent importance in the history of this country.

Among the many striking incidents which occurred during the trial of Robert Earl of Essex, in 1601, none seem to have more strongly attracted the attention of the people than those which relate to the evidence and conduct of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The testimony of Sir Ferdinando excited the impetuous Earl much more than the ungenerous selfishness of Bacon, and almost as much as the vituperation of Sir Edward Coke, or the sudden interference of Sir Robert Cecil. When I first heard, Mr. Vice-President, that you were engaged upon a life of the Earl of Essex, you may remember that I mentioned to you, that there existed in the Cotton Collection of MSS. a paper written by Sir Ferdinando, purporting to be his defence against the popular clamour raised against him for his conduct towards the Earl. I should have preferred that you should yourself have been the first to print this paper in your forthcoming work; but, upon your assurance that it will be more agreeable to you that I should communicate it to the Society of Antiquaries, I now send you a transcript of it, and will thank you to lay it before the Society. I shall accompany it with a comparatively brief comment, in the hope that the whole subject will shortly be fully treated by yourself.

On Thursday evening last I took the liberty of laying on the table of the Society, for exhibition, a few ancient Watches which I had collected, and I availed myself of that opportunity of doing so, because, on the same evening, the valuable paper by our excellent Director, on the curious ancient Bohemian clock in the Society's collection, was to be read, to which I thought the subject of Watches might well form a sequel, and at the same time bring a new matter under the Society's consideration. I also undertook to throw together a few Observations on them in the shape of a paper, which I now take the liberty of sending you, and in which I hope to be able, in some degree, to exhibit the progress of the art of watchmaking from the earliest period to modern times. I can scarcely expect to communicate to the Society any knowledge of which its members are not already in possession; but I rather hope to elicit from those of our Fellows who are more learned in these matters that information which I should desire to obtain, and which they are always so kindly ready to impart. Besides this, I also hope to direct some attention to a subject hitherto but little heeded.

I shall be glad if the following Remarks on the site of Roman London can at some convenient opportunity be submitted to the Society of Antiquaries.

Occurring as a station in eight of the fifteen journeys of the Imperial Itinerary, four times as a point of departure, three times as the terminus of a route, Londinium is a link of connexion with other stations on the same lines of road, and its position a necessary preliminary to a correct knowledge of the roads themselves.

Some time ago the Society of Antiquaries did me the honour of listening to, and printing in its Transactions, a few remarks on the Antiquarian excavations made by the monks during the middle ages; on the destruction of many ancient monuments by this process; and on the purposes to which the articles thus brought to light were turned. Perhaps I may be permitted to recall the attention of the members of the Society to this subject, which will be hardly considered an uninteresting one, in order to shew how much may be learnt on the subject of local monuments of antiquity in this country from a careful perusal of the legendary literature of the church. So general was the custom of turning old popular legends into religious legends, and so universally were such popular legends attached to ancient sites and monuments, that we need not be surprised at the great importance which these monuments often assume in the histories of the lives and miracles of saints, and at the numerous and curious descriptions of these monuments which we find in the peculiar class of literature to which I allude.

I will now endeavour to give you an account of the constitution of a Manor in Oxfordshire, which, as far as I can ascertain, is unique, and evidently bears the impress of antiquity.

You will probably trace, at first sight, a resemblance between the “four Grass-stewards and the Sixteens” of Cote, and the four Primarii Forestarii and the sixteen Theynes of the Swein-mót referred to in the Charta de Foresta of Henry I.; but possibly these customs may be remnants of the Anglo-Saxon Mark-mót, for traces of the hide of land “cum pertinentibus”—i.e. with a house and toft, the rights of estovers, of common for cattle, and of a portion of separate pasture for hay—may be traced before the Conquest, and will be hereafter noticed; and a Saxon interpreter of Bede, quoted by Ducange (voce Hida) remarks that a hide was “Domus cum adjuncta agri ad colendum portione.” The 64 “yeard-lands,” or 16 hides, of the manor, and the “Sixteens” as the annual representatives are called, with their 4 Grass-stewards (always chosen from the most influential of the yeomen), strongly resemble the inter-communal arrangements of the Anglo-Saxons, who frequently adopted, as Lappenberg remarks, some multiple of 8 in their cycles, &c. It is however but right to observe that the manor did not always consist of 64 yard-lands, for 9 yards were added, rather more than two centuries ago, from the neighbouring manor of Shifford, although they may notwithstanding have belonged to one community, for these lands were intermingled with the rest.

From a conversation which I had yesterday with a worthy Fellow of our Society, it seems that the very few words which I dropped at the last Meeting respecting Coal Harbour being confounded with the singular term Cold Harbour were misunderstood, and, as a positive engagement will preclude my being at the apartments this evening, I forward you a note on the subject.

The following satirical Rhymes on the defeat of the Flemings, and their raising the siege of Calais, in 1436, are inserted in a very fine copy of the Brute, or English Chronicle, ending that year, in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, No. 6. If you think them worth the attention of the Society of Antiquaries, I shall be obliged by your presenting them.

I have copies of two very interesting documents to communicate to our Society, and I know not to whom they can be so appropriately addressed as to our Naval Director.

One is a Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Admiral of England, dated on the 25th of July, 1588, announcing that Queen Elizabeth had given order that in the county of Kent a good number of her best and choicest shot of the Trained Bands should be forthwith sent to the sea-side, that upon notice given from him they might be brought to double man the particular ships which were under his own command, and that of Lord Henry Seymour.

I beg to submit to the Society of Antiquaries some impressions and drawings of Gnostic Gems, chiefly bearing the usual figures and characters, on the former of which I venture to make a few observations. I think we shall not err much in assigning the origin of these amulets to Alexandria, in Egypt, the hot-bed of Gnostic superstition, and the birth-place of more than two of the leaders of this abominable sect. As far as we can judge from the style of their workmanship and the form of the characters, the greater part belong to a period later than the days of the Antonines.

Considering the important services rendered by Richard Hakluyt to the history and progress of navigation, very little has been done to illustrate his life. I am not aware of the existence of any separate memoir of him, and the accounts in our ordinary biographical collections are meagre and unsatisfactory. The notice of him by Anthony Wood, in his Athenæ Oxonienses (II. 186, Edit. Bliss), is short, but, as usual with that industrious and able antiquary, correct as far as it goes; and such as have followed him have done little more than make a few trifling additions to the text he supplied. The most curious and authentic materials, regarding his early habits, studies, and employments, are furnished by Hakluyt himself, but extremely sparingly, and with a simplicity of narrative, and a modesty of spirit, that increases our admiration of the man, and inspires the fullest confidence in his statements. I allude particularly to the well-known dedications, and other prefatory matters, to his three volumes of “English Voyages, Navigations, Traffics, and Discoveries,” published between the years 1589 and 1600.

My former letter to you on “The History and Progress of the Art of Watchmaking,” and the exhibition of ancient Watches which accompanied it, having created some interest on the subject, I am induced to exhibit on the table of our Society some additions which I have since then made to my Collection, and which I will accompany with some observations on them, and such further particulars respecting the history of watches in general as I have been able to collect.

It is thirty seven years since I had the honour of communicating a paper to the Society of Antiquaries, containing “Some Remarks to assist in ascertaining the Dates of Buildings;” a subject at that time of little interest to the generality of members, though one which always appeared to me of importance. The great change which has taken place of late years in the feeling of the public on all subjects of ecclesiastical architecture, leading, as I trust it will, to a more correct taste in buildings hereafter dedicated to the service of God, will, I hope, plead my excuse for again laying before the Society some observations which at the time they were made might boast some little portion of originality, but which is now no longer the case.