Encouraged by the attention you paid to the subject when I had the honor of conversing with you on it, I take the liberty of presenting you with two comparative specimens of the languages spoken in Sumatra and other parts of the east. The one exhibits simply a list of fifty words; of universal use from the nature of the ideas they express; as spoken in twelve different countries or districts. The other exhibits a view of those words in the Sumatran and neighbouring languages; which are observed to correspond in sound and signification, with words in the languages of places situated at a distance from thence.

In a memoir lately communicated to the Society by governor Pownall on the origin and nature of picture and elementary writing he observes that he has heard of painting on trees by the Indians in North America, but that he never saw any of them.

Recollecting that a gentleman of my acquaintance had shewed me in his journal a copy of an historical painting in figures which he had taken from a tree in North America, I wrote to him, and have been favored with the annexed sketch and interpretation of it.

Though there are but few churches in England built on a circular plan, it has generally been supposed that most of them were built by the Jews for Synagogues; and this opinion has long prevailed at Cambridge, because the round church, a plan of which is herewith annexed, is situate in a part of the town commonly called the Jewry, in which place it is generally believed that the Jews lived together, as they formerly did in that part of London called the Old Jewry ; but as it does not appear from any good authority that the Jews ever occupied this particular part of the town, we must seek some better reason for its being called the Jewry. As the Jews were dispersed into various parts of the world soon after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, it is probable that some of them found the way into Britain while it was subject to the Romans, though we have no certain account of their appearing here under that denomination before the time of William the Conqueror, who gave them great encouragement.

The general advantages which arise to the Antiquary and Historian from the preservation of auch authentic historical representations as are coeval with the transactions they record, and the reasons which occasioned the interview between the two kings of England and France, as well as the manner in which that scene of pomp and magnificence was conducted and carried into execution, have been already so ably and elaborately demonstrated by our late worthy Vice President, Sir Joseph Ayloffe, Bart. in his “Historical description of an antient pic-“ture in Windsor Castle representing the interview between “king Henry VIII. and the French king Francis I. between “Guînes and Ardres, in the year 1520,” printed in the works of this Society [a] ; that it will now only be necessary to refer to that learned description upon those heads, and confine our present observations to the matters arising from a view of the picture before us, distinctly from the other painting ; and for that purpose, to bring to the recollection of the Society, that after every regulation had been made, and preliminary settled by Cardinal Wolsey for this interview taking place in June 1520, king Henry VIII. removed from his palace at Greenwich on the 21st of May on his way towards the sea ; the first day he went to Otford, then to Leeds Castle, then to Charing, and from thence on the 25th he reached Canterbury, where he proposed to keep the approaching festival of Whitsuntide [b].”

I have the pleasure of your sentiments on the little Essay I made to ascertain the cubical contents of the Roman Congius, a copy whereof, in which I have set my name as author, is herewith transmitted to you; and if it may be thought worthy the notice of the Antiquarian Society, do request the favour of you to convey it to them.

He states the amphora to be a quadrantall or cube of a Roman foot, which he makes equal to 970 thousand parts of the English foot, that is, 11,64 inches English; and gives the amphora to be in cubical contents, 1728 Roman cubic inches, and in English measure to be 1577,098 English cubic inches.

Permit me now to communicate to the Society of Antiquaries, the sequel of such observations as I have had an opportunity to make with regard to the slructure of ancient castles; a subject, which, however ill I may have succeeded in treating of it, appears to me capable of throwing considerable light on the history of our country; and therefore I cannot but still endeavour to make every effort in my power to elucidate it; wishing my attempts to be a means of exciting others to make more successful enquiries.

In the account of Lincoln Castle, lately read to the Society by Mr. King, I find that a singularity in one of the towers had escaped the notice of that excellent and most accurate observer, who, having viewed the castle from within, had not seen a most remarkable arch opening into the ditch from the lower part of the said tower, which is marked by the letter (i) in fig. XXVI. of his drawings, and mentioned in page 265 of the letter press.

Mr King, in his many ingenious and pertinent Observations on Ancient Castles, (published in the Archaeologia, vol. VI. art. XXVII.) for the purpose of explaining the conclusions he has drawn from them, has given a full description of Rochester castle, which he remarks was in great part re-edified, if not originally built by Gundulph bishop of that see, about 1088. The justice of this prelate's claim to have been the architect of this venerable fabric is examined in the following disquisition ; and, should the paper appear to you to be not unworthy of the attention of the society of which you are a member, by communicating it to that learned and respectable body, you will oblige

Mr. Brander having entertained me at dinner with a desert served up in Roman earthen-ware out of his cabinet : on my mentioning this to my brother, he gave me the account [which stands in my paper, Archaeol. vol. V. p. 282.] of his having himself dragged up some pieces of Roman earthen-ware from off the Pudding-pan Sand or Rock, and showed me the three pieces there referred to, with several fragments of black earthen-ware. On examining them I observed on one the stamp Attiliani M. perfect and distinct; on the other, the traces, in the same sort of letters and stamp, of the same name, though not perfect. Whether the black sort ever had any stamp did not appear on the small fragments which I saw. I was led by this circumstance into a train of conjecture (for all that I have written on the subject deserves no better name) on the things themselves, and the place where they were found: and wrote a little memoire on them. In return to Mr. Brander's civility, I sent this paper to him, with liberty, if he pleased, of communicating it to the Society. At the same time that he communicated this paper in 1778, he exhibited six specimens of his Roman earthen-ware, said to have been fished up at the mouth of the Thames. A note referring to these pieces, and not to those on which I wrote, was, without the sanction of the Society, subjoined to this paper as published in the Archaeologia, vol. V. p. 282. 1779. I had observed that the name Attilianus only (as far as I could see) was on this earthen-ware. The note observes first, that the earthen vessels mentioned in this paper are in the cabinet of Gustavus Brander, Esq. next gives the six specimens of vessels, referred to in that note, on one only of which appears the name of Attilianus, This directly contradicts the fact which I had stated as the ground of my conjecture.