I cannot deny myself the pleasure of presenting you with some cursory observations on three very singular stone coffins lately discovered at your seat of Christ-church Twynham, of which you was so obliging as to send me a sketch.

I take the liberty, through your hands, to lay before the Society, two small fragments of antiquity, which, on account of their singularity, may deserve some little attention, though it is not possible for me at present to give any very full or satisfactory account of them. They were communicated to me by my worthy friend Doctor Griffith; and I shall add what information he was able to obtain with regard to them.

The extreme elegance of the sculpture of the royal seal, the impression of which you favoured me with a sight of, joined to the circumstance of its being as yet unpublished, has induced me to cause a drawing to be made of it, which, with the following description, you may probably think worth communicating to the Society of Antiquaries.

I send you the drawings and description of the entrenchment on Hengistbury Head, and the Camp on St. Catherine's-Hill, the fruit of our joint labours, in the measurement and investigation of which both you and our friend Topham worked so assiduously.

Nothing seems to be so well calculated for throwing light on the origin of nations, as an attention to the radical construction of the language of the people, and to the nature of those monuments of remote antiquity that have escaped the ravages of time.

I Beg leave, through your means, to convey to the Society my sentiments respecting the word Romance; a subject which has already employed the pen of the ingenious Mr. Drake, and others. I hope for this gentleman's particular indulgence, if I differ entirely from him, and join in opinion with Dr. Percy, and the learned Warton, in their sense of the word.

There is a passage in Gildas which is become very famous, partly on account of the various reading, but chiefly of the sense and meaning of it; authors disagreeing widely in the interpretation. It is indeed a paragraph of consequence, as it concerns a portion of the British history at a very critical time, and as such may well deserve a minute and particular discussion.

This seal of brass very finely cut, belongs to Henrietta Maria, daughter of the Great Henry IV. of France, and wife to our Charles I. The arms are England, France, and Navarre, borne separately in a lozenge, with the words Henretta Maria, dei gratiae Angliae, Scotiae, Fravnciae, et Hiberniae, Reginae round it. The supporters of the arms are, the Lion of England and the St. Michael powdered with fleurs de lis. On the reverse, the queen at full length, under a canopy, crowned and in royal robes, with the scepter in her right hand, and the globe in her left; the arms of England on her right side and of France without Navarre, on her left; both crowned with Imperial crowns, and the same inscription round the whole.

Within the space of a few years back, people who are curious in antiquities have taken occasion to observe a very peculiar kind of red earthen ware found amidst the cottage furniture of the fishermen on the Kentish coast, within the mouth of the river Thames. On examination they have discovered it to be ancient Roman manufacture. Upon enquiry after the source from whence such great quantities of this earthen ware could have been for so many years derived, a traditional story has been brought forward, and is now the current solution of this curious fact; namely, that some Roman vessel, freighted with these wares, must have been many ages ago cast away; and that upon the wreck of its hulk breaking up, this curious lading poured forth into the open sea on the coafts, hath been dragged up from time to time by the fishermen's nets: and the place of the wreck has been supposed to be somewhere about Whitstablebay.

The ingot of silver which I have now the honour to exhibit to the Society, is a most singular curiosity, and was discovered in the month of September last, on digging for the foundations of a new office for the Board of Ordnance in the Tower; where, having sunk to a great depth, and broken through foundations of ancient buildings, it was found on the natural ground, and, as it is supposed, even below the level of the present bed of the river. In the same place were found three gold coins, or aurei; one of the Emperor Honorius, and two of Arcadius, which will be described in the course of these observations. The piece of silver, in the form of a double wedge, is 4 inches long, 2 inches and ¾ broad in the broadest part, 1¾ in the narrowest, and ⅜ of an inch thick in the middle. It was probably cast at first in a square or oblong form, but has since been beaten into a broader superficies, and sharpened towards the extremities, where the strokes of the hammer are plainly visible.

Though I admire Mr. Whitaker's knowledge, and look upon his late publication of Manchester as a very valuable acquisition to the literary world, yet, I confess, I cannot acquiesce in every assertion that is there advanced. In a chapter of that work that relates to the origin of the English language, he seems to insist, if I apprehend his meaning aright, that the English tongue was radically formed of Celtick or British materials, and derived little or no assistance from the Teutonick. This is a doctrine as new as it is strange, and seems to require more arguments in support of it than he has been pleased to give us. And yet he is so warm and determined in the certainty of this position, that he treats all others, that may unfortunately have adopted a different system, as rash and presumptuous, and destitute of every knowledge of antiquity.

There is nothing more curious, at least in my opinion, in the history of the animal man, than to observe the various resources which he has, and the varied efforts that he makes, to supply the encreased extended demands of his advancing civilization. The first progress of his powers is the most rapid, and the wisest, as founded in use and reason. But after the purposes of real use are answered, and he finds himself at ease, imagination and caprice take the lead in his devices. Having got above the necessity of attending to bare uses, every thing that is absurd and deformed comes into model; the more deformed it is, and the more deviating from nature, common sense, and plain use, the more it strikes him as ingenious, and having the merit of invention. Such are the barbarous and grotesque models of all nations and people in this second stage of their advancing civilization. This principle of conceited imagination operates through all uniformly under the like circumstances in thus deviating from reason founded on use, and in thus deforming nature.

When I had the pleasure of meeting you last, our conversation turned upon the form of the buildings of the ancients, the nature of the cement, and the variety of materials made use of by them in their different structures, particularly in their baths. I mentioned that soon after I came to this town, I discovered the remains of a Roman structure at the West end of the parish church of St. Mary the Virgin; which remains have since repeatedly been laid open for the purposes of interment. You requested me to give you an accurate description of every part of this fabric, with my conjectures at what æra it was built, and for what use I conceived it was intended: I now sit down to comply with your request, but that I may give you as just an idea as I can of this ancient piece of masonry, by a minute description of its several parts, I have annexed a drawing, where A, B, C, D, E, F, represent the ichnography of the West end of the church.

We find amongst the coins minted at Durham, during the reigns of the three first Edwards, several pennies bearing particular marks in some one or other part of the coin: one has a cross moline at the beginning of the legend on each side of the piece; a second has the same cross in the second quarter of the reverse; a third has it at the beginning of the legend on the obverse only; another has a lion rampant betwixt two fleurs de lis in the same place. Some of these being placed where in succeeding reigns the mint mark stood, have been taken notice of by two writers on these subjects, but no reasons assigned for their use. There are also from the same mint two others, which have the upright limb of the cross turned in the form of a pastoral staff, one of them to the right, the other to the left; they are said to have come from the bishops mint, but the prelates name are not mentioned.

This curious and perfect Roman fibula, which I have the honour to send to you by my friend Mr. Lort for your inspection, was found at no great distance from Rome, about the year 1770, at a place called Rocca Priore, between Frescati and Palestrina, by a peasant, who sold it, together with some coins, to my friend Mr. Kerrich, fellow of Magdalen college, Cambridge, from whom I received it very lately.

There are an infinite variety of seals engraved in authors, and amongst them a confiderable number of conventual ones. Most of these last have been taken from impressions in wax appendant to old deeds and charters, but others have been copied from the matrices themselves still remaining amongst us. You, Sir, have a most valuable collection of these latter, and other gentlemen of my acquaintance are possessed of many, insomuch that all together they amount to a considerable number.

In reflecting on the works of several writers on our British antiquities who have gone before us, the public must allow great merit to the laudable zeal and painful industry shewn in their researches. It is, however, to be lamented, that, though a great deal of useful knowledge and curious information is to be derived from them, yet an injudicious mixture of matter in some, an imperfect collection in others, and an ill arrangement in most, have left much to be reformed, and much to be supplied, by the care and exactness of other writers.

The seal, of which you favoured me with the impression, belonged to Mary d'Estè, the second wife of king James II, and being so extremely well preserved, and as yet unpublished, a view of it may probably give entertainment to the Society of Antiquaries.

Being now returned into the country, I find myself at liberty to take into consideration, and briefly to illustrate, the block, or piece of lead, found in April 1777, on Cromford nethe-Moor, Derbyshire, which may be regarded not only as a curious, but as an important discovery to gentlemen who are either concerned in the mines of our country, or studious of our provincial antiquities.

You may recollect, that some time ago I had the honour of communicating to the Society, a paper, asserting the Teutonic original of the English language, contrary to the opinion of a celebrated writer of antiquity, who chiefly confines it to a Celtic one. You may remember also, that in order to confirm my position, I confronted a portion of the Gothic version of the gospel, as it appears in the Codex Argenteus, with our common translation of the same chapter, and I believe you was surprized to observe how striking a resemblance the English tongue had with the Gothic. It may perhaps be some entertainment if I should pursue the subject; for which purpose I shall again place together another part of the two different versions, and compare them in the same manner I did before, that by an actual collation of the two languages, a Gothic original of the English tongue may demonstrably appear. For this design I shall select a few circumstances relative to the crucifixion of our Saviour, as described by St. Mark, and without further introduction lay them before you.