Scene 2, King Henry, addressing the Arch

[Illustration: THE GREAT YARMOUTH TOLHOUSE.]

_The

Antiquarian Magazine

& Bibliographer._

EDITED BY

EDWARD WALFORD, M.A.,

_Formerly Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford, and

late Editor of “The Gentleman’s

Magazine,” &c._

“Time doth consecrate,

And what is grey with age becomes religion.”

SCHILLER.

VOLUME VI.

JULY-DECEMBER, 1884.

London:

DAVID BOGUE, 27, KING WILLIAM STREET,

CHARING CROSS, W.C.

The Gresham Press.

UNWIN BROTHERS,

PRINTERS,

LONDON AND CHILWORTH.

List of Illustrations.

_Page_

THE GREAT YARMOUTH TOLHOUSE 2

ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS FROM SOUTHWELL MINSTER 49

GLOVES OF SHAKESPEARE, IN THE POSSESSION OF MISS BENSON 102

SEAL OF THE BOROUGH OF SEAFORD 154

TESSELLATED PAVEMENT DISCOVERED AT THE ROMAN VILLA NEAR

BRADING 206

THE OLD PALACE, RICHMOND 258

_The Antiquarian Magazine & Bibliographer._

The Great Yarmouth Tolhouse.

GREAT YARMOUTH possesses a building of considerable antiquarian

interest. This is known by the somewhat unsuggestive name of the

Tolhouse. Its relation to the collection of tolls is referred to in many

old documents; but since this was but one of many uses to which it was

devoted, and far from a primary one, it is highly probable that, like

the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, its name is derived from its use in a greater

degree as the common prison of the town.

The building is spoken of by the old local historian, Manship, in 1619,

who states that it was used in his time as the Borough Gaol, and had

been so used from the time of the granting of the Charter by King John

to the Burgesses. There are also records, which are referred to in

Palmer’s “Perlustrations of Great Yarmouth,” of the very early use of

the building as a gaol by the burgesses. A gaol for prisoners was also

granted by Henry III. in 1261.

Apart from this, the building has been used for almost every municipal

purpose, though it has never been actually a town-hall, for Great

Yarmouth, like many other corporations, possessed a town-hall over or

beside the entrance to the churchyard. Here various courts were held.

The bailiffs were accustomed to receive their tolls or dues in the great

chamber on the first floor. It was called the Host House, from a

peculiar local custom. The accounts for the herrings, the staple article

of commerce of the town in old days as now, that were caught by foreign

fishermen, and sold by their “hosts,” or salesmen of the town to whom

they were consigned, had to be settled in the great chamber, and their

“heightening money” paid. It was used also as their apartment of state

by the local authorities; and there are many records of the quarrels

over the questions of precedence with the deputies of the Cinque Ports

when they paid official visits here.

It is for these most varying uses that the Tolhouse of Great Yarmouth is

unique among our municipal antiquities, for England has not its

counterpart elsewhere. Its history affords evidence of a most

interesting nature of the growth and development of the authority of the

town, no different it may be from what has taken place in other

corporations, but illustrated here by the actual building.

The structure also is the original erection in all its essential

features. Its walls are of early thirteenth century date, thus

indicating its existence prior to 1261. It has a picturesque external

staircase of open woodwork, giving access from the street to the level

of the first floor, where the “Great Chamber” is situated, access being

gained through a doorway of Early English moulded work; while the lobby

of approach is lighted by a two-light open arcade, of somewhat later

date. A very quaint figure of Justice, with sword and scales, stands on

a projecting buttress; and the high-pitched roof, and the general

features of the design, are both of considerable artistic interest.

Internally, the Great Chamber has lost its open roof, which was replaced

by a flat ceiling, probably in 1622, when it was “fitted up for

assemblies.” The windows, too, are square-headed, with wood frames and

mullions; but there are several features of the original work of great

beauty, while others peep temptingly from the plastering and whitewash

of more recent days.

Below the Hall is the “pit,” or common hold, wherein prisoners were

thrust indiscriminately, and chained to a horizontal beam, which has

long since disappeared. In this portion of the building the doors are

iron-bound, and very solidly framed.

The recent history of the building deserves more than passing reference.

On the completion of the handsome new town-hall the few recent uses even

of the Tolhouse were no longer needed, and the demolition of the

building was decided upon. The local antiquaries, however, being fully

alive to the great interest of the building in relation to its forming a

part, so to speak, of the history of the town, strove to prevent this

loss occurring. Their persevering efforts have been eminently

successful. Not only has the Town Council reconsidered the proposal,

but it has finally handed the building over to trustees, to be devoted

to some useful purpose. Thus has an example been set to other lovers of

our ancient buildings elsewhere.

The trustees have undertaken to repair the building, and they are now

seeking to raise a fund for defraying the cost of this much-needed work.

The building is in a sadly dilapidated state. It has been surveyed by

Mr. E. P. Loftus Brock, F.S.A., architect, of London, and in his hands,

and in those of a local firm of architects, it may be reasonably

concluded that none but really necessary works will be carried out. The

intention is, indeed, to repair the building only, and to retain all its

ancient features.

The rough-cast, covering and hiding the ancient walling, will be taken

off, the great hall will have its flat ceiling removed, and some

approach made to the open appearance it formerly possessed; the walls

will be strengthened where needed, the roofs made watertight, and

general works of cleansing and repair done. No attempt whatever will be

made to alter the structural appearance.

The trustees have undertaken their duties on public grounds, in the

belief that, in these days when the removal of an ancient building is so

greatly deplored, funds will not be wanting to uphold it for all time.

Subscriptions will be gladly received by C. S. Ade, Esq., Treasurer of

the Fund (Messrs. Gurney & Co., Great Yarmouth); or by F. Danby-Palmer,

Esq., Honorary Secretary, also at Great Yarmouth.

Misericordes in Ludlow Church.

THE following details of sundry carvings on the misericordes still

remaining in the choir of the collegiate church of St. Lawrence at

Ludlow, in Shropshire, may interest such of our readers as are students

of church architecture:--

NORTH SIDE. (_Read from West to East._)

1. _A_ (left) and _B_ (right), a rose. _C_ (centre), four roses.

2. _A_ and _B_, a padlock (or stirrup?). _C_, an eagle with two cords

entwined behind.

3. _A_ and _B_, floriated ornament. _C_, an angel holding a trumpet.

4. _A_ and _B_, floriated ornament. _C_, king’s head, whiskers and beard

flowing.

5. _A_ and _B_, an animal holding a band in its mouth. _C_, a stag

kneeling, a band behind it.

6. _A_, two figures opposite each other; the left one has pointed shoes,

the right one has his right arm raised as if to strike the other figure,

and an animal is arising from under him. _B_, a floriated ornament. _C_,

a mitred bishop in a pulpit preaching to birds; the bishop has a

donkey’s face.

7. _A_ and _B_, three feathers. _C_, the same, larger.

8. _A_ and _B_, mitres on many-pointed stars. _C_, mitred bishop’s head,

labels flying.

9. _A_ and _B_, a face, from whose mouth two oak sprigs, right and left,

issue. _C_, a stag, with a crowned collar round its neck attached to a

chain, sitting on its haunches biting a band or flat snake.

10. _A_, a pot with two handles, on a fire. _B_, floriated ornament.

_C_, two figures fighting; a third figure on the right is trying to hold

one of the other figures; the left figure is sitting on the ground, as

if knocked down; his head is broken off.

11. _A_ and _B_, a fish with its tail in its mouth. _C_, a mermaid

holding a circular mirror in its right hand, looking at it; the left

hand four fingers broken off.

12. _A_, devil seated, holding a scroll. _B_, figure of a woman coming

out of a pair of gaping jaws, the hinder parts of a man disappearing

head foremost into the jaws; there are seven teeth in the upper jaw and

three in the lower jaw. _C_, a man, whose head is broken off, carrying a

naked female slung over his shoulders, one leg on either side of his

head; her head and body hang down behind; she has a head-dress, a

necklace from which is a pendant, and a ribbed jug or scroll in her left

hand, her right hand is open, showing the palm; opposite the man, on the

right, is a figure evidently meant to personate the Devil; he has wings,

and is playing the bagpipes.

13. _A_ and _B_, a winged beast. _C_, the same, with head-piece and five

bands round its waist, terminating in the wings; there are eight balls

or buttons on, and between these bands in front of the figure.

14. _A_ and _B_, figure of a man, probably dancing; he holds a round

thing like a cymbal in the right hand, the other is holding a branch;

one knee is on the ground; it has pointed boots; part of the head and

left foot below the knee of _A_ is broken off. _C_, a woman’s head with

head-dress, scowling, showing open ugly mouth and four teeth; the body

of the dress is low, cut square; some thinner article of dress is

beneath, concealing bare skin.

SOUTH SIDE. (_West to East._)

1. _A_, ring, formed by two circles entwined. _B_ is gone. _C_, rose on

a ----?

2. _A_ and _B_, a head in a cloth or shroud. _C_, a man seated in cap

and gown, holding a band.

3. _A_ and _B_, a four-legged table, a barrel, end upwards, in centre,

showing the bung in the middle; on one side is a jug or flagon, on the

other a cup or chalice with a cover. _C_, two figures, men, kneeling;

both heads are gone; a barrel on a bracket-shelf appears to be supported

on one knee of each; one knee of each is on the ground.

4. _A_ and _B_, floriated ornament. _C_, a woman drawing liquor from a

barrel into a jug which she is holding; on the left of the barrel

another barrel, on the right a jug on a shelf below; the figure has a

mallet attached to a girdle round his waist.

5. _A_ and _B_, a cock’s head. _C_, animal with wings, on its haunches.

6. _A_ and _B_, pretty floriated ornament. _C_, remains of the trunk of

an animal surrounded with the remnants of birds, broken off.

7. _A_ a pack-horse; three of its legs are gone. _B_, a bag with a rose

on centre, from which are suspended two smaller roses; below bag is a

cushion, tasselled. _C_, two pairs of wrestlers wrestling; on left a

figure is looking on.

8. _A_, pot with three feet and two handles, through which is a loose

cord, on some burning fagots. _B_, trunks of two animals slung on a

pole. _C_, a woman seated in a chair, holding hands and feet to fire

which is in front of her.

9. _A_ and _B_, floriated ornament. _C_, a swan standing.

10. _A_ and _B_, a sparrow. _C_, an owl.

11. _A_ and _B_, a woman’s head with head-dress. _C_, the same, with

additional loose piece of material on top of her head, hanging over her

shoulders.

12. _A_ and _B_, floriated ornament. _C_, a man with a pack on his back,

strapped on over his shoulders; he is pulling up his right boot with his

hands; the boots are pointed.

13. _A_,_B_ and _C_, floriated ornament.

14. _A_, a figure with pointed shoes, seated on a four-legged stool;

both arms are gone. _B_, a wrist and hand from a cloud, on which, under

the wrist, is a hammer, holding a pestle and mortar; beneath the hammer

is a thigh bone, a skull, a skull, and a thigh bone; beneath these is a

perpendicular altar tomb, with a spade and shovel crossed; the shovel is

standing on the ground in front of the tomb, and has a T handle, the

spade having a circular one. _C_, a figure with a row of beads on top of

coat from shoulder to shoulder, and wears a belt; on the left is a

barrel on a shelf; under this is a pair of pattens hung on wall, and

below these a pair of bellows, also hung on the wall; a hammer lies by

his right foot on the left; all on the left-hand side are gone.

R. C. HOPE, F.S.A.

Characters of the Wars of the Roses.

BY THE REV. H. H. MOORE, M.A.

_PART II._

(_Continued from Vol. V. p. 282._)

THE characters of Warwick and of Edward IV. were so similar up to a

certain point, and beyond that so opposite, their fortunes were so

closely intertwined up to a certain time and afterwards were so fatally

antagonistic, that they must be considered together awhile. The virtues

of the one shine the brighter, and the defects of the other loom the

darker by contrast; and the juxtaposition of the two figures in history

makes the contrast all the more striking. In Warwick we see the nobler

and more antique form of chivalry; in Edward we see chivalry modernised

and debased by the additions of a voluptuousness more vicious than

refined, and of a selfishness Italian in its intensity, and

Machiavellian in its policy. Equally brave and distinguished for

personal prowess in the field, Warwick joined to the courage the

magnanimity of the lion, while Edward showed the cruelty as well as the

fierceness of the tiger. But Edward greatly excelled Warwick, as well as

all the other captains of his day, in generalship. His boldness, which

cared for no odds however great, which shunned no danger however

desperate, would have seemed mere foolhardiness, had not his

marvellously quick perception, sagacious judgment, and tremendous

energy, made prudence foolish and boldness prudent. His confidence in

his own powers, which made them ten times more formidable, was fully

justified by the results of nine pitched battles, in which victory never

left his standard. But as soon as the opposition was overcome which had

roused his energies into so fierce an activity, he abandoned himself to

luxurious habits and indulgence in amorous and convivial pleasures. They

who had seen him awhile ago delighting like a war-horse in the sound of

the battle, would never expect such “a martial man to become soft

fancy’s slave.” Yet so it was; terrible as Cæsar in war, in peace he was

another Antony, and would risk the loss of an empire for a woman’s

smile. His generous affection for Elizabeth Woodville would be a bright

spot in his character, had he not sullied it by his numerous amours and

gross licentiousness. While Edward thus stained his character as much by

his wantonness in peace as by his cruelty in war, Warwick, who despised

such pleasures, won from both equally honourable laurels. The young

King’s Court was no genial place for his severe manliness; and the

disgraceful match-making and place-hunting by which the Queen’s

relatives and friends were acquiring power, not only disgusted, but also

alarmed him for the power of his family and of the old nobility. Edward

and Warwick were equally proud, but Warwick’s was the pride of conscious

worth, Edward’s the pride of an arbitrary will. More kingly than the

King himself, Warwick overshadowed the throne with his greatness. To him

Edward knew that he owed his crown, but he felt that he was strong

enough to keep it without his help. His gratitude was swallowed up in

the humiliation of his dependence, for he felt that he was not a king

when Warwick was by. Accordingly, all his efforts were directed to abase

that power which made him feel like a subject in his own realms.

Warwick’s fall would, he knew, be the death-blow to his order; and, once

determined on this policy, not even fear of Warwick moved this wonderful

man, whose hand never hesitated to execute what his heart dared to

design. He saw that the age was with him, while Warwick and the men of

whom he was the type were behind the age. He knew also the advantage

which his own character and talents gave him over Warwick. The latter

was honest, unsuspecting, incapable of intrigue as he was indisposed to

it; and though he joined to these soldier’s qualities a soldier’s

sagacity also, yet he was no match for Edward, and fell an easy victim

to his perfidious heart and scheming brain. And when outraged honour and

insulted pride made him desert the Yorkist cause, which he had served

and supported for years, and range himself with those whom he had most

injured and who most hated him, he fell as easy a victim to the same

man’s charmed sword. And Edward did prove himself strong enough to reign

alone. No man was better fitted for his age and his circumstances; and

this is shown by his popularity, vigorous even during Warwick’s life and

while growing under his shade. Victor everywhere and at all times,

Edward had won the heart of the nation even before he gained the throne.

The painful tragedy of his father’s death, his own youth, beauty,

princely bearing and accomplishments, excited the sympathy and

admiration of the people on his earliest appearance on the stage on

which he was to play so great a part. His successful fortunes in war,

and Warwick’s support, had commended young Edward to a people who had

nothing to lose in losing Henry VI., and who hoped at least to gain

peace and security under the protection of an arm which promised to be

as strong to hold as it had been to acquire. Their minds, sickened by

the gloom and horrors of war, were refreshed by the sight of their young

King throwing himself with all the ardour of his nature into the light

amusements and pleasures of peace; the citizens were charmed by his

affability, their wives and daughters by his gaiety and gallantry. A new

nobility, the mushroom growth of an hour, sprang up to sun itself in his

smiles, to help him in the pursuit of pleasure, to increase the

attractions of peace and of a Court. The commercial towns, and

especially London, were pleased with a monarch who enriched them by his

magnificent and sumptuous expenditure, and who gave a more liberal

encouragement to commerce than they had known before. But two classes

stood aloof and sullen: the old nobility, who felt that they were losing

both their place and power in the Court and in the State; and those of

the people who felt that, whether York or Lancaster were uppermost, they

equally lost their rights, and failed to better their condition. The

battlefields of Barnet and Tewkesbury rendered this dangerous element

harmless for the future, and Edward, now able to breathe more freely

than he had done heretofore, gave himself up without restraint to the

impulses of his passions. His life henceforth became one voluptuous

revel. The people were more ready to turn with him and his courtiers to

pleasure than to criticise and condemn their vices; and so, in peace as

in war, Edward’s sail was filled by the favouring breath of popularity.

His love for his children and care for their education, his

courteousness, his wisdom in weakening the power of the nobility, his

encouragement of commerce, and his statesmanship, enlightened for those

days, are all good points in Edward’s favour, and should be valued at

their proper worth; but the possession of the ordinary virtues, and the

performance of the ordinary duties of a prince and a parent, cannot

fully redeem and make up for his extraordinary vice, perfidiousness,

selfishness, and cruelty; and in the opinion of an age that is not

dazzled by his fortune and ability, Edward’s hard, worldly, fleshly

nature cannot be deemed worthy of admiration.

Richard III. and Henry VII. are but little concerned in the actual

conduct of the civil war; not at all in its origin, but chiefly in

furthering its effects, or reaping its fruits; but few words therefore

need be spent on them here, as it is their policy rather than their

personal characters that is of chief interest. The same terribly

precocious development of an unscrupulous will and of a heart steeled

against mercy, marks the character of Richard III. as that we have seen

in Edward IV. The school of civil war in which he had been trained

taught him to despise the barriers which could be removed by the

shedding of blood, and none ever showed greater aptness in improving on

the lessons he had learned. He equalled Louis XI. in dissimulation, in

cunning, in statesmanship; he equalled his brother Edward in

fearlessness and inflexible purpose; he surpassed him in learning and

mental culture. In the estimation of some minds the special pleading of

Horace Walpole and others may have succeeded in clearing Richard’s name

of the crimes imputed to him, but the majority in this age, as in

Richard’s own, who do not demand positive proofs of everything, but

judge by the laws of probability, cannot help feeling (rightly or not) a

moral certainty of his guilt.

The character of Henry VII. was admirably adapted to heal the sores and

bind the wounds caused by the long civil war. Sufficiently bold, if

necessity demanded it, he was yet disinclined to war; cold and cautious

in temperament, he was little tolerant of any disturbing element of

passion, and greatly averse to violent and extreme measures which might

derange the stability and order of his government. Eminently practical

in his views of men and of affairs--in this ushering in the modern order

of rulers and of statesmen--he preferred the reality to the show of

power, peace to war, order to misrule, wealth to poverty, domestic

security to foreign aggrandisement.

The unfortunate Richard, Duke of York, hesitating when he should have

been bold, and bold when he should have hesitated, with a heart that

could not keep pace with his ambition, without the wisdom to justify his

pretensions by the Right which is derived from Might, not sufficiently

scrupulous to resist temptation, and too scrupulous to win the prize

that tempted, ensuring his son’s success by his own failure; the

amiable, generous, unsuspecting Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester; the wily,

avaricious, scheming Suffolk; the bold, grasping, passionate Cardinal

Beaufort; the accomplished courtier, boon companion, and skilful

general, Montacute (brother to Warwick); George, Duke of Clarence,

unstable as water, changeable as the wind, uniting a weak head to a bad

heart; Earl Rivers, accomplished, brave, learned, and a patron of

learning, the type of the modern nobleman; the high-spirited,

unfortunate son of Margaret; Lord Hastings, the gay gallant, the daring

knight, the sage in the council, the scholar in the study; all these

and many more helped to swell the list of the horrid deeds, or served to

supply the victims of those bloodstained times.

The Legend of King Arthur in Somerset.

By MRS. C. G. BOGER.

(_Continued from Vol. V. p. 228._)

_PART II.--AT CAMELOT._

“Arthur’s antient seat

Which made the Britons’ name through all the world so great,

Like Camelot what place was ever yet renown’d,

Where, as at Caerleon oft, he kept the Table round?

Most famous for the sports at Pentecost so long,

From whence all knightly deeds and brave achievements sprung.”

DRAYTON’S _Polyolbion_, Song III.

ARTHUR had arrived at man’s estate, and his people would fain that he

should take a wife, so that, if, like his uncle, Aurelius Ambrosius, he

were taken from them, he might, unlike him, leave an heir of his own

blood. Among the petty kings of the West was Leodogran, King of

Cameliard, a county represented at this day by Camelot or Cadbury-fort,

and a cluster of other places in the east of Somerset, whose names are

derived from the same root: North and South Cadbury, Queen’s Camel, West

Camel, and Castle Cary. Leodogran’s kingdom had been beset by the

invaders, and overrun with wild beasts: Arthur had come to his help and

rescued his dominions. So it came to pass that when his people spake to

him of marriage, Guinivere, the fair daughter of Leodogran, came to his

mind, and he asked her of her father. The King of Cameliard was well

pleased, and with his daughter’s hand he promised him his greatest

treasure, the Table round, and made him his heir.

But Guinivere, in her pride of youth and beauty, had little noted her

father’s deliverer, and scarce glanced at the young knight, who paid her

none of the homage she thought her due, and who was ever engrossed in

earnest consultations with her father on the state of the kingdom, on

knights and wars, on castles and sieges; and so it came to pass that

when Launcelot, Arthur’s best and most trusted knight, was sent by him

to fetch her home, she, never doubting but that the King would have come

himself, thought Launcelot was Arthur, and when she saw him her heart

leapt to his. But when she came to see her pure and stainless lord, he

seemed cold and passionless beside Launcelot; and he, who had no

thought of guile and loved when he trusted, and trusted when he loved,

gave them unconsciously opportunities of meeting, and Guinivere’s heart

passed more and more from Arthur, and attached itself more and more

passionately to Launcelot. For Arthur was taken up with affairs of

state, and with his beautiful dream of the Knights of the Round Table.

In this order none was higher than other; and here, in his Palace of

Camelot, built by Merlin’s magic power in a single night, he would

assemble a hundred and fifty knights of noble birth, pure and stainless

like himself, and the Knights bound themselves by solemn oaths to keep

the rules of the order. They were as follows:--

1. That every knight should be well armed and furnished to undertake any

enterprise wherein he was employed by sea or by land, on horseback, or

on foot.

2. That he should be ever prest (ready) to assail all tyrants or

oppressors of the people.

3. That he should protect widows and maids, restore children to their

just rights, repossess such persons as without just cause were exiled,

and with all his force maintain the Christian faith.

4. That he should be a champion for the public weal, and as a lion

repulse the enemies of his country.

5. That he should advance the reputation of honour and suppress all

vice, relieve the afflicted by adverse fortune, give aid to Holy Church,

and protect pilgrims.

6. That he should bury soldiers that wanted sepulture, deliver

prisoners, ransom captives, and cure men hurt in the services of their

country.

7. That he should in all honourable actions adventure his person, yet

with respect to justice and truth, and in all enterprises proceed

sincerely, never failing to use the utmost force of body and labour of

mind.

8. That after the attaining of an enterprise he should cause it to be

recorded, to the end the fame of the fact might ever live to the eternal

honour and renown of the noble order.

9. That if any complaint were made at the court of this mighty king, of

perjury and oppression, then some knight of the order whom the King

should appoint ought to revenge the same.

10. That if any knight of foreign nation did come into the Court, with

desire to challenge or make any show of prowess (were he single or

accompanied) those knights ought to be ready in arms to make answer.

11. That if any lady, gentleman, or widow, or maid, or other oppressed

person did present a petition declaring that they were or had been in

this or other nations injured or offered dishonour, that they should be

graciously heard, and without delay one or more knights should be sent

to take revenge.

12. That every knight should be willing to inform young princes, lords,

and gentlemen, in the orders and exercises of arms, thereby not only to

avoid idleness, but also to increase the honour of knighthood and

chivalry. Such were the rules which, combined with the disturbed state

of the country, caused that--

“Every morning brought a noble chance,

And every chance brought out a noble knight.”

It may, as I have before stated, have been probably the taking of

Winchester by the Saxon Cerdic in 515 which caused Arthur to concentrate

his forces in the Western Peninsula. Cameliard was now his, in right of

his wife. He determined therefore to fortify his kingdom, and at the

three extreme points to place strong castles, which he strengthened by

every available means. These points were Caerleon on Usk, which guarded

the Sabrina or estuary of the Severn, and St. Michael’s Mount at the

extreme south-west; but the post of danger and therefore of honour was

held by Camelot. He pitched with an experienced eye upon this great

Belgic fortress, situated in one of the most fertile and picturesque

parts of South Somerset, as the place where the great stand must be

made. The shape of the mound is irregular, neither quite round nor

square; part of it was hewed from the solid rock, its circumference is

about a mile. Four deep ditches in concentric rings with as many

ramparts of earth and stones form the primary defences: these are

further strengthened by a series of zig-zag terraces on inclined planes,

so constructed that the besieged, though he retreated from his

assailants, could still make a desperate resistance. On the top of this

fortified mount is a moated mount or Prætorium, enclosing a space of at

least twenty acres; and here Merlin raised the enchanted Palace of

Camelot. The spot must have been well-nigh impregnable in days when

artillery was unknown.

Here, then, was Arthur’s great rallying point; hither the persecuted

fled for protection, the wronged for redress, the patriotic to assist in

the defence of their county. Every possibility of defence and adornment

was lavished here; and here were held, specially at Whitsuntide,

chapters of the order of the Knights of the Round Table. Here, in

intervals of peace, were held the mimic games of warfare, and from

here, after a time of repose, they issued forth again and again against

the heathen hordes. Within the Greater Triangle was a smaller and more

sacred one; its three points were the Tor Hill at Glastonbury, the Mons

Acutus or Montacute, and Camelot itself; lines drawn from point to point

made an equilateral triangle, each side being twelve miles in length.

This twice, trebly guarded territory was defended by saintly shield from

invasion, and from any noxious or venomous creature.

It was the year 520 A.D. Exactly one hundred years had elapsed since the

last Roman soldiers left Britain a prey to their enemies. But what a

different Britain it was now. It is true the enemy were in the land, and

held the greater part of it, but the Britons were no longer helpless or

hopeless. From the towers of Camelot Arthur led forth an army full of

confidence and eager for the fray; he led them beyond the bounds of

Gladerhaf, for he would not that this beloved land should be soiled by

the heathen’s tread. At Mount Badon, in Wiltshire, was fought the great

battle in which Arthur was victorious, and the onward march of the

Saxons was stayed for the time. At Camelot watch and ward was kept; from

its summit could be seen the Mendip Hills, in the West of Somerset, the

Blackdown summits in Devonshire, and the Bristol Channel on the south.

Twelve great battles did Arthur fight; the eleventh is said by some to

have been fought near Camelot, but I hold rather that the traces of a

great conflict, which have been discovered there, took place in more

recent times, when the Saxon dominion was extending itself still further

to the West. For Gladerhaf remained British till after Arthur’s time,

nor did Glastonbury pass under the Saxon sway till after they too had

embraced Christianity, and conquerors and conquered knelt together at

the same shrine.

The tale of King Ryence’s challenge belongs partly to Caerleon and

partly to Camelot. It may be found in full in Mallory’s “King Arthur,”

and also in a ballad preserved in “Percy’s Reliques of Ancient Poetry.”

King Ryence, a potentate of North Wales, sent to Arthur at Caerleon to

demand his beard, as he needed one more to make up the tale of twelve

Royal beards, with which to “purfle his mantle.” If it were refused, he

would slay him, and lay waste his country. Arthur, who was then young,

answered that his beard would scarce answer for the purpose he required

it, but threw back his threat upon himself. Shortly afterwards Ryence

was brought as a prisoner to Camelot, and Arthur seems to have been

content with this humiliation, and to have retaliated no further upon

him.

Amongst the treasures brought by Joseph of Arimathea to Britain were two

of priceless worth; one, a thorn taken from our Lord’s brow, the other

the cup from which the Lord drank at the last supper. The first was

planted by Joseph, and slips from it planted in various places still

remain, which, according to all contemporary folk-lore, flower

invariably on old Christmas Eve (the Epiphany). But still more precious

was the Sangreal, or cup, out of which our Lord drank at the last

supper. It had been preserved for ages at Glastonbury, but on account of

the grievous sins which prevailed, and the disordered state of the

country, it had been caught away. But now a rumour arose, no one knew

how or where, that the Sangreal had been seen again, and here seemed the

salve for all their wounds, the cure for all their troubles, the

talisman which was to preserve them from all ill; so men were waiting

and wondering for what was to come to pass, they knew not what.

Pentecost had come, and a chapter of the order of the Knights of the

Round Table was held as usual at Camelot. The knights were assembled in

the great hall of the Castle. Anon a cracking and crying as of thunder

was heard, and they thought the palace would break asunder. In the midst

entered a sunbeam more clear by seven times than ever they saw day. Then

the knights beheld each other fairer than they had ever seen them

before, and no knight might speak a word for a great while, and each man

looked on the other as they had been dumb. Then entered into the hall

the holy grail, covered with white samite; but none might see it, nor

who bare it, and all the hall was filled with sweet odours, and the holy

vessel departed suddenly, and they wist not whence it came.[1]

Dumb were they all for a time; then spoke the light and foolish Sir

Gawaine, and took an oath that he would go on a quest for the Sangreal,

and would search for it, at least a year and a day, until he found it.

Then the other knights swore to the same. It was with bitter grief that

Arthur learned the vow, for well he knew that high and holy gifts are

given by God to those who are in their ordinary way of duty, as the

angels came to the shepherds whilst they kept their sheep, and that this

wild quest would but disperse the knights throughout the land, while

they neglected the work that God had set them, viz., the defence of

their own land against the heathen. Then said the King: “I am sure at

this quest of the Sangreal shall all of ye of the Round Table depart,

and never shall I see you whole together again, therefore will I see

you all whole together in the meadow of Camelot, for to joust and

tourney, that after your death men may speak of it, that such good

knights were wholly together on such a day. So were they all assembled

in the meadow, both more and less.”

Arthur’s last tournament was held, and the maiden-knight, Sir Galahad,

won the honours of the day. Then, when the tourney was over, the whole

assembly went to the Minster, and there, for the last time, joined all

together in holy rites of prayer and praise. Then said the King to Sir

Gawaine: “Alas! ye have well nigh slain me with the vow and promise that

ye have made, for through you ye have bereft me of the fairest

fellowship and the truest knighthood that ever were seen together in any

realm of the world, for when they shall depart from hence I am sure that

all shall never meet more in this world, for then shall many die in this

quest, and so it forethinketh me a little, for I have loved them as well

as my life.” The next morning the knights rode out of Camelot. But the

story of their adventures does not belong to Somerset.[2]

Behind all this bravery and fair seeming, however, was rising a dark

cloud, which did more to break up Arthur’s Table-round than even the

quest of the Sangreal; for rumours had long been rife that Guinivere was

unfaithful, and that his best-beloved knight, Sir Launcelot, was the

partner of her sin. It was long ere they reached Arthur, who was so

guileless that he could not believe in the guilt of those he loved; but

at last it became too manifest, and Guinivere’s flight made the

unfaithfulness of his wife and his friend patent to the King.

Guinivere’s first flight was to Glastonbury; and in a life of Gildas,

written by Caradoc of Lancarvon, we are told that whilst he (Gildas) was

residing at Glastonbury, Arthur’s Queen was carried off and lodged

there, that Arthur immediately besieged the place, but, through the

mediation of the Abbot and of Gildas, consented at length to receive his

wife again and to depart peaceably.[3] When this first flight took place

we are not told; but after a time, and when the rebellion of his nephew,

Mordred, took place, Guinivere fled again, this time to Amesbury, in

Wiltshire. There she was professed a nun. After her death her body was

carried to rest at Glastonbury by Sir Launcelot himself, she having

prayed that she might never see him again in life. And when she was put

into the earth, Sir Launcelot swooned, and lay long upon the ground. A

hermit came and awaked him, and said: “Ye are to blame, for ye displease

God with such manner of sorrow-making.” “Truly,” said Sir Launcelot, “I

trust I do not displease God, for He knoweth well mine intent, for it

was not, nor is for any rejoicing of sin; but my sorrow may never have

an end. For when I remember and call to mind her beauty, her bounty, and

her nobleness, that was as well with her King, my lord Arthur, as with

her; and also when I saw the corpse of that noble King and noble Queen

so lie together in that cold grave, made of earth, that sometime were so

highly set in most honourable places, truly mine heart would not serve

me to sustain my wretched and careful body also. And when I remember me,

how through my default, and through my presumption and pride, that they

were both laid full low, the which were ever peerless that ever were

living of Christian people. Wit ye well,” said Sir Launcelot, “this

remembered of their kindness, and of mine unkindness, sunk and impressed

so in my heart, that all my natural strength failed me, so that I might

not sustain myself.”

The rebellion of his nephew Mordred brought strife and war into the

hitherto carefully guarded peninsula. Mordred maintained that Arthur was

no son of Uther Pendragon; and that he himself was the rightful heir, so

Arthur had to turn his arms against his own people. It was at Camelford,

near the north coast of Cornwall, that he fought his last fight; he was

wounded to the death, for his skull was, as we shall see, pierced with

ten wounds. Then, after the episode of the flinging away of the sword

Excalibur, when Sir Bedivere saw “the water, wap, and waves waun,” a

barge hoved to the bank; in it were ladies with black hoods, and one was

Morgan la Fay, King Arthur’s sister. Then the barge floated to the

shores of Gladerhaf, and there, to the vale of Avilion,[4] they took him

to heal him of his grievous wound. And so men said that Arthur was not

dead, but by the will of our Lord Jesus Christ was in another place; and

men say that he will come again. I will not say that it shall be so, but

rather I will say, that here in this world he changed his life. But many

men say that there is written upon his tomb this verse:--

“Hic jacet Arthurus rex quondam, rexque futurus.”

And thus leave we him here, and Sir Bedivere with the hermit that

dwelled in a chapel beside Glastonbury.[5]

(_To be continued._)

Inquisition of the Honour of Wallingford.

A.D. 1212 AN. 13 JOHN.[6]

BY M. T. PEARMAN.

THIS inquisition is subsequent to that printed by Hearne, in the “Liber

Niger,” but some years earlier than any of the lists in the “Testa de

Nevill.” The Inquisition itself is in italics.

_Ricardus de Kanuill[7] de hereditate uxoris sue, pro Willelmo

Basset. vii. mil._

The manors he held, by service of seven knights, or as seven

knights’ fees, were Coleman and Uxbridge, Middlesex; Picheleshorne,

Bucks; Burncestre (Bicester); Stratton Audley and Wrechwike, Oxon;

Ardington, Berks; and Compton, Wilts.

_Thurstañ Bassett, vi. milites et tres partes militis._

_Walterus Pippard, 6 m. et de maritagio uxoris sue in Gathampton 1

m. et quintam partem per Cartam Regis._

In Rotherfield Peppard one fee; in Latchford, in Haseley, two fees;

both these places in Oxon. The other three fees were in Pichecote,

Wengrave, Rowsham, Briddeshorn, Weedon, Solebury, Stincele

(Stewkley), Littlecote, and Wanyngdon, all in Bucks.

Gathampton, in Goring, Oxon, was held by one-fifth of a fee, the

remainder being remitted.

_Amauricus filius Roberti de Suleham, 4 m._

His fees were in Sulham, Burghfield, and Carswell (near Faringdon)

Berks; Henton in Chinnor, Oxon; Adwell and Britwell, Oxon;

Bradwell, Bucks; and Ikenham, Middlesex.

_Willelmus Paynell, 4 m._

_Walterus Crok, 4 m._

These fees were in Redburne (Rodburne-Cheyney), one; in

Draycot-Foliat, one and a half fee. The Manor of Aselbir or

Haselbury, Walcot, Cockelbergh, Assheby, and Fouleswyk, Wilts.

_Robertus de Mara, 3 m._

Two fees were in Heyford-Warren and Baldon-with-Watecumbe, Oxon;

and one fee in Bottclydon (Bottleclaydon), Bucks; and Chirton,

Gloucestershire.

_Hugo de Malo Almeto, 3 m. in Chaugrave._

Hugh de Malhannei, or Malo Almeto, held the Manor of Chalgrave,

Oxon.

_Ruelent Huscarl, 3 m._

In Purlegh (Purley), and Foulescote, Berks; in Beddington and

Chessington, Surrey; and Brightwell, Oxon.

_Henricus de Thayden, 3 m. Willelmus de Archis, 3 m._

In Esthorp, Crondewell, Wodehamme and Blagegrave, Bucks.

_Warinus filius Geroldi, 2 m. et dimid._

In Whitchurch, Heyford-Warren, Oxon, and Clopham, Beds.

_Robertus filius Roger est quietus pro 1 m. per cartam Regis de 2

m. et dimid._

He had one knight’s fee in Huere or Evere, probably Iver, Bucks.

_Abbas de Bruere est quietus per cartum Regis de ii. milites et

dimid._

This was for the Abbey itself in Oxon; and for its Granges, situate

at Tretton, Tangele, Nethercote, and Sanderbrok, Gloucestershire.

_Alanus Basset de hereditate uxoris sue, 2 milit._

In Vasterne or Wasterne, Wootton (Basset), and Brodeton, Wilts.

_Hugo de Druual, 2 m._

H. Druval held Goring, Oxon, as two fees.

_Thomas filius Ricardi, 2 m.; et de hereditate uxoris sue, 2

milit._

_Alanus de Valonies, 2 m._

In Sobinton, Bucks. Shabbington (?).

_Henricus Ffolliot, 2 m. in Roulesham._

(Rowsham) Oxon.

_Walterus Ffoliot, 2 m. & in Clopton quartam partem m._

Probably one fee in Chilton, and the other in Winterburne and

Mildhall, Wilts. Clopton is probably Clopcott, as in T. de N.

_Milo Neirenuit pro parte sua de terra que fuit Galfridi de Bella

Aqua, 2 m._ He had one fee in Tydende, or Tydovre, Wilts, half one

fee in Lynley, near Aston Rowant, Oxon, and half fee in

Fleetmarston, Bucks.

_Radulphus de Anuers, 2 m._

R. Danvers had one fee in Dorney.

_Galfridus Chausie, 1 m. et dimid. et Rex acquietat ei per cartam,

dimid. mil._

Manor of Mapledurham-Chausy, or Parva M., Oxon, and Garsington in

same county.

_Yensi Malet, 1 m. et dimid._

In Quenton, Bucks.

_Galfridus filius Reinfrei, 1 m. Johannes filius Hugonis, 1 m.

Ricardus Morin, 1 m._

Newnham-Murren, Oxon.

_Hamo Carbonell, 1 m._

This was in Dychend, Oxon, but where?

_Andreas de Bellocampo, 1 m._

Probably in Crowlton and Thenford, Northants.

_Simon Barre, f.m._[8]

In Stanton Barry, Bucks.

_Rogerus de Stanf’, f.m._

In Saunterdon, Bucks.

_Willelmus filius Galfridi, f.m. Walterus de Harenuill, f.m. Alex,

filius Ricardi, f.m._

In Rycot, Oxon.

_Robertus Corbet, f.m. in dalneye._

In Dalleg, Middlesex. Dawley near Hayes?

_Willelmus Basset f.m. et in Hispedine quarta pars milit._

Fee in Oakly, near Brill, Bucks. He held the Manor of Ipsden

Basset, in Ipsden, Oxon, by a quarter knight’s fee.

_Alanus filius Roland, dimid. m._

In Aston-Rowant, Oxon.

_Robertus de Thorinio, dimid. m._

In Turkden, Gloucestershire.

_Robertus Hayer, debet_ I _napa’ vel 3 sol ad scaccariu’ per

cartam, 1 m._

This was petit serjeantry. He presented a table-cloth worth 3s., or

else 3s. at the Exchequer, in lieu of scutage for one knight’s fee.

The Holding was at Pushill, or Pishill, Oxon.

_Walterus Crok, 4 m._

Apparently a repetition.

_Galfridus de Mara, dimid. m. in dudecot._

In Didcot, Berks.

_Petrus de Bixe, dimid. m._

In Bix-brand, Bix, Oxon.

_Regin. Angerid, dimid. m._

In Holecombe, Oxon.

_Galfridus filius Angod. dimid. m._

In Wycomb, Bucks.

_Laurencius de Scaccario, dimid. m._ In Stokenchurch, Oxon. He had

likewise half a fee in Stivele (Stewkley), Bucks.

_Radulphus Dairell, dimid. m._

In Hanworth, Middlesex.

_Willelmus de Wodemundest, 4ta f.m._

One-fourth of a knight’s fee in Wormsley, Oxon.

_Milo de Morlie, quarta f.m._

Nethercot, or Nethercourt, in Lewknor, Oxon.

_Henricus Barnard, 5ta f.m. Willelmus de Kingestone, 5ta

f.m._

In Kingston, near Aston Rowant, Oxon.

_Warinus Pynell, 5ª f.m. Robertus de Rotham, 4ta partem m._

In Wycomb.

_Willelmus de Druual, 5ª f.m. Robertus de Burgfeld, quintā, f.m._

In Stoke, Oxon.

_Elias de Glynant quintā, f.m. Radulphus de Porta, 5ta f.m.

Johannes de Cheney de terris, G. de bella aqua cum uxore dimid. m._

In “T. de N.” J. de C. is said to have 2 m. as his share of

Geoffrey Bellew’s land, but that was some years subsequently. He

then had one fee in Fleet-Marston, Bucks, and Linley, Oxon.

_Willelmus filius Galfridi f.m. in Hedesoner._ Hedsor.

_Robertus Naparius, f.m. sed quietus est per cartam._

This is the same serjeanty as Robert Hayer’s, given above. R.

Naparius, the table-cloth man, married Hayer’s daughter.

_Novum Ffefamentum eiusdem honoris. De nouo ffefamento._

_Robertus de veteri ponte dimid. Wicumbe, 1 m._

Robert de Vipont had a fee in Wycomb.

_Alanus Basset al’ dimid. wimunde ville p. 1 m._

A. B. had the other half of the vill of Wycomb as a knight’s fee.

_Simon de Pateshall, Wottesdon._ Manor of Wottesdon or Wotthesdam.

_Joh. Rabuz equum, saccum, et Brocham in exercitu Wall’ ad Custum

Regis post primam noctem._

His service was to find a horse, sack, and broach on an expedition

into Wales, the king finding him in provisions, or probably keeping

him and his horse after the first night. It was a personal service

to the Sovereign; the sack containing eatables and the can or

pitcher drink for the king’s use.

“Port” and “Port-Reeve.”

BY J. H. ROUND, M.A.

_PART III_

(_Continued from Vol. V. page 287._)

BEFORE tracing the working of this process in the similar case of

_ceaster_, it may be as well to dispose etymologically of _port_. I have

avowedly restricted myself, in this paper, to _port_ as it occurs in

“port-reeve.” But Professor Skeat, in his “Etymological Dictionary” (p.

457), while wholly ignoring, it would seem, its meaning in this and the

similar compounds, assigns to the Anglo-Saxon “port,” not merely the

derivation direct from port_us_, but an identity of meaning with that

word. And in support of that meaning, “a harbour, haven,” he aptly

adduces Alfred’s translation of Bede, in which “to tham porte” means “to

the haven.” Here, however, it might perhaps be urged that Alfred was

influenced in his choice of the term by the “portus” in the original

before him. It need not follow that when not so influenced, he would

have spoken of a haven as a “port.” Moreover, it is possible, and indeed

probable, that the original sense of “port” was replaced by that

narrower one of a “haven” or “sea-port,” which it had certainly come to

bear by Middle English days, in consequence of that recurrence to Latin

models, in which Alfred had himself led the way, and which would lead to

what might almost be termed a re-introduction of the word into the

language, fresh from the Latin itself.

But again, Alfred might have been influenced in his style by the

Welshman, “Asser, my bishop.”[9] For though the Welsh, as I have said,

adopted “portman” in the sense of a “trader” from the A. S., they had in

their own word _porth_ the equivalent at once of _porta_ and _portus_.

Of its use in the former sense we have an illustration, as Mr. Barnes

has pointed out (Arch. Jour. xxii. 232), in the Welsh version of Matthew

vii. 13:--“ehang yw’r _porth_, a llydan yw’r fford,” (“wide is the

_gate_, and broad is the way “), where in the A. S. version the word

used is _geat_. Its use in the latter is familiar.

This brings us to a consideration of such terms as the “Westport” and

“East-port” of Wareham, and the “Newport Gate” of Lincoln. The survival,

at Wareham, of “port” in the sense of gate, is ingeniously attributed by

the above writer to a direct derivation from the Welsh _porth_, rather

than from the Latin _porta_. At Lincoln, on testing Mr. Freeman’s

statement that the gate was actually known simply as “The New Port”

(Norm. Conq. iv. 212), I can find no evidence whatever for it.[10] If,

therefore, as seems to be the case, “Newport _Gate_” has always been its

name, within historic times, the inference is surely not that which has

been drawn by Mr. Freeman in his paper on Lincoln,[11] but rather that

the “barbarian” conquerors, ignoring the meaning of the “port”

(_porta_), spoke of the Roman “porta” by their own word “geat,”

distinguishing it from the other gates by the prefix “Newport,” and thus

producing the, at first sight, unmeaning pleonasm, “New_port Gate_,”

just as Thorn_ey Island_, Mers_ea Island_, &c., are pleonasms formed by

the addition of “Island,” when the _ea_ or _ey_ (“Island”) no longer

possesses a meaning.

We see, then, that the Latin _porta_ failed to pass direct into our

language in the form of _port_ (“a gate”). It was, indeed, as Professor

Skeat has shown, imported at a much later period, but then only through

the French _porte_, and not direct from the Latin. But it could not,

even so, succeed in establishing its position in the language. Found not

unfrequently in the Elizabethan age, both in poetry and in classical

prose, it lingered on, as a classical affectation, even so late as the

Civil War, when we find it used of a city-gate, in a military sense, by

such writers as Sprigge and Carter. A sure proof of its disuse is

afforded shortly after this by the substitution of “port _hole_” for

“port,” a pleonasm which, like those above quoted, implies that the

original word no longer retained its meaning.

(_To be continued._)

AN OLD PLAY-BILL--The following is a copy of the first play-bill issued

from Drury-lane Theatre: “By His Majesty’s Company of Comedians, At the

new Theatre in Drury-lane, This day, being Thursday, April 8th, 1663,

Will be acted, a Comedy called THE HVMOVROVS LIEVTENANT. _The King_, Mr.

Wintersel; _Demétrivs_, Mr. Hart; _Selevcvs_, Mr. Bvrt; _Leontivs_,

Major Mohvn; _Lievtenant_, Mr. Clun; _Celia_, Mrs. Marshall. The play

will begin at three o’clock exactly. Boxes 4s. Pitt 2s. 6d.

Middle-Gallery 1s. 6d. Upper Gallery 1s.”

The History of Gilds.

BY CORNELIUS WALFORD, F.S.S., _Barrister-at-Law_.

_PART IV._

CHAPTER XXXII.--_The Gilds of Lincolnshire._

THE Gilds of this county were not only very numerous, but they were

regarded as important in several respects. I shall give some account of

them under the several towns wherein they flourished. There were also

many village Gilds.

=Boston.=--In this ancient town were various Gilds of great note, but the

materials for detailed history have only been preserved in exceptional

cases.

_Gild of the Blessed Mary._--This appears to have ranked first amongst

the Boston Gilds, and is believed to have been the _Gilda Mercatoria_ of

Boston, although its constitution in considerable part was

ecclesiastical. The earliest mention of this Gild appears to be in 1393.

The Gild itself was probably founded earlier--certainly other Gilds of

earlier date existed in the town. The first Patent was granted to it at

the date just named. Another Patent is dated in 1445, and a third in

1447. In this last year, Henry VI. granted a licence to “Richard

Benynton and others that they should give to the Aldermen of the Gild of

the Fraternity of the Blessed Mary of Boston, in the County of Lincoln,

five messuages, thirty-one acres of land, and ten acres of pasture in

Boston and Skirbeck.” Another Patent grant was issued to this

institution in 1483. This Gild had a Chapel, called the Chapel of our

Lady, in the Parish Church.

In 1510, Pope Julius II. in a “Pardon” granted to the town, provided

that whatsoever Christian people, of what estate or condition soever,

whether spirituall or temporall, would aid and support the Chamberlain

or substitute of the aforesaid Gilde, should have five hundred years of

pardon!

_Item_, to all brothers and sisters of the same Gilde was granted free

liberty to eate in the time of Lent, or other fast-days, eggs, milk,

butter, cheese, and also flesh by the counsell of their ghostly father

and physician, without any scruple of conscience.

_Item_, that all partakers of the same Gilde, and being supporters

thereof, which once a quarter, or every Friday or Saturday, either in

the said Chappell or any other Chappell of their devotion, shall say a

_Paternoster_, _Ave Maria_, and _creed_, or shall say or cause to be

said masses for souls departed in pains of purgatory, shall not only

have the full remission due to them which visite the Chappell of Scala

Cæli, or of St. John Latern [in Rome]; but also the souls in purgatory

shall enjoy full remission and be released of all their paines.

_Item_, that all the souls of the brothers and sisters of the said

Gilde, also the souls of their fathers and mothers, shall be partakers

of all the prayers, suffrages, alms, fastings, masses and mattens,

pilgrimages, and all other good deedes of all the holy Church militant

for ever.

This pardon--and many such pardons, indulgences, grants and relaxations,

were issued by Popes Nicholas V., Pius II., Sixtus, as well as Julius

II.--was through the request of King Henry VIII., 1526, confirmed by

Pope Clement VII.

It appears that at the time Pope Julius granted his “Bull” the Gild

maintained seven priests, twelve ministers, and thirteen beadsmen; and

also seems to have supported a grammar school. “The seats or stalls

(says Thompson in his “Collections,” &c., 1820) on the south side of the

chancel of the church were no doubt erected for the use of the master

and bretheren of this establishment.” At the dissolution (1538) this

college, as it was then called, was valued at £24.

The Guildhall of this establishment is yet remaining, and is used by the

Corporation for their corporate and judicial proceedings. Beadsman-lane,

adjoining the Guildhall, was no doubt inhabited by the beadsmen

belonging to this institution; and the ancient buildings in Spain-lane

were, it is very probable, the warehouses of the merchants. The

possessions of this Gild were given to the Corporation in 1554, first of

Mary.

_Gild of St. Botolph._--It is recorded that in 1349 (23rd Edward III.) a

patent was granted for making a Gild in the town of St. Botolph--the

ancient name of Boston. And also that in the same year Gilbert de

Elilond gave to the Aldermen, &c., of the Gild of St. Botolph certain

lands and tenements in that town. Another patent in behalf of this

institution was granted in 1399.

In 1403, Henry IV. granted a licence to Thomas de Friseby and others,

that they might give to the Aldermen and brethren of the Gild or

fraternity in Boston one messuage, forty acres of land, and twenty acres

of meadow with the appurtenances “which they held of the Lord of

Bello-monto for services, &c.” In 1411, the King granted a licence to

Richard Pynchebek and others, that they should give to Richard Lister,

master of the Gild or fraternity in the town of St. Botolph, certain

lands, &c.

It is not known who founded this Gild; what was the extent of its

possessions; or the particular object of its institution. “It is most

probable, however (says Thompson), that it was founded by a Company of

merchants, and that its objects were entirely of a mercantile nature.”

There is no account of any hall or other buildings belonging to this

Gild.

_Gild of Corpus Christi._--The first mention of this Gild is in 1389,

when a patent was issued for the “Guild or Fraternity of Corpus Christi

in St. Botolph.” Another patent was granted in 1392 for an Alderman,

&c., of this Gild; a third grant bears date 1403. King Henry V. granted

a licence in 1413 to John Barker, chaplain, and John Wellesby, chaplain,

that they should give to the Alderman and brothers and sisters of the

Gild of Corpus Christi, in the town of St. Botolph, two messuages with

certain lands, &c., in Boston and Skirbeck. In 1414 another patent was

granted to this Gild.

Mr. Thompson considers that this was in all probability a religious

Gild. At the dissolution it was called a “College,” and its valuation,

as given both by Dugdale and Speed, was £32. The situation of the hall

of this institution was contiguous to Corpus Christi-lane, in Wide

Bargate. No remains of any buildings, &c., belonging to it were visible

in 1820.

_Gild of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul._--The earliest record of

this Gild is in 1393, when a patent was issued “for the Gild or

Fraternity of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, in the Church of St.

Botolph in the Town of St. Botolph.” A second grant is dated 1448.

This appears to have been a religious establishment, and to have had a

chapel, or at least an altar, in the parish church of St. Botolph. It

was called a college at the dissolution, and was valued at £10 13s. 4d.

It is supposed that St. Peter’s-lane, in Wide Bargate, had probably some

connection with this Gild.

The charter of Philip and Mary, dated 1554, vested the possessions of

this institution in the Corporation.

_St. George’s Gild._--This was founded prior to 1403, for in that year a

patent grant was issued in confirmation of a licence for the formation

of this fraternity. In 1415 a patent was granted for the keeping or

governing of the Gild of St. George in the town of St. Botolph.

This appears to have been a trading company, no mention being made of it

at the dissolution.

The hall of this Gild was standing in 1726 at the bottom of St.

George’s-lane, on the west side of the river.

_Gild of Holy Trinity._--Patent grants to this fraternity were issued in

1409 and 1411.

It appears from documents in the archives of the Corporation of Boston

that Stephen Clerke, warden and keeper of the fraternity of the Holy

Trinity, in the town of St. Botolph, together with the brethren and

sisters thereof, did surrender to Nicholas Robertison, mayor, and the

other burgesses of the _new_ borough of Boston, all the estates,

effects, and property of the said fraternity whatsoever, by deed under

the common seal of their Gild, dated 22nd of July, in the 37th of Henry

VIII. (1546). This surrender was formally made in a house then called

the Trinity Chamber, which was most probably the hall or Gild of the

fraternity. Its site is unknown. The possessions of this Gild were

confirmed to the Corporation by Philip and Mary A.D. 1554; as were those

of the St. Mary, St. Peter, and St. Paul Gilds, at the same time, “the

better to support the Bridge and Port of Boston.”

It is more than probable that these Gilds played an important part in

connection with the great fairs held in this town, but no evidence is at

hand.

_Craft Gilds._--During the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth

century, various Craft Gilds were founded in the borough. Of these,

particular mention is made of the following: 1555, the Company of

Cordwainers and Curriers established; 1562, the Tailors’ Company; 1576,

the Glovers’ Company; 1598, the Smiths’, Farriers’, Braziers’, and

Cutlers’ Companies; 1606, the Butchers’ Company established.

These Craft Gilds were founded and conducted on the usual model of the

period, as may be seen by the constitution of the Cordwainers’ Company.

This Company was authorised, and its regulations sanctioned by the

Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the borough in 1855, the

following being the substance of its regulations:--

There should be elected on the Monday before the Feast of St. Martin, by

the said Company, two wardens, who should choose a person as beadle, to

be attendant on the said wardens.

The officers were to be presented before and sworn in by the Mayor for

the time being, on the feast day of St. Andrew, to serve their

respective offices for one whole year.

The said wardens should have authority over all manner of persons using

the occupation or mystery of cordwainer in the said borough of Boston.

That no person or persons should set up within the said borough as

cordwainers until such time as they could sufficiently cut or make a

boot or shoe, to be adjudged by the said wardens, and were made free by

the Mayor, Aldermen, &c., of the said borough, upon pain of forfeiting

£3 6s. 8d., to be paid to the use of the Company: or to suffer

imprisonment; this fine or imprisonment to be levied as often as any

person should attempt the same.

If any foreigner, or person who did not serve his apprenticeship in the

said borough, should be admitted to his freedom by the Mayor, &c., that

he shall then pay to the wardens £3 6s. 8d. before he should be admitted

a fellow of the said Company.

That no fellow of this Company, his journeymen or servants, should work

on the Sabbath-day, either in town or country.

That the wardens of the said Company should have power once a month at

least, or oftener if required, to search throughout the whole Company of

Cordwainers and Curriers for unlawful wares or leathers.

There is no reference here to any powers of searching the stalls at the

fairs for “unlawful wares;” but it is not improbable that such a power

was exercised by the wardens of these Craft Gilds.

(_To be continued._)

Collectanea.

“CLAPHAM CHRONICLE.”--J. M. Kemble edited as a boy at school a little

newspaper, a sheet of about six inches square, printed by himself from a

diminutive hand press, and aping the style of the daily journals. I

[_i.e._, C. J. M.] have a file of them still, “Edited by John Mitchell

Kemble, printer, No. 1, Desk-row.” (See C. Dickens’ “Life of Charles J.

Matthews,” vol. i. p. 34.)

CIVIC CONVIVIALITY IN 1759.--Mr. J. H. Round communicates the following:

“The Mayor was also empowered [23 Nov. 1759] to give a grand Banquet at

the ’Change to the Duke of Grafton and the officers of the Suffolk

militia. The Suffolk militia then lay at Leicester, officered by the

first characters in that county. It was then considered the most elegant

and costly treat ever given by the corporation, and one the most

inebriating. Mr. Mayor [Nicholas Throsby], at night, was assisted by the

duke downstairs; and the duke soon after was assisted to his carriage by

the town servants: there not being a soul left in the room capable of

affording help to enfeebled limbs--Field Officers and Aldermen, Captains

and Common Council, were perfectly at rest; all were levelled by the

mighty power of wine.” (Throsby’s “History of Leicester” (1791), p.

162.)

Reviews.

_History and Description of Corfe Castle._ By THOMAS BOND. E. Stanford.

1884.

WE have here a book to which we can conscientiously pay a high tribute

of praise. The noble ruins of mediæval castles in which England is so

pre-eminently rich have rarely found competent historians, for the

reason that while, on the one hand, their architecture is a special

study, and understood by only a very few, who have made it their own

subject; on the other hand, those who have thus acquired the necessary

general knowledge are too often lacking in the special local knowledge,

which is, in such cases, absolutely essential. Mr. Bond, however, has

unquestionably succeeded in combining these two qualifications. In the

present work he gives us, in an enlarged and final form, the results of

those valuable researches on the castle, of which the outline has

previously appeared in the third edition of Hutchins’ “Dorset,” and in

his paper read before the Archæological Institute in 1866. The chief

point which Mr. Bond has throughout sought to establish is the early

date of the actual keep, which, as he shows, may with good reason be

assigned to the days of the Conqueror. In this last controversy the most

important point is the locality of the “Castellum de Warham,” mentioned

in “Domesday.” Mr. Bond identifies it, beyond the shadow of a doubt,

with Corfe Castle itself. Mr. Freeman’s unfortunate attempt to defend

his own identification of it with the later and infinitely less

important fortress of Wareham Castle is utterly shattered by Mr. Bond’s

arguments, though he does not, strangely enough, allude to Mr. Freeman’s

contention, which will be found under “Wareham,” in his work on “English

Towns and Districts.”

We gladly call attention to the valuable searches made by Mr. Bond among

original MS. authorities in the Public Records, especially the

instructive “Fabric Rolls.” The careful excavations which he has been

permitted to make have also led to important results, and, in short, we

have in his book the fruits of long and patient study on the spot,

combined with an unsparing and yet critical use of all available sources

of original information.

We must not omit to notice the excellent plans and illustrations, with

which the volume is liberally adorned, and which, by their great

clearness, are admirably adapted to their purpose.

_Mediæval Military Architecture in England._ 2 vols. By G. T. CLARK.

Wyman. 1884.

IT is with a feeling of real gratitude that we welcome this noble work.

The prolonged labours of “Castle Clark” have long been familiar to

antiquaries, and no archæological meeting at any spot that could boast a

castle has seemed complete without the presence of “the great master of

military architecture,” as Mr. Clark has been justly termed by Professor

Freeman: to whom, by the way, these volumes are dedicated, as having

been issued “at his suggestion.” It has long been a matter of natural

regret that the valuable results of Mr. Clark’s researches should have

been so widely scattered as to render them, for practical purposes,

inaccessible to the student. In these volumes they have now been

collected, gathered together from many quarters, such as the

“Transactions” of the national and local Archæological societies, the

_Builder_, and, not least, the scarce volume known as “Old London,” from

which Mr. Clark has been allowed to reproduce his important monograph on

the Tower.

The work begins with twelve introductory chapters, of which we may

select, as of special interest, that on “earthworks of the post-Roman

and English periods,” an obscure subject, on which Mr. Clark has here

collected much instructive information. Three chapters deal with “the

Castles of England and Wales at the latter part of the twelfth century,”

and we can only regret that a subsequent chapter has not been devoted to

the period of the Charter (1213-1223), when these fortresses played so

large and important a part in the struggle. These chapters are succeeded

by more than one hundred papers on various castles and works, not

confined to England alone, as could be gathered from the title, but

including many in Wales, Borthwick Tower in Scotland, and, beyond the

Channel, the typical strongholds of Arques and Coucy, together with the

famous Château-Gaillard. The plans and diagrams, so all-essential in a

work dealing with these subjects, are bestowed with no sparing hand, and

there are not a few illustrations of a less severe character.

The drawback incident to such a work as this is the great area which it

has to cover. Not only a very wide knowledge of history, but also much

special local knowledge is needed to secure a satisfactory result. It

must be confessed that Mr. Clark has been more successful in the

structural than in the historical portion of his theme. Nor have his

views on the former always escaped challenge. His statements as to

Pevensey were questioned at the time, and his account of Colchester,

both of the structure and of its history, has been very gravely

impugned. It is somewhat strange that, in this case, Mr. Clark has

repeated, without correction, his statements, as he has inserted, in his

account of the Tower, the important discovery of two fireplaces on the

second stage, since the paper was originally written. We may also note

that, notwithstanding the admiration which Messrs. Freeman and Clark

profess for one another, their views are often very contradictory, as,

for instance, on Norwich Castle, on the character of pre-Conquest keeps,

on the earthworks at Lincoln, and on Richard’s Castle.

But while it is necessary to sound a note of warning, it is almost

ungrateful to criticise a work which will be recognised as indispensable

to every student of English history in the middle ages. Few studies

could throw more light on the social life of the two centuries

succeeding the Norman Conquest. When we learn that, of the papers

reprinted in these volumes, that on Caerphilly was originally issued no

less than half a century ago, we may form some idea of the duration of

Mr. Clark’s labours, and may congratulate him on being not only the

worthy successor of the painstaking and indefatigable Mr. King, but the

greatest authority we have ever had on Mediæval Military Architecture.

_Cowdray: the History of a Great English House._ By Mrs. CHARLES

ROUNDELL. Bickers & Son. 1884.

THIS handsome quarto volume possesses something more than local

interest; it is the history of a house which was one of the most

characteristic examples of Tudor architecture, and of a family which for

several generations was conspicuous in the history of the times. Cowdray

House stood close to Midhurst, in West Sussex; but it was burned down

towards the end of the last century, and little now remains of the once

magnificent pile but ivy-clad walls. With the mansion perished several

invaluable historical treasures--among them the sword of William the

Conqueror, his coronation robe, and the oft-disputed Roll of Battle

Abbey. The house was full of rare and curious things, and contained a

large number of family portraits of the Lords of Cowdray, whose

fortunes were founded by Sir Anthony Browne, the friend and confidant

of Henry VIII., and whose son, on the marriage of Queen Mary with Philip

of Spain, was created Viscount Montague, a title which became extinct on

the death of the ninth Lord in 1797. According to tradition, it was at

Battle Abbey, where Sir Anthony Browne and his family were established

within three months of its surrender to the Crown, that the famous

“curse of Cowdray” was invoked. The story runs that while Sir Anthony

was holding his first great feast in the Abbots’ Hall, “a monk made his

way through the crowd of guests, and, striding up to the daïs on which

Sir Anthony sat, cursed him to his face. He concluded with the words,

‘By fire and water thy line shall come to an end, and it shall perish

out of the land.’” Two hundred and fifty years afterwards the curse was

fulfilled, for Cowdray was burned down, and the eighth Lord Montague and

his two nephews were all drowned. Misfortune seems to have been the lot

of Lord Montague’s family from the first to the last, and the climax

came with the burning of Cowdray; the last Viscount was a monk, who

obtained the Papal dispensation to marry and continue the line; but he,

too, died childless, and the male line of the Brownes of Cowdray became

extinct. Mrs. Roundell thus describes the present appearance of the

ruins of Cowdray: “Above the great gateway the face of the clock still

remains, with its hands still pointing to the hour at which it stopped;

by the door is the old bell, and the original staples which held the

doors to the gateway. The kitchen still contains the enormous

dripping-pan, five feet long and four feet wide, and the great

meat-screen and meat-block. Among these relics of old Cowdray are lying

a fine mirror-frame, a chandelier, and Lady Montague’s harp, on which

are the words, ‘H. Naderman, à Paris.’”

It only remains to add that Mrs. Roundell has treated her subject

exhaustively, but in a plain, unvarnished manner, and that the book is

illustrated with reproductions, by a photographic process, of some old

views of Cowdray.

_Life and Times of William IV._ By PERCY FITZGERALD, M.A., F.S.A.

THIS is rather a sample of book-making by a gentleman who can do better

work, and has done it. The account of King William’s early years is dull

and heavy; and that of the first Reform Bill contains nothing that has

not been told before. His accounts of Holland House and its “set” (where

he has had Macaulay to draw upon), and of the French _emigrés_ in London

after the Revolution of 1830, and of the chief dandies and ladies of

fashion who hung about Lady Blessington, are the most interesting parts

of the book.

1. _Luther and the Cardinal._ Translated by JULIE SUTTER. 2. _Homes and

Haunts of Luther._ By JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D. 3. _Luther Anecdotes._ By Dr.

MACAULAY. Religious Tract Society. 1883.

CERTAINLY the enterprising publishers who call themselves the Religious

Tract Society were not behindhand in contributing to the Luther Festival

last year. The story of one of the bravest men in history (let us not

hesitate to call him so) has seldom been more worthily enshrined than in

the books now lying on our table. The “anecdotes” are an unambitious

attempt to unite in a connected form the various stories told of Luther

at various periods of his life. “Homes and Haunts of Martin Luther” is

evidently written in the true spirit of the loving and faithful

chronicler. We follow the great Reformer from the mines of Eisènach to

the princely castle of the Wartburg; from the quiet of the Wittenberg

monastery to the fierce conflict of the Diet of Worms. Everywhere Mr.

Stoughton describes the life and doings of his hero with the tender

reverence of an ardent admirer. A noticeable feature of the book is the

elegance of the illustrations, which are artistically drawn and

carefully engraved. The foregoing treat of the general story of Luther’s

life; in the work entitled “Luther and the Cardinal,” we have a graphic

historical picture of the memorable struggle between the Reformer and

one of the greatest of the Papal adherents, Cardinal Albrecht, Elector

and Archbishop of Mainz. It is written almost in the style of an

historical novel, except that no imaginary personage or event is

introduced. Pastor Metschmann thoroughly warms to his task when he

describes in the latter part of the book the fierce retribution wreaked

upon the Cardinal by Luther for the judicial murder of poor Hans von

Schömtz, and he is appreciatively and carefully interpreted by his

translator.

_Hanley and the House of Lechmere_, by the late Mr. E. P. SHIRLEY

(Pickering), is a book to which much interest attaches, as the last (and

indeed posthumous) work of one of the most noble and worthy of scholars

and gentlemen. It is partly topographical, as giving an account of the

parish of Hanley Castle; it is also partly architectural, and partly

genealogical; and in all these three qualifications Mr. Shirley shone

pre-eminent. The old seat of the Lechmere family, now known as Severn

End, is one of those fine old timbered mansions which are scattered so

thickly up and down the western and north-western counties from

Gloucester to Lancaster; and it appears that the mansion must have

ranked a century ago high among the houses of its class. Its general

structure, its tapestries, its pictures, its painted glass, all serve to

show this. The greater part of the volume is taken up with the diary of

Sir Nicholas Les Lechmere, recording the history of the family from the

days of the first two Edwards down to the reign of William and Mary, in

fact to within a year of his own death in 1701. The entries exhibit to

us the domestic pursuits,--pleasures, as well as the public duties of a

worthy man and upright judge. A manuscript of Dr. Thomas, quoted by

Nash, in his “History of Worcestershire,” observes of the Lechmeres:

“This family came out of the Low Countries, served under William the

Conqueror, and obtained lands in Hanley, called from them Lechmere’s

Place, and Lechmere’s Fields. Lech is a branch of the Rhine, which parts

from it at Wyke, in the province of Utrecht, and running westward falls

into the Maes before you come to Rotterdam.” “Some foundation for the

supposed foreign origin of the name,” remarks Mr. Shirley, “is derived

from the fact that all the earlier ancestors of the Lechmeres used the

prefix _de_, which was afterwards dropped; and as, with the exception of

_Lechmere Heath_ in Hertfordshire, there is no place of that name in

England, we may, perhaps, conclude that Dr. Thomas’s theory is the right

one. There can be no reasonable doubt that the progenitor of the

venerable House of Lechmere was seated in the parish of Hanley not long

after the Conquest, and, after all, it may not be impossible that he was

the Roger who held under Gislebert, at the time of the Domesday survey.”

Mr. Shirley’s work, we may add, is illustrated with a view of the

western front of Severn End, as it appeared in 1803, taken from a sketch

by the late Sir Edmund Lechmere; whilst the pages of the volume are

enriched with numerous carefully-executed coats of arms of the

Lechmeres, and their several impalements through marriage. The arms of

Lechmere, _Gules, a fess, and in chief two pelicans vulning themselves,

or_--“may be taken as an early instance of what is called canting

heraldry, _Lech_, in old Breton, meaning love, and _mere_, of course,

mother,--a play upon the name symbolised by the pelican wounding herself

and feeding her young with her blood.”

_The History of Newcastle and Gateshead in the 14th and 15th

Centuries._, by Mr. R. WELFORD (Scott, 14, Paternoster-square),

introduces us to a district which in the course of the present summer

will be visited by the Archæological Institute of Great Britain; its

appearance, therefore, is well timed. Mr. Welford has brought together

and has arranged with considerable skill a mass of extracts from the

records of “the King’s Town of the New Castle upon the Tyne,” founded by

a son of the Conqueror; and in his introductory chapter he has given a

sketch of the early growth of the town, with its charters, its commerce,

and its pageants. The only fault that we can find is that this chapter

is far too brief; for we should have been pleased to see more of Mr.

Welford’s own handiwork, and of his comments on the most interesting

materials which he has brought together, and which extend from A.D. 1301

down to the close of A.D. 1500. For a record of local annals the book

strikes us as coming very nearly up to the standard of perfection.

_Gwilt’s Encyclopædia of Architecture_ (Longmans) is a work so

thoroughly established as an authority that it needs no commendation of

ours. If any proof of its value, and the public appreciation of that

value be needed, it will be enough to say that it has reached its

seventh edition. Thus, as to the two previous impressions, many

amendments have been made, which the progress of time had rendered

necessary. But for the present edition “The Tables of the English

Cathedrals have been compiled; many chapters on public and private

buildings have been re-written, and new ones have been inserted: the

list of architects and their principal works has been removed from the

glossary and re-compiled, the list of architectural publications has

been enlarged, and formed into a separate list, while the glossary

itself has received numerous additional terms and illustrations,

together with such other amendments as appeared desirable.” Though the

work is styled an “Encyclopædia,” the only portion of it which is

alphabetically arranged is the “Glossary” at the end; the rest of the

book is really an elaborate history of architecture, from the earliest

period of a semi-barbaric age. In it Mr. Gwilt carries his readers

through the annals of architecture, Druidical and Celtic, Pelasgic or

Cyclopean, Babylonian, Persian, Jewish and Phœnician, Indian,

Egyptian, Chinese, Mexican, Arabian, Moorish, or Saracenic, Grecian,

Etruscan, Roman, Byzantine, and so on to the rise of that Pointed Style

to which the name of Gothic has clung so strongly. He devotes sections

also to a general view of the Italian, French, German, Spanish,

Portuguese, and Russian styles; and then occupies the bulk of the work

with the successive styles of architecture which have prevailed in this

country, and the Pointed Architecture of France, Italy, Spain, Belgium,

and other continental countries. The second and third parts of the work

treat in great detail of the theory and the practice of architecture

respectively: the fourth part concerns mainly the working builder, and

the land agent. The work is illustrated by woodcuts, giving views,

elevations, and ground-plans of the principal public and private

buildings both at home and abroad. The short memoir of Mr. Gwilt,

himself, prefixed to the work, is the record of a man whose name the

present race of Englishmen would not wish to die.

_Lincolnshire and the Danes._ By the Rev. G. S. STREATFEILD. Kegan Paul

& Co. 1884.

THE Great Fen District and the Danish occupation of this part of our

country, together form an interesting episode in English History; and

this Mr. Streatfeild has undertaken to illustrate. He is not without, at

all events, one great qualification for his task, for he has long been a

resident in the south of Lincolnshire; and besides that he has other

merits, for he is a man of honest research, and he writes with the pen

of a scholar and a gentleman. Perhaps the best chapter in the volume is

the third, which treats of the Dane in his English home; though other

readers will be inclined to bestow equal praise on the chapter on Danish

Mythology, and on the influence which has been exerted by it upon our

language and people. It should be added that the book is dedicated to

the Princess of Wales, who can see almost from her windows at

Sandringham the tower of Boston Church, which marks the district on

which the Danes of old have left their stamp.

_Historic Sites of Lancashire and Cheshire._ By JAMES CROSTON, Esq.,

F.S.A. Manchester: John Heywood. 1883.

The author of this work says, rather grandiloquently, in his preface,

that, without any pretension to the dignity of history, his aim has been

“to combine with topographical description, personal narrative and local

legend, and to snatch from Oblivion’s spoils the shadowy fragments of

tradition that have floated down through centuries of time.” Certainly a

worthy and admirable aim, not wanting, despite the writer’s disclaimer,

in ‘dignity.’ He has contrived to clothe his descriptions of persons and

places in a mantle of poetical beauty, which renders them exceedingly

charming to the general reader, as they are also of pre-eminent interest

to the antiquary. One of the chapters, that devoted to Alderley and the

Stanleys, will be especially attractive to admirers of perhaps the most

universally admired Churchmen of the century. Mr. Croston has wisely

summarised in a few words the later and best-known part of his history,

and paid most attention to the early years of Arthur Stanley in the

pretty home at Alderley.

We must give an especial meed of praise to the spirited style in which

the story of Sir William Brereton, who was such an excellent type of the

higher class of the Parliamentarian soldier, is told. As the author

remarks, to tell the history of his life is to write the record of the

Civil war in the north-west of England. This he has told impartially and

excellently, and in a style of narrative which can scarcely be too

highly commended for its clearness and freedom from inflation. The pages

of the work are enlivened by apt poetical quotations, many of them from

little known old English poets, which show that Mr. Croston’s reading

has been various and extensive. The book should find favour with more

than local readers; old Moreton Hall, for instance, is one of those

“stately homes of England” in which a national interest is felt; and

none who love the quaintly venerable, albeit decayed, mansions of our

forefathers, can fail to be grateful to the writer for his graphic and

appreciative chapter on one of the most ancient and interesting of them.

Moreton Hall[12] is almost peculiar for its wealth of rich carving and

mouldings, from the entrance, with its two side-posts, each carved to

represent a soldier bearing a partisan, to the beautiful little chapel,

now, alas! degraded to the service of a cattle-shed, lumber, storehouse,

and such base uses. In the “long gallery,” which our author compares to

the banquetting-room at Haddon Hall, are two draped figures of Fate and

Fortune, admirably illustrating the difference between two terms

frequently confounded with each other. Fate bears a sword, with which

she pierces a globe above her head, and the inscription beneath is: “The

speare of destinye whose ruler is knowledge;” while opposite to her is

Fortune, blindfolded, pointing to her wheel, and her motto is: “The

wheele of Fortune whose rule is ignorance.” This part of the mansion

also gathers additional interest from the tradition that “Good Queen

Bess” condescended to dance in the gallery, while on a visit to Moreton

Hall during one of her royal progresses. If this be true, it is very

possible that her visit may have contributed to the decline rather than

to the exaltation of the family; for to have a Tudor sovereign as a

guest was, in those days, much the same kind of undesirable honour as

the gift of a sacred white elephant from the Burmese king to some

subject whom he delights to honour--and to ruin. Witness the clean sweep

which the royal Dame contrived to make of the riches of Kenilworth, when

Leicester’s Earl paid so dearly for a glance from royal eyes.

“Between architecture and history there exists a closer connection than

is commonly supposed,” remarks Mr. Croston, and this may almost be

called the key-note of his book. When the author stands before a relic

of the past, visions of past chivalry fill his imagination and,

consequently, his narrative; and he is never happier than when following

the fortunes of some old knight who lived by his sword.

“Those knights are dust, and their good swords rust;

Their souls are with the saints, we trust,”

says Coleridge; let us add that their _names_ cannot be better

commemorated than by books like the one before us.

_English Etchings_, Part 37 (D. Bogue, 3, St. Martin’s-place), contains

three admirable examples of the etcher’s skill, namely “Dachsunds,” by

Mr. A. M. Williams, representing three dogs of the badger-hound species;

“In the Pursuit of Riches,” by Mr. Edwin Buckman, a spirited drawing of

a couple of urchins endeavouring to catch a “copper” thrown to them from

the roof of a passing vehicle; and a “Surrey Lime-Kiln,” by Mr. W.

Holmes May.

Obituary Memoir.

“Emori nolo; sed me esse mortuum nihil æstimo.”--_Epicharmus._

MR. WILLIAM BRAGG, F.S.A., died on June 6. His collection of MSS., made

during his travels, and dispersed not long ago; his collection of

tobacco pipes of all nations, many of which are in the British Museum;

and his almost complete collection of the editions of Cervantes’s works,

presented to the Birmingham Reference Library, bear witness to Mr.

Bragge’s archæological and literary tastes.--_Athenæum._

Meetings of Learned Societies.

METROPOLITAN.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.--_May 29_, Mr. H. S. Milman, Director, in the

chair. The Rev. George Ward, F.S.A., exhibited a Saxon coin of St.

Eadmund, a gold enamelled ring of the seventeenth century, and several

Nuremberg tokens, found in Lincolnshire. Dr. Samuel Birch exhibited the

framework of a _sella prætoria_ of bronze, which had recently been

brought from Cairo. “The Corporation Maces of the City of Rochester”

formed the subject of a paper by Mr. W. H. St. John Hope. The regalia

exhibited consisted of the great mace, a pair of silver maces, and a

water bailiff’s silver oar.--_June 12_, Mr. E. Freshfield, LL.D., V.P.,

in the chair. This being a ballot evening, no papers were read.--_June

19_, Dr. C. S. Perceval, Treasurer, in the chair. “Clay Bars and Pottery

from Bedfordshire” formed the subject of a paper by Major C. Cooper,

F.S.A., Local Secretary of the Society for Bedfordshire. Dr. E.

Freshfield, V.P., read a paper on “The Palace of the Greek Emperors of

Nicæa at Nymphio.” Dr. J. Evans, F.R.S., V.P., exhibited a bronze medal

of Sir Andrew Fountaine as Warden of the Mint. Mr. C. I. Elton, M.P.,

F.S.A., presented to the Society a contemporary corrected MS. of Sir

John Eliot’s Speeches, and also a MS. of law notes of Sir J. Fortescue

Aland, Solicitor-General in the second year of George I. (1715-16),

containing several interesting particulars.

BRITISH ARCHÆOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.--_May 7._ Annual general meeting. The

Bishop of St. David’s was elected President for the congress at Tenby,

and for the ensuing year. The officers and almost the whole of the old

council were re-elected. The Hon. Treasurer, Mr. T. Morgan, F.S.A.,

V.P., gave a review of the work of the Association during the past year,

and declared a satisfactory balance-sheet. The members afterwards dined

together.--_May 21_, Mr. T. Morgan, F.S.A., Vice-President, in the

chair. Mr. W. Myers, F.S.A., exhibited several objects of antiquarian

interest lately brought from Egypt. Mr. Cecil Brent, F.S.A., exhibited a

collection of ancient pottery, mostly from Cyprus, showing many of the

varied forms of the ceramic ware of that island. Some gold earrings of

Greek date were also among the collection. The Rev. S. M. Mayhew

produced many articles of interest, especially to collectors of London

antiquities: there being among them a handsome inlaid marquetry box,

once, probably, the alms-box of the old church of St. Olave,

Tooley-street, since it was found close to the site of the present

building, below the surface of the ground. It bears the inscription,

“The gift of R. Makepiece, 1692,” and appeared but little the worse for

its rough usage. A carved bone knife of Roman date and some fine

examples of glass of the same period were also exhibited. Mr. Loftus

Brock, F.S.A., also exhibited several antiquities found in London, the

most curious being a spur of great length. Mr. E. Walford read a paper

on the ancient city of Luni, in Etruria, being an extract from a letter

which he had recently received from La Signora Campion. This paper will

appear _in extenso_ in the ANTIQUARIAN MAGAZINE. Mr. W. de Gray Birch,

F.S.A., read a paper descriptive of a fine stained-glass figure of a

lady in Long Melford Church, Suffolk, which was shown in _fac-simile_ by

a drawing by Mr. Watling. The figure is that of Lady Anne Percy, then

wife of Sir Lawrence Rainsforth, and probably the youngest daughter of

Hotspur, and not the first or second, as has been believed. The lady’s

third husband was Sir R. Vaughan. She is represented in a kneeling

posture, clad in a red heraldic robe, on which are the arms of the Dukes

of Brabant and Lucy; while on her ermine-lined mantle are those of

Rainsforth and Brokesborne. This is the earliest known portrait of any

member of the Percy family.--_June 4_, Mr. T. Morgan, F.S.A., in the

chair. The arrangements for the Congress at Tenby were detailed. The

meeting will commence on September 2, and end on the 11th, the Bishop of

St. David’s being President. The Rev. S. M. Mayhew exhibited a Roman

mortar of bronze found recently in the City, its silver covering showing

the marks of intense heat from burning, the silver being fused into

granules over the surface. A bronze lizard from Palestine, probably a

Gnostic emblem, was also described. Mr. Morgan produced some interesting

relics from Cagliari, Sardinia, recently found there. Mr. Hughes

exhibited a fac-simile of the Charter granted by Richard III. to the Wax

Chandlers Company of London, which he has reproduced in colours. Mr. J.

W. Grover read a description of a tumulus still existing in the grounds

of a house in the Cedars-road, Clapham, which is shown on old maps prior

to the district being built over. It is called Mount Nod; but there is

no evidence to show its date. The old house of Sir D. Gordon, where

Pepys died, stood close to the spot. A discussion ensued, in which

Messrs. Compton, Kershaw, Brock, and others took part; reference was

made to the old Huguenot cemetery, Mount Nod, at Wandsworth, being

called by the same name, apparently from the field so called extending

thither. The position commands a view over the Thames valley.

Excavations will probably be made. Mr. R. Smith contributed a paper,

read by Mr. W. De Gray Birch, on Old Winchester, in which he showed that

the so-called Roman Camp is in reality an ancient British oppidum of

considerable size. Mr. L. Brock read a paper on a chapel of thirteenth

century date, which still exists at Dover, close to the Maison Dieu,

hidden behind the modern houses of Biggin-street, and hitherto

unnoticed. It is used as a blacksmith’s shop. The Rev. Prebendary Scarth

forwarded a paper read by Mr. Birch, on an ancient harpsichord which

formerly belonged to Tasso. It is at Sorrento, and is dated 1564. It is

decorated with paintings of Apollo and the Muses, and is in fair

condition.

ROYAL ARCHÆOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.--_June 5_, Earl Percy, M.P., in the

chair. Miss Farington exhibited a collection of Roman coins, found near

Preston, in Lancashire, and also some curious wall tiles of ancient

Chinese manufacture. Mr. J. G. Waller gave an interesting sketch of

monumental brasses of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the

leading features of which he traced in chronological sequence from the

well-known examples from Cambridgeshire and Stoke d’Abernon, Surrey, in

1320-30, down to the specimens of elaborate coat-armour which mark the

conclusion of the Wars of the Roses. Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite, F.S.A.,

described certain curious mediæval frescoes, which had been brought to

light by the late Canon Wickenden, in Pinvin Chapel, near Pershore.

Illustrations of these two papers were hung on the walls. Mr. A. H.

Church described at considerable length some Roman potters’ marks on

ancient pottery, examples of which had been found in the neighbourhood

of Cirencester, in Gloucestershire.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE.--_May 28_, Sir P. de Colquhoun in the

chair. Mr. W. H. Garrett read a paper “On Macbeth,” chiefly with the

view of elucidating the intention of Shakespeare with respect to the

central figure of the tragedy. At the outset, Mr. Garrett endeavoured

to fix the year when the play was first acted. After examining the

source, Holinshed’s “Chronicle,” whence Shakspeare derived his first

idea of the salient characteristics of the real Macbeth, and alluding to

the introduction by the poet of the account given by the chronicler of

the assassination of King Duffe, by Donewald, the author of the paper

proceeded to analyse the character of Macbeth as created by the bard,

contending that the prophecies of the witches had not the effect on the

character and conduct of the Scottish chief which is usually claimed for

them by commentators. Shakespeare’s text, it was argued, indicates not

only that ambitious cravings existed in Macbeth before the action of the

tragedy commenced, but that he had even consulted his wife respecting

the means to be adopted to secure the throne for himself.--_Athenæum._

SHORTHAND.--_May 7_, Mr. T. A. Reed, President, in the chair. Mr. M.

Levy read a paper, entitled “Shakespeare and Shorthand,” giving a

_résumé_ of the opinions of Shakespearean students, critics and

commentators, as to the probability of some of Shakespeare’s plays, and

especially “Hamlet,” having been published from the notes of shorthand

writers taken during the performances, thus accounting for the

discrepancies between the various early editions of the plays. A long

discussion followed.

ST. PAUL’S ECCLESIOLOGICAL SOCIETY.--_April 22_, Major Heales, F.S.A.,

in the chair. Mr. W. G. F. Phillimore, Q.C., D.C.L., read a paper on

“The History of the Ecclesiastical Courts,” in which he described the

origin and jurisdiction of the various Courts having cognizance of

ecclesiastical causes, and how they became diverted from their primitive

intention. He concluded by saying that these Courts were established by,

and presided over by, the clergy, for the discipline of the laity,

whereas now they were presided over by laymen for the discipline of the

clergy.--_April 26._ The members paid a visit to the Priory of St.

Dominic, Maitland-road, Haverstock-hill, and to the church of St.

Augustine, Kilburn, under the guidance of the Prior and Vicar and

churchwarden respectively.--_May 8._ Mr. Somers Clarke, Vice-President,

F.S.A., in the chair. The Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, D.D., F.S.A., read a

paper on “St. Vedast.” The lecturer dealt with the Saint himself, and

not the well-known church dedicated to him, and he traced the derivation

of the name, described his miracles, emblems, works, &c., and concluded

with a few words upon the affix, “_alias_ Foster,” which is associated

with the church in Foster-lane.

PROVINCIAL.

ROYAL HISTORICAL AND ARCHÆOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND.--The Munster

Conference of this Association commenced on Tuesday, May 13, at

Killarney, Mr. Richard Langrishe, V.P., in the chair. The Secretary

having read the minutes of the quarterly meeting, and submitted the

audited statement of accounts for 1883, they were signed by the

Chairman. In explaining the minutes to those present, he said that they

chiefly had reference to the schedule of the Act of 1883, for the

Preservation of Ancient Monuments. Some of our Irish antiquities were

included in it, but not as many as there should be. Kerry was full of

monuments, which ought to be placed under the Act. Only four or five

monuments in the south of Ireland were included, but this was far less

than ought to be. The Society, as would be seen, was making exertions to

have something done in reference to the matter. It was not generally

known that this Act for the Preservation of ancient monuments was in

existence, or greater efforts would be made in connection with it. The

Chairman added that members ought to send a list of those monuments in

their neighbourhood to the provincial secretaries, in order to have them

placed under the Act. Mr. Arthur Hill, M.R.I.A.I., read a paper on “The

Cathedral of Ardfert, and other remains there.” The President read a

paper dealing with the subject of Bells in Ireland, and including,

amongst others, a description of the six bells at St. Andoen’s, Dublin,

with their inscriptions. Mr. Robert Day exhibited some curious specimens

of stone and bronze implements, three copper celts, and an ancient

silver pyx in good preservation. A visit was afterwards paid to Muckross

Abbey, Inisfallen, and Aghadoe. On Wednesday the party, headed by the

Rev. James Grant (Hon. General Secretary), proceeded to Tralee, whence

excursions were made to Ardfert, where the ruins of the ancient

churches, the cathedral, and the Franciscan abbey were duly examined;

and to Barrow, where the great fort on the east side of the island

called “Barrowaneanach,” was inspected. Thursday was devoted to an

examination of Dunloe Gap, and the Ogham Cave, in the demesne of Dunloe

Castle; and on Friday the party visited the caves at Shanavalla,

Arbella, near Tralee.

CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.--_May 26_, annual meeting, Mr. J. W.

Clark, M.A., President, in the chair. The Council and other officers for

the next year were elected. The annual report announced that the

Society’s collections had been placed in the new Museum of Archæology,

that eight meetings and two excursions had taken place during the past

year, that forty-seven new members had been elected, and that the first

of a series of loan-exhibitions of University and College portraits

under the auspices of this Society was now on view in the Fitzwilliam

Museum. Professor Hughes, in speaking of the so-called _Via Devana_

running from the end of Wort’s Causeway towards Horseheath, pointed out

that there was little, if any, evidence of its Roman origin, and

insisted that it was rather an entrenchment, to be referred to the same

later age which has given us Offa’s Dyke in the west, and the Devil’s

Dyke, and as many other notable earthworks in East Anglia also. The

Roman roads in the neighbourhood of the Castle Hill, too, he remarked,

seemed to converge to Grantchester rather than to Cambridge, and the

Roman pottery found here indicated rubbish-heaps rather than the site of

a camp or permanent fortification; and from all available evidence he

drew the conclusion that the mound and all the earthworks about it are

of Norman origin. Mr. Browne exhibited outline rubbings of two stones

recently presented to the British Museum by Mr. A. W. Franks, acquired

some years ago from persons who described them as coming from the city:

also of the remarkable rune-bearing stone from St. Paul’s Churchyard, in

the Guildhall Library. Mr. Waldstein made some remarks descriptive of

two stones from the Via Appia at Rome, lately given to the Fitzwilliam

Museum, and also of a red jasper intaglio, from Smyrna, in the

possession of the Rev. S. S. Lewis.

Antiquarian News & Notes.

A STATUE of Martin Luther has been unveiled at Washington.

CHESTER CASTLE is no longer to be used as a prison for civil offences.

THE Curfew Tower, one of the oldest portions of Windsor Castle, is being

repaired.

“THE Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys,” in ten volumes, is

promised in _édition de luxe_ form by Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co.

A COMMEMORATIVE tablet is about to be placed at No. 46, Rue Richelieu,

Paris, the house at which Molière died.

CORRINGHAM CHURCH, which has been elaborately restored at a cost of

£10,000, has been re-opened by the Bishop of Lincoln.

THE Trustees of the British Museum have purchased an early impression of

Jacobi’s last engraved work, the “School of Athens,” by Raphael, in the

Vatican.

THE “Libraries of Boston,” about to be published by Messrs. Cupples,

Upham & Co., will treat of more than 100 collections, both public and

private.

MESSRS. TRUBNER & CO. have ready “Archæology in India,” with special

reference to the works of Babu Rajendralala Mitra, by Mr. James

Fergusson.

SHAKESPEARE’S table was exhibited at the Shakespearean Show held on

behalf of the Chelsea Hospital for Women, at the Albert Hall, on the

last three days of May.

IN cutting a trench in the Bois de Bologne, near Paris, the workmen have

found a whole series of coins struck under Valois, from 1337 to 1342.

Nearly all are in a good state of preservation.

ON Monday, June 16, was commenced the sale of the collection of objects

of art formed by Sir Andrew Fountaine in the early part of the last

century. Details of the sale are unavoidably postponed to our next.

MR. CHARLES B. STRUTT, of 34, East-street, Red Lion-square, is preparing

for publication a work entitled “Some Account of Historical Chairs, of

all Periods and Countries.”

MR. H. CHETWYND STAPYLTON, the author of the “Eton School Lists,” has

nearly completed a new volume, uniform with its predecessor, bringing

the list of old Etonians down to the Election of 1877.

THE Italian Government, says _The Times_, has concluded, through

Professor Villari, the negotiations for purchasing the Italian MSS. in

the Ashburnham Library. The amount to be paid for them is £23,000.

A REPRINT of the 1825 edition of Mr. Robert Chambers’s “Illustrations of

the Author of Waverley,” being notices and anecdotes of characters,

scenes, and incidents described in his works, has been issued in

Edinburgh.

THE coming portion of Tischendorf’s Greek Testament promises to be of

interest. It has been prepared by Dr. Caspar René Gregory, with the aid

of the late Dr. Ezra Abbott, and will contain an account of

Tischendorf’s life and writings.

MESSRS. SAMPSON LOW & CO. announce a new work by Mr. Charles F.

Blackburn, entitled “Hints on Catalogue Titles, and on Index Entries.”

The book includes a rough vocabulary of terms and abbreviations, chiefly

from catalogues, and some passages from “Journeyings among Books.”

GREAT changes are to be carried out at Genoa; the fortifications to the

east of the city, and the marble walk round the lower part of the

harbour are to be pulled down, to make room for a military parade ground

and for purposes of trade, and the famous old “Bank of St. George,” now

used as the Custom House, is to be turned into an Art Museum.

THE second year’s issue of Mr. Henry Morley’s “Universal Library” will

include Herrick’s “Hesperides,” Boccaccio’s “Decameron,” Sterne’s

“Tristram Shandy,” George Chapman’s “Translation of Homer’s ‘Iliad,’”

“Mediæval Tales,” “The Alchemist and other Plays,” by Ben Jonson,

Hobbes’s “Leviathan,” Butler’s “Hudibras,” More’s “Utopia,” Bacon’s “New

Atlantis,” &c.

AN inventory has just been made of the National Library of France. It

contains 2,500,000 volumes. The cabinet of manuscripts includes 92,000

volumes, as well as 144,000 medals of all periods, both French and

foreign. The engravings comprise over two millions of plates, preserved

in 14,500 vols. and 4,000 portfolios. The more precious volumes,

amounting to 80,000, are kept in the reserved gallery. In 1868 24,000

readers attended the reading-room, and in 1883 the number was 70,000.

THE _Times_ records the discovery of a Roman villa at Woolstone, in the

Vale of the White Horse, Berkshire, where some fine tesselated pavements

have been disclosed. Several interments have also been revealed,

apparently of the Anglo-Saxon period. The seax or knife dagger is,

strange to say, still attached to the girdle of two of the bodies,

presumed to be those of Anglo-Saxon ladies. The excavations, which are

closed to the general public, were inspected on May 23rd by the members

of the Oxford Architectural and Historical Society, and the Newbury

District Field Club.

THE following articles, more or less of an antiquarian character, appear

among the contents of the magazines for June: _Art Journal_, “The

Western Riviera;” _Cornhill_, “Some Literary Recollections;” _Literary

Chronicle_, “Researches for MSS. in the Levant,” and “Contents of the

British Museum Library;” _Blackwood_, “New Views of Shakespeare’s

Sonnets;” _Army and Navy Magazine_, “Pepys as an Official;” _Eastward

Ho!_ “Bethnal-green Museum;” _Cassell’s Magazine_, “The Folk-lore of

Colours,” and “A Pilgrimage to Holy Island;” _Magazine of Art_, “Raphael

and the Fornarina,” “The Keramics of Fiji,” and “Greek Myths in Greek

Art.”

A ROMAN family burial-place has been lately discovered during some

excavations at Lincoln. It contained a large number of urns, with a

furnace or oven at the eastern end. “Unfortunately for the interests of

archæology,” writes the Rev. Precentor Venables, “the discovery was made

just when the excavators commenced their work, and from their ignorance

of the value of the remains much of interest was destroyed before the

foreman arrived. The whole of the oven had been demolished, only leaving

one reddened wall, indicating the action of intense heat, and the

blackened stones of the flue. The burial-place or ‘loculus’ was,

however, perfect. It consisted of a stone-chamber, 5 ft. 10 in. in

length, its breadth varying from 2 ft. ½ in. at the lower end to 3 ft. 1

in. in the middle.”

CATALOGUES of rare and curious books, all of which contain the names of

works of antiquarian interest, have reached us from Messrs. Meehan, 32,

Gay-street, Bath; Messrs. Reeves & Turner, 196, Strand, W.C.; Messrs.

Fawn & Son, 18, Queen’s-road, Bristol; Mr. W. P. Bennett, 3,

Bull-street, Birmingham; Mr. C. Hutt, Clement’s-inn-gateway, Strand,

W.C.; Messrs. Robson & Kerslake, 43, Cranbourne-street, W.C.; Mr. W. H.

Gee, 28, High-street, Oxford; Mr. W. Wesley, 28, Essex-street, Strand,

W.C.; Messrs. Jarvis & Son, 28, King William-street, W.C. The

last-named is called the “Dickens’s Catalogue,” and may be regarded as

complete a list as possible of the various editions of Dickens’s Works

and “Dickensana.” The complete set, inclusive of works, extra

illustrations, and portraits, is priced at £200; the price for the

“Dickensana,” which is described as “very interesting and scarce,” is

set down at another £60.

ON May 22 was celebrated in London, at Lutterworth, where he died, and

at other places in England, the Quincentenary of Wycliffe, the great

English Reformer. Among the most noticeable features of the

commemoration was the opening of a Wycliffe Exhibition at the British

Museum. Contemporary printed books and engravings and commemorative

medals formed the chief attractions in the Luther celebration last year.

To illustrate the life and works of his English predecessor the

resources of the manuscripts department have been chiefly drawn upon;

and as Wycliffe’s name, before all others, is identified with the

translation of the Bible into English, a great part of the collection

displayed in the King’s Library consisted of a fine series of

manuscripts of the two versions of the Wycliffe translation.

ON Wednesday, May 28, Mr. J. T. Wood, F.S.A., lectured in the Ephesian

Gallery of the British Museum on “The Marbles from the Great Temple of

Diana.” The lecturer said it was needless for him to tell the story of

his finding the temple of the great goddess of the Ephesians. It would

take too much time, and it had been so often told before that he might

take for granted that his audience knew all about it; but he might say

that it was a very difficult thing to accomplish, and that it was six

years before he succeeded in hitting upon the site. It was found one

mile from the city of Ephesus, among corn fields, on level ground, where

there was not the slightest sign of any ruins. Having found the site he

discovered sufficient of the remains to enable him to make a true

elevation of the temple, but there were some details still missing which

he hoped would be obtained by further excavations. They had before them

a rough diagram from which they would see that it had 100 columns

externally, each 6 ft. in diameter, and nearly 60 ft. in height. Only a

portion of the superstructure had been found, which was the lower part

underneath the capitals, some of the lions’ heads, and some of the

enrichment of the cornice. The coloured diagrams were meant to show that

the whole of the temple was coloured. The remains which they saw before

them had lost their colour since they were placed in the museum, with

but few exceptions, but there was one specimen before them in which the

colour was clearly demonstrated. Several of the coloured diagrams would,

however, show the state in which he found the fragments. He should tell

them that these remains were found between 20 ft. and 24 ft.

underground, and their being at so great a depth beneath the surface

accounted for the great expense of these excavations, the Government

having spent £12,000 upon them during the five years which it took him

to clear out the temple. He need scarcely tell them that the remains

they now saw were from the last of the three successive temples. He

found evidence that all the bases were of about the same size, and that

the same marble was used. There were two stones at the end of the temple

which, he believed, belonged to the frieze of the temple, and which were

got out from the drums of the last temple. One, which was marked H 4, he

believed would be proved to be, what he had always thought it was, a

portion of the frieze. Upon it was a representation of Hercules

struggling with a female figure, and he believed it was Hercules taking

the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons. The stone was very much hacked

and disfigured. Mr. Fergusson thought that a column had been placed upon

this; but there were reasons to the architectural mind which precluded

the idea that this stone could have been part of the pedestal of a

column. There was a second stone which he believed was a portion of the

frieze of the temple. Upon one side of it was a representation of either

Hercules lifting Antæus, or Hercules struggling with Cacus, probably the

latter. On the other side they had the figure of a stag. These were the

only stones which he claimed to be portions of the frieze. There was a

third stone which was found in the aqueduct, and another which might or

might not have been a fragment of the frieze, but it was at all events a

corner-stone. All these blocks were supposed to have come from the same

building, but whether they were portions of pedestals, on which columns

had been placed, as contended by Mr. Fergusson, was a question which

would probably be decided by further excavations. Alluding to a fragment

of a sculptured column marked H 3, Mr. Wood said the question was

whether Pliny would have called it a sculptured column if it had been of

the height of this drum. Some people thought the columns in the diagram

could not have been sculptured above the height of one drum, but he

begged to differ from them. Passing on to another fragment of a

sculptured column, the lecturer said he looked upon it as the most

beautiful of all, and it was a pity it had been so much hacked about.

This temple was built in the time of Alexander the Great, and when he

visited Ephesus he wished to have his name inscribed upon it. The

lecturer pointed out other specimens, one being a beautiful stone which

had formed part of the base of a column, and another in which the

delicate proportions of the fillet between the flutings were very

noteworthy. He further remarked upon fragments of roof tiles, lions’

heads, and various fragmentary specimens of Ionic columns. There were

also some splendid specimens of profiles of base mouldings, a

representation of a medal of Gordianus found on the site, &c. Mr. Wood

gave a continuation of his lecture on Wednesday, June 18.

Antiquarian Correspondence.

Sin scire labores,

Quære, age: quærenti pagina nostra patet.

_All communications must be accompanied by the name and address of the

sender, not necessarily for publication._

“THE SENTENCE OF PONTIUS PILATE.”

(See vol. v. pp. 80, 217.)

SIR,--This document appeared in English in _Galignani’s Messenger_ of

March 23, 1859, copied from the _Herald_ of about that date. D. K. T.

A BAKER BLESSED.

SIR,--Can you explain the origin of the blessing invoked on the baker in

the following rhyme, sung by village children in Norfolk, and perhaps in

other counties also, on St. Valentine’s Day?

Good-morrow, Valentine,

God bless the baker!

You be the giver,

And I’ll be the taker.

_Haileybury College, Hertford._

JOHN HUSSEY.

WESLEYANISM IN LONDON.

SIR,--Can you tell me who was the popular preacher at the Wesleyan

Chapel in Great Queen-street, Lincoln’s-inn-fields, about 1811? Macready

when first in London became acquainted with him, and was fascinated by

his manners and learning, but was warned against him as a reprobate of

most dangerous character. I fancy that he finally came to be publicly

disgraced. The London Directories are useless at that date, and the

Wesleyan Mission Books equally so. Do you know anything about him, or

can you indicate where to search?

C. A. WARD.

_159, Haverstock Hill, N. W._

HISTORICAL CHAIRS.

SIR,--Will you kindly enable me to ask through your columns for

descriptive particulars, with engravings, drawings, or photographs, of

celebrated chairs in family residences, or in cathedrals, churches,

colleges, town-halls, and public institutions at home or abroad? I am

preparing an illustrated account of Historical Chairs from available

literary sources; but as many interesting examples have escaped my

search, and as I wish to make the proposed work as copious as possible,

I thus beg your assistance.

C. B. STRUTT.

_34, East-street, Red Lion-square, London, W.C._

THE VISCOUNTY OF CULLEN.

SIR,--In reply to the inquiry of HERALDICUS MUS, I beg to inform him

that the limitation of this dignity is correctly given in Sir Bernard

Burke’s _new_ “Extinct Peerage,” and included, as he suggests, a

remainder to the Berties, but that the original patent of creation being

lost (and having, unfortunately, never been enrolled), the Earl of

Lindsey cannot _prove_ his right, unless the patent should yet be

discovered. The second Viscount having taken his seat, no difficulty

could arise so long as there remained male issue of his body; but when

that became extinct, the special remainder would have to be established

by proof. I speak, of course, of England or Ireland, for, in the

anomalous chaos beyond the Tweed, it is possible to take a remainder for

granted, as in the Ruthven case, at one’s own sweet will.

J. H. ROUND.

_Brighton._

VISCOUNT HAMPDEN’S ANCESTRY.

(See vol. v. pp. 197, 331.)

SIR,--If your correspondent “Trombone” will re-peruse my letter on this

subject, which appears at the first-named reference, he (or she) will

see that whatever faults there may be of omission, there are none of

commission, in regard to the families of Trevor and Hampden.

Nothing is certainly said concerning the bequest of the Glynde estates

to the Honourable Richard Trevor, afterwards Bishop of Durham; but it is

probable that he devised them on his decease to his brother Robert, then

Baron Trevor, afterwards Viscount Hampden of Hampden. On the death of

the last Viscount in 1824, the extensive estates were divided amongst

co-heirs, from one of whom the present Viscount Hampden of Glynde is

descended.

My first curacy was Bromham, in Bedfordshire, and I have, as the guest

of George, Lord Dynevor, to whose daughters that estate belonged, sat at

dinner under the portraits, in the dining-room at Bromham Hall, of the

Lords Trevor and Hampden.

_Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge._

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

WAS MILTON A PAINTER?

(See vol. ii. p. 1.)

SIR,--The following passage from the pen of the greatest critic of

modern times, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, seems rather to militate against

the argument in a former number of the ANTIQUARIAN MAGAZINE, that the

portrait of Milton there spoken of might have been painted by the poet

himself: “It is very remarkable that in no part of his writings does

Milton take any notice of the great painters of Italy, nor, indeed, of

painting as an art, whilst every other page breathes his love and taste

for music. Yet it is curious that in one passage of the “Paradise Lost”

Milton has certainly copied the fresco of the Creation in the Sistine

Chapel at Rome. I mean those lines--

“Now half appeared

The tawny lion, pawing to get free

His hinder parts; then springs as broke from bonds,

And rampant shakes his brinded mane,” &c.;

an image which the necessities of the painter justified, but which was

wholly unworthy, in my judgment, of the enlarged powers of the poet.

Adam bending over the sleeping Eve in the “Paradise Lost” (book vii.

463), and Delilah approaching Sampson in the “Agonistes” (book v. 8),

are the only two proper pictures I remember in Milton.

F. H.

OLD BELLMEN’S BROADSIDES.

(See vol. v. p. 221.)

SIR,--It may be interesting to some of your readers to know that these

quaint poetical productions continued to be issued by the bellmen of the

city of Hereford down to the year 1835, and perhaps even later.

I have in my collection of Herefordian matters a series of six of them

as follows:

(1) A copy of verses | for 1811 | Humbly presented to all my worthy

Masters and Mistresses | in the City of Hereford | by James Lingham |

Bellman and Crier of the said City. This has a quaint 17th century

woodcut of the bellman, with bell in right hand, staff and lanthorn in

left, accompanied by his dog. In background to left a house, with cock

crowing on roof, to right a church, probably intended to represent St.

Peter’s. The bellman wears a three-cornered hat, a long-skirted coat,

confined at waist with belt, with a short coat underneath, embroidered

down the front. Street shown as paved in chequers, as in the engraving

in your ANTIQUARIAN MAGAZINE. W. H. Parker, printer, Hereford.

(2) Another copy of verses for 1824, by same bellman, with a later

woodcut of bellman, in cocked hat and cloak with cape, in the act of

proclaiming in the High Town, with view of old town-hall and St. Peter’s

Church. W. H. & J. Parker, printers, 4, High Town, Hereford.

(3) A copy of verses for 1826, by Richard Jones, with a woodcut of

bellman, similarly equipped to last, but the town-hall is shown on

larger scale, and the church does not appear. W. H. Vale, printer, 5,

Eign-street, Hereford.

(4) Another similar copy of verses for 1827, by Thomas Hall, and the

same woodcut as last.

(5) Another for 1830, by James Davies, with woodcut as No. 2. John

Parker, printer, High Town, Hereford.

(6) Another copy of verses for 1835, by James Davies, with same woodcut

as last.

They all bear verses in same style as those quoted in the ANTIQUARIAN

MAGAZINE, viz., Prologues, Epilogues, and on the various Saints,

Festivals, addresses to the King, Queen, Princes, Masters, Mistresses,

Young Men and Maidens, &c., but no two are alike.

In the Hereford Permanent Library is a copy of verses for 1822, by James

Langham (?), City Crier.

JAMES W. LLOYD.

_Kington, Herefordshire._

PORTS AND CHESTERS.

SIR,--Mr. Round (see vol. v. p. 282) claims “Port as an English word, in

itself distinct from the Latin _porta_ or _portus_;” later on (p. 283),

“Port was in itself essentially an English word;” yet at p. 286 we read,

“The English _borrowed_ it ... after the settlement ... or before the

settlement.” How can it be generically an English word, yet borrowed

from Latin? There is lamentable confusion throughout this paper, truly

distressing confusion, and the little bits of assertion and argument are

so cut into slices and sandwiched between slips of quotation and

extract, that it is like dissecting a Chinese puzzle to ramify its

purport.

We have the words ‘castor,’ ‘port,’ ‘street,’ and ‘wall;’ now, if these

words were English forms of some Teutonic roots, they will have

analogues in the allied tongues: where are those analogues?

(1) Castor, Caster, Caister, Ceaster, Chester, are all from the Latin

castrum, as muddled by alien tongues; yet, at p. 285, we are told that

the “English would presumably have only met, not with the Latin castrum,

but the Welsh caer or kair.” Why so? As a fact, the Welsh forms are not

borrowed from Latin, but come from an independent Celtic root--as I

think, direct from the Hindu gir, giri, and far older than Latin. We

find Keir in Dumfriesshire; Cardiff in Glamorganshire; Carhaix,

Kersanton, Kervrin, Kerentrec, Plessis-Kaer, all in Brittany; Caerleon

and Caerwent, both famous places in Monmouthshire, pronounced, the

former, Karleen, the latter, Kerwent, thus showing the affiliation with

Armorican forms.

(2) Port: note that “port” is the equivalent of hithe or haven; thus we

have Hythe in Kent, as a substitute for Portus Lemanis; at Oxford, the

Port-meadow adjoins Hythe Bridge, and was evidently the town haven. The

conditions are similar at Gloucester, where certain meadows, inundated

at floods, are called the Portham; adjoining we find Dockham, and

Dockham ditch, which is a reduplicated name. The port-walls of Chepstow

are the harbour defences on the land side, it being the port or gate of

Wye River. New_port_, Mon., is in succession to Caerleon, the old port

of River Usk. It follows, as a dead certainty, that the modern word port

as used at London, where Port reeve was the precursor of our Lord Mayor,

is in succession to the Latin portus, not introduced as a new English

word, but preserved by Celto-Romans from Latin usage. Let Mr. Round

study the course of those old English roadways throughout England, known

as Portways, and called Roman; can the prefix be of English origin if it

means “carry,” _i.e._, the portage of merchandise, from the Latin

_portare_, to bear?

(3-4) Street and wall speak for themselves, and their plain facts will

survive any amount of word-twisting.

A. H.

_TO CORRESPONDENTS._

THE Editor declines to pledge himself for the safety or return of MSS.

voluntarily tendered to him by strangers.

Books Received.

1. History of the House of Arundel. By J. P. Yeatman. Mitchell & Hughes.

1883.

2. Nantwich. By James Hall. Privately printed. 1884.

3. New Light on Some Obscure Words in the Works of Shakespeare. By

Charles Mackay, LL.D. Reeves & Turner. 1884.

4. Western Antiquary. May, 1884. Plymouth: Latimer & Son.

5. A Booke of Fishing. By L. M. 1599. (Reprinted.) Simpkin, Marshall &

Co. 1884.

6. John Hopkins’ University Studies. Second Series. iv. Baltimore.

April, 1884.

7. English Etchings. Part xxxvii. D. Bogue, 3, St. Martin’s Place, W.C.

8. Lord Beaconsfield on the Constitution. Edited by F. Hitchman. Field &

Tuer. 1884.

9. Guildford and its Coinage. By G. C. Williamson. Privately printed.

10. Hanley and the House of Lechmere. By the late E. P. Shirley, M.P.,

F.S.A. Pickering. 1883.

11. The Congo Treaty. By T. Tomlinson, M.A. E. Stanford. 1884.

12. Clergyman’s Magazine. June. Hodder & Stoughton.

13. Charities Register and Digest. Longmans & Co. 1884.

14. Le Livre, No. 54. Paris, 7, Rue St. Benoit. June, 1884.

Books, etc., for Sale.

_Guardian Newspaper_, from commencement to 1864, bound; and 1865-70, in

numbers. Offers to E. Walford, Hyde Park Mansions, Edgeware-road, N.W.

Books, etc., Wanted to Purchase.

_Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer_, several copies of No. 2

(February, 1882) are wanted, in order to complete sets. Copies of the

current number will be given in exchange at the office.

Dodd’s Church History, 8vo., vols. i. ii. and v.; Waagen’s Art and

Artists in England, vol. i.; East Anglian, vol. i., Nos. 26 and 29. The

Family Topographer, by Samuel Tymms, vols. iii. and iv.; Notes and

Queries, 5th series, vols. vi., vii. (1876-7); also the third Index.

Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets” (Ingram and Cooke’s edition), vol. iii. A

New Display of the Beauties of England, vol. i., 1774. Chambers’

Cyclopædia of English Literature, vol. i. Address, E. Walford, 2, Hyde

Park Mansions, Edgeware-road, N.W.

[Illustration: Architectural Details from Southwell Minster.

From Livett’s “Southwell Minster.”]

_The

Antiquarian Magazine

& Bibliographer._

Southwell Minster.

Now that the Bishopric of Southwell has become an accomplished fact, and

its ancient collegiate church has been elevated into the dignity of a

cathedral, Mr. Livett’s recently-published work[13] on the history of

that fabric will doubtless awaken additional interest. An Act of

Parliament passed early in the present reign deprived Southwell Minster

of its collegiate character, while another and later Act has made it the

mother church of a new diocese, consisting of the counties of Nottingham

and Derby, which had hitherto belonged to the dioceses of Lincoln and

Lichfield respectively. The church of Southwell was despoiled of all its

monuments and early records during the troubles of the 16th and 17th

centuries, and the only MS. of any importance that has come down to us

besides the Statutes of Queen Elizabeth is the “Registrum Album,” or

“White Book of Southwell.” The former are printed both in Dugdale’s

“Monasticon,” and in the appendix to Dickenson’s “History of the

Antiquities of Southwell.” Mr. Dimock, the Editor of the “Magna Vita St.

Hugonis,” in the Rolls Series, published some years ago a history of the

fabric of Southwell Minster; and other local histories, one by Shilton,

issued in 1818, and a third by Clarke & Killpack, in 1838, are, as Mr.

Livett tells us, little more than abridgments of Dickenson’s work.

Hitherto a general history of the origin and development of the ancient

secular college, and of the position which it held in the Middle Ages,

seems never to have been taken in hand; and this want Mr. Livett has

endeavoured to meet in the little volume now before us.

That Southwell held an important position in the diocese of York before

the Norman Conquest is certain; but it is difficult to fix a date for

the foundation of the church. Mr. Livett writes: “Tradition points to

St. Paulinus as the founder of a church here--the founder alike of York

and Lincoln, the friend and companion of St. Augustine, the great

missionary of Northumbria under King Edwin, and the first Archbishop of

York, A.D. 627-633. This tradition rests upon statements to this effect

contained in certain _private histories_ of the church, which are no

longer extant. They are quoted, however, by Camden, in his ‘Magna

Britannia,’ which first appeared in 1586, and were probably lost during

the civil wars of the following century, when most of the church records

were either destroyed, or, for safety, carried away. They tell us how

St. Paulinus founded the church at Southwell when he was baptizing the

people of this district in the Trent; and a careful consideration of the

Venerable Bede’s account of the missionary work of St. Paulinus gives

support to the statement. The ecclesiastical historian makes no direct

reference to Southwell, but internal evidence in his account of

Paulinus’ missionary work, more especially the evidence of the

place-names mentioned, is strong in favour of the view that Paulinus

extended his labours to the close neighbourhood of Southwell.”

No part of the present fabric, with the exception of one or two

fragments, dates farther back than the 12th century; but there is

abundant evidence that a stone church of considerable size existed here

at any rate in the previous century. The Norman parts of the church, as

it stands, remarks Mr. Livett, contain unmistakable evidence of an

earlier building. “In the north transept, over the doorway leading to

the newel by which one ascends the central tower there is a large

sculptured stone which is worked into the building in such a way as to

show at a glance that it is old material used up again. It is supposed

by good judges to have formed the tympanum of an early Norman doorway.”

The year 1110 is the date assigned to the nave and transepts. The choir

is of the Early English period (1230-50), and appears to have been built

during the episcopate of Walter Gray, for in Torre’s “Collectanea,” in

the library at York, is preserved an indulgence, addressed by Walter

Gray to the bishops and archdeacons of his province, “granting a release

of thirty days from penance enjoined to all who, being truly penitent,

should contribute to the construction of the church of Southwell, since

the means of the church were insufficient for the consummation of the

fabric a while since begun.” Torre gives 1235 as the date of the

indulgence, but the document itself says, “in the nineteenth year of our

Pontificate,” which, according to Drake, would be 1233.

The architectural details of the north transept chapel give the chief

clue to its date, 1260. The cloister is somewhat later; but the

chapter-house and its vestibule date from the close of the 13th century,

and the organ-screen from about 1340.

The minster, as it now stands, consists of a clerestoried nave, with

aisles and north porch, and two massive towers flanking the western

front, each surmounted by a spire; a lantern tower, with its parapet

adorned with pinnacles, rises from the intersection of the nave,

transept, and choir; and cloister and chapter-house on the north side of

the choir. “‘What either Cologne Cathedral, or Ratisbon, or Wiesen

Kirche are to Germany; Amiens Cathedral, or the Sainte Chapelle are to

France; the Scalegere, in Verona, to Italy, are the choir of Westminster

and the chapter-house at Southwell to England.’ So writes Mr. G. E.

Street; and assuredly Southwell chapter-house is placed in the foremost

rank of our geometrical buildings. In the refined and natural treatment

of the foliage which adorns it, it anticipated the artistic perfection

of works of many years later date, and is excelled by none. In its more

general features it may be compared with the earlier parts of the

cloisters at Norwich, and with the ruins of the banqueting-hall in the

palace grounds at Wells. It strongly reminds us, too, of its

contemporary, the chapter-house at Wells; in its octagonal shape it

follows the plan adopted in almost all the chapter-houses of secular

communities. The resemblance to York is still more complete, the date of

which is uncertain, but it is the only chapter-house besides Southwell

which has no central pillar to support the vault, and the arrangement is

more striking there on account of its greater size.”

Mr. Livett gives a minute description of the various parts of the

Minster, which we have not space to follow, and his work is illustrated

with drawings of some of its chief architectural features, one plate of

which, by the courtesy of the author, we are enabled to reproduce. This

shows (1) a circular window in the clerestory of the nave; (2) the

ancient tympanum in the north transept, mentioned above; and (3) window

tracery removed from the south-west tower. The ancient tympanum here

referred to, which is in the form of a sculptured stone, now forms the

lintel of the belfry door. “It must at one time have been the tympanum

of an earlier doorway, and a part of it has unfortunately been cut away

to make it fit into its present position. The sculpture embodies a

double subject, rudely executed in low relief, the one representing

probably David rescuing the lamb from the lion, the other very clearly

representing St. Michael encountering the dragon.... The sculpture

cannot be of later date than the middle of the eleventh century, when

the church seems to have been considerably enlarged, perhaps altogether

rebuilt, and it might be of earlier date still.”

The Congress Afield.

If you would know of olden days,

You need not only read or look

On quaintest type in early book

Or learn almost forgotten lays.

There is a wider field; go forth:

And ye who seek will surely find

That which shall ever teach the mind,

Go east or west, go south or north.

The massive mound in days of yore,

The fortress hill, the castle grey,

That speaks of strife and danger’s day,

Which we in quiet know no more.

Here you may trace a Roman’s hand,

Here the rude Saxon work, and there

How Norman skill did once repair

The ruined churches of the land.

For many a little church can tell

Of other days. The ancient glass

Through which the tinted sunbeams pass

Speaks to us now. You hear the bell.

That told the tale of life and death,

Of marriage feast, of times of prayer,

When they, long dead, were gathered there,

Who sleep the quiet sod beneath.

And many a home of days gone by,

With timber gable richly dight,

And tiny panes, through which the light

Comes slowly stealing from the sky.

Go where you will, you still shall find

Not only homes of old renown,

But quaint old homes in market town,

In streets that ever sway and wind.

The land we live in is a book

In which is written much to read,

And much that to the past will lead.

Go forth, and on it kindly look.

H. R. W.

Forecastings of Nostradamus.

BY C. A. WARD.

_PART III._

(_Continued from Vol. V. p. 293._)

“Hunc solem, et stellas et decedentia certis

Tempora momentis, sunt qui formidine nullâ

Imbuti spectent.”--HOR., I. Epist. vii. 3.

Nostradamus was of a stature somewhat less than middle-size, rather

thick-set, active and vigorous. He had a broad, open forehead, a

straight, regular nose, grey eyes, of gentle appearance, but in anger

flashing fire; the general expression was severe, but pleasant, so that

through all the seriousness one could discern a benevolent disposition;

his cheeks were rosy even in extreme age; he had a long thick beard, and

his health was excellent, all his senses being alert and well-preserved.

His spirits were good, and he comprehended readily whatever he gave his

attention to. His judgment was penetrating, and his memory remarkably

retentive. He was taciturn by nature, thought much and spoke little, was

rather prompt, sudden, and irascible in temper, but very patient when

hard work had to be encountered. He slept four or five hours only out of

the twenty-four. He practised freedom of speech himself and commended it

in others. He was cheerful and facetious in conversation, though in

jesting a little given to bitterness. He was attached, so says De

Chavigny, to the Roman Church, and held fixedly the Catholic faith; out

of its pale there was for him no salvation. Though pursuing a line of

thought entirely his own, he had no sympathy with the Lutheran heretics

of so-called Freethought. He was given to prayer, fasting, and charity.

As far as outward observance was concerned, he might be classed with the

highly respectable and decent. Le Pelletier says, “sa fin fut

Chrétienne;” but he adds a little further on that his style is very much

more like that of the Pagan oracles of Greece and Rome than of the

canonical prophets of Hebrew Inspiration. He remarks that the first

Century opens with a regular incantation fortified by the most

celebrated rites of Paganism, so that some suspicion of his orthodoxy

may well be entertained. Certain it is, for he avows as much in the

dedicatory epistle to Henry II.--which, by the way, the King never

saw--that it was his custom prudently to veil in obscurity of expression

whatever was likely to displease his protectors and so to damage his

private interest. This is not the way with the heroes of Hebrew

prophecy, Isaiah, Elijah, Samuel, but though it is somewhat cowardly, it

becomes, when well reckoned up, a sort of sub-assertion of sincerity;

for why should a man record the unpleasant things at all if he did not

believe in them, and desired only to make himself agreeable? If he

believed his own utterances he was _consciously_ a prophet: that he

threw a veil over them, shows only that he declined to suffer martyrdom

for his convictions. It is quite possible to be a seer, and yet not

heroical, but it is the poorest of criticism not to distinguish between

such frailty as this and imposture. Want of grandeur does not imply any

_intention to deceive_. Modern Freethought effectually breaks down upon

a point like this, it almost invariably classifies the weak spiritualist

as an impostor. It reasons somewhat thus: “Astrologers are

impostors--Nostradamus was an astrologer. Prophets and divines, owing to

the spread of sound knowledge in modern times, are no longer to be

reckoned as inspired, but as impostors; Nostradamus was a prophet and

therefore an impostor. He arrived in the world a thousand years behind

his time, and must lie down now under Scientific and Encyclopædic

ridicule. At the close of the nineteenth century is it likely we can

allow such claims to be made upon our credulity as the more rational

part of the community refused to admit three hundred years ago?” To all

this and to all such processes of reasoning, I need merely say that

there is a credulity of superstition that has been always esteemed as

degrading to human nature; but there is also a superstition of

incredulity that is quite as debasing to human nature and even more so,

for it springs from the folly of pride and conceit, and not, as the

other does, from a misplacement of faith.

By his second wife he left three sons and three daughters. The eldest

was Cæsar, to whom he dedicated his first volume of the “Centuries.” Of

these he wrote twelve in quatrains, and three of them are left

imperfect, the seventh, the eleventh, and twelfth. But he also left some

Forecasts written in prose, which Chavigny collected and arranged in

twelve books. They are said to comprehend the history of France for

about a century after his death--its wars, troubles, and whispered

intrigues. The book is not mentioned by Brunet, 1839-45, and I do not

find it in the British Museum; but the National Library is rather

imperfectly supplied with the literature relating to this remarkable

man; no doubt the authorities there look down upon him from the Olympus

of Bloomsbury with a scientific disregard, as being a sort of gipsy

fortune-teller of the sixteenth century, not worth completing. Do we

expect a Messiah from that quarter? Can there any good thing come out of

Aix in Provence? “Loco exiguo, obscuro, ignobili, barbaro, impio atque

prophano?”

This prose history of a hundred years would be interesting, if only to

compare with the rhymed “Centuries,” which have a much vaster range, and

are supposed by many to cover all the time from Louis XIV. to the

establishment of Antichrist.

Jean de Nostradamus, the brother of Michael, was Procureur to the

Parliament of Aix, and wrote a work entitled “Les vies des plus célèbres

et anciens poëtes provensaux, qui ont floury du tems des contes de

Provence,” Lyon, 1575, a book still sought for, and rather rare. It has

been seen above that Cæsar also wrote on the same subject. His work was

entitled “Chronique de l’Histoire de Provence:” in this he introduced

the lives of the poets, and the book was published in 1614 by his

nephew, Cæsar de Nostradamus.

These are almost all the facts of any importance that are recorded in

the life of Nostradamus. It now remains to us to give some account of

the most remarkable of his forecasts. They may be pronounced obscure,

partial, useless, or what not, according to the special views and

disposition of mind in each reader. That they are very curious must be

admitted by all, and that some of the things foreseen with astounding

particularity are inexplicable upon any hypothesis of reasoning, other

than that which admits either a direct revelation in every case, or a

general anticipatory faculty, forming part of the great scheme of the

mental endowment of mankind. Call it divination, second sight,

clairvoyance, magnetic affinity, or what you will. Everyone may in this

decide, or, if you had rather, guess for himself. I prefer the second

supposition, and think that there are certain organisations, somewhat

rare and peculiarly wrought, that are endowed by nature with a subtle

tact and anticipatory insight denied to the majorities. I further think

that such exceptional instances occur more frequently in people of

ancient and unmixed race, such as the Celt, the Basque, the Chaldean,

Gipsy, and most frequently of all amongst those branches of them that

inhabit mountain-ranges. These I imagine to retain the instincts of the

birth of man more clearly than the mixed tribes that have busied and

even degraded themselves in the social pursuits of money, power, and

art, and have burnt down their souls to a kind of materialistic slag in

the furnace of what is called civilisation.

If man is a creature born to immortality--and certainly no thought is so

congenial to largeness and nobleness of heart as this is--I can see no

reason why he should not have some vision given him of the minor things

to happen on this theatre of the earth, which might serve as a sort of

foretaste of that major light which is to clothe him as with a glorious

garment when he steps forth from this his present condition of earthworm

into that exalted bodily temple that he shall inhabit to all eternity.

Science so-called is free to teach what it chooses: it may level man to

the rank of a turnip by its insidious analysis and gradational

processes. Its business is with the present, and with all its pretence

of intellect it remains of the material earth, earthy. The future is out

of its ken and reach. But the soul, which is the broad, many-sided

reason of man in concrete, and the, so to speak, spiritually

substantialised symbol of it, cannot be shut up to this. Chop logic by

Aristotle’s chaff-cutter, whether handled by a Duncan, a Watts, an

Aldrich, or a Whately, as you please, yet the soul, defies you with its

_absoluteness_, pushes aside induction and the _contingent_ with it, and

laughing at your littlenesses and your petty syllogisms, leaps at one

bound into the incommensurable freedom of the future of eternity.

It now remains for me to show, not that Nostradamus is a grand type of

the order of prophets, not that all the Quatrains in all of the twelve

books of the “Centuries” are intelligible and of definite purpose, nor

that everything he uttered and recorded is to be regarded as a prophecy

either fulfilling or fulfilled. (This is not at all what I propose to

do.) I intend simply to select, without over much attention to

chronology or the sequence of events, such of the quatrains as by

philological apparatus existing are capable of being translated into

simple and intelligible language out of the occult prophetic, barbaric,

and almost always pedantic phraseology (or old Franco-Provençal patois,

if you like to call it so) in which it pleased or suited our prophet in

his _fureur poëtique_[14] to record for us his “nocturnes et

prophétiques supputations” (des astres). In doing this, if one case of

unmistakable prevision can be established, the missing spiritual link is

set up that connects the present with the future.

Christians generally grow almost rancorous against those who reject

_their_ Scripture miracles, as Hume did, on the ground that the laws of

nature being inviolable miracles become impossible; but a miracle that

contravenes a law of nature is far more incredible _per se_ than such a

spiritual link as the above. The miracle of bringing a man to life goes,

so to speak, dead against nature and its laws customary. But a forecast,

as such, is little more miraculous than a telescope that focuses and

brings into range what lies out of the range of the ordinary human eye.

It is really as feasible a thing to the seer, as for you and me to see

that a kitten will become a cat nine months later on. He sees by

imagination what you see by reasoning on association in the past. It is

discovery by a different faculty, I admit. But if Christian belief

accepts a future state and the immortality of the life (commonly called

the _soul_) of man, then I say, that the Christian who denies the gift

of prophecy to be inherent in mankind[15] is really as dead to spiritual

life as if he were a materialistic member of a scientific society of the

nineteenth century, or a Parisian enclycopædist of the eighteenth.

Again, if Christianity be a heaven-descended revelation, its foundations

must be rooted deep in the spiritual world and should be full of

correspondences. The material universe is full of them. There the

meanest particle of dust is link by link connected at last with the

grandest astral phenomena, and can we suppose that men are all possessed

with an immortal spirit, and yet at the same time announce that not

_one_ of them has any prescience, any foreknowledge of things coming on

the earth, no sign rendered from the great unnameable Director, who,

vast and invisible, also dwells in spiritual obscurity, and never gives

an inkling to anyone born of woman that He cares more for an empire with

its myriads of embryo angels (according to the doctrine of the Churches)

than for an oak tree or a medlar? Yet we are willing to make it a point

of virtue to believe that His only Son died for us, and that a whole

line of prophets from Jacob to Caiaphas harped perpetually and in

succession upon the Paganini string of the one great utterance of His

advent. At the birth of Christ it is untruly said that the oracles

stopped. So, according to the present Christian dogmatising, did the

prophets. Would it not be a thousand times more fraught with hope, if we

had not basely smothered such beliefs by materialistic science (or

Atheism, for it is closer of kin to the blasphemy of unbelief), could we

have said there _is_ a spiritual living link of prophecy existing, and

now and again found amongst us; a correspondency in man with the future;

a power in him to forecast it a little, though darkly--as with a dark

lanthorn moving through a dark season--and touching so, through film,

the future of time as to interlink the whole series into one, and make

to-day, perishing--with its bells, its bustle, and its breathing--into a

continuous whole, one with the glories of eternity?

It will perhaps be well before proceeding to the Quatrains to meet an

objection against Nostradamus put forward by the famous Gassendi,[16]

who received it from Jean-Baptiste Suffren. Gassendi, it seems, was at

Salon in 1638, when Jean-Baptiste Suffren, a judge in that town,

communicated to him the horoscope drawn by Nostradamus for his father

Antoine Suffren, and written in our prophet’s _own hand_, giving ten

points, such as he should have a long curly beard, so bent in age, that

in his 37th year he should be wounded by his half-brothers, and he had

none, and much more of the same sort, but invariably wrong, till the

horoscope fixes Suffren’s death in 1618, whereas he died in 1597. Now,

in the first place, Gassendi was of a sceptical turn of mind, so that he

would be glad to find Nostradamus wrong. Then Nostradamus died in 1566,

and only in 1638, seventy-two years after, do they produce this document

and assert that it is in Nostradamus’s handwriting. We may assume that

the MS. was eighty years old at least. Gassendi does not profess to know

his handwriting, but took it to be so on Jean-Baptiste Suffren’s simple

assertion. It is perfectly possible that Suffren had some desire to

ridicule an astrologer, and might have invented the whole thing. At any

rate, it is not likely that _every one_ of ten or eleven guesses would

be precisely the contrary of the fact.[17] One of the clauses ran that

at twenty-five he should cultivate rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry,

theology, natural science, and the occult philosophy. Jean-Baptiste has

the effrontery to say that he studied not one of these, but only the

science of jurisprudence. It is not likely, I say, that Nostradamus

would guess wrongly in all the sciences, and leave out the only one that

the man pursued. This looks as if it had been manufactured for the

express purpose of bringing the name of Nostradamus into ridicule and

disrepute. It is quite certain that the late John Varley, the painter,

could draw some most wonderful horoscopes; a cousin of my father’s, in

whose family he taught, had seen his forecasts marvellously verified. So

correct had he frequently been that at the time she knew him it was with

the greatest difficulty he could be induced to draw one. It is not

likely that Nostradamus would fall so absurdly short of John Varley.

Guessing at haphazard would correspond with the facts better than this

upon the mere doctrine of probabilities. Jean-Baptiste in his haste has

proved too much, and Gassendi, like a multitude of incredulous people,

was quite ready to receive too much of the things for which his mouth

was open and eager.

(_To be continued._)

A Dead Flemish City.

_NOTES OF A VISIT TO DAMME._

BY THE REV. JOSEPH MASKELL.

There are few cities in Europe of greater interest for the intelligent

traveller than Bruges, the “cradle of opulent Flanders,” and the “Venice

of the North.” The student in history, the connoisseur in art, the lover

of antiquity, all find here ample instruction and enjoyment. Even the

superficial traveller, hurrying on to more fashionable localities, but

“doing” Bruges _en route_, as the correct thing, finds much to interest

him in its quaint exteriors, silent canals, and old-world streets, to

say nothing of its many treasures of pictures, sculptures, wood

carvings, and other monuments of antiquity, to be seen only by

penetrating into interiors, and looking deeper than the surface. “A

decayed, dull place, where the grass grows in the streets,” was the

verdict of a fellow-traveller, as the train from Ostend steamed into the

modern Gothic unfinished station of Bruges on a wet day in last July.

Not so. Bruges is neither decayed nor dull, nor does the “grass grow in

its streets.” Gone is the day in which it could be written of the

turbulent Flemish cities--

“Bruges et Gaud, qui toujours, ces bouillonnantes cuves,

Ecclataient à la fois, ainsi que deux Vesuves;”[18]

yet Bruges is still full of a steady kind of life and activity; and, as

one of its intelligent citizens described it, “ce n’est pas ville morte;

c’est une antiquité vivante,” retaining many tokens of the time when the

proud Jeanne of Navarre, the Queen of Philippe le Bel, passing through

streets lined with the palaces of its merchant princes, and observing

the rich clothing of their ladies, cried out, “Je croyais être seule

Reine de France; je vois ici cent reines que valent autant de moi.”

But my visit was not so much to Bruges as to its neighbour and ancient

seaport, Damme. The former, lying so directly in the way of the English

traveller to Brussels and Cologne, is fairly well known; the latter is

known only to a select few. Damme[19], which is now a mere village, with

a commune of less than 1,000 inhabitants, was, four centuries ago, a

busy and prosperous town. It stands on the canal between Bruges and

l’Ecluse, about three miles from the former place. Its full name is

Hondts-Damme, _la digue du Chien_, so called from a circumstance that

attended its origin. Anciently it stood at the head of the Zwyn, an arm

of the North Sea; a broad digue extending from Bruges to Cadsand, made

after a terrible inundation in the twelfth century, kept the waters of

the Zwyn in their proper channel, and upon this digue Damme was built.

The place was originally confined to the huts of the workmen from

Zealand and Holland employed in the construction of the digue; by

degrees it grew into a populous trading town, the convenient spot for a

harbour, seaport, and depôt for merchandise. Its name of Honsdamme is

thus explained. During the construction of the digue the workmen for a

long time could not keep out the sea; as fast as their work proceeded

the returning tides swept it away, till one of them advised that a great

dog, who mysteriously appeared every day on the scene, without any

apparent owner, should be thrown into the water. This done, the sea

became calm, a solid foundation was soon secured for the digue, and the

work rapidly accomplished. Hence the name Hondts-Damme, and the figure

of a dog on the town’s escutcheon. The town dates from the completion of

the digue in 1168; it grew immediately into influence and prosperity. In

1180 it was important enough to secure from Philip of Alsace, Count of

Flanders, a charter of incorporation as an independent commune, under

the government of two burgomasters and four echevins. The Zwyn was then

a broad and deep gulf, protected from sea storms, and affording safe

anchorage for vessels of all kinds. Even down to the seventeenth

century, till the formation of the canal to Ostend, this was the only

channel of communication between Bruges and the sea. In 1213, a fleet of

1,700 ships, equipped by Philippe Augustus of France for the invasion

of England, entered the harbour. The craven fear of King John, and the

intervention of the Count of Flanders having thwarted the designs of

Philippe, the latter, in his rage and disappointment, resolved to carry

the war into Flanders. The fine harbour of Damme, and the wealth of the

town, excited the wonder of the French, who landed and made themselves

masters of the place, and of a rich booty. “Les vins de France et

d’Espagne, les bières anglaises, les laines d’Écosse, les soieries

italiennes et orientales, les toiles, les filés, les attelages de

chariots, les merceries, les épices de toute sorte, les peleteries de

Hongrie, l’etain anglais, le cuivre rouge de Pologne”--these were some

of the riches stored in Damme. Intoxicated with their prey, the French

were easily surprised by an English fleet, under the command of

Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, when 300 of the principal French ships

were captured, and the rest scattered or destroyed. The captured

vessels, laden to the deck with the rich booty, sailed with the

conquerors to carry the joyful news to England. At the same time a

Flemish army from the land side attacked the town, but without success.

The French King, in revenge, set fire to the houses, and Damme was

nearly destroyed. It was, however, quickly rebuilt, and recovered its

prosperity. In 1240 it was admitted into the Hanseatic League, and the

Lombards established banks here. Next year it received fresh privileges

from Count John of Constantinople, and the extension of the canal to

Ghent still further increased its importance. In 1270 its fortifications

were renewed and enlarged. In 1297, during the brief war between England

and France, and in consequence of the alliance between Edward I. and Guy

de Dampierre, Count of Flanders, Damme was again temporarily in the

hands of the French. A combined army of English and Flemish attempted to

re-take the town: but the allies quarrelled over their respective shares

of the plunder, and Edward, withdrawing his forces to Ghent, left to the

Flemings the honour of success. In 1300 it was again assaulted and

captured by the French; but the patriotic Flemings, led by the Brugois,

quickly defeated their enemies and delivered their country. In 1384,

during a war with the French, arising out of the insurrection of

Flanders against the oppression of its Count, Louis le Mâle, the

powerful walls of Damme withstood the attack of a French army, under

Charles VI. It was garrisoned by only 1,500 of the men of Ghent,

commanded by the patriotic Francis Ackerman, and for six weeks held out

against 80,000 of the enemy. The capture of the town was as remarkable

as its subsequent defence. Having received information that the

Governor of Damme and his chief officers were absent at Bruges, Ackerman

marched from Ghent with his little army, scaled the walls by night, and

took the place without difficulty. In the citadel he found seven ladies

of high degree, who had come to visit the Governor’s wife. Ackerman

invited them to a banquet, and paid them every mark of courtesy. “I do

not make war upon women,” he said, “notwithstanding that many of your

nobles have treated the families of the burgesses in a very different

manner.” After a brave defence, scarcity of drinking water and the

non-arrival of the English allies, compelled the brave garrison to

return under cover of the night to Ghent, which they reached in perfect

order and safety.

But another enemy than the French was now silently plotting the

destruction of Damme. The sea had shown signs of retreating from the

Zwyn as early as the fourteenth century, navigation to Sluys became more

and more difficult, and in 1475 the harbour was almost lost in the

sand.[20] Still Damme long retained its outward signs of prosperity. Its

_entrepot_ of wines, founded by Louis de Crescy in 1357, continued till

1565, and its situation rendered it so important as a frontier fortress

and outpost of the Southern Netherlands that possession of it was

frequently disputed. The dissolution of the Hanseatic League in the

sixteenth century and the partition of the Netherlands by the

consolidation of the Northern provinces into the Dutch Republic, which

strengthened the power and developed the commercial importance of

Holland to the prejudice of Belgium, all helped to hasten the decay of

Damme as a commercial town. In 1637 the Dutch occupied the place during

the war of Holland with Spain arising out of the fruitless treaty

between Richelieu and the United Provinces for the partition of the

Spanish Netherlands. By the Treaty of Westphalia it was restored to

Flanders, and the boundaries between the two Netherlands were left

unaltered. In 1706 it was taken by Marlborough without a struggle, for

the Flemings everywhere welcomed the allies and submitted to the

authority of the English, although it was not very judiciously

exercised. The Barrier Treaty, signed at Antwerp in 1715, finally

secured that Damme should be included within the Austrian Netherlands,

but, except from its situation close to the frontier, the town had now

lost all its importance. Thus the decay of Damme was not less rapid than

its rise, and its fall as remarkable and complete as was its opulence

and greatness. From being a flourishing maritime town it has become only

an inland village. The ancient harbour, where 1,500 ships could ride

safely at anchor, is now a corn-field; its broad quays, stately

warehouses, and fortified walls cannot be traced even in outline; its

streets, once crowded with merchants and their goods, are now deserted:

indeed it is difficult to realise that this slumbering village was ever

awake. _Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit._ But there are not wanting signs

of a departed greatness. The Hotel de Ville still occupies a prominent

position in the Place, and though much neglected and injudiciously

restored it is yet an object of beauty. It was founded in 1242, but the

present building is of the fourteenth century. It is constructed in

white stone, rectangular in shape, with small turrets at each corner. A

double stair conducts to an elegant porch, much disfigured, but still

quaint and interesting. On entering the building the first room that we

see to the left is an _estaminet_, quite humble in character. Behind

this is the Salle de Justice, still used by the communal authorities,

and the remaining room is now a kitchen. On the oaken and cedar roof

there are carvings of the Blessed Virgin and other saints, King David,

and Van Maerlandt, “the Flemish Chaucer.” There are also some curious

fire-tongs and fire-dogs, an enormous chimney corner, and some faded

pictures and inscriptions. The crypt, partly a store-room and partly a

stable, is striking, but very dirty and neglected. In the quaint central

tower there are two ancient bells.

The church, dedicated to Notre Dame, is built throughout of grey bricks,

and is a noble monument in ruins. It was begun in 1180, but the chief

part of the present structure belongs to the fourteenth century. The

work of destruction was begun by the Dutch Calvinists, who set fire to

the church in 1578; the growing poverty of the town prevented repairs,

till the transepts and part of the nave were destroyed in 1725. The

walls of the ruined nave are left standing, leaving the massive and

lofty tower nearly isolated from the main body of the church. The choir

only is used for service. It is a fine relic, but sadly spoiled by

whitewash. The west door is in the modern brick wall which shuts in the

choir, beneath what was once the roof-screen, but now serves as the

organ gallery. The monuments of the dead are few; several matrices of

brasses remain, and a few modern tombs. A very fine memorial of Jacques

van Maerlandt, “the father of Flemish poetry,” and a native of Damme,

was destroyed by an ignorant curé about half a century ago. The poet

died in 1300, and is buried at the base of the tower. His memorial was

very curious. He was seated on a chair with an owl by his side, wearing

spectacles and reading from a book supported on an eagle lectern. To

atone somewhat for the destruction of the monument there is a poor

statue of the poet in front of the Hotel de Ville.

In this church, in 1429, was celebrated the marriage of Philip le Bon

with Isabella of Portugal, and on the 9th July, 1468, that of the

unfortunate Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, with Margaret of York,

sister of Edward IV. Her brother brought her hither with a considerable

fleet, and many of the English nobility in her train, from Margate. They

landed at Sluys, where the Duke met her and went through the ceremony of

betrothal. The town of Damme received her with many tokens of welcome.

As she passed through the streets every householder stood at his door

carrying a blazing torch, and from this town the bride and bridegroom

made their festive entrance into Bruges on the day following the

wedding.

There is still in Damme a small hospital dedicated to St. John, founded

by Margaret of Constantinople in the twelfth century.

I visited Damme towards the end of July last year. The road lies through

the town of Bruges, past the Episcopal Seminary, and out of the Porte de

Damme, along the canal, a perfectly straight line, bordered with poplars

and with corn-fields on each side. In scenery of this kind there is a

certain sense of repose and of general, though not brilliant,

prosperity, but the eye of an artist is needed to extract beauty out of

so many straight lines and such formal regularity. Many of the fields

are planted with colza, which is said to look very gay when in flower.

It was the annual horse fair of Bruges, and the scene was busy, but it

could hardly be called picturesque or lively, with the multitude of

peasants accompanied by young colts as “stolid, stubborn, and sturdy” as

themselves. Harvesting operations were proceeding with the sickle in a

very leisurely manner, and the mode of tying up the sheaves, till they

looked as if they were only bundles of straw with the corn cut off the

top, seemed very primitive. Altogether it was a scene not to be

forgotten. The world here, instead of advancing, seems to have gone back

several centuries, and there are fewer signs of progressive civilisation

than when Bruges was, in fact, the “Venice of the North,” and Damme its

busy sea-port.

The importance of Damme in the middle ages is shown by the fact that the

Judgments or Customs of Oleron, out of which the maritime laws of the

nations of Europe are derived, and which were said to have been brought

by our Richard I. on his return from the Crusades, were generally called

“Le droit maritime de Damme.” But the Flemish laws were merely a

translation of the original customs.

Visitors to Damme should extend their excursion to the cathedral-like

and judiciously restored church of Lisseweghe, with its noble thirteenth

century tower. This village is within an easy walk of the watering-place

of Blankenberghe, where once more the modern world may be studied in

some of its brightest and most amusing aspects.

The Dignity of a Mayor: or, Municipal Insignia of Office.[21]

BY R. S. FERGUSON, F.S.A., MAYOR OF CARLISLE 1881-2 AND 1882-3.

_PART I._

Those members of the Archæological Institute who attended the Congress

held at Carlisle in 1882, will recollect that, though the mayor of

Carlisle did not exactly blow his own trumpet, yet he was rarely seen

without his trumpeter in immediate attendance. They may possibly,

therefore, have set down to his credit a disposition to magnify the

dignity of an office to which he, however unworthy, has been a second

time elected. Indeed, they would not be far wrong; and he must admit

that his recreations during office took the form of a research into

MUNICIPAL PAGEANTRY AND MUNICIPAL HERALDRY.

These are very large subjects indeed, and I cannot now undertake to

grapple with them. I am glad to say that my valued friend, Mr. Lewellinn

Jewitt, has _seisin_ of them both; and that he is preparing for

publication an exhaustive treatise on “The Corporation Plate and

Insignia of Office of all the Cities and Corporate Towns of Great

Britain.”

I propose merely to gossip a bit about MUNICIPAL INSIGNIA OF OFFICE; to

make a few remarks as to what they mean, under what authority they are,

or have been assumed; and to bring under your notice a few examples.

Under the term MUNICIPAL INSIGNIA I include _Rods_ or _Wands_ of office;

_Maces_, both great and small; _Swords_ of _Honour_ or _State_; _Caps_

of _Estate_ or _Maintenance_; _Chains_ and _Badges_, both of Mayors’ and

of other officials; _Rings_ and _Robes_; _Halberts_, _Horns_, and

_Constables’ Staves_.

“Few people,” writes Mr. Llewellinn Jewitt, “have even the most

remote idea of the amount of artistic wealth, of antiquarian

treasure, and of historical relics possessed by and lying hidden

away in the strongholds and chests of the various corporate bodies

of this kingdom. The corporations ... are rich beyond compare in

works in the precious metals, in emblems of state and civic

dignity, in relics of mediæval pageantry, in badges and insignia of

various offices, and in seals and records of different periods.”

The neglect with which these treasures have been treated is astounding.

The reformed corporations of 1837 despised Municipal Pageantry; many

actually sold their insignia for the best prices they would fetch, as

“relics of the barbarous ages,” to use the words of a mayor of the town

of Maidenhead. Others discarded the use of their insignia, and their

existence was almost forgotten. A reaction, however, set slowly in. The

Great Exhibition of 1851 caused some places, Nottingham for one, to

provide their mayors with chains, in order to attend at the opening.

Other places were induced to buy new, or furbish up old insignia on the

occasions of Royal visits. During the International Exhibition of 1862 a

loan collection, but on a small scale, was formed, to which several

corporations contributed their maces and other objects.

In the year 1874, the Royal Archæological Institute presented to the

mayor of Exeter a chain of office, in commemoration of the Congress held

at Exeter in the previous year. This excited so much interest that the

Council of the Institute, in 1875, entertained the idea of holding in

London an exhibition of chains of office and other municipal insignia. A

committee was formed, and circulars were sent to nearly 600 municipal

bodies, asking for information as to their insignia, and as to the

possibility of their being exhibited in London. About 300 replies were

received; but in those about one-half neglected to describe their

insignia, or contented themselves by saying they were “_old and_ OF NO

VALUE.” In fact, the municipalities still lacked proper education on the

subject, for some of those that replied in the above terms possess most

valuable insignia, as also do some that did not answer at all.

Difficulties arose, many municipalities “did not see their way” to the

loan of their insignia, and so the proposed exhibition was, temporarily

as I hope, abandoned. But the attention thus drawn to the subject had

good results; it awakened an intelligent interest in the treasures

possessed by various corporations, and Mr. Llewellinn Jewitt seems to

have had less difficulty in getting information than the Institute

found. In the years 1880, 1881, and 1882, he published in the _Art

Journal_ a series of most interesting and beautifully illustrated

articles, on CORPORATION PLATE AND INSIGNIA OF OFFICE, shortly to be

developed into the book which I have already mentioned.

Now it must not be supposed that a municipality can of its own free will

adopt any insignia it pleases. On the contrary, the right to use certain

insignia, such as maces, swords of state, &c., requires to have been

conferred by special charter or royal donation, or else to be based upon

prescription of such duration that a lost special charter or a forgotten

royal donation may be presumed. Thus at Carlisle, where we possess a

great mace, several sergeants’ maces, and a sword of state, our

governing charter--of the time of Charles I.--authorises us to have

three sergeants-at-mace, who are--

“To carry and bear maces of gold or silver, and engraved and

adorned with the sign of the arms of this our Kingdom of England,

everywhere within the said City of Carlisle, the limits and

liberties of the same, before the Mayor of the said city for the

time being.”

This was merely the confirmation of an older custom, for we have a set

of sergeants’ maces of older date than this charter, as well as a set of

about this date. The charter also authorises us to have a sword-bearer,

“Portator gladii nostri coram Mayore,” a bearer of our sword (the King’s

sword) before the Mayor. Thus, we have special authority by charter for

our sword of honour, and our sergeants’ maces, but none of our charters

mention our great mace or authorise us to have an official to bear it.

But our great mace was given us by Colonel James Graham, Privy Purse to

King James II., and I presume that no one will now object to our using

it, and to our having an official to carry it. For robes and a chain I

fancy no special authority at all is necessary; they are part of the

idea of a mayor, and he may assume them or not as his corporation or he

please to do. And, further, he may appear in them outside of his

jurisdiction, as at the Mansion House. But his maces and sword (if he

has one) he cannot with propriety display outside of his jurisdiction,

and I should, as Mayor of Carlisle, resent bitterly the intrusion into

that ancient city of a strange mayor with mace and sword, even of my

Lord Mayor of London, unless he should prove his right from charter to

carry them in Carlisle. The Templars never allowed the Lord Mayor to

appear in state within their precincts.

Different views have been held as to the origin of the mace. Some have

supposed that the regal sceptre, the ecclesiastical virgo or verge, and

the civic mace, all had their origin in the simple emblem of

straightness and integrity of rule, consisting of a plain slender rod

anciently borne before kings and high public functionaries, and retained

to the present day as an official badge by sheriffs and attendants in

courts of justice. The other, and I venture to think the better idea, is

that the civic mace is derived from the military weapon of that name,

which itself is derived from a simple club or stick. The civic mace is

nothing but the military one turned upside down. At one end of an early

mace you have the flanged blades of the military weapon, at the other on

a small bowl-like head the royal arms, the emblem of authority. In a

mace of later date the military part, the flanges, survive only as a

small button, while the bowl, on which are the royal arms, swells, until

the peaceful end is itself capable of dealing a heavy blow.

In support, however, of the rod idea, I may mention that the Mayor of

Carlisle always on state occasions carries a white rod, an ordinary

white stick of deal. This is a very ancient custom. A Captain, a

Lieutenant, and an Ancient, all of Norwich, who visited Carlisle in

1634, say of that place:--

“It makes shifte to maintain a Mayor, distinguished by his white

staff, and twelve Aldermen his brethren, _sans_ cap of maintenance,

but their blew bonnets which they are as proud in as our southerne

citizens in their beavers.”

The blue bonnets would be the ordinary head-gear of the local gentry,

and of the Aldermen thus dressed more than one was of knightly rank and

of high degree. The Mayor of Berwick had also a staff, and when James I.

came to the English throne he sent the Abbot of Holyrood to secure the

allegiance of the Mayor of Berwick, by which town he travelled into

England. The Mayor’s staff and the keys of the gates were delivered to

the Abbot, and immediately returned to the Mayor.

At Newark the Mayor carries a black rod with a gold head. At Marazion

and at Wigan he carries a staff with a silver head; at Guildford ebony

with silver top. Other instances probably exist, while various

bailiffs’, head boroughs’, and other staffs are only varieties of the

same idea. In the City of London this staff is represented by the Lord

Mayor’s jewelled sceptre.

The mace with the royal arms thereon (and no civic mace is a proper

civic mace unless it has the royal arms thereon) is the symbol of the

power of the central government in municipal matters, and when borne

before the mayor denotes that to him and to his colleagues is entrusted

the government of their community. It is, in fact, the symbol of that

which all Englishmen are proud of--local self-government.

The committee of the Royal Archæological Institute, who indexed the

returns obtained in 1875, divided maces into two classes, great and

small, but the proper and better division is into mayors’ maces and

sergeants’ maces, though the two nearly correspond. I define as a great

mace, or mayor’s mace, one whose _raison d’être_ is to be carried before

the mayor in procession, and to be displayed beside him in church or in

court. The great mace is the insignia of the mayor. The sergeants’ maces

are the insignia of the sergeants-at-mace; these maces are also carried

before the mayor, but that is because it is part of the sergeants’ duty

to precede and attend him in civic processions.

The maces belonging to sergeants-at-mace are generally small, from six

to eighteen inches long, and the reason of their being of this small

size comes from the use they were put to. The sergeants-at-mace were the

officers of the mayor’s court; they served the processes of the court,

which were not in the form of written summonses, but were actually

delivered verbally, and by a sergeant-at-mace, who produced the mace and

showed it as his authority. For convenience, he carried it in his

pocket, and at Carlisle, prior to 1837, the gowns of the

sergeants-at-mace had pockets in them for this purpose. At Scarborough,

the sergeants-at-mace wore their maces in their official gowns, and at

Stafford they carried them in their girdles. Hence convenience

necessitated that the sergeants’ maces should be of small size; for the

same reason they are generally without the open crowns, surmounted by

orb and cross, which were added to most great maces after the

Restoration. It would be difficult to pocket and unpocket a mace with a

crowned head. Of course, there are exceptions to all rules. Yarmouth has

a mayor’s mace of very small size, but the reason applies: it is called

the pocket mace, and is intended to be carried in the mayor’s pocket, so

that he always may have evidence of his authority about him. There was

no such reason for making the other maces of small size; nay, the bigger

they are, the grander, and the great mace of the City of London is 5 ft.

3 in. long. My own great mace at Carlisle is 4 ft. 2 in., while the

maces carried by my sergeants are only about 9 in.

It is quite certain that a municipality cannot have sergeants-at-mace

(and therefore cannot have their maces) without a special authorisation

by charter. The sergeants-at-mace were originally the peculiar

body-guard of the king, and the granting permission to a municipality to

have sergeants-at-mace is a high mark of honour. In the case of old

corporations, the right to a great mace will originally have been

acquired in the same way, or else by a royal present of a mace, but a

great mace has now come to be an essential which every place that has a

mayor can with propriety adopt.

Even during the Commonwealth much importance was attached to maces; in

1649, Parliament ordered the royal arms to be taken off them, and those

of the Commonwealth substituted. This was not done at Carlisle; but, in

1650, three new maces were bought for the sergeants at a charge of £12.

After the Restoration the royal arms were again restored, and the

Carlisle maces were sent to Newcastle to be altered.

(_To be continued._)

The History of Gilds.

BY CORNELIUS WALFORD, F.S.S., _Barrister-at-Law_.

_PART IV._

CHAPTER XXXIII.--_The Gilds of Lincolnshire_--(_Continued_).

LINCOLN.--The Gilds of this ancient ecclesiastical city are of much

interest: some of them present a combination of the Social and the Craft

Gilds.

_Gild of the Fullers of Lincoln._--“This Gild was founded on the Sunday

before the feast of the Apostles Philip and James, A.D. 1297, by all the

bretheren and sisteren of the Fullers in Lincoln.” A wax light to be

burnt before the cross on procession days. Directions as to who shall

work at certain operations. Half-holidays on Saturdays; and no work on

festivals. Outsiders may work at the trade on making small payments. A

payment to be made before learning the trade. No thief shall stay in the

Gild. On death of any member, bread to be given to the poor. “If any

brother or sister is going on a pilgrimage to Sts. Peter and Paul

[Rome], if it is a Sunday or other festival day, all the bretheren and

sisteren shall go in company with him outside the city as far as the

Queen’s Cross, and each shall give him a halfpenny or more; and when he

comes back, if, as before said, it is a Sunday or other festival day,

and he has let them know of his coming, all the bretheren and sisteren

shall meet at the same cross, and go with him to the monastery.” Penalty

for not keeping Ordinances. Help shall be given to those in want; but

the money must be repaid before death or after. Lights and offerings on

death. There were some new Ordinances added later, viz., allowances to

officers; allowance for collecting moneys. Officers not serving to be

fined. New members to pay to the Dean a penny.

_Gild of the Tailors of Lincoln_, founded 1328.--A procession shall be

had every year. Payment on entrance, a quarter of barley, and xij_d._

“to the ale.” Help to the poor--7d. per week. Burials for poor members,

“according to the rank of him who is dead.” Pilgrims to the Holy Land or

to Rome to receive a halfpenny from each member, and processions to be

formed. Services for those dying outside the city. Bequests to be made

to Gild according to means, “v_s._ or xl_d._, or what he will.” Fee to

chaplain. Four general meetings every year. Payment to the Gild when any

master tailor takes an apprentice. Quarrels to be arranged; whoever will

not abide judgment of Gild to be put out. On feast days ale to be given

to the poor. Burial rites. If any master knowingly takes a sewer who has

wrongfully left another master, he shall be fined. Payment of vj_d._ to

the Guild for every sewer employed by master. A dole to be given yearly

by every brother and sister for distribution in charity. Fines for not

serving offices.

_Gild of the Tylers [Poyntours] of Lincoln_, founded 1346.--New members

to make themselves known to “Graceman,” and pay a quarter of barley,

ij_d._ to the ale, and i_d._ to the Dean. Four “soul-candles” shall be

found and used in services. Feasts and prayers, and ale for the poor.

Help to the pilgrims. Burials provided. One brother shall not unfairly

meddle with the craft-work of another. All men of this craft in Lincoln

shall join the Gild.

_Gild of St. Michael on the Hill_, founded on Easter Eve, 1350.--On the

death of a brother “soul-candles” shall be burned and the banner of the

Gild shall be taken to his house, and borne thence to church. There

shall be a Gild feast. At the end the Ordinances shall be read and

expounded; and flagons of ale shall be given to the poor. Absentees may

rejoin the Gild on making payments. “And whereas this Gild was founded

by folks of common and middling rank, it is ordained that no one of the

rank of Mayor or Bailiff shall become a brother of the Gild, unless he

is found to be of humble, good, and honest conversation, and is admitted

by the choice and common consent of the bretheren and sisteren of the

Gild. And none such shall meddle in any matter, unless specially

summoned; nor shall such a one take on himself any office in the Gild.

He shall, on his admission, be sworn before the bretheren and sisteren,

to maintain and keep the Ordinances of the Gild. And no one shall have

any claim to office in this Gild on account of the honour and dignity of

his personal rank.” Help to poor bretheren shall be daily given, in

turn, by the Gild bretheren.

The Ordinances of this Gild were very lengthy; the main features only

are here noticed.

_Gild of the Resurrection of our Lord_, founded at Easter, 1374.--Every

brother and sister at entrance shall pay iv_d._ to the ale and 1_d._ to

the wax; and also every year xiij_d._ by four separate payments in the

year. Those in arrear to pay a pound of wax. Lights to be kept burning

from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. A hearse-frame, with lights, angels,

and banners, shall be put over the body of every dead brother; and other

services be done. Help to poor bretheren, “if not through his own fault,

by wasting his goods in unlawful uses,”--every member paying 2d. in the

year to all impoverished. Fine on officers not serving. Holders of loans

to bring them before the “Gracemen” every year. Mass and offerings for

the dead. At the annual feast the Ordinances to be read. After dinner,

grace, the Lord’s Prayer, &c., names of all dead bretheren and sisteren

shall be read over, and the _De Profundis_ said for their souls.

Pilgrims to Rome, St. James of Galacia, or the Holy Land, to give

notice, and receive contributions of one halfpenny from each member,

with escort to city gate. Burials of poor bretheren. Surety for goods of

Gild. Punishment to those who rebel against the Gild.

_Gild of St. Benedict_, “founded [date not stated] in honour of God

Almighty, and of the blessed Virgin Mary, and of our Lord Jhesu Christ,

in the parish of St. Benedict.” As many poor shall be fed as there are

members of the Gild. Pilgrims to the Holy Land, St. James’s, or to Rome,

provided for. Services on deaths within the city, and bread given to the

poor; and services on deaths outside the city. Help to poor bretheren.

At the feast, when ale is poured out, prayer shall be said, and tankards

of ale shall be given to the poor. New members on entering the Gild to

pay 6s. 8d., in two instalments. “Morn-speeches” shall be held; and

accounts then given by all who have any goods of the Gild on loan. On

the Sunday after the feast another morn-speech to be made. Officers

chosen and not serving to pay fine. Penalty if one member wrongs

another, and for not coming to meetings.

There was also a _Gild of Minstrels and Players_ in this city,

concerning which we have no exact details.

=Sleaford.=--This ancient town had a Gild--the Holy Trinity Gild--of great

renown. The date of its establishment is unknown; but many circumstances

point to its having been founded soon after the Conquest. It must have

been in existence before the commencement of the Patent Rolls in the

reign of King John, or mention of the conveyance of its property to the

brothers in mortmain would be found, as in the case of Boston and other

Gilds. It was a rich Gild, having an income of £80 per annum in 1477,

when the mention of it occurs. This would be equivalent to £800 at the

present day. The Gild was under the management of the principal people

in the place; and was famous for its miracle plays, mysteries, and

sacred shows. Perhaps these were next in repute to those of York. There

does not appear to have been anything sufficiently distinctive about

these to call for detailed note, except as will be immediately stated.

In 1837 there was published: “History of the Holy Trinity Guild at

Sleaford, with an Account of its Miracle Plays, Religious Mysteries, and

Shows, as practised in the Fifteenth Century; and an Introduction

delineating the changes that have taken place in the Localities of Heath

and Fen, Castle and Mansion, Convent and Hall, within the District about

Sleaford since that period. To which is added an Appendix, detailing the

Traditions which still prevail, and a description of the Lincoln

Pageants exhibited during the visit of King James to that City. The

whole illustrated by copious notes, critical, historical, and

explanatory.” By the Rev. G. Oliver, D.D., M.A.S.E., Vicar of Scopwick,

&c., Lincoln. 8vo., pp. 135.

The author refers to the fact (p. 61) that all the public amusements of

the times were interwoven with religion, and placed under the

superintendence of Gilds, by which they were conducted and brought to

perfection. “From the most remote period of time the inhabitants of

Sleaford and the vicinity practised under that high sanction the

diversions which were common to every period of the English monarchy,

from the minstrels or joculators in the reign of Athelston, through the

routine of tournaments, the lord of misrule, church ales, Corpus Christi

plays, and the frolics of the boy-bishop in the ages of chivalry, the

bull and bear baitings, the holk, and the mummeries of Henry VIII. and

Elizabeth, down to the bulls and other diversions of the present day.”

Concerning the “frolics of the boy-bishop,” we may take the following

account from the same author: “There exists presumptive evidence that

the ceremony of the Episcopus Puerorum was celebrated at Sleaford;

although it was somewhat unusual out of the limits of a cathedral or

collegiate church; for in digging a grave in Leasingham Churchyard, a

diminutive coffin stone was found in the year 1826, only 2½ feet long by

12 inches broad. It was prismatic, and adorned with a beautiful cross

fleury in relief; and undoubtedly formed a covering to the sarcophagus

of a boy-bishop, who died during the continuance of his ephemeral

authority. And in the church of Quarrington, at the east end of the

north aisle, is an unusually small chapel not more than four feet

square, which one cannot but think was intended for the ministration of

this juvenile functionary. The solemnity of the episcopus puerorum,

though it may appear trifling in these days, was conducted with great

pomp. A boy was elected on St. Nicholas’s Day, who was remarkable for

personal beauty, to sustain the high office of a bishop until the 28th

day of the same month. He made a solemn procession to the church,

attended by many other boys, arrayed in priestly habiliments; and there,

dressed in splendid robes, decorated with costly ornaments, and covered

with his mitre, he presided with all the solemnity of an actual bishop,

during the performance of divine worship. After which he made a

collection from house to house, which was boldly demanded as the

bishop’s subsidy; and he is said to have possessed such unlimited power

that all the prebends which fell vacant during his presidency were at

his disposal. If he chanced to die in that period he was entitled to all

the honours of episcopal interment, and a monument was assigned to

convey the remembrance of his honours to posterity.”

Strype expresses the opinion that this ceremony was sometimes adopted

even in small parish churches; he does not say whether with or without

Gild observances.

It has been supposed that a _Gild of Minstrels_ existed at Sleaford, but

no evidence of the fact is available.

=Stamford.=--There is the record of one Gild in this ancient town, viz.:

_Gild of St. Katherine._--The Ordinances before us bear date 1494; but

they are only a re-affirmation of those of a much greater antiquity.

The Gild is to abide for ever. Services to be attended by all the

bretheren on St. Katherine’s Eve and St. Katherine’s Day. All shall meet

in the hall of the Gild, and the Alderman shall ask new-comers as to

their willingness; and they shall take oath of fealty to God, Sts. Mary

and Katherine, and the Gild; and shall also swear to pay scot and bear

lot, and to keep the Ordinances of the Gild. They shall be lovingly

received, and drink a bout, and so go home. Meetings to be held at 1

o’clock on St. Leonard’s Day, or the next Sunday, to deal with the

affairs of the Gild. There shall be a grand dinner in the Gild-hall once

a year. After dinner an account to be given by every officer. Officers

chosen and not serving to be fined. Gildmen must be of good repute, and

pay vi_s._ and viij_d._ on entering, spread over four years, and

afterwards ij_d._ a year for “Waxshote.” Peals of bells to be rung at

and after prayers for the souls of the dead; and the ringers to have

bread, cheese, and ale. Services and ringings on death of Gildsmen.

There were four other Gild-returns from this town. The Gild of St.

Martin has every year a bull; hunts it; sells it; and then feasts. The

old custom was kept up in the eighteenth century. See Strutt’s “Sports

and Pastimes.”

=Village Gilds.=--There were many Gilds in the villages of this county.

One example will suffice to show the nature of their regulations.

_Gild of Kyllyngholm_, founded before 1310.--When a brother or a sister

dies, four bretheren shall offer a penny, and each sister shall give a

halfpenny loaf. “If a brother or sister is unlucky enough to lose a

beast worth half a mark, every brother and every sister shall give a

halfpenny towards getting another beast.” “If the house of any brother

or sister is burnt by mishap, every brother and sister shall give a

halfpenny towards a new house.” “Moreover, if the house of any brother

or sister is broken into by robbers, and goods carried off worth half a

mark, every brother and every sister shall give a halfpenny to help

him.” If one has a guest, and he cannot buy ale, he shall have a gallon

of the Gild’s best brewing. But the Gild will not allow any tricks in

this direction. Whoever is chosen Provost must serve, or must pay.

The Fountaine Collection.

THE months of June and July saw the dispersal, by Messrs. Christie, of

the celebrated collection of art treasures formed by Sir Andrew

Fountaine in the early part of the last century, and added to by his

descendant, Mr. Andrew Fountaine, who died in 1873. In connection with

this dispersion, a step was taken which is perhaps without precedent in

the history of English art sales. A number of amateurs, joined by a few

dealers, had subscribed to a guarantee fund, out of which many purchases

were made. The object of this proceeding was chiefly to allow some of

the most precious objects to pass eventually into our public museums. It

would, indeed, be lamentable if nothing of what was finest in the

Fountaine collection found a resting-place in our national museums. The

occasions are extremely rare on which a Syndicate can be invited to

relieve our public authorities of the task of speedy decision. There was

a warm expression of hearty support whenever it was thought that the

Syndicate had been successful, and the higher the price realised the

louder was the applause.

The first lot which attracted spirited bidding was a magnificent Faenza

plate, with grotesque masks, cupids, trophies of arms, and musical

instruments, a satyr on the left playing on a pipe, dated 1508. The

first bid for this plate, which was only 10¾ in. diameter, was £100.

After some spirited bidding it was secured by M. Lowengard, of Paris,

for £920, amid applause. A Faenza dish, with the entombment of Christ,

from Albert Durer, dated 1519, sold for 135 guineas, being bought by Mr.

Robinson, presumedly for the Syndicate. An Urbino plate in a sunk

centre--two cupids supporting a coat of arms and other figures--by

Nicola da Urbino, was sold for 375 guineas; a Faenza dish, with sunk

centre, surrounded with a wreath of fruit and foliage--subject, a bear

hunt, from a very early Italian print, by an unknown master--210

guineas; a Pesaro lustred dish, £270; another Pesaro lustred dish, 250

guineas; an Urbino dish, 300 guineas; a large dish with sunk centre,

probably Castel Durante ware, 360 guineas (the Syndicate); an Urbino

pilgrim’s bottle, 240 guineas; an Urbino dish, 330 guineas (Mannheim); a

dish, subject the “Last Supper,” 115 guineas; a Faenza dish from the

Bernal collection, 620 guineas (Martin); an Urbino oval dish, the centre

subject the Children of Israel gathering Manna, 240 guineas (Tuck);

another Urbino oval dish, 240 guineas (Lowengard); an Urbino dish,

Marcus Curtius on a white horse, 307 guineas (Hainauer); a large deep

dish “The Taking of Troy,” 310 guineas (Hainauer); an Urbino ewer,

Venus, Vulcan, and two cupids, 550 guineas. A splendid Urbino dish,

beautifully painted with the Children of Israel gathering manna, was

secured by the Syndicate at 1,270 guineas. A pair of Urbino pilgrims’

bottles fetched 450 guineas. 430 guineas was paid for a pair of

salt-cellars in coloured enamels, and 800 guineas for a Limoges

fountain, 9 inches high. Of the Henri Deux ware, there were but three

pieces. The first of these, a small flambeau of architectural design,

and somewhat severe in ornament, was put up at 1,000 guineas, and it

eventually fell to the bid of 3,500 guineas. The next piece, a Mortier à

Cire, fell for 1,500 guineas, and the last, a small Biberon, formed as a

vase with handles on each side and across the cover, sold for 1,010

guineas. An antique ewer, by Jean Courtois, realised 2,300 guineas; a

large deep sunk oval dish, of Limoges work, also attributed to Jean

Courtois, fetched 2,800 guineas; whilst another oval dish, signed with

the initials of the same artist, was sold for 760 guineas. Some of the

ivory carvings realised exceptionally high prices, notably a horn, of

Italian (or more probably French) work, carved most beautifully in

cinque cento style, which fell into the hands of M. Egger for 4,240

guineas. Large sums were also realised for the armour and arms, of which

there were several fine examples.

The greatest lot of the sale, however, was the splendid enamel of

Leonard Limousin, of which much has been said and written in eulogy, and

to witness the sale of which, as the _Times_ remarked, all the world

came to Christie’s. This is thus described in the catalogue: A large

oval dish, with sunk centre. Raphael’s “Supper of the Gods,” in coloured

enamels on a dark-blue ground, is used to introduce the portraits of

Henry II. King of France in the centre, Catherine de Medicis on one side

of him, and Diana of Poictiers, with yellow hair, black cap and feather,

on the other side. The portrait of Anne de Montmorency, Constable of

France, is introduced as Hercules, the female and Cupid by his side are

probably his wife and child, the figure to the left in an ermine mantle

may be the Emperor; in the background are three winged females bringing

fruit, all the other figures are probably portraits, and are finished

with the care of miniature painting; on the top are the arms of Anne de

Montmorency, with his coronet and order of St. Michael; the border is

surrounded with boys at play entwined with wreaths of fruit and flowers,

the back is richly covered with masks, fruit, and flowers, arabesque

figures in grisaille and scroll-work in gold; signed “Leonard Limousin,

1555. 19¼ in. by 16⅜ in.” The piece is specially described as in this

Fountaine collection by Count Laborde in his great work on enamels in

the Louvre collection. It was put up at 2,000 guineas, and at once the

biddings went on by 500 up to 5,100 guineas, at which there was a pause

among the four or five bidders, who were, as far as we could observe,

MM. Gauchez, Wertheimer, Coureau, Thibaudeau, and Boore. M. Wertheimer

then led the contest again, and soon distanced all his competitors with

his final bid of 7,000 guineas, at which the hammer fell.

The sum total realised by the four days’ sale of the miscellaneous

articles was £91,112 17s., a sum which is nearly double that which is

said to have been offered for the collection _en bloc_ by the dealers.

In the great Bernal sale 4,098 lots yielded £62,690 18s.; in this 565

lots gave half as much again. In the Strawberry-hill sale (1842) of

twenty-four days, only £30,000 was realised, omitting the Cellini Bell

and the Raphael Missal, which were “bought in.” So that George Robins’s

grandiloquent description of that collection as “the most distinguished

gem that has ever adorned the annals of auctions” must be taken with

some reserve for the future.

The sale of the prints and drawings belonging to the Fountaine

collection occupied four days. Among the more important lots were Albert

Dürer’s “Knight and Death,” 50 guineas (Colnaghi), and the “Judgment of

Paris,” £45 (Thibaudeau); “Christ on the Cross, with Saints,” £91

(Meder); “The Incense Burner,” £151 (Meder); “The Virgin,” £46 (Meder);

two studies--a female head and an infant Christ--in silver point, £125

(Thibaudeau); a small highly-finished study of woman holding a piece of

linen, £210 (Salting); two heads of women asleep, in silver point, £180

(Thibaudeau). This portion of the sale realised £5,166 1s., which

swelled the grand total up to £96,278 18s.

Collectanea.

WATER SUPPLY OF LONDON IN THE MIDDLE AGES.--The first enterprising

Londoner who introduced conduit water to his premises was a tradesman of

Fleet-street. In a record of 1478, it is mentioned that “a wax-chandler

in Flete-strete had by crafte perced a pipe of the condit withynne the

ground, and so conveied the water into his selar: wherefore he was

judged to ride through the citie with a condit uppon his hedde,” and the

City Crier was to walk before him proclaiming his offence.--_Builder._

Reviews.

_A Story of Stourton and other Wiltshire Tales: told in Verse._ By

W. G. BENHAM. Simpkin, Marshall & Co.

THIS little work is an ingenious attempt to tell in lively verse several

popular Wiltshire traditions of considerable antiquarian interest. The

writer seems to have taken pains to present the traditions in as

accurate a form as possible, and assures us that “all available

manuscripts and other authorities have been carefully consulted.” There

is much in the versification to remind us of the “Ingoldsby Legends.”

_Histoire de l’Art dans l’Antiquité._ Par GEORGES PERROT, Membre de

l’Institut, et CHARLES CHIPIEZ, Architecte du Gouvernement. 8vo.

Vol. II. Chaldée et Assyrie. Paris et Londres: L. Hachette et Cie.

THE study of archæology has lately made signal progress in France as

well as in England. A great many works have been published bearing upon

the subject, and the volumes issued annually by Messrs. Perrot and

Chipiez deserve to be especially mentioned as excellent specimens of

what that class of literature ought to be. They are not intended for

_savants_ properly so called, and therefore they do not bristle with

erudite quotations, or hieroglyphic figures and cuneiform texts; neither

are they, on the other hand, elementary manuals or abridgments for the

use of beginners; the two authors have started their joint undertaking

for the express purpose of giving a somewhat detailed account of the

progress of art amongst the different nations of antiquity, calling to

their assistance the resources furnished by wood and steel engraving,

chromo-lithography, &c.; and the improvements which during the last

half-century have been introduced into the several departments of

pictorial illustration have rendered their work, in that respect,

comparatively easy.

The publication we are now reviewing will be terminated in five or six

volumes. Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez had, last year, introduced us to

Egypt; their second instalment is devoted to Chaldæa and Assyria; it

marks, therefore, a signal development in æsthetic culture, and in the

various expressions of architecture, painting, and sculpture. From the

civilisation which Messrs. Champollion, Mariette, Maspéro, Young, and de

Rougé have unfolded before us, we are now invited to pass on to that

with which the names of Sir A. Layard, Sir H. Rawlinson, Messrs. Jules

Oppert, and Fr. Lenormant have made us tolerably familiar.

The first chapter of this volume treats of the general characteristics

of Chaldæo-Assyrian society, and naturally opens with geographical and

ethnological details. M. Perrot, we are happy to see, pays a

well-deserved tribute of praise to Professor Rawlinson’s celebrated

work, “The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World,” making,

at the same time, long quotations from it, as well as from the

researches of Sir A. Layard, M. Hormuzd Rassam, &c. Whilst enumerating

the various elements which have contributed to make up the population of

Assyria and Chaldæa, our author notices the hypothesis recently put

forth by some antiquarians who would number amongst those elements the

Aryan one. He maintains that if it did exist it was only in a very small

proportion--so small, indeed, that it is scarcely worth taking it into

account; on the other hand, if we admit the theories of Messrs. J.

Oppert and Fr. Lenormant, we have to register a fact of the most

interesting and unlooked for nature. It was hitherto believed that we

could not go beyond the families of Sem and of Kusch, which occupied

Chaldæa at the time when history is supposed to commence. From certain

inscriptions, however, it seems perfectly clear that the oldest idiom

spoken, or at any rate written, there, belonged neither to the Aryan nor

to the Semitic families, nor yet to any of the groups of languages which

are considered as including the old Egyptian. It was essentially an

agglutinative idiom, and by its grammatical system, as well as by some

of the elements of its vocabulary, it may be assimilated to the Finnish,

the Turkish, and other cognate languages. M. Perrot then goes on to

discuss the questions connected with writing, religion, and government,

and to describe the form of government which prevailed on the banks of

the Euphrates and Tigris. The reader will remark that this first chapter

is a kind of introduction to the book; for art, which is the outcome of

civilisation, cannot be well understood till we are acquainted with the

elements from which it originated. Architecture, sculpture, painting,

and the industrial arts constitute the subjects of the next seven

chapters; and here, again, the eschatological ideas of the

Chaldæo-Assyrians give us a clue to the character of the monuments which

they raised to the dead. When we say raised to the dead we are guilty of

a slight error; for all the researches of Sir A. Layard, Messrs. Hormuzd

Rassam, de Sarzec, Botta, and Place have failed to bring to light a

single _débris_, whether inscription or sculpture, from which we might

know what the Assyrians believed about the destiny of man after this

life. In Lower Chaldæa a few monuments have indeed been discovered, but

they are extremely simple, and the contrast between Egyptian and

Chaldæo-Assyrian art in this respect is wonderfully striking. As M.

Perrot remarks, we know a great deal more about the sepulchral rites,

the tombs and the funereal remains of the Egyptians than about the

palaces of their princes. It is just the reverse in Assyria: “We have

never seen represented the fall, the death, or the burial of an Assyrian

warrior; one might almost suppose that a feeling of national pride has

prevented the artist from admitting that an Assyrian warrior could die;

all the corpses we see portrayed on the battlefield are those of

enemies; we recognise them because they are frequently mutilated and

decapitated.” If, however, Chaldæa has only a few sepulchral monuments

to boast of, it abounds in burial-grounds, and between Niffar and

Mougheir, more particularly, every mound is a necropolis. Combining this

fact with the no less striking one that there are no cemeteries in

Assyria, M. Loftus has put forth the opinion that the inhabitants of

this last-named country, being Chaldæan by origin, regarded Chaldæa as a

kind of holy land where they systematically buried their dead, and all

persons rich enough to pay the somewhat heavy expenses connected with

the removal of the body, the religious ceremonies, &c., &c., made a

point of committing their departed relations and friends to their

eternal rest in the national _campo-santo_ from which they had in the

first place emigrated. As for the poor and the slaves, those who were

reckoned as nothing when alive, they were cast unceremoniously after

their death into the first hole or ditch available for the purpose.

We must say a word or two on the concluding chapter before bringing this

notice to an end: it consists of an ingenious parallel between the

civilisations of Egypt and of Chaldæa, thus recapitulating the principal

facts given in the first volume as well as those contained in the one

which has formed the subject of the present article.

The illustrations, amounting to nearly five hundred, are of two

different kinds; some occupy a whole page (temples, palaces, statues,

&c.), others are inserted in the text; nor must we forget an excellent

alphabetical index, and an appendix of additions and corrections.

_Quads within Quads, for Authors, Editors, and Devils._ Edited by

ANDREW W. TUER. Field & Tuer. 1884.

UNDER the above quaint title Messrs. Field & Tuer have issued from “Ye

Leadenhalle Presse” a little volume--or rather, two volumes in

one--which is likely in future ages to rank high amongst the treasures

of the book collector. The work consists of an amusing collection of

stories and _bon mots_ relating to authors, editors, and “devils,” which

we suppose is another name for the men of Paternoster-row; and there is

an innocent raciness about them--the jokes, not the publishers--which

cannot fail to entertain the reader. For the benefit of the uninitiated

the editor, in his introductory remarks, states that “quads” are “little

metal blanks used by the printer for filling up gaps,” and that they

“are not of much account, although he cannot get along without them;

hence the application of the word to printers’ jokes.” The book is

baulked out at the end with extra leaves of paper fastened together and

hollowed out in the centre, and in the little nest so formed reposes a

copy of the miniature or midget-folio “Quad,” another equally quaint

volume, containing some 160 pages, and measuring but one inch in width

by one and a half inches in length.

THE _Archæological Journal_ for July contains papers on “The Gallo-Roman

Monuments of Reims,” by Mr. Bunnell Lewis; “On the Methods Used by the

Romans for Extinguishing Conflagrations,” by the Rev. Joseph Hirst;

“Jewish Seal found at Woodbridge,” by C. W. King, M.A.; “Roman Pottery

found at Worthing,” by Mr. A. J. Fenton; “Roman Inscriptions discovered

in Britain in 1883,” by Mr. W. Thompson Watkin; “The Battle of Lewes,”

by Rev. W. R. W. Stephens, M.A.; and “Some Remarks on the Pfahlgraben

and Swalburg Camp in Germany, in Relation to the Roman Wall and Camps in

Northumberland,” by Mr. James Hilton, F.S.A.

Meetings of Learned Societies.

METROPOLITAN.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.--_June 26_, Dr. E. Freshfield, V.P., in the

chair. Mr. W. H. Richardson exhibited some fragments of heraldic tiles

which had been found under the floor of Fenny Compton Church,

Warwickshire, and a drawing of a tile bearing the same inscription from

Wormleighton Church. The arms on the tiles appear to be those of Butler

and Beauchamp respectively. Mr. R. S. Ferguson communicated some notes

on the tomb of Margaret, Countess Dowager of Cumberland, which had

recently been moved from its original position in the church of St.

Lawrence, Appleby, to a spot more convenient for the performance of

divine service. He also reported on recent discoveries in Cumberland,

and exhibited some of the early Rolls of the City Court of Carlisle. In

connection with this paper Mr. Leveson-Gower exhibited an interesting

portrait of his ancestress, the Countess of Cumberland. The Rev. W. F.

Creeney exhibited a third instalment of rubbings of foreign brasses,

thirty-four in number, which he had executed during a summer trip last

year, in which he had traversed over five thousand miles.

ROYAL ARCHÆOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.--_July 3_, the Rev. F. Spurrell in the

chair. The Secretary read a communication from the Rev. Precentor

Venables, describing the discovery of an intramural Roman family

burial-place in Lincoln, and of a Roman well in the same city. Professor

B. Lewis read a paper on “Roman Antiquities in Switzerland.” A number of

Roman gems and coins, together with copies of inscriptions, engravings

of mosaics, and other objects, collected by Professor Lewis and the Rev.

S. S. Lewis, were exhibited in illustration of this paper. Mr. F.

Helmore then read some remarks on stone coffins lately found in

Hertfordshire. The paper was illustrated by diagrams and drawings of two

fine examples, probably of the thirteenth century, discovered at Tring

and at Berkhampstead.

LONDON AND MIDDLESEX ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY.--_June 16_, Mr. J. G. Waller

in the chair. Mr. F. C. Sachs read a paper written by his brother, Mr.

John Sachs, on “Arms and Armour,” in which he described those worn by

the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians. Greek, Roman, and Saxon armour was

also described, with the assistance of sketches and engravings which

were exhibited. While speaking of shields, Mr. Sachs described that used

in the trophy of Henry V. in Westminster Abbey as made of oak, over the

front of which was first a covering of coarse flax, over which are

stretched four layers of stout linen, on which traces of painted

colouring are still visible. The inside of the shield has been covered

with white silk, embroidered with needlework, a portion of which

remains. The Chairman offered a few remarks on armour generally,

including chain armour, plate armour, and “banded mail.” Mr. Thomas

Millbourne made some observations on Mediæval London at the Health

Exhibition.--_June 26_, excursion to Rochester and Stroud. The

proceedings commenced with a meeting in the Town Hall, Rochester, where,

in the absence of the President, General Pitt-Rivers, F.R.S., the chair

was taken by Mr. Charles Roach Smith, F.S.A., V.P., who delivered an

address on the antiquities of Rochester, with special reference to the

Roman wall, fragments of which are still visible. Mr. W. H. St. John

Hope, F.S.A., gave a lecture on the maces and other regalia of the City

of Rochester, and Mr. R. S. Ferguson, F.S.A., of Carlisle, followed with

a few remarks on maces generally. The party afterwards paid a visit to

the Castle and the Cathedral, the chief architectural features of each

building being described by Mr. Hope, who traced the history of the

Cathedral from its foundation in the time of Ethelbert, and, with the

aid of diagrams, pointed out the work of successive architects from the

time of Bishop Gundulph. Eastgate House, an interesting Elizabethan

building in the High-street, now used as the Rochester Workmen’s Club,

and Restoration House, the residence of Mr. Stephen Aveling, opposite

the Vines, were next examined. The latter building, which dates from

about 1580, was formerly called the Mansion or the Manor house, but its

name was changed to Restoration House from having been the resting-place

of Charles II., on his way from Dover to London on the eve of his

restoration to the throne. The members next visited the museum belonging

to Mr. Humphrey Wickham, at Stroud, among the contents of which are a

large number of Anglo-Saxon objects which had been discovered in the

neighbourhood. Several of these objects were described by Mr. Roach

Smith, who also pointed out the site of the ancient cemetery where many

of the articles had been found, and spoke of the frequent destruction at

Strood caused by the Medway overflowing its banks.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE.--_June 25_, Sir P. Colquhoun in the chair.

Dr. W. Knighton read a paper on the results of late excavations in Rome,

considered in reference to the truth of its so-called legendary history.

Some notes from Mr. W. S. W. Vaux on the subject were also read, and a

discussion followed.

NEW SHAKSPERE.--_May 30_, Mr. F. J. Furnivall in the chair. Mr. T.

Tyler, M.A., read the first of two papers on “Shakspere’s Sonnets.” With

regard to the date, Mr. Tyler came to the conclusion that the Sonnets 1

to 126 were written in 1598-1601. Taking the Sonnets 100 to 126 as

forming a single poem, he found several allusions therein to the

rebellion of Essex. This was alluded to in the “eclipse of the mortal

moon” (107), an expression which could not, as alleged by Massey, refer

to the death of Queen Elizabeth, since the point is that “the mortal

moon” had “endured” her eclipse, in accordance with the general drift of

the sonnet. Sonnet 55, Mr. Tyler maintained, was written after the

publication of Meres’s “Palladis Tamia” in 1598. “Mr. W. H.,” mentioned

in the dedication of the 4to. edition of 1609, was, in his opinion,

William Herbert, who in 1601 became Lord Pembroke. In support of this

view some new evidence was adduced from documents in the Record Office,

the British Museum, and in the Marquis of Salisbury’s collection at

Hatfield, relating especially to an amour of Lord Pembroke with Mrs.

Fytton, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, an amour for which Lord

Pembroke was imprisoned in the Fleet, in March, 1601. On his release

from prison, Sonnets 100 to 126 were addressed to him. Three years

backwards from this time, according to Sonnet 104, give the initial date

of 1598.--_June 13_, Mr. F. J. Furnivall, Director, in the chair. The

Rev. W. A. Harrison read copies of letters from the Earl and Countess of

Pembroke and the Earl of Oxford to Lord Burghley, showing that in 1579,

when William Herbert was only seventeen, his parents had in hand a

scheme for his marriage forthwith to Bridget, granddaughter to Lord

Burghley. Mr. Tyler read his second paper “On Shakspere’s Sonnets.”

After alluding to the theory, recently put forth, that the rival poet of

the sonnets was Dante, Mr. Tyler maintained that the poet intended was

George Chapman. The dark lady of Sonnets 127 to 152 was probably Mrs.

Fytton, maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth. The relations of this lady

with William Herbert would not unreasonably, in view of several of the

sonnets, as 40 and 144, suggest the identification. So far as there were

materials for comparison, the character of Mrs. Fytton showed a

remarkable agreement with that of the dark lady. A difficulty had been

felt as to Shakspere’s writing of himself at thirty-five as though in

declining age. But this difficulty was removed by comparing Sonnet 73,

its “yellow leaves,” “bare boughs,” &c., with Byron’s poem written when

he attained his thirty-sixth year, where the imagery was remarkably

similar.

FOLK-LORE.--_June 14_, annual meeting. Earl Beauchamp in the chair. In

the annual report for the past year a strong plea was made for more aid

to carry on the work already in hand. The Bishop of St. John’s,

Kaffraria, has presented to the Society several copies of his “Zulu

Nursery Literature,” and of his “Religious System of the Amazulu.” The

work selected for the 1884 issue is a collection of Magyar folk-tales,

by the Rev. W. H. Jones and Mr. L. Kropf.

ASIATIC.--_May 19_, anniversary meeting. Sir H. C. Rawlinson in the

chair. The following were elected as the officers of next year:

President, Sir W. Muir; Director, Sir H. C. Rawlinson; Vice-Presidents,

Sir T. E. Colebrooke, Sir B. H. Ellis, J. Fergusson, and A. Grote;

Council, E. Arnold, C. Bendall, E. L. Brandreth, Dr. O. Codrington, F.

V. Dickins, Major-General Sir F. Goldsmid, Major-General M. R. Haig, H.

C. Kay, Major-General Keatinge, Lieut.-General Sir L. Pelly,

Major-General Sir A. Phayre, Sir W. R. Robinson, T. H. Thornton, M. J.

Walhouse, and Col. Yule; Treasurer, E. Thomas; Secretaries, W. S. W.

Vaux and H. F. W. Holt; Hon. Secretary, R. N. Cust. Prof. Monier

Williams gave an account of his recent visit to India and to the Jain

and Buddhist temples there, and added that the Supreme Government at

Calcutta had assented to his proposal to found six scholarships for

deserving natives in the Indian Institute at Oxford.--_June 16_, Sir W.

Muir, President, in the chair. Professor de Lacouperie read a paper “On

Three Embassies from Indo-China to the Middle Kingdom, and on the Trade

Routes thither 3,000 Years Ago.” During the reign of Tch’ing, the second

king of the Tchen dynasty (about B.C. 1100), three embassies came to him

from Indo-China, before his power was firmly established to the south of

the Yangtze Kiang. These were really travelling parties of merchants,

who had heard of the wealth of the new dynasty from the tribes of West

and South China, who had helped the Tchen to overthrow the preceding

dynasty. Only a few fragments of information about them have survived,

and these in a much altered state. At the close of his paper the

Professor passed in review six annual trade-routes between India,

Cochin-China, and China, previously to the Christian era. Of these two

are important, viz., the one through Assam to India, and the other to

Tung-King by the Red River. It was by the latter that the sea-traders of

Kattigara (Hanoi) heard of the important trading state of Tsen (in

Yunnan), this name being, in fact, the antecedent of that of China. Dr.

T. Tuka exhibited forty pieces of Tibetan printed books and MSS. which

the late A. C. de Koros gave in 1839 to the Rev. Dr. S. C. Malan, then

secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and which this gentleman has

presented to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at Buda-Pesth.

STATISTICAL.--_May 20_, Mr. R. Lawson, V.P., in the chair. Mr. C.

Walford read a paper entitled “A Statistical Review of Canada.”

NUMISMATIC.--_May_ 15, Dr. J. Evans, President, in the chair. Mr. H.

Montagu exhibited a half-halfpenny or farthing of Eadred, the original

coin having been bisected for the purpose of creating two farthings, in

the same way as pennies were frequently halved and quartered. Mr. J. G.

Hall exhibited a hammered sovereign of Charles II.’s first coinage with

the numerals XX behind the head of the king; weight, 138 grains. Mr. B.

V. Head read a paper, by Mr. C. F. Keary, on a hoard of Anglo-Saxon

coins found in Rome during some recent excavations on the site of the

House of the Vestals at the foot of the Palatine. The “find” consisted

of 830 Anglo-Saxon pennies, ranging from A.D. 871 to 947. It represented

an instalment of the tribute money popularly known as Peter’s pence, a

devotional gift instituted in the 8th or 9th century, consisting of a

denarius a year, payable by the head of every family possessed of a

certain quantity of land, at St. Peter’s mass, on pain of

excommunication. Mr. Keary said that the hoard of coins was of

considerable numismatic importance, as it yielded the names of many new

moneyers and of some new towns. Mr. N. Heywood communicated a notice of

the discovery of Anglo-Saxon coins beneath the foundations of Waterloo

Bridge. Mr. Toplis sent a list of forty varieties of 17th century

tradesmen’s tokens of Nottinghamshire not described in Boyne’s work.

PHILOLOGICAL.--_May 16_, anniversary meeting. Dr. J. A. H. Murray

President, in the chair. The President delivered his annual address.

After noticing the members who had died since last anniversary, and

reviewing the work of the Society during the last two years, he read

reports by Mr. W. R. Morfill, on the Slavonic languages; by M. Paul

Hunfalvy and Mr. Patterson on Hungarian since 1873; by Mr. E. G. Brown

on Turkish; and by Mr. R. M. Cust, on the Hamitic languages of North

Africa. Mr. H. Sweet read his own report “On the Practical Study of

Language.” The President then gave an account of the progress of the

Society’s Dictionary, and dwelt on the difficulty of settling the

etymology of Middle English words and of making out the logical

development of important words of long standing. The following Members

were elected the Society’s officers for the ensuing year: President,

Rev. Prof. W. W. Skeat; Vice-Presidents, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr.

W. Stokes, A. J. Ellis, Rev. R. Morris, H. Sweet, Dr. J. A. H. Murray,

and Prince Lucien Bonaparte; Ordinary Members of Council, Prof. A. G.

Bell, H. Bradshaw, E. L. Brandreth, W. R. Browne, Prof. C. Cassal, R. N.

Cust, Sir J. F. Davis, F. T. Elworthy, H. H. Gibbs, H. Jenner, Dr. E. L.

Lushington, Prof. R. Martineau, A. J. Patterson, J. Peile, Prof. J. P.

Postgate, Prof. C. Rieu, Rev. A. H. Sayce, Dr. E. B. Tylor, H. Wedgwood,

and R. F. Weymouth; Treasurer, B. Dawson; Hon. Sec., F. J. Furnivall. A

vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Gladstone for his grant of a pension of

£250 a year to the editor of the Society’s Dictionary.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL.--_May 13_, Prof. Flower, President, in the chair. Dr.

J. Stephens sent a drawing of a large pointed palæolithic implement,

found near Reading. Mr. W. G. Smith exhibited two palæolithic implements

lately found in North London: one was made of quartzite, and is the

first example of this material met with in the London gravels; the other

was a white implement from the “trail and warp.” He also exhibited two

white porcellaneous palæolithic flakes replaced on their original

blocks. A paper on “The Ethnology of the Andaman Islands,” by Mr. E. H.

Man, was read. Prof. Flower read some “Additional Observations on the

Osteology of the Natives of the Andaman Islands.” Since reading a paper

before the Institute on the same subject in 1879 the author had had the

opportunity of examining ten skeletons, two of which are in the

University of Oxford, and eight in the Barnard Davis collection at the

museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.--_May 27_, Prof. Flower,

President, in the chair. Mr. H. O. Forbes read a paper “On the Kubus of

Sumatra.” Dr. Garson read a paper “On the Osteology of the Kubus.” Mr.

T. Bent read some “Notes on Prehistoric Remains in Antiparos,” and

exhibited several specimens of pottery, some rudely carved marble

figures, and a skull from cemeteries in that island.

PROVINCIAL.

BERKSHIRE ARCHÆOLOGICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL SOCIETY.--On Tuesday, July 1,

visits were paid to St. Helen’s Church, Abingdon, Cumnor Church,

Appleton Church and Manor House, and also Fyfield Church and Manor,

where they were entertained at luncheon by Mr. and Mrs. James Parker. At

Cumnor the party inspected the site of Old Cumnor Hall, where Mr. Parker

narrated its history since the sixteenth century, and examined the story

of Amy Robsart’s life and supposed murder, as narrated by Sir Walter

Scott in his novel of “Kenilworth.” At Fyfield Manor Mr. Parker

conducted the party through the various rooms, showing them, among

other things of interest, a recently-discovered stone mantelpiece, with

initials and date of the early part of the seventeenth century. At

Abingdon, after inspecting St. Helen’s Church, the party examined the

ancient deeds and charters in the Hall of Christ’s Hospital, the

Corporation plate and pictures, the remains of the Abbey, and other

objects of interest.

BRIGHTON AND SUSSEX NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY.--_June 19_, Dr. Hollis,

President, in the chair. Mr. F. E. Sawyer read a paper on “Sussex

Dialect and Speech,” in which he referred to a branch of the subject

which had not hitherto received sufficient attention, namely, the

connection of dialect with the early spellings of place-names.

Derivations of names, Mr. Sawyer observed, are too often based on modern

forms of spelling, when a careful examination would show the older forms

to be attempts of strange or foreign scribes to represent phonetically

dialectal pronunciation of place-names. “The termination ‘ing,’” he

continued, “is generally considered to be patronymic, and as it is a

peculiarity of the Sussex dialect to drop the final ‘g,’ as Cockneys do,

we may consider that many old names not mentioned by Kemble are

patronymic, _i.e._, of tribal origin, and deriving their names from some

tribal ancestor.” There is a close connection, Mr. Sawyer remarked in

conclusion, between place-names and surnames, and in Sussex the Saxon

element will be found very strongly marked amongst the surnames.

ESSEX FIELD CLUB.--_June 21_, the members and friends paid a visit to

Epping Forest. On arriving at the ancient earthwork called Ambresbury

Bank, Mr. J. E. Harting, F.L.S., delivered a discourse on “The Deer of

Epping Forest,” in which he treated firstly of the antiquity of the

forest as a hunting-ground of the Kings and Queens of England; and,

secondly, of the nature of the deer which were hunted, and the present

condition of the two kinds of deer which may be found there. The forest

was in early times called the Forest of Essex, as being the only forest

within that county, nearly the whole of which was anciently comprehended

within it. As its extent became abridged it was called the Forest of

Waltham, from the first village of importance which sprung up within its

purlieus. According to Camden, the first mention occurs about the latter

times of the Saxons, when Tovi, standard-bearer to King Canute, “induced

by the abundance of deer, built a number of houses here, and peopled

them with sixty-six inhabitants.” After his death, his son Athelstan

squandered the estate, whereupon Edward the Confessor, into whose hands

it had come, bestowed the village on his brother-in-law, Harold, son of

Earl Godwin, who built Waltham Abbey. The Abbot was one of the few

residents in the neighbourhood who, besides the King, was privileged to

kill deer in this forest, although mediæval records contain notices of

royal permission given at times to the citizens of London to use the

Forest of Epping as a hunting-ground for their recreation. Henry III.,

in 1226, granted to the citizens the privilege of hunting once a year,

at Easter, within a circuit of twenty miles of the city, and until

within comparatively recent times the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and

Corporation continued annually to avail themselves of this privilege. At

the conclusion of Mr. Hastings’ lecture the party moved on towards

Loughton, passing on the way through the ancient earthwork known as

Cowper’s Camp, which was explored by the Club in 1883.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND.--_June 9_, Sir William F. Douglas,

P.R.S.A. (Scot.), in the chair. Mr. J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A. (Scot.),

read a paper entitled “Notes on Early Christian Symbolism.” The author

in dealing with that special branch of the subject which includes the

representations sculptured on the fonts, tympana of doorways, and other

carved stonework of the Norman period, showed what ample material there

is to form a museum of Christian archæology, by having casts taken of

these sculptured fonts, tympana, &c., so that they might be placed

together in one gallery, and thus be made to yield whatever scientific

results are attainable from them. Mr. Allen gave a list classified by

subjects and localities of upwards of 120 tympana, 80 fonts, and 30

pieces of miscellaneous sculpture. The paper was illustrated by a series

of drawings and photographs of the principal types of the symbolic

representations on Norman fonts and tympana. The second paper was a

notice by Mr. Charles Stewart of Tigh’n Duin, Killin, of several

sepulchral mounds and cup-marked stones in the district of Fortingall,

Glenylon, Perthshire; and the Rev. Hugh Macmillan, D.D., of Greenock,

followed with a description of two boulders having rain-filled cavities

on the shores of Loch Tay, formerly associated with the cure of disease.

Mr. George Sim, Curator of Coins, gave an account of recent “finds” of

coins in Scotland. Only two discoveries have occurred during the

session--one of 177 silver pennies, chiefly of the Edwards, at Arkleton,

Dumfriesshire; and one of 53 silver coins, chiefly of Mary and

Elizabeth, at Woodend, in the Isle of Skye. The last paper was a

descriptive notice of the stone circles of Strathnairn and neighbourhood

of Inverness, by Mr. James Fraser, C.E. Twenty-five of the circles were

described, and accurate plans of them, made to a uniform scale of ten

feet to the inch, were exhibited, forming a body of materials for the

comparative study of stone circles of unprecedented extent and value.

Five old Communion flagons and a chalice and paten of pewter, from Old

St. Paul’s Church, were exhibited by Rev. R. Mitchell-Innes. Two of the

flagons show the Edinburgh Pewterers’ stamp, and one has the maker’s

name--John Durand, 1688.

HAILEYBURY ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.--_May 19._ The Secretary gave a short

account of the village of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, famous chiefly as the

birthplace of Admiral Nelson. Mr. C. F. Gisborne spoke of Wichnor

Church, Derbyshire, as Anglo-Saxon, but with a Norman tower. He also

spoke of the parish of Langley Marish, near Slough, which is a

corruption of Langley Maries, the church there being dedicated to the

Three Maries; he mentioned that there were some old half-timbered

almshouses in the parish. W. Kennedy, Esq., gave a description of Morton

Villa, near Brading, where extensive excavations have recently taken

place. This villa is the largest in England. Most of the walls seem to

have been built of wood filled up with rubble, and are consequently very

strong. There is a great deal of very fine Roman glass in the house. The

villa was probably burnt down when the Romans left England, A.D. 410.

The speaker then went on to describe Carisbrook Castle, which was built

by William of Osborne, in 1066 A.D., and is chiefly famous for the

recollections of Charles I. The President then spoke very briefly of

Tantallon Castle and the Collegiate Church of Haddington.--_June 2_, Mr.

C. F. Gisborne read a short paper on Christ Church, Bournemouth, Hants,

and the President gave a short account of the most interesting features

of St. Albans Abbey.--On Saturday, June 14, an excursion was made to

Greenwich Hospital.--_June 16_, Mr. W. Kennedy gave a short lecture on

Rome, in which he spoke of the ruins of the gigantic houses built by the

Emperors for themselves on the Palatine, and of the palace of Augustus,

of which but few traces remain. The lecturer described the private

house of the father of Tiberius, on the Palatine, and then passed on to

speak of the palace of Vespasian. Mr. Kennedy also mentioned the

discovery of a Pedagogium, or school for the slaves of the Imperial

household; and spoke of the curious caricatures and paintings on the

walls, done apparently by the students.--_July 1_, Mr. E. Walford gave a

lecture on the “Watering Places of Old,” in which he treated of

Brighton, Bath, Seaford, Hythe, &c. His account of Seaford may probably

appear in the pages of this Magazine.

LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.--_June 28_, about 50

members, accompanied by a few ladies, visited Lancaster. The party first

inspected the castle, where they were shown the ancient dungeons, the

gateway tower built by Henry V., &c., and afterwards ascended to the top

of the Norman keep, or “John O’Gaunt’s chair,” whence a splendid view of

the Lake Mountains was obtained. The parish church of St. Mary, a fine

specimen of the Perpendicular period, was next visited, and its details

described by Mr. Paley, F.R.I.B.A. After luncheon the excursion was

continued to Heysham, where the rector, the Rev. C. T. Royds, showed the

party over the ancient Norman church at that place. On returning to

Lancaster in the evening, an adjournment was made to the Amicable

Library, where several old charters of the town, the municipal regalia,

and a few Roman antiquities found in the neighbourhood, were displayed.

Antiquarian News & Notes.

MR. D. BOGUE will issue shortly an etching, by Percy Thomas, of the old

London street at the Health Exhibition.

MR. MURRAY announces a translation by Professor A. S. Wilkins and Mr. E.

B. England of the “Principles of Greek Etymology,” by Professor Curtius.

THE Rev. R. H. Clutterbuck has discovered among the Corporation records

of Andover some interesting early Guild-rolls, which will probably be

published _in extenso_.

THE Berks Archæological and Architectural Society is offering prizes for

historical essays on subjects having reference to Berkshire, and for

architectural drawings, illustrating ancient buildings in the county.

AN antiquarian column is about to be started in the _Essex Standard and

West Suffolk Gazette_, published at Colchester. It will contain notes

and queries on local antiquities, and a special series of gleanings from

old local newspapers.

MR. MURRAY’S latest list of recent publications contains, _inter alia_,

Professor Brewer’s “Reign of Henry VIII., from his accession till the

death of Wolsey;” Dr. Schliemann’s works, “Troja,” “Ilios,” and “Mycenæ

and Argos;” Mr. A. S. Murray’s “History of Greek Sculpture.”

THE Schools of the Christian Brothers of France have sent to the Health

Exhibition at South Kensington, a collection of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew

inscriptions, with representations of the Provençal people and buildings

of the fifteenth century, modelled and arranged by the pupils.

MR. CORNELIUS WALFORD, F.S.S., Barrister-at-Law, has been awarded the

first “Samuel Brown Prize” of Fifty Guineas, offered by the Institute of

Actuaries for the best Essay on the “History of Life Insurance.” The

essay will be published.

MR. J. TAYLOR, of Northampton, has announced for sale the unique

collection of historical MSS., &c., of John Cole, of Northampton,

(1792-1840), embracing brief notices of his family and literary

contemporaries, together with the history and antiquities of several

parishes in Northamptonshire, &c.

THE following articles, more or less of an antiquarian character, appear

among the contents of the magazines for July: _Cornhill_, “Embalmers;”

_Cassell’s Magazine_, “Derby China;” _Blackwood_, “Venice;” _Century

Magazine_, “A Greek Play at Cambridge;” _Atlantic Monthly_, “The Haunts

of Galileo,” and “Peter the Great;” _Magazine of Art_, “Walks in

Surrey,” and “The Austrian Museum;” _Home Chimes_, “Old Gold;”

_Clergyman’s Magazine_, “Biblical Notices of Egypt, illustrated from

Profane Sources.”

PLANS and drawings for the reconstruction of the west side of

Westminster Hall, and the preservation of the Norman work lately laid

bare by the pulling down of the Law Courts, have been prepared by Mr.

Pearson, R.A., and the estimated cost of the work is about £37,000.

During the restoration of the north front, some years ago, considerable

portions of the ancient work of the Hall were for a short time visible,

and again at a later period the whole of the Norman walls were laid

bare, to be re-cased by Sir Robert Smirke. It has remained for the

removal of the Law Courts to uncover permanently the earlier Norman

walls, fortunately in a fairly perfect state of preservation.

CATALOGUES of rare and curious books, all of which contain the names of

works of antiquarian interest, have reached us from Messrs. Farrar &

Fenton, 8, John-street, Adelphi, W.C.; Messrs. Reeves & Turner, 196,

Strand, W.C.; Mr. J. Hitchman, 51, Cherry-street, Birmingham; Messrs.

Quaritch, 15, Piccadilly (including the major portion of the Hamilton

Palace Library); Mr. W. J. Withers, Leicester; Mr. F. Edwards, 83,

High-street, Marylebone; Mr. Edward Howell, 28, Church-street,

Liverpool; Mr. G. P. Johnston, 33, George-street, Edinburgh; Mr. W. P.

Bennett, 3, Bull-street, Birmingham; Messrs. Sutton & Son, 91,

Oxford-street, Manchester; Mr. J. Coleman, Tottenham, N. (consisting

entirely of royal and noble deeds and documents, and containing upwards

of 500 articles, alphabetically arranged under the titles of the

respective families); Mr. Albert Cohn, 53, Mohrenstrasse, Berlin;

Messrs. Robson & Kerslake, 43, Cranbourne-street, W.C. (includes a fine

copy of the Nuremberg Bible of 1477, and Albert Durer’s “Life of the

Virgin, &c.); Mr. U. Maggs, 159, Church-street, Paddington-green, W.;

Mr. H. Edwardes, 20, Drury-court, W.C.

SOME doubts having arisen as to whether authorities which act under the

Public Libraries Act have powers to fulfil the conditions required for a

Parliamentary grant in aid of the establishment of a school of science

and art, the Lord President has brought in a Bill, which declares that

where an authority accepts a grant of this kind from the Education

Committee of the Privy Council, it shall have power to do so on the

conditions prescribed by the Committee, and it is to be, as also are its

successors, bound to fulfil them. An interpretation is also placed on

the 8th section of the Public Libraries Act of 1855, which enables the

Council of a borough and the Board of a district to erect buildings for

the purposes of the Act. It is declared that under this and the

corresponding Scotch and Irish provisions buildings may be erected in

any of the three Kingdoms “for public libraries, public museums, schools

for science, art galleries, and schools for art, or for any one or more

of those objects.” Where one of these institutions is established under

the Public Libraries Acts, any other may (it is here provided) be

established at any time in connection therewith without further

proceedings being taken under the Acts.--_The Times._

IN the first week of July the City of Winchester commemorated the 700th

anniversary of its incorporation by a series of festivities, in which

the Bishop of the Diocese, the Lord Mayor of London, and a number of

provincial chief magistrates took part. The proceedings included a

procession to the Cathedral, where the Dean delivered an address, in

which he traced the gradual growth of freedom under municipal

institutions. A public luncheon afterwards took place in the restored

banqueting-hall of the Palace, and in the evening there was a torchlight

procession, together with a series of _tableaux vivants_, which were

witnessed by crowds of persons. The persons who appeared as actors in

events affecting the fortunes of Winchester were habited in dresses

designed from authentic records of the period. First came a

representation of the granting of the charter of incorporation to the

city by Henry II.; the second picture represented Richard II. giving the

charter to William of Wykeham; the third, Henry VI. and Church

dignitaries before the shrine of St. Swithin in Winchester Cathedral;

the fourth, Charles I. brought a prisoner to the city on December 21,

1648; the fifth representing some Roundheads searching for Royalists,

and looking in at the window of a forge, where a Royalist, disguised as

a blacksmith, was talking to the owner of the forge; the sixth, Sir

Christopher Wren presenting plans for a Royal Palace at Winchester to

Charles II. The anniversary will be further perpetuated by the

publication of a volume entitled “Memorials of the City of Winchester: a

Collection of Charters and other Records Illustrating its Municipal

History,” edited by Mr. F. J. Baigent, F.S.A.

AN antiquary writes to the _Athenæum_ as follows regarding the

lamentable destruction of documents belonging to the see of Durham and

lodged in a building within the precincts of the episcopal palace at

Bishop Auckland: “In a building adjoining the gateway of the episcopal

palace of the Bishop of Durham a large number of documents--how valuable

it is impossible to say--were preserved until a short time ago. It seems

that this building was required for the holding of clerical meetings and

other purposes; and, in order to make it more convenient for these, the

documents, which had hitherto found a safe repository there, were

removed, and without, apparently, any proper examination having been

made, were destroyed. A few of them were, happily, rescued, and judging

from these some reasonable conjecture may be arrived at with regard to

the nature of the mass of the documents. Among those which have been

preserved are a survey of Allertonshire--an ancient possession of the

Church of Durham--made in the middle of the seventeenth century; an

inventory of the contents of the episcopal castle at Durham in the

middle of the eighteenth century; a complete list of Roman Catholics

resident within the city of Durham in the year 1700; a report to the

Bishop from Sir William Williamson, Sheriff of the County of Durham, and

certain justices of the peace, about proceedings against Papists in

1743; and a list of the rolls and other muniments formerly kept in the

auditor’s office at Durham, but now removed and placed somewhere among

the enormous mass of valuable material, locked up and practically

inaccessible, within the offices of the Ecclesiastical Commission or of

some of its officials. Who is the person responsible for the unwarranted

destruction I do not know, but it is most desirable that the public

should be made acquainted with what has taken place, and that it should

be made known by whose authority these valuable records have been

destroyed.”

THROUGH the courtesy of Mr. Bosworth Smith, the _Athenæum_ has been

enabled to print an interesting letter by Mr. H. A. Brown, regarding

some explorations which he has been making in Minorca. He has visited a

remarkable cave city which has not been properly explored:--“The

locality is a wild-looking inlet between high cliffs. In these cliffs

are a vast number of rock-hewn caves--possibly 300. Such tradition as

there is concerning this most curious spot ascribes it to the

Phœnicians; but we concur in thinking that it is the work of a much

earlier people.... In some of the larger ones there are evidences of

considerable development; for instance, in one of the largest are three

recesses in the wall, some two feet from the ground, a sort of rock

divan, while several have ante-chambers communicating with the main

room; but, on the other hand, the smaller are mere holes in the rock,

having, however, in some cases, a sill, or threshold, distinctly raised

above the level of the floor. It seems to us that this disparity may be

accounted for in three ways: either the people during a long occupation

advanced in the construction of their dwellings, or the smaller caves

are merely the tombs of the inhabitants of the larger, or possibly the

chiefs inhabited the large and the people the small caves.... The small

caves are all in a more or less inaccessible position, but having

entered one near the ground we commenced to dig. At about nine or twelve

inches down we came upon the bones of animals and two most remarkable

skulls. Being compelled by pressure of time to move on, we went round

the inlet and entered a cave on the other side, higher up the cliff than

the former. Immediately after removing the loose sand, we came to thick,

black earth, and the first stroke of the hatchet brought up some human

bones, and by the time we were obliged to leave, the best part of a

skeleton was unearthed, including several pieces of the skull. The

majority of the bones were of a reddish colour, but all in one corner

were perfectly black, either from extreme age or the action of fire.”

THE _Temps_ gives an account of the collection of objects found by

Monsieur Nicaise in the tombs of the ancient Gauls, Département de la

Marne, which he laid before the Academie des Inscriptions de Paris at

their meeting, April 18. The collection is of great interest, and in

some respects unique. It includes a great variety of implements of

warfare, jewellery, enamels, and finely wrought bronze ornaments, and

some articles of toilet throwing a light on the mode of shaving 2,000

years ago. The razors found are shaped like a sickle. With them was

found a vessel supposed by Monsieur Bertholot, who was present at the

meeting, to have contained soap, which he states was by no means unknown

to the ancient Gaul. A coral necklace, bleached by its couple of

thousand years’ sepulture, is remarkable. Between the beads of coral are

various amulets or charms, such as a wild boar’s tooth, a shell, and a

peculiar thin circular plate or disc of bone, ascertained beyond doubt

to be part of the human vertebræ. There are also numerous bronze torques

finely worked, and a fragment of a jewel similar in workmanship to the

finest granulated or filigree jewellery so well known at Genoa and

Venice at the present day. A skeleton of a female was found adorned with

necklace, bracelets, and anklets. A bracelet, from its diminutive size,

must have been retained on the arm during its growth from childhood to

womanhood. Not the least curious is an ornament composed of a material

which gave rise to many conjectures, but which careful analysis shows

to consist of some argillaceous or ceramic compound, finely pulverised,

then agglutinised and compressed until it formed a solid agglomerated

substance of a texture capable of receiving the highest polish. The

revelations of these ancient sepultures, and the high artistic merit of

the articles they contain, justify the inference that the “barbarism”

with which Julius Cæsar was so impressed in Gaul, was a barbarism

strongly impregnated with civilisation.

THE annual summer congress of the Royal Archæological Institute will be

held this year at Newcastle-on-Tyne, during the week from Tuesday,

August 5, to Wednesday, August 13 inclusive, under the Presidentship of

the Duke of Northumberland. Tuesday, the 5th, will be devoted to an

inspection of the castle and cathedral of Newcastle, after the public

reception of the Society by the Mayor and Corporation at the inaugural

meeting. On Wednesday the Archæologists will visit Warkworth and Alnwick

Castle, which will be described by Mr. Clark. On Thursday they will go

by train to Beal, from which place Lindisfarne and Holy Island with its

church and castle will be visited. Friday will be devoted to a visit by

rail to Belford and to Bamburgh Castle. On Saturday the annual meeting

of the Society will be held. At its conclusion the members will proceed

to Jarrow, Monkwearmouth, and, by steamer down the river, to Tynemouth.

On Sunday a special service will be held in the cathedral, when it is

expected that the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr. Wilberforce, will preach.

Monday will be devoted to an inspection of sundry parts of the Roman

wall, and to a visit to Chesters, where the Roman remains will be

explained by the Rev. J. C. Bruce. On Tuesday the Archæologists will go

by train to Corbridge, from which they will visit Aydon Castle, Bywell,

and Prudhoe Castle. Wednesday will be occupied by a visit to Durham,

where the cathedral and castle, and probably Finchall Priory, will be

inspected. There will be a meeting on the evening of Tuesday, at which

papers will be read, and probably, also, at least one conversazione. A

temporary local museum, under Mr. R. Blair, F.S.A., will be open during

the week in the Black Gate, where also the sectional meetings will be

held. Among those who have sent their names as patrons of the congress

are the Duke of Portland, Lords Ravensworth and Scarbrough, the Bishops

of Durham, Carlisle, Newcastle, and Hexham; Sir Charles Trevelyan, Sir

Joseph Pease, Sir Edward Blackett, Sir Matthew White Ridley, and Sir

Walter James, &c.

“IN the early part of last winter,” writes a correspondent of _The

Times_, “operations were begun in the bed of the Rhone, at Geneva, in

connection with a scheme for utilising the power of the stream for

mechanical purposes. During the work a part of the river bed, near the

island on which stands Julius Cæsar’s Tower, and where Philibert

Berthelier, the Genevan patriot, suffered death, was laid bare, and in

view of the great antiquity of Geneva, and the fact that it was an

Allobrogian town before it became a Roman station, sanguine expectations

were entertained as to the likelihood of making important archæologic

finds.” These hopes have not been disappointed; for there has been

lately found, buried in gravel among a range of piles, relics of the

lacustrine age, a block of white Jurassic rock, evidently dressed by the

hand of man, and having in the centre a circular depression surrounded

by a sort of crown. Further examination showed it to be the upper part

of a Roman altar. It is in the ordinary form of a pilaster with capitals

and a corresponding base terminating in a crown, in relief, cut in the

stone. The height of the relic is 80 centimetres, the width 33. There is

no other trace of ornamentation than the mouldings and cornices of the

upper and lower parts, but on the principal face there appears an

inscription, in superb letters and an admirable state of preservation.

It runs thus: DEO NEPTVN C. VITALINIV VICTORINVS MILES LEGI. XXII.

ACVRIS V. S. L. M. Only two letters are lacking. At the end of the

second word the engraver had not room for the final O, and at the end of

the fourth word an S has been effaced by time or worn away by water. The

word _legionis_ has been shortened into LEGI, but the truncation of the

I may be due to an accidental erasure. The inscription, which is easily

read, is to the following effect:--_Deo Neptuno, C. Vitalinius

Victorinus, miles legionis XXII., a curis, votum solvit libens merito._

The author, therefore, was a soldier of the twenty-second legion, Caius

Vitalinius Victorinus, who, having without doubt escaped shipwreck on

the lake, had vowed to raise an altar to Neptune, the god of the waves,

and by a singular chance the whole stone of the Jura which testifies to

the fulfilment of his vow has been preserved by falling into the very

waters from which he was saved. Besides this altar stone, several other

objects have lately been found in the bed of the river; among them are

the upper part of a tin vase representing, in relief, Diana and

Endymion, and a transparent stone cut in facets; the latter, if not

false, will be highly interesting and valuable.

Antiquarian Correspondence.

Sin scire labores,

Quære, age: quærenti pagina nostra patet.

_All communications must be accompanied by the name and address of

the sender, not necessarily for publication._

HERALDIC QUERY.

SIR,--Can any of your readers kindly inform me what family bears or bore

the arms “Ermine, on a bend azure three lions rampant or”?

T. J. H.

ISLE D’ECOSSE.

SIR,--In Aytoun’s “Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers,” there is a ballad

entitled the “Island of the Scots,” setting forth that in 1697, France

and Germany being at war, an island in the Rhine, strongly garrisoned by

German troops under General Stirke, was attacked and taken in a most

gallant manner by a company of Scotsmen, exiles from their own country,

and in the service of the King of France; and that this island has ever

since been known by the name of Isle d’Ecosse. Can you inform me where

this isle is situated, and where I can see a detailed account of the

above passage of arms? The isle, I may add, is not mentioned by Murray.

R. M. B.

MINING IN THE HOME COUNTIES.

SIR,--In the Lansdowne MSS. (57, fol. 146) in the British Museum, may be

seen a copy of a licence granted in December, 1588, by Queen Elizabeth,

to one John Nicholls, for a term of six months, to dig for “mynes or

myneralls of golde, silver, tynne, or leade, hidden within the earth, in

the counties of Middlesex, Hertford, Buckingham, and Kent.” What

success may have attended his searches in the other counties I know not;

but as I searched in vain for any notice to the effect of a renewal of

the grant so far as concerns Hertfordshire, it is more than probable

that Master John Nicholls did not find “myning” a very profitable

occupation in that county. Can any of your readers throw light upon the

subject?

FOSSOR.

THE NAME OF FOSTAL.

SIR,--Can you, or any of your readers, kindly assist me in throwing

light on the derivation of Fostal, a commonplace name in Kent? I believe

there are some dozen places bearing the name, but variously spelled as

Fostal, Fostalls, Forstals, and Forstalls. In Herne parish, not far from

Herne Bay, there is a Fostall and Fostall Farm, and in Ospringe parish,

near Faversham, a place called Painter’s Forstal. Prof. Skeat, I

believe, explains it as “Fore” and “Stall” (= Stead), a place in front

of a farm (?). There are generally trees near at hand, and the people in

this locality connect the word with forest-alling and regrating--most

absurdly as I think.

H. F. WOOLRYCH.

_Oare Vicarage, Faversham_.

RICHARD, ARCHBISHOP OF MESSINA.

SIR,--Can any of your readers give me some account of the Archbishop of

Messina, an Englishman, the subject of the accompanying paragraph, which

I have translated from an Italian paper, the _Italia_, of May 31:--

“At the Villa Guzzi, near Messina, the interesting discovery has been

made of the sarcophagus of Richard, English Archbishop of Messina, who

died A.D. 1195. The sarcophagus is decorated with a bas-relief in the

Byzantine style, having for its subject, the Saviour seated; on His

right is shown the Virgin Mary standing, whilst on His left is the

Archbishop, likewise in a standing position. There is also an

inscription on each corner.”

This account is meagre as far as it goes; and I should feel interested

in learning something more about this English Archbishop of Messina.

M. H. C.

_Spezia, Italy._

“THE SENTENCE OF PONTIUS PILATE.”

(See vol. v. pp. 80, 217.)

SIR,--Since writing the note at the second reference, I have ascertained

that the alleged death-warrant of Jesus Christ appeared in the _National

Magazine_ (published in Liverpool) for Oct. 1877. In this version only

three names are appended to the sentence, and the phraseology is

somewhat different.

But what I wish to point out at present is the glaring contradictions

occurring in the three copies before me as to the date of the finding of

this curiosity. According to the above-named magazine it was discovered

“in the year 1825,” the _Catholic Fireside_ account says 1820, while

your version has “A.D. 1280.” May not the latter date be a misprint for

1820? If not, were excavations in search of Roman antiquities made in

Naples in the thirteenth century?

P. J. MULLIN.

HELSTON FURRY DANCE.

SIR,--As the very interesting subject of the Helston Furry Day has been

opened by Canon Boger (see vol. v. p. 251), may I add a few remarks on

it?

1. As to the term Floralia or Flora Day, except from a descriptive

standpoint I should demur to the theory that the Helston festival of May

8 is a continuation or survival of the Roman Floralia, although some

persons may favour that view. It is probably in origin purely Celtic,

and is connected with the Roman Floral festival only in that it also

expresses the joy of May.

2. The origin of the custom may be held to be “lost in remote antiquity”

solely in the sense that we cannot actually date its institution. The

local legend relates that it was instituted in the middle ages as a

rejoicing for the deliverance of Helston from the plague: a not

improbable solution of the Helston myth that here St. Michael overcame

Satan, and forced him to drop the “Hell stone,” still seen in the “Angel

yard.” The parish church is dedicated to St. Michael, and May 8 is, I

believe, the feast of the apparition of St. Michael on St. Michael’s

Mount. It is not improbable that the deliverance of Helston from the

plague was attributed to the patron of the town, _i.e._, St. Michael,

who overcame the demon of the plague.

3. The Helston furry dance is a definite institution, unlike any other

dance that I know. I do not know to what “various dances” Canon Boger

refers; probably to the ball in the evening, which, I believe, is

conducted in the modern fashion.

4. The ceremony is somewhat this: The party assemble at the Market

House, the local aristocracy at 1 p.m. In 1883 there were thirty-one

couples of the gentry, this year there were thirty-two couples. The

tradesmen’s dance at 4 p.m. was not quite so numerously supported as the

upper class one. The volunteer band marches to the gate with three

javelin men with lances crowned with flowers. At the appointed time the

band strikes up the Celtic Furry tune. The dancers then proceed, two and

two, pirouetting and changing partners at certain places. They go into

the houses, passing out of the back doors through the gardens, and then

re-enter the houses from the back. As they leave the houses in some

places they ring the bells. The effect is very singular, but to anyone

fond of ancient customs is full of interest as a survival from mediæval

times, and such a survival as could hardly have continued except in a

remote part of England. Most of the Helston May customs belong to

mediæval customs of Merrie England, _e.g._, the boughs outside the

houses, the procession dance (though most of our English May dances were

held round the May-pole), but the going in and out of the houses and

also the music of the Furry tune are distinctively Cornish.

W. S. LACH-SZYRMA.

PORTS AND CHESTERS.

(See _ante_, p. 47.)

SIR,--I should not have thought it necessary to notice “A. H.’s”

singular effusion in your last number (see p. 47), but for the welcome

illustration it affords of what Mr. Allen has so happily termed that

“easy off-hand theory,” which “shirks all the real difficulties of the

question” (_ante_, v. 286). In trying to pursue his own more searching

and scholarly method of dealing with these “interesting philological

fossils,” I am only too glad that those who despise this method as

“word-twisting,” and prefer to leap at conclusions, should expound, as a

contrast, their views.

As to “A. H.’s” first point, it is based simply on mis-statements. I

never used the word “borrowed” myself. _My_ expression was:

“_incorporated_ before the settlement” (_ante_, v. 286). Nor did I ever

claim any of these words as “_generically_ an English word,” or as

“English forms of some Teutonic roots.” On the contrary, I gave “the

Latin words” (v. 285) from which they were each _etymologically_

derived. My contention was that they had become “distinctly English

words” by being

“Incorporated _before_ the settlement, into the tongue of the

English pirates, who brought with them, as part of their language,

the forms which they had thus constructed for themselves.”

It is necessary to put this as strongly as possible in order to

accentuate the distinction. Thus, when “A. H.” speaks of “lamentable

confusion” (so well illustrated in his own letter), he is using

“distinctly English words,” though they are derived from Latin

originals. If I, on the other hand, should say “_Naviget Anticyram_,” I

should be using distinctly Latin words. And, lastly, when “A. H.” seeks

to “ramify” the “purport” of a paper (_ante_, p. 47), he is using an

expression unknown, I believe, to any language, living or dead.

As to the Welsh _caer_ or _kair_, I never said, or could have supposed,

that it was derived from the Latin _castrum_. I merely quoted Mr.

Allen’s reminder that, on the departure of the Romans, this native form

supplanted theirs in place names, before the arrival of the English.

_Ergo_, the erudition of “A. H.” is obviously _nihil ad rem_.

As to _port_, what we have to account for is not, as “A. H.” crudely

imagines, “the modern word Port,” but the Anglo-Saxon _port_, which can

be conclusively shown to have been used _not_ in the sense of either

_portus_ or _porta_, but of a market (or trading) town. Leicester and

Oxford were obviously not “ports” in our modern sense of the word, but

they _were_ “ports” in the Anglo-Saxon sense of it, and, as such, had a

“portmanmote” for their governing body. We know, as I have shown, from

Domesday, that Port Meadow, so-called from belonging to the town (or

“_port_”) of Oxford, was in existence then as the town meadow. “Port

Meadow at Oxford,” says Mr. Olifant (“Old and Middle English,” p. 78),

“speaks of ... _port_, used by our pagan forefathers as a name for town;

indeed, _port_ and _upland_ stood for _town_ and _country_.” To “Port

Meadow” I may now add “Portmanseyt” (the _eyot_ of the Portmen or

Burgesses), which stood near it in the river (“Calendar of Bodleian

Charters,” p. 312), and also “two pieces of land and marsh-land

_sometime called Portemarshe_ [cf. Portmeadow] and now being divided,

called by the several names of the Easter Portemarche and the Wester

Portemarche,” at Barnstaple, in 1610 (9th Rep. Hist. MSS. I. 214a).

“A. H.” defiantly inquires, how “can the prefix [in Portway] be of

English origin, if it means ‘carry?’” But _I never said it did_, or

indeed mentioned it at all. A far simpler explanation of the word would

be the “way” that led from one “port” to another.

The solution of “A. H.’s” irritation is of course to be found in his

eagerness to contend that “port” (in “port-reeve”) was “not introduced

as a new English word, but preserved by Celto-Romans from Latin usage,”

and that, consequently, “our Lord Mayor” can be traced through the

Port-reeve to Roman times. This is the longed-for conclusion at which

“A. H.” and Dr. Pring, though starting from opposite premisses, would

arrive with equal confidence, the “dead certainty” on which “A. H.” so

naturally dreads and so impatiently resents that discussion which it

cannot stand.

J. H. ROUND.

A BIBLIOGRAPHIC CURIOSITY.

SIR,--In the _N. B. Advertiser and Ladies’ Journal_ for Jan. 12 is

published a long but interesting letter from a Dundee correspondent,

signing himself C. R. R., in which the writer makes known his discovery

of the long-lost “lewd sang,” which was appended to an early edition of

the psalm-book known as the “Guid and Godlie Ballattes.” To those of

your readers south of the Tweed who take an interest in Scottish

bibliography the following somewhat lengthy quotation from the letter

mentioned can scarcely fail to be acceptable. I may remark further that

Dr. Laing’s reprint, therein referred to, was issued in 1868:--

About thirty-five years ago the late Mr. Alexander Langlands, clerk in

the Dundee Bank, purchased at the sale of the _lares et penates_ of a

deceased teacher, for the sum of eightpence, a lot of literary scraps,

among which the article about to be described was found, and which

proved to be an imperfect copy of the “Guid and Godlie Ballattes.”

When Dr. Laing was engaged in the publication of his reprint, this was

lent him, the price offered for its purchase being far below the rather

extravagant value attached to it by its owner. It is evident the Doctor

never examined it very carefully; he states in a biographical note

attached to his reprint that he had once had a fragment of a smaller

copy, but the leaves had fallen aside. The fact is, I think, pretty

obvious that these leaves and the present copy were one and the same, as

great difficulty was experienced by Mr. Langlands before it was

returned, and it was only restored by the intervention of a personal

friend of the Doctor’s after the lapse of many months; the gentleman’s

name I do not feel at liberty to make public, but may say he has done

good work in connection with Wedderburn’s memory, and holds a high

position in a seat of learning. Mr. Langlands eventually parted with his

valuable leaves to their present possessor for a sum which was

considered an extremely liberal one. Mr. Langlands soon after passed

from the scene, full of years, leaving many attached friends behind.

Herbert, in his edition of “Ames Typographical Antiquities,” part iii.

p. 1491, states “that a ‘Psalm Buik’ was printed at Edinburgh by Thomas

Bassendyne in 1568, at the end of which was printed ‘ane lewd sang,’

entitled ‘Welcum Fortoun.’” The book was ordered by the General Assembly

to be called in, the title to be altered, that the “lewd sang be

delete,” and the printer be subjected to penalties. No copy of the book

or of the lewd song is now known to exist. (See also “Buik of the

Universall Kirk.”) Dr. Laing adds his testimony to Herbert’s assertions.

The fragment referred to is printed in the black letter, the letterpress

measures 4½ inches by 2½ inches. It commences on folio 4, the leaves,

not the pages, being numbered, and by a printer’s error folio 112 is

numbered 113. The signs run from A to O in eights, sign P having four

leaves which are not numbered. The first three leaves of sign A are

lost, and folio 4 commences with some short prayers. These missing

leaves were doubtless occupied by the title, probably a short address to

the reader, and the first portion of the above-mentioned prayers. Sign

P 1 to 3 are occupied by a table, and on the obverse of P 4 is

printed--“With The Haill hundredth and Fyftie Psalmis of David,”

Sternhold and Hopkins’s Version. And beneath is the imprint

thus--“Improntit at Edinburgh, be John Scot. Anno Do. 1567.” The reverse

contains some doxologies, and, having no catch-word, has a finished

appearance. Whether the above is to be considered as the title-page for

the Psalms to follow, or as an advertisement for a separate book, I will

not presume to decide, but at that time such advertisements were not

common. On the reverse of O 8 the long-lost song, entitled “Welcum

Fortoun,” is found, and is printed below. If ever the Scripture words,

“Unto the pure all things are pure,” were applicable, it is in the

present case, for it could only be by a far-fetched innuendo or a

specious construing of words that the Assembly could have arrived at

their decision and verdict. But I am rather inclined to think that the

sin of the printer must have consisted more in the fact of his placing a

secular song in conjunction with sacred hymns, and the more especially

with the productions of the Divine Psalmist:--

WELCUM FORTOUN.

Welcum Fortoun, welcum againe,

The day and hour I may weill blis,

Thou hes exilit all my paine,

Quhilk to my hart greit plesour is.

For I may say, that few men may,

Seing of paine I am ’trest,

I haif obtenit all my pay,

The lufe of hir that I lufe best.

I knaw nane sic as scho is one

Sa trew, sa kynde, sa luiffandlie,

Quhat suld I do and scho war gone;

Allace yet had I lever die.

To me scho is baith trew and kynde,

Worthie it war scho had the praise,

For na disdane in hir I find,

I pray to God I may hir pleis.

Quhen that I heir hir name exprest,

My hart for joy dois loup thairfoir;

Abufe all uther I lufe hir best,

Unto I die, quhat wald scho moir.

This unique edition, and certainly the earliest known, although I do not

by any means consider it the first, in its contents other than the

above, agrees with Dr. Laing’s reprint, and I only regret that he should

have been removed by the grim tyrant demanding his heriot before the

discovery was made. The fortunate owner of the precious brochure is

Patrick Anderson, Esq., merchant, Dundee, who, by a curious coincidence,

resides in the ancient home of Alexander Wedderburn, Town Clerk of

Dundee, and who entertained his sapient Majesty James VI., of

tobacco-defaming notoriety, on his visit to Dundee in 1617.

_Leith, N.B._

P. J. MULLIN.

_TO CORRESPONDENTS._

THE Editor declines to pledge himself for the safety or return of MSS.

voluntarily tendered to him by strangers.

Books Received.

1. Quads within Quads. Field & Tuer, Ye Leadenhalle Presse. 1884.

2. Johns Hopkins’ University Studies. Second Series, v.-vi. Baltimore.

June, 1884.

3. English Etchings. Part xxxviii. D. Bogue, 3, St. Martin’s-place, W.C.

4. The Genealogist. No. 3. Bell & Sons. July, 1884.

5. Vico. By Robert Flint. Blackwood & Sons. 1884.

6. Palatine Note-book. July. Manchester: J. E. Cornish.

7. Western Antiquary. June. Plymouth: W. B. Luke.

8. Mr. William Shakespeare’s Tragedie of Hamlet. Reprint of 1623 folio.

Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 1884.

9. Le Livre, No. 55. Paris, 7, Rue St. Benoit. July, 1884.

10. Archæological Journal, No. 162.

11. Old Nottinghamshire. Edited by J. P. Briscoe, F.R.H.S. Second

Series. Hamilton, Adams & Co. 1884.

Books, &c., for Sale.

Works of Hogarth (set of original Engravings, elephant folio, without

text), bound. Apply by letter to W. D., 56, Paragon-road, Hackney, N.E.

Original water colour portrait of Jeremy Bentham, price 2 guineas. Apply

to the Editor of this Magazine.

A large collection of Franks, Peers, and Commoners. Apply to E. Walford,

2, Hyde Park Mansions, N.W.

Books, &c., Wanted to purchase.

_Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer_, several copies of No. 2

(February, 1882) are wanted, in order to complete sets. Copies of the

current number will be given in exchange at the office.

Dodd’s Church History, 8vo., vols. i. ii. and v.; Waagen’s Art and

Artists in England, vol. i.; East Anglian, vol. i., Nos. 26 and 29. The

Family Topographer, by Samuel Tymms, vols. iii. and iv.; Notes and

Queries, 5th series, vols. vi., vii. (1876-7); also the third Index.

Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets” (Ingram and Cooke’s edition), vol. iii. A

New Display of the Beauties of England, vol. i., 1774. Chambers’

Cyclopædia of English Literature, vol. i. Address, E. Walford, 2, Hyde

Park Mansions, Edgeware-road, N.W.

[Illustration: GLOVES OF SHAKESPEARE, IN THE POSSESSION OF MISS BENSON.

(From “_Gloves: their Annals and Associations_.”)]

_The Antiquarian Magazine & Bibliographer._

Shakespeare’s Gloves

BY S. WILLIAM BECK, F.R.H.S.

Enough has been written of the calamities of authors, the mishaps which

have befallen precious MSS., their unfortunate mistakes, their

afflictions in many and various degrees of misery, but of their

consolations, of their happy stumbling on the clue to some historical

puzzle, the accidental discovery of some fresh information on a

treasured subject, their reward in at last finding some long-sought

facts--of all this we have heard little or nothing. But something of

such pleasure comes to most students; not so often as could be wished,

perhaps, but possibly quite as frequently as is good for study. And such

good hap did I hold to have fallen to my lot, when, in the autumn of

1882, I casually came across the announcement in a newspaper that a pair

of gloves, once the property of Shakespeare, were on loan to the

Worcester Industrial Exhibition then open, to illustrate the

oldest-established and yet the most considerable industry of the Fair

City. Gloves, and their connection with ceremonials now obsolete, and

customs only blindly followed, had long before been a favourite subject

of mine; and as I found how it led farther and farther afield into

history, and how closely it touched our national life, it became

altogether fascinating, and I was even then preparing for publication a

book upon it. If I held myself fortunate in chancing upon a reference to

so interesting a relic, as these gloves promised to prove, still more

cause did there seem for congratulation when a request to their owner

for further information led to their being most courteously entrusted to

my care to be photographed, and to my being furnished with the several

facts relating to their identity narrated on p. 122 of my “Gloves: their

Annals and Associations.” I “enthoozed” over these gloves not a little,

with no small reverence and half a hope that some reflected inspiration

might follow on what many people would regard as little short of

sacrilege, I ventured to put them on my hands, holding myself in great

measure excused by a very fair descent of them from the keeping of

Garrick to their present possessor, and by the undoubted fact that they

were at least attributable to the period from which they were said to

date. They are, at any rate, relics of undoubted age and value, apart

from any other considerations; not like those with which Mr. Black

invests “Judith Shakespeare,” in the novel with that title, now

appearing in _Harper’s Magazine_. Here the young lady at one time wears,

correctly and properly, a fine pair of gloves, scented and embroidered,

that her father had brought her from London, but when (on p. 541) one of

her lovers has departed from her in dudgeon, she very prettily--for she

is a charming young lady--looks “after him for a moment or two, as she

fastened a glove button that had got loose.” This is very unfortunate,

for people did not wear buttoned gloves then, nor for a long time after,

until it was desired to make them fit closely and display, rather than

merely cover, the hand, whereas it was the glove, and not the

proportions of the hand, that was made most conspicuous in Shakespeare’s

day.

In January of this year I received from Mr. Horace Howard Furness, of

Philadelphia, the eminent Shakespearian scholar, the following letter:--

SIR,--In a review of your admirable book in the _Spectator_ for

November 24, 1883, mention is made of a pair of Shakespeare’s

gloves now in the possession of Miss Benson, which the reviewer

states you incline “to consider genuine relics.” (I quote the

review and the reviewer, because I have not yet seen your book. I

ordered it from London through my bookseller some time ago, but it

has not yet arrived.)

Am I too bold in asking you to be kind enough, sometime at your

leisure, to send me some of the grounds on which you have reached

the conclusion that these gloves are those which were presented to

Garrick in 1769? For several years past I have flattered myself

that I was the fortunate owner of these gloves.

The pedigree of mine will be found--

First, in the letter of John Ward to Garrick in 1769. (See

Garrick’s “Correspondence, &c.,” vol. i. p. 352.)

Second, Mrs. Garrick’s bequest of them to Mrs. Siddons in her will

dated 1822. See Campbell’s “Life of Mrs. Siddons,” p. 369, where is

also to be found the formal note of Mrs. Garrick’s executors to

Mrs. Siddons, requesting an interview, for the purpose of

presenting these gloves to her.

Third, Mrs. Siddons’ bequest of these gloves to her daughter

Cecilia, Mrs. Geo. Combe, of Edinboro’.

Fourth, Mrs. Combe’s bequest of them to her cousin, Mrs. Fanny

Kemble.

Lastly, the gift of these gloves in the very box in which Mrs.

Siddons kept them, with her writing on the cover, “Shakespeare’s

Gloves, left by Mrs. Garrick to Sarah Siddons,” and by my dear and

venerated friend, Mrs. Kemble, to their present possessor.

At any rate these gloves of mine were once Garrick’s, Mrs.

Siddons’, and Mrs. Kemble’s. I am almost content to rest there.

Should it interest you, I will send you a photograph of them.

Before proceeding further, let us bring in evidence the extracts adduced

to establish the authenticity of these gloves.

(_Private Correspondence of David Garrick_, vol. i. p. 352.)

MR. JOHN WARD[22] _to_ MR. GARRICK.

_Leominster, May 31st, 1769._

DEAR SIR,--On reading the newspapers, I find you are preparing a

grand jubilee, to be kept at Stratford-upon-Avon, to the memory of

the immortal Shakespeare. I have sent you a pair of gloves which

have often covered his hands. They were made me a present by a

descendant of the family, when myself and company went over there

from Warwick in the year 1746, to perform the play of “Othello” as

a benefit, for repairing his monument in the great church, which we

did gratis, the whole of the receipts being expended upon that

alone.

The person who gave them to me, William Shakespeare by name,

assured me his father had often declared to him they were the

identical gloves of our great poet, and when he delivered them to

me, said, “Sir, these are the only property that remains of our

famous relation; my father possessed, and sold the estate he left

behind him, and these are all the recompense I can make you for

this night’s performance.”

The donor was a glazier by trade, very old, and, to the best of my

memory, lived in the street leading from the Townhall down to the

river. On my coming to play in Stratford about three years after,

he was dead. The father of him and our poet were brothers’

children.

The veneration I bear to the memory of our great author and player

makes me wish to have these relics preserved to his immortal

memory, and I am led to think I cannot deposit them for that

purpose in the hands of any person so proper as our modern Roscius.

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

JOHN WARD.[23]

P.S.--I shall be glad to hear you receive them safe, by a line

directed for me in the Bargate, Leominster, Herefordshire.

(_Campbell’s Life of Mrs. Siddons_, vol. ii. pp. 369-370.)

“The widow of Garrick died in 1822, at a venerable age. She made

the following bequest to the great actress, in a codicil to her

will, dated August 15, 1822:--

“I give to Mrs. Siddons a pair of gloves which were Shakespeare’s,

and were presented by one of his family to my late dear husband

during the jubilee at Stratford-upon-Avon.”

Information of the above reached Mrs. Siddons, with this note from

Mrs. Garrick’s executors:--

“_5, Adelphi Terrace, Oct. 30, 1822._

“MADAM,--We beg leave to transmit to you the above extract from a

codicil to Mrs. Garrick’s will, and to acquaint you that we will

have the honour of waiting on you, for the purpose of delivering

the relic therein mentioned, whenever you may be so good as to

inform us that it may be convenient to you to receive our visit.

“We remain, with much respect, Madam,

“Your most obedient humble servants,

“THOS. RACKETT, } Executors.”

“G. F. BELTZ, }

It is unfortunate that we have not the knowledge which led the editor of

Garrick’s “Correspondence” to underwrite Ward’s letter with such a pithy

postscript, and very regrettable that he should not have been brought to

book for his pains, particularly as his name is not given on the

title-page. The gloves, which may reasonably be referred to, bear, so

far as I can judge from the photograph with which Mr. Furness has since

favoured me, every mark of belonging to Shakespeare’s day, and were at

any rate of some value, worth too much intrinsically to be lightly given

away by an ordinary glazier; for, quoting the description of Mr.

Furness, the embroidery upon them, “as well as the fringe is all in gold

thread, still untarnished, the edging is of pink silk, which is

continued in the inside, an inch and a half in width. They are about

fourteen inches long, and six inches wide at the base of the gauntlet.”

There is no conflict of identity between these gloves and those pictured

in my pages, for the latter are declared to have been given to Garrick

by the Corporation of Stratford at the time of the Jubilee, in a finely

carved box of the mulberry tree planted by Shakespeare, and to have been

presented by the widow of Garrick to the direct relative of Miss Benson,

who now holds them. It is very tantalising that I cannot find a precise

testimony to this gift in any account of the Jubilee, although a friend

of mine has searched diligently in all the contemporary accounts and

county histories that can be thought of. There was, however, undoubtedly

such a presentation, for Foote, when Garrick produced “The Jubilee” as

an attraction at Drury-lane, determined to burlesque that and his rival

together. In this very practical jest, an actor intended to personate

Garrick--bearing on his breast a pair of white gloves and other articles

presented at the Jubilee--was to be addressed in the very words of the

panegyric pronounced on Garrick at Stratford--

“A nation’s taste depends on you,

Perhaps a nation’s virtue too.”

when Garrick’s counterfeit presentment was to flap his arms as though

they were wings, and crow--

“Cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo!”

It is pleasurable to write that this burlesque was never placed upon the

stage, although Foote plainly had to be coerced into suppressing it, and

was not to be hindered from writing “A Satirical Account of the

Jubilee,” which may be found in the 39th vol. of the _Gentleman’s

Magazine_, p. 458. There is also no doubt of the freedom of Stratford

having been presented to Garrick in a box made from the famous mulberry

tree, for the resolution of the Common Council of the borough conferring

this honour upon him particularly directs that it should be so conveyed

(“Staffordshire and Warwickshire Past and Present,” vol. iii. p. 116).

The friend to whom I have already acknowledged my deep indebtedness in

this quest, sends me from West’s “History of Warwickshire” trace of yet

another pair of gloves associated, at least traditionally, with the

Prince of Poets, and long kept on view in Anne Hathaway’s cottage at

Shottery. There were several such articles there, and among them “a

_chair_, termed ‘Shakespeare’s courting chair,’ a _purse_ about four

inches square, wrought with white and black bugles and beads; a small

inkstand, and a _pair of fringed gloves_. These articles were said to

have been handed down from Shakespeare to his grand-daughter _Lady

Barnard_, and from her through the Hathaway family to those of the

present day. Influenced by the currency of this tradition, Mr. _Ireland_

purchased the former two articles, and Mr. _George Garrick_ the latter.”

Here again, however, we find a discordant doubt expressed, for the

writer continues, “but these reliques will not bear examination. It will

be uniformly found, by those who make enquiries, without an effort at

self-deception, _that there is not a single article of any nature

extant_ that has been proved to have belonged to Shakespeare. There is

at present a bedstead with massive pillars, shewn as having belonged to

Anne Hathaway, but we consider it in character with the articles

attributed to Shakespeare.”

This scepticism and disbelief is doubtless honest enough, but it is

certainly too sweeping. These latter gloves are not now, within my

knowledge, in existence; as for the other two pairs I leave your readers

to judge whether these remarks apply to them, or whether one, or both,

may not be fairly considered to be hallowed by the associations claimed

for them.

The Dignity of a Mayor; or, Municipal Insignia of Office.

BY R. S. FERGUSON, F.S.A., MAYOR OF CARLISLE 1881-2 AND 1882-3.

_PART II._

(_Continued from p. 71._)

THE ordinary shape of a great mace is well known, and needs little

description. A shaft and a bell-like head; on the base of the bell are

the royal arms, and the bell is ornamented by an open-arched crown with

orb and cross on the top. The sides of the bell are divided into four

compartments by demi-female figures; and the rose, thistle, harp, and

fleur-de-lis, each occupies a compartment, and is crowned. The shaft is

divided into stages, and flying supports occur beneath the bell, and the

shaft and base are covered with foliage. The heads frequently unscrew,

and form loving cups. At Beaumaris the bells of the two maces contain

drinking cups, and at Pwllheli the mace is nothing else but a

two-handled drinking cup, with an oak pole stuck up its hollow foot.

The sergeants’ maces are simpler in form, and the crown is a mere open

circle of fleur-de-lis and crosses.

At Nottingham the sheriff has a mace, and at one or two places there are

maces for the mayoress.

When the Crown visits a town, the mayor should give up his staff of

office to the king, or queen, and himself bear the mace before his

sovereign. At Coventry, when William III. visited that city, the mayor

carried the mace and an alderman the sword. To a royal personage other

than his sovereign, the staff should not be given up, unless that

personage be there to represent the sovereign, but the mayor should

carry the mace. In 1503 the Lord Mayor of York himself carried the mace

before the Princess Margaret. On the occasion of royal visits to the

City of London, the Lord Mayor tenders to the sovereign his jewelled

sceptre. Sometimes the mace itself is given up to the sovereign, as at

Stafford, where the mayor kissed the mace and handed it to James I., who

admired it greatly, and then returned it. At Cambridge the mayor

delivered his mace to Queen Anne, who did the like.

Many corporations, in addition to their maces, possess swords of state

or honour. According to the best authorities, the oldest symbols of

municipal powers were the sword and the dragon, both of Roman origin,

the one being the cohortal ensign of the Romans, the other the insignia

of Supreme Justice.

“At Amiens (says Dr. Thompson in his Eng. Mun. Hist.), the insignia

of Supreme Justice consisted of two swords of antique shape,

carried in the hands of two officials, and a similar custom

prevailed among almost all the great Corporations of France, which

undoubtedly had a continuity from Roman time.”

The sword, then, is the symbol of criminal jurisdiction, as the mace is

of civil. The County Palatinate of Chester had a state sword, which is

figured in the Visitation of that county in 1580, published by the

Harleian Society; while the Bishop of Durham, so long as he was a

temporal power and had criminal jurisdiction, was presented with a sword

on taking possession of his see.

The right to have a sword borne before a mayor was originally conferred

either by charter, which may often have merely confirmed a previous

practice, or by a royal present of a sword. Thus James I. gave the City

of Canterbury a sword to be borne before the mayor. Hull has two swords,

one given by Henry VIII., the other by Charles I. The authorities of

Carlisle purchased a “Sword of Honour” in 1635-6 for £4 13s. The blade

at least was second-hand, for it bears the date of 1509, and was made at

Milan. The authority to bear it was given by royal charter in 1637, but

it was probably purchased in London by a deputation who went there to

arrange about procuring the charter. On the locket of the sheath is cut

the letter S in great size, and I have never found a satisfactory

account of what it means, unless it stands for sword. Our governing

charter at Carlisle gives us the right to have a sword by authorising us

to have an official “qui erit et vocabitur Portator Gladii nostri coram

Mayore Civitatis prædictæ.”

The grant by charter of a sword differs in various places: at King’s

Lynn the sword is to be sheathed, at Chester it is to be borne before

the mayor “in our absence,” and point upright. I take it that the sword

should always be point upright, and that the Corporations of London and

York are wrong in putting it on their achievements of arms with the

point down. I take it, it should never be lowered but in the presence

of the Crown. The swords are generally sheathed, but the sword at Great

Yarmouth is carried unsheathed in time of a European war. At Lichfield a

sword is kept permanently fixed over the mayor’s pew, and sheathed, but

the sheath is withdrawn when the mayor attends church. At Carmarthen the

sword, by charter of Henry VIII., is ordered to be “freely and lawfully”

borne before the “said mayor in manner as is accustomed to be done in

our City of London.” A curious story comes from Coventry, that in 1384

the sword was carried behind the mayor because he had not done justice.

The Corporation of Chester and the dean and chapter of that place fell

out about the sword; the ecclesiastics objected to the mayor bringing

his sword to church, but it was decided that

“As often as the mayor repaired to the church to hear divine

service or sermon, or upon any just occasion, he was to be at

liberty to have the sword of the city borne before him with the

point upwards.”

The information I have before me only furnishes the names of five places

as having CAPS OF ESTATE OR MAINTENANCE, namely, London, York, Coventry,

Exeter, and Waterford. They are generally worn by the swordbearer, and I

imagine that many more places than I have mentioned provide their

swordbearers with fur coverings for their heads; but it is not to be

taken for granted that every fancy hat, whether of fur or not, worn by a

swordbearer is a CAP OF MAINTENANCE. Gwillim defines a cap of

maintenance as a cap of dignity, worn by dukes in token of good

government and freedom. Planché makes it the same as the “Abacot,” a cap

worn during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and commencement of the sixteenth

centuries by royal and noble personages, varying in form, and ultimately

taking a shape not unlike a Glengarry cap, made of crimson velvet and

lined with ermine, and occasionally placed by heralds beneath crests

instead of the ordinary wreath. It appears of that shape as a crest to

the arms of the City of York, but at London, both in the armorial

bearings and on the swordbearer’s head, it is of fur, of the shape of an

inverted flower-pot. At Coventry it is also of fur, and round, while at

Exeter I believe it is of red velvet. The history of this is known: it

was presented to the City of Exeter by Henry VII., and was worn by the

swordbearer until lately, when, on the suggestion of Mr. Tucker

(Somerset Herald), it was ordered to be carried before the mayor on a

cushion. I do not know the history of the other fur caps of maintenance

I have enumerated. If I did I might be able to throw some light on the

matter, but I own to being a little in the dark as to caps of

maintenance. If, as Gwillim says, the cap of maintenance is a mark of

freedom, its association with the swordbearer (the sword denoting

criminal jurisdiction) may mean freedom from all extraneous criminal

jurisdiction.

If this is so, I would suggest to the powers that be to lay down the

following rules:--

That every mayor may and should have a mace; the mayor of a borough

with a separate commission of the peace--a mace and a sword. If, in

addition, his borough has quarter sessions of its own, then he

should also have a cap of maintenance.

The Corporations of Colchester, Dover, Southampton, Norwich, Beaumaris,

Preston, Great Yarmouth, Poole, Rochester, Boston, Waterford, &c.,

possess SILVER OARS, the symbol of the maritime jurisdiction once

enjoyed by those places, but abolished by the Act of 1840, placing all

creeks and rivers in Great Britain under the High Court of Admiralty.

The origin of this symbol is not known, but it is a natural one, and is,

or was [for the Court is merged, I suppose, into the High Court of

Justice] the badge or mace of the High Court of Admiralty, and was laid

before the Judge, as the great mace used to be laid before the

Chancellor, when he presided in Chancery. The one belonging to the High

Court of Admiralty is said to be 130 years old, but an older one with

the arms of Queen Elizabeth thereon was once in existence. That

belonging to the Admiralty of the Cinque Ports is older still. One

belongs to the Governor of Bermuda, who has Admiralty jurisdiction.

These civic oars, like the maces, divide into two classes: large ones,

like that formerly at Boston, or that now at Great Yarmouth, meant to be

carried as maces before the mayor; small ones, as at Colchester and

Dover, the badges of authority of the water-bailiffs, who showed them,

when executing process, as the sergeants-at-mace did their maces. That

at Dover is 6 in. long, and is contained in a brass cylindrical box. The

Colchester one is 10 in. The one which was sold by Boston in 1832 is 3

ft. 3 in. long, and was carried as a mace; it is of the date of Queen

Elizabeth, and is now in the possession of Lord Brownlow. That at

Yarmouth is 4 ft. long, and has the Royal arms and those of the borough

on the blade. It was presented in 1745, and is of silver gilt. It is

carried before the mayor and behind the maces. Rochester possesses both

a great and small silver oar.

Much information as to silver oars will be found in the 30th and 31st

volumes of the Institute’s Journal.

By far the greatest part of the chains and badges worn by mayors are

modern, of various degrees of ugliness, and I certainly hope the

antiquaries of a future age will not judge of the art of the nineteenth

century from a collection of mayors’ chains. There are exceptions, such

as the chain presented to Exeter by the Institute in 1874, which

consists of sixteen main links, conjoined by small ones. Of the former,

eight are castles, an idea taken from the arms of the city; seven are

composed of the letter X, surmounted by a crown; the sixteenth is a

cinquefoil, containing a representation of the hat presented to the

mayor by Henry VII., and from the cinquefoil depends the badge on which

is, in enamel, the arms of the city.

I do not know that a mayor’s chain and badge has any particular

symbolism; I do not think that it is in the nature of a “collar.” It

merely marks out its wearer as a man of importance, and requires no

special authority to authorise its assumption. It is part of the idea of

a mayor, inherent in him. But I must protest against some municipalities

which have, without any right whatever, provided their mayors with

collars of SS. The Lord Mayor of Dublin wears one, but the collar was

given to the city by Charles II., so there is no doubt as to his right

to wear it; but I think the Lord Mayor of London would find great

difficulty in satisfying the College of Arms as to his right to a collar

of SS, which was given him (temp. Henry VIII.), not by the Crown, but by

a subject, Sir John Alleyne. The town council of Cork coolly ordered a

_fac-simile_ of the Dublin one to be provided for their mayor. The

council of Derby purchased Lord Denman’s collar of SS, and their mayor

wears it. Coventry, Nottingham, Stamford, Kingston-on-Thames, and other

places possess modern chains of the “SS pattern,” as the jewellers call

it, and their mayors wear them. They might with equal propriety assume

the insignia of the Order of the Garter.

The use of chains is not confined to mayors; several other civic

dignitaries wear them--sheriffs, and aldermen in some instances. York

provides a gold chain for its Lady Mayoress, and is ungallant enough to

weigh the chain when it is handed to a new Lady Mayoress, and again when

she gives it up; an old scandal asserts that a former Lady Mayoress

appropriated some of the links. Hull, which, by the way, possesses a

mayor’s chain of the date of 1564, sold its Mayoress’s chain. At many

towns the waits, or town musicians, had badges with chains for

suspension: these are generally of silver, and the badges bear the arms

of the place. Several curious examples exist. Lincoln has a mayor’s

ring, but whether it is ancient or not I do not know, nor do I know of

any other place.

As to civic robes, I can give no information and lay down no rules. The

mayor of Carlisle is one of the few mayors who possess no robe, and I

rather congratulate myself thereon. I was utterly unprepared for the

gorgeous spectacle presented by my brother mayors at the Mansion House

in 1882. Every variety of material, of colour, and of pattern was to be

seen that the wildest imagination of the tailor could devise.

Although the mayor of Carlisle has no gown, the unreformed corporation

of Carlisle had them in the seventeenth century, as shown by the records

of a Court Leet, held on Monday, October 22, 1649:--

“We order (that according to an ancient order) the Aldermen of this

Citty shall attend the Maior upon every Lord’s day to the Church in

their gounes, and likewise to attend the Maior in the Markett-place

at or before the sermon bell to the Church, _sub pena_ vi_s_.

viii_d_. _toties quoties_; and the Common Counsellmen to attend

likewise, _sub pena_ 3s. 4d. _toties quoties_.

“We order that the present bailiffes of this Cittie shall forthwith

provide for either of them a decent gowne for the Honnor of this

Cittie, _sub pena_.”

The lateness of the hour warns me to stop. I daresay many of you think I

have been but wasting the evening in gossip over trivial matters. “But,”

as Mr. Thompson writes, in his “English Municipal History,”--

“The citizen of olden times looked upon the municipal insignia with

a _political_ significance. When he saw the mace and sword, when he

saw the banner of his community unfurled, his heart exulted at the

thought that his fellow-citizens and he constituted a body enjoying

entire independence, their own civil and criminal jurisdiction, and

a name in the land which kings and lords respected.”

The Name and Office of Port-Reeve.

BY JAMES HURLY PRING, M.D.

_PART II._

(_Continued from Vol. IV. p. 266._)

The transference of the significance of words beyond the scope to which

it was originally applied, is so obvious and generally recognised a

fact, that I did not consider it necessary to insist more particularly

upon it in my former paper.

Many of your readers would doubtless be able to call to mind numerous

examples of the kind, and, indeed, I did not credit any of them with

being unacquainted with so common and notorious a fact, and one which

suggests itself so readily in the instance of the word _port_ which was

the word here specially under discussion.

It may, however, under the circumstances, be well to call attention to

that very remarkable instance of the kind which has been made familiar

to us by Mr. Isaac Taylor, in his “Words and Places.” He states (p. 309)

that “on the Mons Palatinus--a name the etymology of which carries us

back to the time when the sheep were bleating on the slope--was the

residence of the Roman emperors, which, from the site, was called

Palati(n)um, or Palatium. Hence the word PALACE has come to be applied

to all royal and imperial residences.” And he goes on to observe, that

“it is one of the curiosities of language that a petty hill-slope in

Italy should have thus transferred its name to a hero of romance, to a

German State, to three English counties, to a glass-house at Sydenham,

and to all the royal residences in Europe.” The example thus cited is

doubtless very marked and extreme of its kind, very different in this

respect to the easy and obvious transference of the word _port_ to a

city enclosed within _gates_, the contracted word _port_ itself being

derived from the Latin _porta_, a city-gate.

When indeed it is considered that, like other Roman towns, each of the

numerous cities or towns of Roman Britain which subsequently became a

Saxon burh or borough was empowered not only to collect tolls in respect

of the objects actually sold at its gates, but also (as at present in

Continental towns) to levy octroi (_ansaria_) on all provisions and

wares brought within the gates for subsequent sale at the markets (the

_Fora venalia_) inside, it is easy to understand not only how such towns

speedily came to acquire a mercantile character, but also how the word

_port_, originally restricted to the gates where such extensive

transactions were carried on, would at no distant period become applied

also to the town itself.

When, therefore, the learned Professor Stubbs, now Bishop of Chester,

derives the word _port_ from _porta_, as referring to “a mart or city of

merchants,” it is only reasonable to suppose that the recognition of

this change was present to his mind, and that he had in view that

advanced period in Saxon times when the word port had already become

transferred from the gates themselves to the town which was enclosed

within them, and was apparently applied indifferently to either. But

however this may be, we may at least be absolutely assured that he never

intended to imply that _porta_, which carries us back to the original

derivation, _a portando aratrum_, did not primarily and originally mean

a city-gate.

It is not my intention to follow Mr. Round through all his erratic

criticisms of my paper. The greater part of them may safely be left to

the discretion of your readers; at the same time, the want of candour by

which some of his remarks are characterised, will not fail to be noted.

Thus, for example, when he dilates upon the occurrence of the word

“underlying,” instead of “unlying,” in my reference to the Laws of

Athelstan, everyone will at once perceive that this accidental error of

transcription (for which I cannot account) is at least quite immaterial

to the point at issue, which turns entirely upon and is wholly centred

in the question of the signification of the word _port_. It is to an

examination, therefore, of Mr. Round’s strictures on my use of this word

_port_ that I shall now advert.

Mr. Round objects to the use of the word _port_ as synonymous with

_gate_ where it occurs in the words “out of _port_,” or as I have

rendered it “outside the port,” in the Laws of Athelstan; he rejects the

identification with or derivation from _porta_, of the word “port,” as

insisted on by Professor Stubbs, and he limits the word _port_ to mean

only “a market or trading town,” totally discarding the notion of its

having anything whatever to do with “a gate.”

And first, as Mr. Round asserts that my rendering “outside the _port_ or

_gate_” “is a mere gloss of my own on the word _port_,” perhaps he will

be good enough to tell us in what light he regards the instance which he

himself adduces of “New_port_ gate in Lincoln”? Would he in this case,

according to his own rule, have the word _port_ rendered New

_market-town_ gate? Again, in the case of the “Port of East-gate,”

(_portam de East Gatâ_,) to which reference is made in the Charter of

Henry I. to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, it is quite manifest that

here, as indeed in Newport gate, the Anglo-Saxon “geat,” on which Mr.

Round dwells so fondly, is nothing more than the frequently observed

reduplication of synonyms,[24] caused in this instance by the Saxons

affixing this additional name of their own to the object, which under

the Roman name of port or porta conveyed to them no intelligible

signification. When, therefore, Mr. Round stigmatises my “rendering

outside the port or gate” as “a mere ‘gloss’ of my own on the word

port,” he must surely have overlooked these and similar instances in

which the word _port_ is used synonymously with _gate_, and more

especially the fact that precisely the same rendering of the word

_port_ was given nearly three hundred years ago by no less an authority

than Camden. Referring to the great Roman wall, Camden states that the

“two forts called Castle steeds are to be seen in the wall, and then a

place called _Port-gate_[25] where (as the word in both languages fairly

evinces) there was formerly _a Gate_ (or sally-_port_) through it.[26]”

And here if we take the word sally-_port_ thus presented to us, and I

may add to this also the word _port_-cullis, there are few, I apprehend,

except Mr. Round, who would contend that in these instances the word

_port_ means a “market town,” and has no reference to “a gate.” Even in

the case of the actual word _port-reeve_ itself, Sharon Turner is found

giving the word “port” its true meaning when he explicitly states that

“the _port_-gerefa, or the gerefa of the _gate_, was witness to all

purchases without the _gate_”[27] thus in fact showing how this eminent

Saxon historian and scholar read and understood the passage in the Laws

of Athelstan. Numerous examples of the same kind might easily be

adduced, and I might refer to those given in my former paper, which,

like the common occurrence of the term _extra portam_, and similar

illustrations of the use of _porta_, Mr. Round seems to have found it

convenient to ignore. It is needless, however, to multiply further

instances to the same effect.

Mr. Round next proceeds to point out that “the markets were held in the

_forum_,” “that we should consequently expect the name of a market town

to be derived from _forum_ rather than from _porta_,” and that the

“_forum_ so far from being at the gate (_porta_) was unquestionably in

the very centre of the settlement,” and that “as the markets were in no

sense held at the _porta_, we are precluded from deriving port from

_porta_”! This unique and somewhat anomalous specimen of argument,

together with the unnecessary piece of information as regards the

relative situation of the forum and the _porta_, which Mr. Round feels

“compelled” to point out in order to correct the error of Professor

Stubbs “in identifying ‘port’ with the Latin _porta_,” may all be

confidently remitted to the just discrimination of your readers. I

would, however, observe with respect to Mr. Round’s remarks on the

position of the forum, that it was scarcely necessary for him to go to

Silchester and to Cilurnum in exemplification of the well-known fact

that the forum was situated in the centre of a Roman town or city. This

fact, indeed, is even now amply attested by the lines of conformation

discoverable in many of our old borough towns, of which Taunton itself,

the town from which I write, affords a very apt and striking

illustration.

I think it well here to state that the foregoing observations were

written in reply to Mr. Round’s first paper, but it was deemed advisable

to defer their publication until after the appearance of a second

promised paper, in which Mr. Round undertook to prove that port in

Port-reeve was derived from _portus_, and not from _porta_, and stated

that he would offer “a most satisfactory explanation,” which would

“completely justify us in accepting the _portus_ derivation.” Now,

however, that the second paper has appeared, it would seem that he must

have found the handling of this “_portus_ derivation” a more awkward

business than he had anticipated, for the result is that he abandons it

altogether, and arrives at the conclusion that the Romans could never

“have called an inland town a _portus_,” nor in his opinion “_a porta_”

either!

Having thus made a summary despatch of this “most satisfactory

derivation,” Mr. Round next shifts his ground _in toto_, and calls on us

in his second paper to accept a new theory of his own, which he is about

to propound, and by which he “claims _port_ as an English word, in

itself distinct from the Latin words _Porta_ and _Portus_.” Whether he

will be more successful with this new “theory” than he has been with his

unfortunate “_portus_ derivation” we are to be left in uncertainty until

the appearance of his third paper. In the meantime, if in claiming port

as an English word Mr. Round means an Anglo-Saxon word, I would observe

I am aware of its occurrence in Lye’s “Anglo-Saxon Dictionary” (fol.,

vol. ii.), where we find “Port, a port. Portus. To tham porte, ad

portum, Bed. 4. I. Civitas. Oppidum. Into tham porte. In civitatem;

Ælfr. Gr. c. 5. Potius tamen, _Porta_ civitatis vel oppidi.” Thus, then,

we see _port_ even here referred back to _porta_, a city-gate, as the

source of its original and most accurate derivation or meaning.

It seems somewhat strange, amid the great uncertainty attending his own

views, as shown by the variety of derivations which he has proposed,

that Mr. Round should have failed to avail himself of the opportunity

afforded him by the Celtic. In the excellent dictionary, the “Antiquæ

Linguæ Britannicæ Thesaurus,” by the Rev. T. Richards, we find “Porth, a

door, a porch, a haven,” and we learn that the same word exists in the

Armoric. I am quite aware of the great similarity, or as it has been

termed “the cognate character,” of many Celtic and Latin words, but

notwithstanding this knowledge, and all that Mr. Round has also advanced

on the subject, I would still maintain, in the instance of port-reeve,

the usually adopted derivation of _port_ from the Latin _porta_.

All notice has likewise been omitted by Mr. Round of the word _port

way_, and the customarily accepted Roman significance attaching to it,

and also of the common words _porter_ (a door-keeper), and _portal_, the

derivation of which is, I believe, universally referred to the Latin

_porta_.

The July number of THE ANTIQUARIAN MAGAZINE has now brought us Mr.

Round’s third paper. Instead, however, of its containing, as we had been

led to expect, some more fully developed account of his “natural and

intelligible process by which the English word _port_ was formed,” and

some evidence in proof of his strange and as yet unsupported assertion

that the word _port_ was originally “coined by the English,” we find

that he merely reverts to a further consideration of the word _port_,

touching on the question of Newport gate, and barely alluding to the

Welsh _porth_, two points to which it will be observed that I have here

just adverted somewhat more fully.

I now apprehend that I have been mistaken, but must confess that it

never occurred to me that Mr. Round’s conjecture in his second paper as

to the manner in which the minds of “the English pirates” would be

likely to be affected by the word _portus_, was all he meant to tell us

respecting “the natural and intelligible process by which the English

word _port_ was formed,” or that he could seriously propose to put

forward this crude assumption of his own for general acceptance on a

question of this kind.

Mr. Round’s observations in his third paper are not of a character to

make it necessary for me in any way to alter or modify anything that I

have already said. Indeed, so far as his introduction of the authority

of Mr. Freeman is concerned, he has contributed only to strengthen my

position, for the passage which he quotes from Mr. Freeman’s “English

Towns and Districts,” (a work which I have not enjoyed the advantage of

seeing,) may, _mutatis mutandis_, be equally well applied to the word

port-reeve.

If we merely substitute the word _port_ for “name of the gate,” and _in

Port-reeve_ for “Nova Porta,” the sentence will read thus: “The abiding

Latin port, in port-reeve, of itself goes far to show that there could

have been no long gap between Roman or British and English occupation.”

With this slight and quite legitimate alteration, (for the whole force

of Mr. Freeman’s statement hangs on the presence of the word _porta_,)

it would be difficult to express the point for which I have been

contending in more apposite terms, and the circumstance that Mr. Round

sees fit to question Mr. Freeman’s statement because _he_ can “find no

evidence for it,” is a matter regarding which I do not feel myself

called upon to enter.

As Mr. Round now informs us that his paper is “to be continued,” and it

appears to be uncertain when it will be brought to a conclusion, I deem

it best no longer to defer forwarding this reply, more especially as he

proposes to make some other words, with which I do not find myself in

any way concerned, the subject of his future criticisms.

In conclusion, I would observe that the result of my former paper was to

bring me many interesting communications on the subject of which it

treats.

From the general tenor of these communications, as well as from other

sources, I gather that the ancient office of port-reeve is rapidly

falling into desuetude, though in some comparatively rare instances the

Port-reeve still remains the chief officer of the borough, and is

invested with considerable power and privileges. Thus, in an obliging

communication which I received from the Port-Reeve of Tavistock, that

gentleman is good enough to inform me that he not only still remains the

returning officer of the borough, but that he also enjoys a seat on the

County Bench, as J.P. for Devon, solely by right and in virtue of his

office as Port-reeve, a fact which I conceive is sufficiently rare and

interesting to merit being placed on record.

The Salic Law.

BY CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D., _Author of “The Gaelic Etymology of the

Languages of Western Europe.”_

THE Salic law, which still prevails in some parts of Europe, is supposed

to have been instituted in the sixth century by Clovis, or Pharamond,

King of the Franks. In Shakespeare’s play of “King Henry V.,” Act i.

Scene 2, King Henry, addressing the Archbishop of Canterbury and the

Bishop of Ely, thus asks them to expound the Salic Law:--

“My learned Lord, we pray you to proceed:

And justly and religiously unfold,

Why the law Salique, that they have in France

Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury in his reply mentions the ancient tradition

that this law was instituted by Pharamond, and continues:--

“The land Salique is in Germany,

Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe,

Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,

There left behind and settled certain French;

Who, holding in disdain the German women,

In some dishonest manners of their life,

Established then this law--to wit, no female

Should be inheritrix in Salique land.”

The very prosy speech of the Archbishop, from which this is an extract,

bears no trace of the fine hand of Shakespeare, and was copied almost

_verbatim_ from Holinshed.

President Henault, borrowing from previous writers--who wrote from

tradition, without adequate proof or authority for the statements they

made or adopted--says that it was Clovis who instituted and signed the

Salic Law in A.D. 511, the year of his death. Voltaire says that Clovis

could neither read nor write, and that it is uncertain whether his name

was Clovis, Clodvic, or Hildovic. Voltaire states also that there are

two versions of the text of this Salic Law, each of which differs from

the other.

Though the word _Salic_ is by no means uncertain in its meaning, its

etymology is so very obscure and undecided as to have puzzled all the

French, German, and English philologists who have flourished since the

invention of printing. According to Worcester’s Dictionary the word was

applied to a body of laws framed by the Salians or Salian Franks, about

the beginning of the fifth century, but who the Salians were, no one has

yet been able to explain. The derivation from the River Saal, which

Holinshed calls _Sala_, is wholly untenable, as well as the imputation

on the virtue of the German ladies of the district through which that

river runs. The Salic law never prevailed in any part of Germany, but

was peculiar to such Keltic nations as France and Spain. It continued to

prevail in France until the abolition of the monarchy under Louis

Philippe in 1848, and was never a question so much as debated in the

Imperial monarchy under the first or the third Napoleons. In Spain it

was abrogated only by Ferdinand VII., within living memory, in favour of

his daughter, the infant Isabella, whose accession to the throne led to

a civil war, which cannot yet be said to have ended, as long as Don

Carlos or his family exist and keep their pretensions alive. On this

subject Voltaire, in his “Philosophical Dictionary,” has some pithy

remarks. According to Froissart he says, “The kingdom of France is of

such great nobleness that it never can allow the succession to go to a

female,” and adds, “but one must confess that this decision is very

unpolite for England, for Naples, for Hungary, and for Russia, in which

latter country four reigning Empresses have sat upon the throne.”

In the French “Etymological Dictionary” of Messrs. Noel and Carpentier,

are cited various surmises as to the origin of the word, among others

that _salique_ is a corruption of _gallique_, that it comes from

_Salle_--the great hall of a palace, from an imaginary tribe of Germans

called in Latin _salice_, from _si aliquis_, the first words of the

Latin document in which the Salic law was promulgated; from _sal_, salt,

and from _Salogart_, the name of one of Pharamond’s jurisconsults, or

counsellors. Who shall decide when so many doctors disagree? Yet as the

law was a Keltic law, passed by a Gaelic speaking people some centuries

before the formation of the actual French language, search ought to be

made for the derivation of the word in Keltic sources. We there find _So

lagh_, the “excellent or befitting law.” This was a name very likely to

have been given to such an ordinance by barbarians, who thought that

none but men and warriors were fit to govern them, or lead their armies

to the conflicts in which they were perpetually engaged. The name of

Pharamond himself was purely Keltic, and signified a Highlander or

mountaineer, from _fear_, a man, and _monadh_ a mountain. The four

jurisconsults who are reported to have drawn up the ungallant law at the

request of Pharamond are given by Voltaire as Visogast, Harogast,

Salogast, and Vindogast. In these names the final syllable, gast,

appears to have been a title given to learned men of the Keltic tribes

of the period, from _gasda_, or _gasta_, expert, or skilful. Brachet’s

“French Etymological Dictionary,” printed at the Clarendon Press,

Oxford, in 1882, and advertised to have been revised by the French

Academy, does not contain the word salique or salic, which looks as if

M. Brachet was not satisfied that it is really of French origin.

* * * * *

LORD BRABOURNE, after many years’ collecting, has brought together a

unique series of papers relating to the early history of Australia.

These have just been purchased by the New South Wales Government. The

batch consists mainly of letters formerly in the possession of Sir

Joseph Banks, long president of the Royal Society, and deeply interested

in New South Wales, since he accompanied Captain Cook in the discovery

of that country. The letters cover a period between 1772-1815. Among

them are letters of Captain Cook, his companion Captain Clark, and many

from later discoverers and visitors to the new lands.

Lines on Opening an Ancient Barrow.[28]

BY THE REV. W. LISLE BOWLES.

DURING the examination of one of these ancient burial-places by Sir

Richard C. Hoare, a storm of thunder and lightning surprised the

antiquaries. “Our only place of refuge,” says Sir Richard, “was the

barrow, which had been excavated to a considerable depth. The lightning

flashed upon our spades and iron instruments, and the large flints

poured down upon us from the summit of the barrow, so abundantly and so

forcibly, that we were obliged to quit our hiding-place, and abide the

pelting of the pitiless storm upon the bleak and unsheltered down.” Mr.

Bowles, being of the party, sent the following beautiful poem the next

morning to Sir R. C. Hoare:--

“Let me, let me sleep again;

Thus methought, in feeble strain,

Plained from its disturbed bed

The spirit of the mighty dead.

O’er my mouldered ashes cold

Many a century slow hath rolled,

Many a race hath disappeared

Since my giant form I reared;

Since my flinted[29] arrow flew,

Since my battle-horn I blew;

Since my brazen dagger’s pride

Glittered on my warlike side,

Which, transported o’er the wave,

Kings of distant ocean gave;[30]

Ne’er hath glared the eye of day

My death-bed secrets to betray,

Since with muttered Celtic rhyme,

The white-haired Druid bard sublime,

’Mid the stillness of the night,

Waked the sad and solemn rite,

The rite of death; and o’er my bones

Were piled the monumental stones.

Passing near the hallowed ground,

The Roman gazed upon the mound;

And murmured, with a secret sigh,

‘There, in dust, the mighty lie.’

Ev’n while his heart with conquest glowed,

While the high-raised flinty road[31]

Echoed to the prancing hoof,

And golden eagles flamed aloof,

And flashing to the orient light

His bannered legions glittered bright,

The Victor of the world confessed

A dark awe shivering at his breast.

Shall, then, the Sons of distant days

Unpunished on my relics gaze?

Hark! Hesus rushes from on high,

Vindictive thunder rocks the sky;

See, Taranis[32] descends to save

His hero’s violated grave;

And shakes, beneath the lightning’s glare,

The sulphur from his blazing hair.

Hence! yet though my grave ye spoil,

Dark oblivion mocks your toil:

Deep the clouds of ages roll,

History drops her mouldering scroll,

And never shall reveal the name

Of him who scorns her transient fame.”

The Ancient Etruscan City of Luni.

BY LA SIGNORA CAMPION.

“Lunai portum est operæ cognoscere, cives.

Cor jubet hoc Ennî.”--PERSIUS, _Sat._

JUST outside the walls of Sarzana, in Liguria, and scattered over about

five or six acres of the partly cultivated plain, may be found portions

of the remains of the once important and thriving Etruscan city of Luni.

Though it is accessible from La Spezia within half an hour by railway,

yet it lies sufficiently off the beaten track of travellers to this part

of Italy to be scarcely mentioned in the guide-books, and therefore it

has escaped the notice which it deserves. Some account of the spot and

of its early history, so far as I have been able to trace it, may

therefore be acceptable. The place was at one time a trading town upon

the Gulf of Spezia, and is said to have been founded by the Etrurian

Tarchon.[33] (See Strabo, lib. v.; Cato, Origines xxv.)

Luni--“La Superba,” as she was proudly called of old--was situated at

the head of a bay, or rather arm, of the Mediterranean, forming a

commodious and deep natural harbour, and backed by that spur of the

Apennines which forms the Carrara Mountains, so famous for their

exquisite marble. But for the numerous fragments of ancient anchors,

chains, masts of vessels, and other objects which are now and again

being brought to light, and for the vast blocks of stone forming the

ancient quay of the town, some of which may still be seen _in situ_, it

would be difficult to realise that here was the identical port so

admiringly mentioned by Ennius and by Strabo, and so famous as having

sent forth armed vessels three thousand years ago to assist the Greeks

in the siege of Troy, and from which so many thousands of tons of the

Carrara marbles were exported to Italy and other countries in more

recent times.

It is on record that Titus Manlius here embarked the army with which in

B.C. 537 he started to quell the rebellion of the Sardi. From this port,

also, the Emperor Claudius sailed on his attempt to conquer Britain.

Luni continued to rank as one of the most prosperous cities of Etruria,

till it was harassed and invaded by the indomitable Ligurians, who made

themselves masters of it. Wrested from them by the Romans, and subjected

to the Republic, the power of Luni rapidly declined; and, as though to

hasten her ruin, successive inundations of the River Magra choked up her

harbour with their deposits, while the sea, as if in concert with its

tributary, receded from her shore. In 1015 A.D. Luni was taken and

partially destroyed by the Saracens, and in 1185 Frederick Barbarossa

handed her over to the authorities of the Christian Church, who made the

town an Episcopal See.

In connection with the early history of the neighbouring city of La

Spezia will be found the names of various bishops of Luni; but the

latter see extended over a period of little more than a century, for we

find that in consequence of the malarious and deadly exhalations arising

from the stagnant pools left by the Magra’s floods and the retirement of

the sea from the bay, Luni had to be completely abandoned about 1300

A.D.

The site has been hitherto but little explored, but considerable

quantities of pottery, articles in bronze, coins, mosaics, &c., are from

time to time turned up by the peasants when cultivating their little

plots of land. These treasures have mostly found their way into the

hands of private collectors, I believe, and until steps are taken to

organise a thorough exploration of the spot, much that would be in the

highest degree interesting to the antiquary and the public will remain

buried in oblivion. At present all that can be seen of ancient Luni may

be summed up briefly thus: (1) Portions of a temple dedicated to

Plantilla, wife of the Emperor Caracalla. (2) The amphitheatre, much

despoiled and overgrown. (3) A circular building, 9 metres in height,

and containing rows of niches. (4) A large building supposed to have

been used as a granary or depôt for military stores. (5) Portions of an

aqueduct. (6) Some prostrate columns, friezes, and capitals. (7) The

ancient well, still furnishing the clearest and coolest water in the

neighbourhood.

For some of the information herein contained I am indebted to Signor S.

Cerini, whose access to various archives and manuscripts has supplied me

with data, and who is the author of a pamphlet on the subject published

two years ago. For the rest I have had to glean the meagre information

contained in this paper as best I could; but my visit to the spot has

increased my desire to know more about it, and my hope is that a day may

soon come when the hidden archæological treasures of the buried Luni

will be unearthed for the instruction and admiration of the public. I

may add that the spot is most picturesque, and well worthy the attention

of artist and antiquary alike. For myself, so long as I live here, I

will do my best not to let the subject drop.

* * * * *

FROM a paper contributed by the veteran scholar, Dr. Edkins, to a recent

number of the _Chinese Recorder_, it appears that about B.C. 2200 the

Chinese possessed a knowledge of the art of writing, a year of 366 days

with an intercalary month, the astrolabe, the zodiac, the cycle of

sixty, of twelve musical reeds forming a gamut, which also constituted

the basis of a denary metrology for measures of length, weight, and

capacity, divination, and a feudal system.

Reviews.

_History of the Wrays of Glentworth_--1523-1852. 2 vols. By CHARLES

DALTON, F.R.G.S.

THE founder of the Wray family, _i.e._, the first member of it who

brought the name into honourable notice, and who received a “grant of

arms”--that necessary appendage to gentility--was Sir Christopher Wray,

who “raised himself from nothing” to become Lord Chief Justice of

England. This was in the middle of the sixteenth century. Since that

time some of his descendants have received the “honour” of knighthood,

some have had the baronetcy conferred upon them, whilst others have

distinguished themselves either in the senate or the field, or in some

other public capacity. Although the work before us is of a genealogical

character, Mr. Dalton has endeavoured to amalgamate in it “many

different subjects, woven together into history.” Scattered through

these pages are numberless anecdotes--more or less associated with the

Wrays or with the families allied to them by marriage. The first of

these volumes was published by Messrs. Chapman & Hall as far back as

1880; the second volume, issued in 1881, was “privately printed.” The

author’s reason for not making his second volume public he explains as

follows: “I find there are so few of the many descendants of the Wrays

who take any interest in their progenitors, that it would be labour lost

to cast my work into the great public trough, where it could have no

chance of competing with any three-volume novel, even though that same

three-volume novel had no better claims to the notice of the reader than

the skilfulness with which the author had managed to clothe impurity

with a seeming garb of innocence.” “The Wrays of Glentworth” is far

removed from the ordinary run of dry-as-dust genealogies, and will be

found to contain much interesting matter. It may be added that the

surplus stock has been bought over by Mr. H. W. Ball, of

Barton-on-Humber, by whom they are now announced for sale.

_The Order of the Coif._ By A. PULLING, Serjeant-at-Law. W. Clowes

& Sons. 1884.

UNDER the above quaint but appropriate title, Serjeant Pulling has

compiled a most interesting memoir of that grade in the legal profession

of which he will probably prove to be one of the last survivors. The

“coif” is, according to Bailey’s dictionary, “a sort of hood or cap for

the head,” and serjeants-at-law (_servientes ad legem_) were called

“Serjeants of the Coif, from the coif of Lawn which they formerly wore

on their heads under their caps, but now (1763) upon the hinder part of

their wigs.” The author remarks most justly, as an excuse for

undertaking this work, that “in this country we have a history of

neither the Bench or [nor] of the Bar,” and that “the order of the coif

was the first phase of both.” And it is known to all that till quite a

recent date it contained nearly every legal celebrity both of the Bench

and the Bar. The work is largely based on Serjeant Wynne’s tract,

published in 1765, entitled, “Observasions touching the Antiquity and

Dignity of the Degree of Serjeant-at-Law;” and it is an expansion of an

article in the _Edinburgh Review_ for October, 1878, on the same

subject, in which much of the matter of the book now before us is

foreshadowed. The introductory chapter and that which follows it are

together a study in English constitutional history. The following

chapters treat of very many subjects, which will be interesting alike

in Westminster Hall and in the new Law Courts; and the seventh chapter,

devoted as it is to the ancient habits and observances of the Order,

their robes, their rings, and “posies,” their solemn processions, their

feasts, masques, revels, &c., is a storehouse of antiquarian learning,

and as such most highly to be commended. The last chapter treats of the

later history of the Order down to its recent abolition--one which is on

many accounts deeply to be regretted. It is always bad to abolish old

landmarks unless they have come to stand in the way of progress and

improvement; and this charge we never heard brought against “The Order

of the Coif.” The illustrations, eight in all, are admirable, and light

up a book which is never dark or dull.

_A History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich._ By JAMES HALL.

Printed for the Author. Nantwich, 1884.

THE County Palatine of Chester abounds in quaint and curious county

towns, but few of them have a more interesting history than Nantwich.

Some account of the town is to be found in Ormerod and in Lysons, and

smaller notices of it have been published more recently in a local

journal, in whose files these are now buried. Mr. J. Hall has therefore

supplied a decided want, and by his researches in the Record Office and

in the family papers of Messrs. Wilbraham and Tollemache, he has added

largely to our knowledge of its earlier history. These results he has

now placed before the world in a handsome quarto volume, the

subscription list at the beginning of which is a proof that an author,

unlike a prophet, may succeed in getting “honour even in his own

country.” The work treats in successive chapters of the foundation of

Nantwich, the history of the barony of which it formed a part, its

church, hospital, grammar-school, and other ancient buildings, its early

charters, and other privileges, its guilds, fairs, and bridges, its

mention in the Subsidy Rolls, its visitations from battle, plague, and

fire, and its share in the struggles of the Civil war. The latter part

of the volume is devoted to an account of its commercial importance, its

banks, its manufactories and industries, and especially that of salt,

while full value is given to the contents of its parish registers, its

charities, and the histories of the several families connected with the

town, the Cholmondeleys, Wilbrahams, Tollemaches, Kingsleys, &c. The

volume is illustrated by several views, well engraved on stone, and some

woodcuts, showing the details of its street architecture. We would draw

particular attention to the view of “Old Houses in High Street,” given

on p. 415.

_Old Registers of the Parish of St. John Baptist, Peterborough._ By

the Rev. W. D. SWEETING, M.A. Peterborough: G. C. Caster. 1884.

THIS little _brochure,_ of some sixty octavo pages, formed the subject

of a lecture delivered by Mr. Sweeting before the members of the Church

Institute in March last, and has been published by request. Among the

entries quoted are several of a quaint and curious character, and some

which contain glimpses into the life and habits of our predecessors,

thereby imparting to them an amount of interest which will probably be

found wanting in the registers of the present day when they come to be

examined some 300 years hence. The clergy are now supplied by authority

with books, with spaces marked out and ruled for dates and names, and

the insertion of anything beyond the mere fact registered seems to be in

every way discouraged.

_Old Aunt Elspa’s A B C_, “imagined and adorned” by JOSEPH CRAWHALL

(Field & Tuer), is a quaint book for children, printed on rough

hand-made paper, and illustrated with curious woodcuts after the manner

of the old chap-books. It is one of the “chepe and curious bookes”

“imprynted atte ye signe of ye Leadenhalle Presse, in ye Old London

Streete, in ye Health Exhibition, South Kensyngton, London towne, in ye

yeare of Grace, 1884.”

_Ye Historical Sketch of ye Olde London Streete._ Edited by T. ST.

Edmund Hake. Waterlow & Sons. 1884.

UNDER the above title Mr. Hake has set forth in a neatly-printed

_brochure_, embellished with eleven illustrations--or “gravinges” as

they are here called--the principal features in the now well-known Old

London Street in the International Health Exhibition at South

Kensington. As he tells us in his introductory remarks, it would be

difficult for a historian, a romance writer, or even a poet, to select a

subject calculated to awaken more interest than Old London. “In secluded

nooks and corners where an echo of the footstep can often be heard, may

be found some monument or landmark--a temple, tombstone, or

tavern--which speaks eloquently of the past. The ‘writing upon the wall’

may be worn out; the stone once smooth may be wrinkled like an old face;

still such are the ‘things of fame,’ to inspire the minds of men, and to

lead to reflection and research.” The illustrations embrace full-page

etchings of the north and south sides of the “street,” and smaller

engravings of Bishopsgate, the Rose Inn, the Three Squirrels, Isaac

Walton’s house, the tower of All Hallows Steyning, &c.

_English Etchings_ for July and August (D. Bogue, 3, St. Martin’s-place,

W.C.) contain several admirable examples of this popular art, among them

being “Westminster-bridge with the Houses of Parliament,” by Mr. Ned

Swain; and “Middle row, Holborn,” by Mr. A. W. Bayes. The clearing away

of the block of buildings represented in the latter plate, a few years

ago, made it possible to see fairly and well the Holborn front of Staple

Inn, one of the oldest existing specimens of our street architecture,

dating from the time of James I. It is seen on the right-hand side of

the plate. Dr. Johnson lived in Staple Inn in 1739, and there wrote his

“Idler,” “seated on a three-legged chair, so scantily were his chambers

furnished.” This publication, which has now reached its thirty-ninth

monthly part, continues to maintain the high character which it has

hitherto enjoyed.

THE _Journal of the British Archæological Association_ (Vol. xl., Pt.

ii.), which is now before us, contains a large number of most

interesting papers, as will be seen by the mere announcement of the

following titles: “Dover Records in the British Museum,” “Historical

Sketch of the Castle of Devizes,” “The Development of the Fortifications

of Dover Castle,” “The Crosses at Ilkley,” “The Castles of Sandown and

Sandgate,” “Samphire,” “Recently-discovered Fresco at Patcham Church,

Sussex,” “Roman Embanking and Sanitary Precautions,” “Remarks on Recent

Archæological Relics of London,” “Some Relics of the Past recovered from

London Sites,” &c. Many of these papers were read by their authors at

the Archæological Congress at Dover last year.

Obituary Memoirs.

“Emori nolo; sed me esse mortuum nihil æstimo.”--_Epicharmus._

MR. ALFRED BENJAMIN WYON, F.R.G.S., died in June, aged 46. Mr. Wyon was

admitted a student of the Royal Academy in 1855, and after studying in

the School of Painting for some years, turned his attention to metallic

work, and in 1865 he united with his brother, Mr. Joseph S. Wyon, in the

appointment of chief engraver of Her Majesty’s seals, in the execution

of medals, and the important seals of State. This appointment was held

jointly by the two brothers until the death of Mr. Joseph S. Wyon in

1873, since which time it was held singly by the subject of this notice.

Since 1873, Mr. Alfred Wyon was entrusted with the preparation of the

Great Seal of England which is at present in use, the seal of the

colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, Fiji, and other Crown dependencies.

During the last few years Mr. Wyon had collected a vast amount of

information respecting the history of the Great Seals of England, and of

seals attached to charters and other municipal documents. Papers upon

questions arising in connection with these subjects Mr. Wyon from time

to time read at the meetings of the Archæological Association.

THE REV. MARK PATTISON, B.D., Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, died at

Harrogate on July 30, at the age of 71. He was born at Hornby,

Yorkshire, was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, and became a Fellow of

Lincoln College. He was elected rector in 1861. He was the author,

_inter alia_, of “Isaac Casaubon, 1559-1604: a Biography,” and a “Life

of Milton.” He edited Pope’s “Essay on Man, with Notes,” Pope’s “Satires

and Epistles, with Notes,” and Milton’s “Sonnets, with Notes.” Mr.

Pattison, who was a trustee of the Crewe Charities, married, in 1862,

Emilia Frances, youngest daughter of the late Colonel Strong, of the

Madras Army, a lady who is well known as the author of the “French

Renaissance,” and generally as an art-critic.

M. ALBERT DUMONT, the distinguished author on Greek archæology, has died

at Paris. He was 43 years of age, was a member of the Institute, and a

high official at the Ministry of Education.

JOHN GUSTAVUS DROYSEN, Professor of History at the University of Berlin,

died on July 19, in his 84th year. Among his best-known works are a

“History of Alexander the Great,” which was published in 1837; a

“History of Hellenism,” two volumes, 1836-43; “Lectures on the History

of the War of Freedom,” two volumes, 1840; “History of Danish Politics

from Acts and Documents,” conjointly with Samwer, 1850, and a “History

of Prussian Politics,” vols. i.-x., 1855-70.

SIR ERASMUS WILSON, LL.D., the somewhat distinguished Egyptologist, has

died, at the age of 75. In 1831 he was elected a member of the College

of Surgeons, and he became president of that body in 1881. He was a

vice-president of the Society of Biblical Archæology and President of

the Egypt Exploration Fund, the success of which has been largely due to

his munificence. He gave £500 towards Mr. Naville’s excavations at

Pithom, and £1,000 to Mr. Petrie’s work at Tanis, and the Society has in

many besides financial ways been deeply indebted to his unflagging

interest. Among his published works, his “Egypt of the Past,” and “Notes

on Egypt and Egyptian Obelisks,” hold a foremost place. It was at his

expense that the Egyptian obelisk, commonly known as “Cleopatra’s

Needle,” now on the Victoria Embankment, was brought to this country. It

is said to have cost him more than £10,000.

HERR MAURICE THAUSING, Professor of Art History at the Vienna

University, and author of a work on Albert Durer, has been drowned in

the Elbe, at Leitmeritz.

MR. WILLIAM DOBSON, formerly of Preston, a well-known Lancashire

archæologist and local _littérateur_, has died, at the age of 64. He was

the author of “Rambles by the Ribble,” “A History of the Parliamentary

Representation of Preston,” “Preston in the Olden Time,” and other

works. He was for many years proprietor and editor of the _Preston

Chronicle_. The third series of “Rambles by the Ribble” was published in

1883, and a continuation of the work was in hand at the time of Mr.

Dobson’s decease.

Meetings of Learned Societies.

METROPOLITAN.

ROYAL ARCHÆOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.--The forty-first annual meeting, or

congress, of the Royal Archæological Institute was opened on Tuesday,

August 5, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, this being the second occasion on which

the Institute has held its annual gathering in that city. Newcastle was

almost rebuilt half a century ago by one of its sons, Richard Grainger,

so that it now presents but few attractions to lovers of the past, with

the exception of sundry old wynds or “chares” on the steep sides of the

Tyne, which still remain, and two or three churches, and the old Norman

castle which once was “new,” and from that circumstance gave its name to

the ancient city of Munc-ceaster, or the ancient city of the Monks,

which it superseded. The part of this castle which is still standing has

been of late years put into good condition, thanks to the energies of

sundry local antiquarians and archæologists, and is now fitted up as a

museum. One of the rooms, too, served as the headquarters of the

congress. At twelve o’clock the members of the institute, headed by the

Duke of Northumberland and Lord Percy, were received in the Town-hall by

the Mayor (Mr. F. Newton), the Sheriff (Mr. T. Nelson, F.S.A.), and the

other members of the corporation. The Mayor’s address was brief and to

the purpose. After welcoming the Archæological Institute on behalf of

the town, and paying a well-timed tribute to the noble president of the

present meeting and his son, he recapitulated the history of Newcastle

from the era when it was the Pons Ælii of Imperial Rome, through the

Saxon and Danish days to the time of the Conquest, soon after which it

became a Norman stronghold. He then traced its career through the

Scottish wars and in the days of the Great Rebellion, and said that in

the Scottish Rebellions of 1715 and 1745 it was the headquarters of

military operations in the north. Of late years it had devoted itself,

as a town, to the arts of peace; and it is justly proud of the place

which it holds in modern progress and commerce. But its devotion to

commerce did not lead its inhabitants to forget or to undervalue its

connection with the past. The Sheriff added a few words in the double

capacity of a Newcastle man and a member of the Society of Antiquaries.

The Duke of Northumberland, as president of the meeting, delivered a

short address, in which he drew a picture of the history of the border

coasts of Northumberland at various dates, its connection with the

records of early Christianity in the north of England, the frays and

border forays by which it was so marked in the days of the Plantagenets

and Tudors, and even down to the Stuart era, and the strange way in

which old local customs had survived within it down to a very recent

date. Among the objects of archæological interest to which the members

of the Institute would have their attention drawn during their stay in

Newcastle, his Grace observed, were the Roman wall, built by the Emperor

Hadrian, the Norman keep in Newcastle, and the holy edifices at

Lindisfarne, Tynemouth, and Jarrow--the last the birthplace of the first

of English historians, the Venerable Bede. In the antiquities of the

north of England could be traced the history of the country from the

period of the ancient Britons down through the Roman occupation to the

time of the conflicts of Saxons, Danes, and Normans. For the elucidation

of these subjects much credit was due to the Newcastle Society of

Antiquaries, and also to Dr. Bruce, the historian of the Roman wall, and

Mr. John Clayton and gentlemen who have devoted their lives to the study

of the archæology of the North.

A vote of thanks to the Duke of Northumberland was moved by Lord

Aberdare, and seconded by the Bishop of Newcastle, who drew the

attention of his hearers to the great benefits which the England of

to-day owed to their Norman and their Saxon ancestors, reminding them

that the study of the past, if followed up in a kindly and appreciative

spirit, must teach the present and the future generations many important

lessons of gratitude. The Duke of Northumberland, in a few short

sentences, acknowledged the compliment, and the meeting was at an end.

The company were subsequently received in the lecture-room of the

Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle by the members of the

local Society of Antiquarians, whose president, the Earl of Ravensworth,

addressed to them a brief speech, greeting their arrival, and promising

them a wide field of interesting research on either side of the Tyne.

Whether they went along the Roman wall westwards, to Holy Island and

Lindisfarne northwards, or southwards to Durham, or eastward to

Tynemouth--in every direction they would see traces of late Rome during

Christianity. He ended by saying that he admired the study of

archæology, for it made an old man young again, and made a young man old

by increasing his field of observation and experience. In the afternoon

the members of the two societies met together at the Black Gate of the

Castle, from whence they proceeded, under the guidance of Mr. W. H.

Longstaffe, to inspect the remains of the castle, the new cathedral (St.

Nicholas Church), the remains of the old city walls, the Trinity House,

the Old Exchange, in which the Company of Merchant Venturers had its

home; and, finally, the churches of All Saints’, St. John’s, and St.

Andrew’s. The leading features of the castle were commented upon by Dr.

Bruce and Mr. Longstaffe, who placed its date at about 1172-7, and held

that it was absurd to ascribe it to the previous century or to a son of

the Conqueror. Dr. Bruce pointed out the king’s chamber, with its

curious Norman chimney-piece, the whole of the chamber being cut out of

the solid wall; the queen’s chamber, a corresponding apartment on the

other side of the building; the donjon or dungeon keep in the basement,

and the Norman chapel, with its rows of round-headed arches, with

curious and costly mouldings. At All Saints’ Church the visitors were

shown the fine brass of Roger Thornton--one of the finest in the

Kingdom; and in the mayor’s room at the Old Exchange a series of mural

paintings, representing scenes and sketches from old Newcastle.

In the evening the antiquarian and historical sections respectively of

this Congress were opened at the rooms of the Literary and Philosophical

Institute by Dr. Bruce, the historian of the Roman wall, and the Rev.

Canon Creighton, who has just been appointed to a chair of history at

Cambridge. The lecture of the former gentleman treated mainly of the

subjects with which his pen is so familiar, and especially with the

early introduction of Christianity into Northern England, quite apart

from the emissaries of Rome and St. Augustine; whilst Canon Creighton

drew an interesting picture of the history of Northumberland,

Cumberland, and the adjacent counties, as the border district between

England and Scotland, and therefore in many ways the sufferer from the

wars between those two countries, and from the frays which continued to

be carried on between their inhabitants long after the two countries had

been united under one Crown.

On Wednesday, by invitation of the Duke of Northumberland, the members

paid a visit to the Castle of Alnwick. Mr. G. Clark, the great authority

on castellated architecture, explained every portion of the outer works

and of the extensive fabric in succession. He showed reasons for

believing that even in Saxon times the high ground on which the Castle

stands was the site of a “burgh” then, and that it was afterwards seized

upon and strengthened by the Normans. Much of the lower portion of the

walls, as they still stand, is Norman, though portions of it, such as

the barbican and some of the towers which crown the walls, are the work

of the De Vescis and the Percys. He showed the value of its strong

position, supported as it was by a host of smaller fortresses by which

it was surrounded, and illustrated the way in which, even if a part were

captured, the rest of the Castle could hold out and annoy its

assailants. The interior of the Castle, which is modern, and fitted and

furnished in the Italian style, was much admired. The furniture,

ornamentation, and fine gallery of paintings were made the subject of

comment by Dr. Bruce, who acted as _cicerone_ over the interior, as Mr.

Clark had done over the exterior of the building. At three o’clock all

the visitors lunched in the banqueting-hall of the Castle.

On their way to Alnwick, the company visited Warkworth Castle, on the

Coquet, a magnificent building, but still little more than a ruin. It is

very much like Alnwick, though the points of difference between them are

very great and numerous. Standing on a projecting headland and swept on

three sides by the Coquet, it occupies a very strong and indeed

formidable position, and must have at one time dominated over the whole

surrounding country, whilst it guarded the mouth of the river against

the incursions of the Danish and Scandinavian pirates. Here, too, Mr.

Clark acted as interpreter, and he explained in succession every

separate feature of the castle, including its central keep and the

adjoining chapel, of which only a few traces remain. At the conclusion

of Mr. Clark’s lecture most of the party walked up the meadows along the

banks of the Coquet and crossed the river in boats to inspect the old

hermitage cut in the side of the solid cliff, which forms the subject of

more than one poem, and lives in Goldsmith and in Percy’s Reliques. The

hermitage consists of two rough-hewn chambers, one of which was used by

the anchorite as a chapel, and the other served him as a bedchamber.

Between them is a small window of the Gothic type, which it was thought

was used by him as a confessional, as he sat within. It was not

possible for all the members of the congress to inspect this interesting

spot, as the river had to be crossed, and the ferry boat was not

constructed to carry more than a dozen passengers.

After luncheon some of the party went to Alnwick Abbey, in the valley of

the Alne, about a mile off, where some interesting tombs have lately

been discovered, and the plan of some monastic buildings laid bare;

others drove to Hulne Abbey to see the grounds and park; and the return

journey to Newcastle was made by special train.

In the evening papers were read in the architectural and archæological

sections as follows: Mr. J. Bain on “The Ancient Percys of Scotland;”

the Rev. J. Hirst on “The Ancient Mining Operations in Britain;” Dr.

Hodgkin, “A Translation of Hübner’s Eine Römische Annexion”; and Canon

Raine, of Durham, read a paper on “The Ecclesiology and Architecture,

Secular and Religious, of Northumberland,” in which he condemned the

mischievous practice of what was termed “restoration.” The so-called

restoration of a church now too often meant the destruction of all that

gave it its value as an ancient piece of architecture. This paper was

followed by a discussion, in which Messrs. Longstaffe, Walford, and

others took part, and in which Sir Edmund Beckett’s rebuilding of the

west front of St. Albans Abbey was condemned in strong terms.

Thursday was devoted to a visit to Lindisfarne and Holy Island, a place

associated, as every reader of “Marmion” knows, with the history of St.

Cuthbert. Arriving at Lindisfarne, the party made their way to the ruins

of the abbey, which stand in a meadow, not far from the water’s edge, a

cliff rising between it and the sea and protecting it on the south. The

Dean of Chester (Dr. Howson), in obedience to a very general request,

gave a short biographical account of St. Aidan and a sketch of his

apostolic labours in the propagation of the Gospel throughout the north.

After the Norman Conquest, he said, Lindisfarne was again colonised by

the faithful, and a Benedictine abbey founded in it, which lasted till

the Reformation, when it was granted by the King to the Earl of Dunbar,

and the work of its spoliation began; the lead being first stripped from

its roof, it soon fell into decay, and is now roofless. As a ruin it is

carefully preserved from further decay and injury by its present owner,

Sir William Crossman. A tribute having been paid by the Rev. Mr. Lowe to

the character of St. Cuthbert, the details of the existing fabric were

explained _seriatim_ by Mr. J. T. Micklethwait. Mr. Hodgson, a local

antiquary, also commented briefly on the views of the last speaker.

After luncheon, the parish church was visited; this adjoins the west

front of the Abbey, and has some Norman and early English features,

which were duly explained by the Vicar. The company afterwards walked to

the castle at the eastern extremity of the island, and from this they

had good views of Bamborough Castle and the range of the Cheviot Hills.

Shortly before sunset the visitors returned to Newcastle.

On Friday the party set out upon a visit to Bamborough Castle and the

adjoining Church. The former rises from the sea on a bluff and bold

headland in a princely way, quite worthy of its ancient history, from

the days when it was erected by the first Saxon King of Northumbria in

the middle of the sixth century; and it is worthy of note that

Anglo-Saxon chroniclers style it the royal mansion. Though not so

magnificent in its interior, and covering less ground, it is scarcely,

if at all, inferior to Alnwick, while its weird situation by the sea

imparts to it a character all its own. Some persons compare it to Dover,

but the comparison will scarcely hold good, except as to its keep. The

castle owes much of its celebrity and of its comparatively perfect

condition to Nathaniel Lord Crewe, the munificent benefactor of Oxford,

who purchased the fabric, and left it in the hands of trustees to be

devoted to charitable purposes, both local and general. It contains a

fine library and gallery, schools for the middle classes, and appliances

of all kinds for the relief of shipwrecked persons. The fabric of the

castle was explained at considerable length by Mr. G. T. Clark, F.S.A.,

each successive portion being separately discussed, and the whole

chronologically illustrated. After the keep had been examined attention

was drawn to the outer bailey and other outworks of the castle, which,

though of inferior masonry to the central portion, are curious in their

structure, and possibly even earlier in date. The members of the

congress afterwards visited the parish church of Bamborough, which is

dedicated to St. Aidan, and made a pilgrimage to the grave of Grace

Darling, whose heroism of nearly half a century ago in rescuing the

passengers of the _Forfarshire_ steamer is still remembered. In the

evening the various sections resumed the reading of papers promised

according to the programme. Mr. Charles J. Bates read the first half of

an exhaustive paper on “The Peel Castles of Northumberland.” These were

illustrated by photographs of the castles, their keeps, gateways,

windows, buttresses, ramparts, battlements, and in many cases their

heraldic bearings also, being shown by the help of magic lantern slides.

The Rev. G. F. Brown also read an interesting paper on the fragments of

sculptured stones which are to be seen at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow.

Those members of the Congress who did not go to Bamborough Castle spent

the day in examining the contents of the museum at the castle, the

treasures of the Literary and Philosophical Society, the Free Public

Library, &c.; but what attracted them most was the local museum, partly

permanent and partly on loan, which had been set out for their benefit

in the rooms above the Black Gate at the castle. Here the Mayors and

Corporations of Morpeth, Newcastle, and Carlisle exhibited their

regalia, and besides these there was displayed a collection of stone and

bronze implements, lent by Canon Greenwell, a collection of

ecclesiastical plate, mediæval lacework, illustrated missals, and other

manuscripts, prints, &c.

Saturday was one of the most interesting days of the congress, it being

devoted by a greater part of the members to a pilgrimage to

Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, places well known as the abodes of the

Venerable Bede, the earliest of our English Church historians. Before

starting, however, the Institute held, as is its established custom, its

annual meeting, over which Lord Percy presided in virtue of his office.

The balance-sheet and other accounts, which happily showed an excess of

income over expenditure, were read and passed, and so also was the

annual report, which recorded the fact that during the past twelvemonth,

thanks to a committee appointed for that purpose, the Institute had been

regularly incorporated--that is, placed under the Incorporated Societies

Act--whilst another committee had been engaged on reporting on its

books, prints, papers, &c., with a view to their re-arrangement. The

rest of the report was taken up with a record of the resignation of the

much-respected secretary, Mr. Albert Hartshorne, and the appointment of

Mr. Hellier Gosselin in his place; and this was followed by a short

obituary notice of some of the members of the Institute who have died

since the Lewes congress, including Mr. John Henry Parker, C.B., author

of the “Glossary of Architecture,” and the best explorer and interpreter

of Ancient Rome; the Rev. Henry Addington, the most learned of

Bedfordshire antiquaries; the Rev. James Fuller Russell; and the Hon.

William Owen Stanley, M.P. A few alterations in the rules of the

Institute were proposed by the Rev. Mr. Spurrell, but were negatived, it

being felt by the meeting that such matters had better be left in the

hands of the council. It was agreed that next year’s congress should be

held at Derby. At twelve o’clock a special train took the members of the

congress to Monkwearmouth, where the ancient parish church was the

object of a pilgrimage. The tower is by far the most interesting portion

of the church, being not only undoubtedly Anglo-Saxon, but of very early

Saxon date. It was built towards the end of the seventh century by

Benedict Biscop, who employed French workmen on its details, and caused

them to insert windows of glass, a luxury till then unknown in churches.

Bede gives a long account of this church, and of the monastery adjoining

it, which contained, it is said, 600 monks prior to its destruction by

the Danes. Like Jarrow, the monastery, on its revival and restoration,

became a cell subordinate to St. Cuthbert’s great church at Durham. The

details of the structure of Monkwearmouth Church were described at

considerable length by the Rev. Mr. Boyle, who pointed out some very

curious dwarf figures on either side of the western doorway of the

tower, which were repeated in the interior, and remarked on the quaint

manner in which the square stones of the early Saxon churches had been

worked into the upper part of the tower walls, which he thought might be

as late as the Norman Conquest or a little after, though their leading

features were distinctly Saxon. Mr. Johnson, a local architect under

whom the recent restoration of the church has been effected, added a few

remarks on other portions of the sacred fabric. It was proposed by Mr.

Micklethwait that the stones should be protected by a lean-to building

of wood placed round the lower portion of the tower, and this proposal

seemed to gain general acceptance. Mr. Micklethwait also pointed out

that, in all probability, adjoining the west front of the tower there

was once a baptistery, of which he showed some traces still remaining.

From Monkwearmouth the members of the congress made their way by special

train to Jarrow, a place which has even still richer memories of the

Venerable Bede, for here that historian spent the greater part of his

life, in the monastery built by Benedict Biscop in A.D. 680--a few years

after Monkwearmouth. The small hill on which the church of Jarrow stands

was not surrounded then as it is now by tall smoky chimneys and by

odoriferous chemical “works,” but was then, as we are told, green and

lonely. It was, and is still, placed on a peninsula formed by a

tributary of the Wear, and from the fact of Roman vessels and monuments

being found here in plenty, it probably occupies the site of a Roman

station. On the death of Benedict, Bede left Monkwearmouth and settled

at Jarrow, where he became a monk, and here he passed the rest of his

life in study and devotion. He wrote many other books, the “Life of St.

Cuthbert,” for instance, but his _opus magnum_ was that Ecclesiastical

History which he undertook at the suggestion and request of Ceolwolph,

King of Northumbria, a monarch who also ended his days as a monk in the

Abbey of Jarrow. Bede died here in May, A.D. 735, and was buried in the

church that he loved so well. The inscription on his tomb is recorded by

William of Malmesbury. The church itself is very like that of

Monkwearmouth in its general features, though its tower is central, and

not placed at the western extremity, as is the case there. The chancel

here is the oldest portion of the fabric, and the three tiny windows in

the south wall, one of them circular are curious from their extreme

simplicity and the depth of their “splay.” In the vestry here, as at

Monkwearmouth, are very many incised slabs of early Saxon date, if not

more primitive still. Inside the communion rails, on the southern side,

stands an old oaken chair with a tall straight back, of very rude

manufacture. This passes current in the neighbourhood as St. Bede’s

Chair; but the tradition was shown to be baseless by the reverend

lecturer, Mr. Boyle. The remains of the abbey on the south side of the

church were next inspected; these, being of Norman design, were clearly

not the buildings once tenanted by Bede, though they stand on the same

site. One Norman chimney-piece was very much admired. The members of the

congress then walked down to the river and took advantage of a steamer

placed at their disposal by the Tyne River Commissioners to make a

voyage down the river to Tynemouth, whence the party made their way to

the ruins of the priory, on a bluff headland within the castle. A large

portion of the western towers, some of the central tower, and the whole

of the east end of the chancel are still standing, magnificent specimens

of the Early English style, just as it began to pass into the Decorated,

but all bare and roofless. The small “Lady-chapel” was repaired and

decorated some quarter of a century ago by the late Duke of

Northumberland. The time at their disposal was very short, so Mr.

Johnson, who had undertaken to read a paper on the Priory within its

walls, was obliged to confine himself to a very few historical and

architectural remarks. Those of the party who eschewed the voyage down

the Tyne went by invitation to Ravensworth Castle, where they were

entertained by Lord Ravensworth, who showed them his family portraits

and other treasures, and conducted them round the outer walls and towers

of the older castle, which has given way to the present modern

structure. In the evening there were meetings in the antiquarian and

historical sections in the great room at the Castle, when a paper was

read by Mr. Park Harrison, and another by Mr. H. S. Skipton, on

“Streatlam Castle and its Heroes.” But the chief interest of the evening

was centred in a lecture by Dr. Bruce on “The Northumberland Small Pipes

and Scottish Bagpipes,” accompanied by musical illustrations. He was

assisted by a choir of young ladies and gentlemen, who sang parts of

“Chevy Chase” and other local ballads, and by two Northumberland pipers

and a Scottish piper, who in turn treated the audience to various

specimens of their national airs and marches.

On Sunday there were special musical services at the cathedral of St.

Nicholas, where two appropriate sermons were preached, that in the

morning by Canon Dixon, and that in the evening by the Rev. E. Venables,

preceptor of Lincoln Cathedral. The visit of the archæologists to

Newcastle was made the subject of a sermon also at High Mass at the

Roman Catholic cathedral, by the Rev. Father Dunn, and the Rev. J. Hirst

discoursed on “The Church and Archæology,” at St. Dominic’s Priory

Church.

Monday was devoted to an examination of the Roman Wall and the Roman

station of Cilurnum at Chollerford. Dr. Bruce, the venerable topographer

and historiographer of the Roman Wall, acted as guide. The party

proceeded on foot, about 120 strong, to Brunton House, in the grounds of

which they inspected a turret of the wall which has been newly brought

to light, and which doubtless was one of those which occurred at every

mile along the line. Its peculiar construction was made the subject of

some remarks by Dr. Bruce, who also explained the course which the wall

took along the adjoining hillside down to the River Tyne. Following the

course of the wall they came to the river, where they were gratified by

the sight of one of the finest pieces of Roman masonry now to be seen in

England, the foundations and piers of the bridge thrown by Hadrian or

Agricola across the river. The stones are large and square, carefully

fastened together with lead and iron, and morticed in a manner which

would have done credit to the best builder of to-day. Dr. Bruce also

pointed out some round stones which he considered to have been set

upright, with chains or wooden bars between them, as guards on either

side of the passage. Traces of the bases of the other piers are to be

seen in the bed of the river and on the opposite bank. After luncheon

the party continued to follow the course of the wall to the Limestone

bank, where Dr. Bruce again explained the peculiarities of the masonry.

From this they took in their way back Chesters, the seat of Mr. J.

Clayton, which stands on the site of the old Cilurnum, and minutely

inspected the excavations, which are so well known to antiquaries, and

which have been so often described. They were shown the ground-plan of

an entire Roman camp, four-sided and square, with its four gates, each

protected with a double guard-house; even the doorways through which the

Roman soldiers passed in and out could be discerned on a careful

inspection. Not far off was the forum or market place; in it also every

part could be traced, and so could the general’s residence adjoining the

camp outside, and of course on the south side of the wall. Even the

bath-house and the bake-house, with the hypocaust and the ovens _in

situ_ could be made out. The party were here directed to Mr. Clayton’s

magnificent collection of Roman altars and other very ancient treasures

which have been dug up under his orders at various times during the last

half-century, and are arranged under the entrance portico of the house.

Among these are several votive offerings to the Emperors, to the Deæ

Matres, &c., and very many touching memorial tablets, implements of war

and of agriculture, urns, amphoræ, and bones of men and animals. A

similar collection in one of the summer-houses in the garden was also

inspected. Here were seen two beautifully carved life-size figures

representing respectively Cybele and Victory. A finely carved Corinthian

capital and several small works were also explained by Dr. Bruce. Among

the altars, Dr. Bruce drew particular attention to one which bore the

inscription, “To the ancient gods.” To this altar Dr. Bruce referred in

his address in opening the Antiquarian Section, and this, with others of

a similar character, he believes is evidence that Christianity prevailed

in the North of England during the Roman occupation. Several of the

Romans, he believes, embraced the new religion, while others who refused

to accept the new faith, raised altars to the “ancient,” or “old,” gods.

Returning to Newcastle, the company in the evening divided themselves,

part going to the room at the Castle, where the Rev. G. R. Hall

discoursed on the “British Remains in Northumberland,” and Mr. R. Pullan

on “Some Recent Discoveries at Lanuvium;” whilst the rest repaired to

the rooms of the Literary and Philosophical Institute, where Mr. E.

Walford took the chair in the Architectural section. Here Mr. C. J.

Bates read the second and concluding part of his paper on “The Peel

Castles of Northumberland,” which he illustrated by photographs thrown

on a sheet by the help of a magic lantern. This was followed by an

account by Mr. W. St. John Hope of the recent excavations which he has

made at Alnwick Abbey, under the auspices of the Duke of Northumberland

and Lord Percy, and by which he has succeeded in bringing to light the

entire outline and ground-plan of a religious house, of which, with the

exception of one single entrance gateway, every trace above ground had

disappeared.

The first halting-place in Tuesday’s excursion was Prudhoe Castle, where

the archæologists were met by Lord Percy and by Mr. G. Clark, by the

latter of whom the fabric was described in detail. Mr. Clark pointed out

_seriatim_ the barbican and the entrance gate, of late Norman work, with

the chapel over the latter. This was carefully inspected by all the

party, though its access, being at the top of a steep staircase, was not

of the easiest. Passing on, the party were shown the remains of the

keep, the line of ramparts, with staircases in the walls, the inner and

outer baily, and the castle ditch or moat, once full of water, but now

nearly dry. Mr. Clark also explained the points in which the strength of

the castle as a military fortress consisted, and spoke at considerable

length about the De Vescis, the Umfravilles, and former lords. Many of

the members present remarked on the obvious resemblance between the

north front of Prudhoe Castle and the north terrace at Windsor Castle,

with the level fields lying at its foot and reaching to the Tyne, just

as the Home Park at Windsor reaches to the Thames. Upon leaving Prudhoe

the party went on foot to the parish church of Ovingham, where the

Norman architecture was examined. The other places which they visited

were the church of St. Peter and St. Andrew, at Bywell, and the still

more interesting church and peel tower at Corbridge, and, lastly, the

border fortress of Aydon, a most remarkable and picturesque building,

now used as a farmhouse. It was built at the close of the thirteenth

century, and is an excellent specimen of a building which, like so many

on the Scottish border, was at once a mansion and a fortified

stronghold. The building is surrounded by an outer wall, pierced with

arrow-holes, and enclosing three courtyards. The wall is surrounded on

three sides by a shallow ditch, while on the fourth it is protected by a

deep ravine. The building in former days was entered by an external

staircase, which was covered from above. Over the chimneys in one of the

rooms are the arms of the Carnabies, its former owners. From the walls

of Aydon the party were able to obtain a fine view over the valley of

Hexham; and they left the place with expressions of great regret that

both Hexham Abbey and Dilston Castle had been obliged to be left out of

the society’s programme. Corbridge, an old town, once large and

flourishing, but now reduced to much smaller dimensions, and having only

one church instead of four, was the last on the programme of the day.

The small square peel tower in the market-place, formerly used as a

gaol; the market cross, erected on the site of an older one by the Duke

of Northumberland in 1814; and the fine old stone bridge across the

Tyne, with its span of seven arches--the only bridge which resisted the

great flood of 1771--were in turn inspected by the party, who then

returned to Newcastle. In the evening the general concluding meeting was

held in the Literary and Philosophical Institute.

On Wednesday the proceedings were brought to a close by visits to

Brancepeth Castle and Durham, two as magnificent specimens of mediæval

architecture as they had seen throughout the week. The former, the seat

of Lord Boyne, is a fine example of a baronial castle of the Middle

Ages, fitted up internally in tolerable harmony with its ancient

character. It stands on a piece of flat land looking down upon a shallow

but picturesque ravine, well wooded and watered, and surrounded by a

pleasant and extensive deer park. It shares along with Raby the

distinction of having been the ancient home of the Nevilles, though it

originally belonged to a Saxon family named Bulmer, whose heiress

married one of the companions of the Conqueror. The church, which stands

in the park, was first visited, under the guidance of the Vicar of

Brancepeth, the Rev. H. J. Swallow, who in describing the building drew

special attention to the fine wooden monumental effigies of Ralph, first

Earl of Westmoreland, and Margaret, his wife, which adorn the chancel.

The Early English tower, the remains of an elaborately carved roodloft

or chancel screen, and a chantry chapel now used as a vestry, were duly

inspected. In the vestry the party were shown some autograph signatures

of Dr. Cosin, sometime vicar of this parish and afterwards Bishop of

Durham, whose name is identified with ecclesiastical ritual and

post-Reformation vestments. The church is dedicated to an Irish saint,

St. Brandon, which renders it highly probable that the commonly accepted

derivation of the place from the path of the wild boar or “brawn,” who

used to lay waste the country hereabouts, is apocryphal. At the

conclusion of the Vicar’s brief address, Mr. Beresford-Hope made a short

speech recapitulating the services of Dr. Cosin to the English Church,

he being the chief supporter, after Laud, of the Anglo-Catholic

tradition which has paved the way for the Oxford movement and for the

work of the Cambridge Camden Society. On arriving within the precincts

of the castle, Mr. Swallow proceeded to explain the chief features of

the structure, which, he said, was built on the site of an earlier Saxon

edifice by the Nevilles. It was from this castle that the Nevilles and

the rebel army set out to join the fatal rising of the north in the time

of Mary Queen of Scots, which led to the deprivation of that great

family of both Raby and Brancepeth. For some years after this date

Brancepeth was vested with the Crown, but it was sold by Charles I., and

after passing through various hands was bought by the late Mr. Matthew

Russell, one of the richest Commoners early in the present century,

whose granddaughter carried it in marriage to Lord Boyne, an Irish peer,

whose son a few years since was created Baron Brancepeth. The exterior

of the castle was very expensively and substantially, though perhaps not

very tastefully “restored” about half a century ago, when many of its

ancient features were swept away and others obscured. The _enceinte_ of

the walls remains; but the entrance tower and the outer baily have been

sadly altered, and even the baron’s hall, where there is to be seen a

large stand of arms, has been renovated. So also has the chapel, though

the old walls still remain. The dining-room and drawing-room, with their

sumptuous furniture and fittings, were admired; but all agreed that the

chief attraction of the castle lay in its underground cellars and

dungeons, which the company were allowed to inspect. Proceeding by

special train to Durham, and having partaken of a hasty lunch, the

archæologists met at the castle, now used as the headquarters of the

University of Durham. Here again Mr. Clark acted as their cicerone, and

explained all the features of the structure, its central keep, its great

hall, its wide black staircase (the work of Bishop Cosin), its

common-room, and its gateway. The pictures on the walls and the noble

tapestry which lines its walls were examined. The castle was the abode

of the Bishop of Durham till 1833, when Bishop Van Mildert gave it up to

found a university for the Northern counties. On the conclusion of the

inspection of the castle, the Dean of Durham, Dr. Lake, gave, in the

nave of the cathedral, a short _résumé_ of its history and a glance at

its chief associations. This he did with great skill and taste, touching

on the successive eras through which the monastery had passed before it

was crowned by the present majestic structure--one which no less an

authority than Dr. Freeman had declared to be the finest church in

Christendom, except the cathedral of Pisa, and scarcely inferior even to

that. He was followed by Mr. Micklethwait, F.R.S., who very briefly

described the architectural details of the fabric. The vergers

afterwards guided the company round the site of St. Cuthbert’s shrine,

the Western Galilee, still rich in frescos and paint, the tomb of the

“Venerable” Bede, the library, formerly the monks’ dormitory, with its

noble undercroft, and then led them through the crypt (the most ancient

part of the entire edifice) into the cloisters. Here they were shown the

newly discovered prison or cell for refractory monks, which has been

brought to light during the last month. The party then, having inspected

the dining-room at the deanery, once the abbot’s chief parlour, passed

out into the dean’s private garden, where tea and coffee and other

refreshments were served upon the lawn. The main party then returned by

train to Newcastle, while the rest travelled southward to York, and the

Archæological Congress of 1884 was at an end.

NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PRESERVING THE MEMORIALS OF THE DEAD.--On July 30 a

meeting of the Council was held at the rooms of the Archæological

Institute, in Oxford-mansions, Oxford-street, Mr. Richardson, F.S.A., in

the chair, when the project of having the monumental inscriptions in the

churches of Norwich copied and printed _in extenso_ was considered.

Various reports were laid down before the council on the present

condition of monuments at Waltham Abbey, at Milford, Hants, at

Kensington, Paddington, Croydon, West Wittering, and North Mundham,

Sussex. It was stated that through the agency of friends of the society,

some fine brasses had been restored to the parish church of Cheam,

Surrey, and a handsome incised stone slab had been saved at Fownhope,

Herefordshire. It was also proposed to re-engrave the inscription over

the tomb of Captain John Smith, the eccentric voyager, which has always

been an object of pilgrimage to Americans, in St. Sepulchre’s Church,

London.

SHORTHAND.--_June 4_, Mr. T. A. Reed, President, in the chair. This

meeting was devoted to the exhibition of stenographic curiosities, of

which a large number, chiefly literary, were exhibited. Manuscript and

printed Bibles, Psalms, &c., in the systems of Rich and Addy, were shown

by Mr. C. Walford, Mr. Reed, Mr. Rundell, and Mr. Pocknell. A collection

of the works of ancient authors of shorthand was sent by Mr. Barnett.

Mr. Walford exhibited the systems of Ramsay in Latin and French, and of

Noah Bridges, and a MS. copy, made by Mr. Pocknell, of Timothy Bright’s

book in the Bodleian Library.

PROVINCIAL.

ESSEX ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY.--The annual meeting of this Society was

held at Halstead, on July 29. In the report, which was read, mention was

made of the elaborate catalogue of the museum at Colchester, which had

been compiled by Mr. J. E. Price, F.S.A. The President (Mr. G. Alan

Lowndes), in moving the adoption of the report, spoke at some length on

the desirability of making a catalogue of the church plate of the

county. On the conclusion of the ordinary business, the Rev. Cecil

Deedes read a paper on “The Church Bells of Halstead and its

Neighbourhood;” and the Secretary (Mr. W. H. King), on behalf of Mr.

Clarke, F.S.A., read a paper on “North Essex Bells,” giving the

dimensions, inscriptions, and other particulars of a large number of

bells in the northern part of the county. The paper stated that the

Saffron Walden peal, cast in 1798, was considered the best in Essex.

Visits were afterwards paid to the churches of Great and Little

Maplestead; the old Norman castle at Castle Hedingham; Dynes Hall, the

seat of Mr. C. B. Sperling; and Attwoods, the residence of Mr. Vaizey.

At the last-named place some old tapestry was inspected.

ESSEX FIELD CLUB.--There was a strong muster of this club on August 4

for a special visit to Colchester and Mersea Island. On the arrival of

the members at Colchester they were conducted over the castle by Mr.

Horace Round, who explained the chief features of the building. After

lunch the members drove to Mersea Island, and at West Mersea were

addressed by Dr. Laver on the antiquities of the island, including the

mysterious “red-earth mounds.” Dr. Laver insisted on the identity of St.

Peter’s, Bradwell, with the site of the Roman “Othonæ,” an on the

existence of a ferry to it from West Mersea, where an unusually

extensive tesselated pavement was discovered in the last century, and to

which a Roman road led, across “the strood,” from Colchester. On the

return journey, visits were paid to the ruins of Langenhoe Church,

shattered by the earthquake, and to those of St. Botolph’s Priory. A

conversazione at the Cups Hotel closed a most successful meeting.

KENT ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY.--The annual congress of this association was

held at Sevenoaks, on July 30 and 31. The annual meeting was held at the

Sennoke Hotel, and, in the absence of Lord Amherst, the chair was taken

by Sir Walter Stirling, Bart. From the twenty-seventh annual report,

which was read, it appears that during the last twelve months, forty-six

new members have joined the Society. The fifteenth volume of the

“Archæologia Cantiana” was sent out in February last. It is the seventh

volume, issued in ten years, 1874-84, during which the present Secretary

(Canon Scott-Robertson) has been sole editor. These volumes (9 to 15)

contain 3,580 pages, or an average of 358 pages for each year’s

subscription of 10s. During the past twelve months, in response to

renewed applications, descriptions of nearly 200 additional sets of

parish church plate have been obtained, making about 400 in all. The

thanks of the Council are due to the Rev. J. A. Boodle and to Mr. J. F.

Wadmore, for much help in this matter. Engravings, from some of the

Elizabethan plate, have already been prepared by the Society’s engraver,

and others are in progress. It was hoped that the book on “Kentish

Plate” may be issued next year. The report was adopted, and Lord Sydney

was unanimously elected President, in the room of Lord Amherst,

resigned. At the conclusion of the meeting, the members and friends

proceeded to Sundridge Church, where Canon Scott-Robertson read a paper,

dealing with the most interesting features of the building. A visit was

afterwards paid to Squerryes Court, Westerham, and to Westerham Church,

where a paper was read by Mr. Granville Leveson-Gower, F.S.A. The church

dates from the thirteenth century, and contains several interesting

monuments and brasses. Chevening Park, the seat of Lord Stanhope, and

Chevening Church, were next inspected. The second day’s proceedings

included visits to the old Archiepiscopal Manor House and Church of

Otford--the chief architectural features of which were described by

Canon Scott-Robertson and Mr. Loftus Brock--Eynesford Church,

Lullingstone Castle and Church, and Shoreham Church.

SURREY ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY.--An excursion of this Society was recently

made to Leatherhead, Mickleham, Effingham, and Fetcham. The first

meeting was at Leatherhead Church, where a paper, written by Mr. R. H.

Carpenter, was, in the absence of the author, read by Mr. Thomas

Milbourn. Mr. Carpenter, in his paper, said there was evidence that the

English church had originally a central tower at the intersection of the

arms of the cross. In 1344 Queen Isabella obtained the living of

Leatherhead for the convent of Leeds about the time when the tower

collapsed. The church had recently been restored, yet there was much to

be done. The plinth of the church could now be seen, and gave evidence

of what the rest was before it was covered with plaster in 1766. The

company then proceeded to Mickleham, where Mr. Ralph Nevill, F.S.A.,

read a paper, in which he stated that in 1823 the church was restored by

Mr. Robinson, who showed unusual enlightenment as a restorer,

considering the period. The church was erected in the reign of Edward I.

on the site of an old one. The font was very ancient. At Effingham, the

next place visited, Major Heales, F.S.A., read a paper on the church and

its history. He said this was one of the few old churches of Surrey not

mentioned in Domesday. The oldest document he could find mentioned the

oldest parts of the church as being of the twelfth century. Mr.

Granville Leveson-Gower, F.S.A., next read a paper on the “Howards of

Effingham,” after which the excursionists proceeded to Fetcham Church,

the architecture of which was described by Mr. Chas. Forster Hayward,

F.S.A. Mr. Hayward said the church was of very early date; there were

Roman bricks used in the walls, and the columns were good examples of

Norman work. The original form of the church was, like that of most

Norman churches, cruciform. Another paper was afterwards read by the

Rev. W. H. F. Edge, M.A., on the “Parochial Records.” The company was

next invited to inspect the mansion of Mr. Hankey, J.P., and here some

paintings, particularly one in the centre of the drawing-room ceiling by

Sir James Thornhill, were much admired.--The annual general meeting of

the Society took place on July 23. Major Heales, F.S.A., presided, and

the report of the council and balance-sheet were adopted. The retiring

members of the council were re-elected, as also were the auditors,

Messrs. J. T. Lacey and W. F. Potter, and the hon. secretary, Mr. T.

Milbourn.

Antiquarian News & Notes. A CHAMBERED mound, containing four skeletons,

has been lately unearthed near the Bridge of Waith, Kirkwall.

THE _Athenæum_ states that the Earl of Ducie is collecting materials for

a history of the Spanish Armada of 1588.

LORD SYDNEY has been elected President of the Kent Archæological Society

in the place of Lord Amherst, resigned.

M. LEON LHERMITTE has completed an etching of Rouen Cathedral. A

finished proof is now to be seen at Messrs. Tooths’ gallery, in the

Haymarket.

THE pictures by Hogarth lately bought from the Leigh Court collection

for the National Gallery have been hung over “The Marriage à la Mode.”

AN outcry has been raised over the threatened destruction of the house

in which Poe lived at Fordham during the most interesting period of his

life.

ACCORDING to the report of the British Museum just submitted to

Parliament, the number of visits to the reading-room and other

departments for study or research in 1883 was 859,836.

THE annual meeting of the Somerset Archæological and Natural History

Society was held at Shepton Mallet, on August 26 and two following days.

A report of the proceedings will be given in our next.

MR. R. G. HALIBURTON, Q.C., of Canada, eldest son of the author of “Sam

Slick,” intends to visit Borneo, Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia, to

complete sundry ethnological inquiries.

THE annual meeting of the Library Association will be held on Sept. 30,

and three following days, at Trinity College, Dublin. The chair will be

taken by Dr. J. H. Ingram, President.

THE International Conference of Librarians, which was to have been held

at Toronto about the beginning of September, has been postponed, with a

view to a gathering at New York or Boston in the autumn of 1885.

THE first edition of Braun and Hogenberg’s plan of London, from the

“Civitates Orbis Terrarum” (1572), has been reproduced for the

Topographical Society of London.

MR. F. S. DRAKE, the historian of New England, has discovered the names

of one hundred persons who took part in the destruction of the British

tea in Boston Harbour. He has published the names in a volume called

“Tea Leaves.”

MR. ANDERSON, of Kirkwall, has in the press a new Guide to the Orkney

Islands, in which special attention will be paid to antiquarian remains

and traditional lore. Sir Henry Dryden has revised his notes for this

work.

AMONG the treasures in the late Prince of Orange’s collections are

numerous paintings, miniatures, historical documents, and ancient relics

of high value, in addition to the jewels of his mother, the late Queen

Sophia.

IN January next will be commenced a new journal called “The Manx

Note-book,” to be devoted to the history, antiquities, and legendary

lore of the Isle of Man. The work, which has been undertaken by Mr. A.

W. Moore, of Cronbourne, Isle of Man, will be published quarterly.

MR. T. LOCKE WORTHINGTON has in preparation an historical account and

description of the cathedral church of Manchester. The work will be

published by subscription through Mr. J. E. Cornish, of Manchester, and

will form a quarto volume, the impression being limited to 250 copies.

THE new volume of the “Encyclopædia Britannica” contains an article on

“Palmyra,” by Professor Robertson Smith, in which the story of Zenobia

is re-written by the light of the Aramæan and Greek inscriptions, and of

the coins that have recently come to light.

THE Committee of the Octagon Chapel, Bath, where Sir William Herschel

was organist from 1766 to 1782, invite subscriptions towards a memorial

window of “the most distinguished citizen who ever lived in Bath.”

FEGGEKLIT, on the Island of Mors, Denmark, the reputed birthplace of

Hamlet, is for sale by private treaty. On a hillside that forms part of

the estate will be found the grave of King Fegge, who was the identical

person slain by the young Prince to avenge the “most foul murder” of his

father.

FOR thirty-two years Captain Burton has been working more or less at his

translation of the “Arabian Nights.” The book now nears completion.

Captain Burton will reproduce in English as closely as possible the

original text, and for this reason in particular the work will be issued

to subscribers only.

MESSRS. BICKERS & SON have purchased the copyright of Lord Hervey’s

“Memoirs of the Reign of George II.,” and are about to issue a new

edition in three volumes, uniform with their new edition of “Wraxall’s

Memoirs.” The original edition, published by Mr. Murray in 1848, has

long been very scarce.

THE valuable collection of ancient coins formed by the late James

Whittall, of Smyrna, was sold by Messrs. Sotheby in July. The number of

lots was 1,668, the sale lasted nine days, and the total amount realised

was £3,951 6s. Many of the coins are extremely rare, and some are

believed to be unpublished.

THE current number of the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

contains the first portion of a sketch of South African history from the

pen of the late Sir Bartle Frere, who read the paper now published at a

meeting of the Society in 1883. The first section deals chiefly with the

first ten years of the Dutch settlement, which are chronicled in some

detail.

DR. A. HARKAVY, of the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg, has completed

his examination of the newly found Hebrew manuscripts of several books

of the Old Testament, and at the request of the Imperial Russian Academy

of Sciences he has communicated to that body the results of his labours

in a report in German, entitled “Bericht an die Kaiserliche Akademie der

Wissenschaften zu St. Petersburg.”

THE Queen, it is said, is taking no little interest in a new book

compiled by Mr. Harold Boulton, Mr. Malcolm Lawson, and Miss Annie

Macleod, which will bear the title of “Songs of the North.” The book

will be fully illustrated by the leading Scottish artists. A Gaelic

translation is in hand, and the Queen has graciously given express

permission that the book should be dedicated to herself.

MR. F. DANBY PALMER has just published, in a thin quarto volume, “The

History of the Tolhouse at Great Yarmouth,” of which some account,

together with an illustration, has been given in these pages (see

_ante_, pp. 1-5). The work has been written by Mr. Palmer in the hope of

assisting the effort now being made to preserve an ancient building, for

many ages connected with the history of his native town, of events

connected with this municipal structure from the thirteenth century to

the present time.

THE August number of the _Century_ contains the first of a series of

three papers by Mr. W. J. Stillman, recording the experiences of a

classical expedition undertaken for that magazine. Mr. Stillman’s object

was to trace the wanderings of Ulysses, as described in the “Odyssey,”

and to identify, as far as it is possible to-day, the localities visited

by the Ithacan king. The articles will be illustrated by Mr. Fenn, from

photographs and sketches made by Mr. Stillman.

THE annual festivities in honour of St. James were on the point of

terminating on Sunday, July 27, at Santiago, in Spain, when a telegram

was received from Rome by the Archbishop, announcing that the Sacred

Congregation had declared the bones found about four years ago under the

high altar of Santiago Cathedral to be truly those of the Apostle,

Spain’s patron saint, ineffectually sought for hitherto since they were

concealed, from fear of Moorish raids, in the foundations of the

cathedral in the year 1100, by Gilmirez, the first Archbishop.

THE complete renewal of the leaden envelope of the dome of St. Peter’s

Church, in Rome, has just been completed. It has occupied twelve years,

and has cost over 200,000 lire (£8,000). The original covering was

applied to the dome in an imperfect fashion, which made continuous

repairs a necessity. The total weight of the new cover is given at

354,305 kilogrammes; and if it were spread out flat it would occupy an

area of 6,152 square metres, or about an acre and a half. In stripping

off the old plates, three of them were found to be of gilded copper.

SOME interesting items of theatrical history are contained in the rings

which Mr. Irving wears as Malvolio. One is engraved, “Formerly the

signet-ring of David Garrick. Henry Irving, from Edwin Booth, 1881.”

Another is the celebrated enamel ring, with head of Shakespeare, which

Garrick used to wear, and which he bequeathed to his butler, and which

was afterwards presented to Mr. Irving by Lady Burdett-Coutts. And still

another signet is thus inscribed--“Tyrone Power, to his friend Harley,

1830.”

AN embellished copy of Baskett’s edition of the Bible, printed at his

press at Oxford in 1817, and known as “The Vinegar Bible,” was included

among the rarities sold last month at Messrs. Sotheby’s rooms. The

volume had inserted in it some 750 additional plates relating to

architecture, natural history, &c. In the same batch of books was a copy

of Buck and Daniel’s Cambridge Bible, 1638, in which the curious

misprint in Acts vi. 3, “_Ye_ [for _we_] may appoint” was for the first

time printed.

THE following articles, more or less of an antiquarian character, appear

among the contents of the magazines for August: _Edinburgh Review_, “The

Divorce of Catherine of Aragon,” and “The Chiefs of Grant;” _Church

Quarterly_, “The Church in Old London;” _Quarterly Review_, “Peter the

Great,” and “Greek Archæology;” _Art Journal_, “Castelfranco and its

Altar-piece, by Giorgione,” “The Western Riviera, Nice,” and “The Isle

of Walcheren;” _Cornhill_, “Some Literary Recollections;” _English

Illustrated Magazine_, “Winchester,” and “Cutlery and Cutlers at

Sheffield;” _Temple Bar_, “Westminster School.”

CATALOGUES of rare and curious books, all of which contain the names of

works of antiquarian interest, have reached us from Mr. C. Golding,

Colchester (chiefly topographical of the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries); Mr. H. Lowe, 89, New-street, Birmingham; Messrs. Reeves &

Turner, 196, Strand; Mr. W. Withers, Leicester; Mr. W. P. Bennett, 3,

Bull-street, Birmingham; Messrs. Wyllie & Son, Union-street, Aberdeen;

Mr. J. Salkeld, 314, Clapham-road, S.W. (including a large number of

books from the libraries of the late Sir G. Bowyer, Mr. Joseph Payne,

and others); Messrs. Jarvis & Son, 28, King William-street, Strand,

W.C.; Mr. Loescher, Turin.